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John Rossman Profile

  • Former Amazon executive and 4x best-selling author of The Amazon Way book series, with deep expertise in business strategy and digital transformation.

  • Advisor to the Gates Foundation and T-Mobile, offering proven frameworks for innovation and growth in a hyper-digital world.

  • He delivers practical, engineering-minded insights that help organizations build competitive strategies for long-term success.
  • An unmatched authority on disruptive innovation, John Rossman pioneered Amazon.com’s third-party service business, which now accounts for more than 50% of the multi-billion dollar company’s profits. Today he uses his unique insider experience to help companies build and execute new business models so they can boost their performance and stay on the winning edge of disruptive innovation.

    Apart from launching Amazon Marketplace, one of the world’s largest B2B networks, John oversaw e-commerce solutions for Amazon’s enterprise clients including Target.com, Toys R Us, Sears.ca, Marks and Spencer and the NBA. His book The Amazon Way, is an accessible no-frills guide to understanding and applying Amazon principles, culture, and philosophy to your own business.

    Currently John serves as a Managing Director with Alvarez & Marsal Business Consulting in Seattle, Washington. Additionally, he is the Senior Technology Advisor to the world’s largest philanthropy, The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.

    • View Extended/Alternate Bio

      John is a former Amazon Executive, Advisor to the Gates Foundation & T-Mobile, 4x Best-Selling Author, and Leading Innovation Speaker.

      John Rossman stands as a formidable figure in the realm of innovation keynote speaking. As a former Amazon executive, he was instrumental in the inception and expansion of the Amazon Marketplace. His vast experience also includes serving as a Senior Technology Advisor to the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and a Senior Innovation Advisor at T-Mobile.

      Rossman possesses an extraordinary breadth of expertise, encompassing leadership for innovation, strategies for artificial intelligence and disruptive technologies, and the cultivation of high-performance teams and cultures. His career is further highlighted by his authorship of four best-selling books, including The Amazon Way, Think Like Amazon and Big Bet Leadership, which delve into Amazon leadership principles, operating models and culture for accountable teams, continuous improvement, customer centricity and the ability to transform as a an AI-driven enterprise with a sustainable competitive advantage.

      Through his engaging keynote speeches and interactive workshops, John empowers organizations to implement effective leadership strategies, foster dynamic team cultures, achieve business objectives, and deploy actionable playbooks. His areas of specialization include digital transformation, artificial intelligence, innovation, and leading high-performance teams.

    John Rossman Speaking Videos

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    John Rossman's Speech Descriptions

    As one of the co-founders of the Amazon Marketplace, John Rossman has been part of a major initiative that now defines the Amazon that most of us know. John takes audiences deep into Amazon’s unique culture and leadership principles, unpacking lessons on innovation and growth from the world’s most disruptive company. His on point programs examine vital themes like how to move faster, create customer obsession, boost technology effectiveness, improve decision making and have a leaner approach to innovation.

    Thinking in Outcomes: Leadership for FAST Innovation & Succeeding at Big Bets

    BIG BETS happen at all levels in a company — enterprise, division, product, program, and team. These are initiatives and strategies we believe will deliver lasting impact, but they come with significant risk due to complexity — that’s why they’re a “bet.”

    BIG BETS go by many names: digital transformations, new business models, innovation programs, strategic initiatives. Unfortunately, over 80% of them fail to deliver on time, on budget, or meet expectations. Many never end, leading to hesitancy among leadership to take new risks.

    Based on research and 35 years of experience delivering BIG BETS to Fortune 100 companies, John Rossman shares a proven playbook for Thinking in Outcomes and leading big initiatives successfully.

    Leaving your audience with:
    - A comprehensive playbook to Think in Outcomes and work backward
    - Insight into the leadership skills needed for mission success
    - The power of defining future customer experience as a strategic advantage

    Leadership and Culture for Growth & Innovation – The Amazon Way

    Leadership is a skill. Culture defines how we work together. So how can leaders build both to fuel innovation and growth?

    Based on the best-selling The Amazon Way: Amazon’s Leadership Principles, Rossman delivers actionable strategies that any industry can adopt. From customer centricity and operational excellence to Amazon’s “working backward” method and “disagree but commit” culture, this keynote shows how small changes can drive big results.

    Leaving your audience with:
    - Practical lessons to drive leadership impact and innovation
    - Tools for aligning teams to deliver results, even through setbacks
    - A customer-focused mindset that leads to agile growth

    Big Bet Leadership for ChatGPT: Your Playbook for Disruptive Technologies

    How do you lead the reinvention of your business using ChatGPT, generative AI, and other disruptive technologies?

    This keynote introduces a strategic leadership playbook to guide organizations through digital transformation and innovation. With technologies like AI, computer vision, and IoT reshaping industries, leaders must build a culture and structure to adapt, learn, and lead.

    Leaving your audience with:
    - A clear understanding of disruptive technologies and their implications
    - A test-and-learn approach to bold innovation
    - Actionable steps for prioritizing and integrating emerging tech

    Think Like Amazon… What’s the Future of Your Industry?

    Is your organization ready to lead its industry into the future?

    Innovation requires bold thinking and asking the right questions. Former Amazon executive John Rossman — who helped launch and scale the third-party seller platform — shares the leadership playbook that transformed retail and can now help your team rethink its strategy.

    Leaving your audience with:
    - Strategic insights on “How would Jeff think?”
    - Tools to THINK BIG but act in small, agile steps
    - Real-world examples to help your team recognize untapped opportunities

    Reinventing Healthcare & Insurance Through Customer Centricity, Innovation & Leadership — The Amazon Way

    With nearly 20% of the U.S. GDP tied to healthcare, the need for transformation is massive. What might the future look like — and how can Amazon’s strategy inform it?

    This keynote offers a leadership blueprint tailored for healthcare and insurance executives to drive excellence, elevate the customer experience, and lead innovative change with confidence.

    Leaving your audience with:
    - A strategic framework to anticipate and respond to industry change
    - Tools to accelerate improvement and spark innovation
    - Optimism and structure for collaborative growth and transformation

    What People are Saying about Seeing John Speak

    Rating Entries

    “The audience LOVED your presentation and they took away many key learnings that they hope can be applied moving forward.”
    – NOVARTIS

    “As a former Amazon executive, John Rossman provides a unique view into how a digital world may impact companies of all types and sizes. As the Internet of Things (loT) becomes more mainstream, companies need to think differently about how they interact with and provide value to customers in an ever-connected world. John uses his industry knowledge and connections to incorporate real-life examples of how some big name companies are approaching this phenomenon.”
    – President and COO, Nationwide Direct and Member Solutions

    “John is perhaps one of the foremost experts on Amazon and corporate cultures that focus on innovation. His recent book on the Amazon Way is a testament to the core insights John has been able to surface. Recently, John was invited to do a forum at Xerox PARC. We were not only oversubscribed for the forum, but the audience itself gave John and his presentation the highest rank of all the seminars this past year. I highly recommend John as a speaker to all audiences interested in corporate innovation, company cultures, and the impact of emerging technology on new business models.”
    – Xerox

    “I thought your talk was incredibly insightful and effective; I found myself referencing a lot of it while working with their teams. The overall structure— the juxtaposition of principles and how they are put into practice—is great. And the depth of practical knowledge was greater than in most other speakers’ talks (comparing propositional knowledge—“knowing that” v practical knowledge “knowing how”). As a speaker, you’re high energy and wholly credible, so I thought it was fantastic.”
    – Deloitte

    “Having John advise my organization is like having Jeff Bezos advise me. The best strategy, leadership, and tactics keynote I’ve seen. John had a profound impact on the company I founded. He’s a master at practical advice and approaches to deliver innovative solutions.”
    – Eric Martinez, CEO & Founder of Modjoul; Former EVP at AIG

    “It was a privilege to have John Rossman speak at our March 25th, 2015, Georgia Technology Summit. Our Summit is one of the largest tech events in the SE, with over 1,300 attendees participating. This year’s Summit theme was ‘Disruptive Innovation – The Power to Inspire’. John’s remarks were right on target. Combining key points in his Book, the Amazon Way, with his broader knowledge base, made for a quality presentation. One participant sent me an unsolicited note comparing John’s presentation to a high-level Ted Talk. I would recommend John for speaking opportunities for an event of any size when the topic revolves around innovation and/or disruption. He was also a pleasure to work with, which is a sometimes overlooked aspect when it comes to speaker selection, yet of critical importance.”
    AG – Technology Association of Georgia

    “We needed an expert to speak at our corporate leadership event—someone who was able to speak at length on adopting different corporate cultures and looking at business from a different perspective than our own. While people may not think of Amazon and AAA Washington as having much in common, finding ways to make a business more efficient and keeping the customer in focus is a basis for all organizations. His personal history at Amazon gave us a unique view of an incredibly successful company and what it takes to innovate, lead, and sometimes disrupt the status quo.”
    – AAA

    “In planning our 2015 product organization kickoff, we looked for a speaker who could both inspire and offer practical insights on execution. We were lucky to have John Rossman present to the team. John introduced us to the key leadership principles he observed during his time at Amazon, which are also described in his excellent (and accessible) book, The Amazon Way.”
    – CIPP

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    Books by John Rossman:

    The Amazon Way: 14 Leadership Principles Behind the World’s Most Disruptive Company

    In just twenty years, Amazon.com has gone from a start-up internet bookseller to a global company revolutionizing multiple industries, including retail, publishing, logistics, devices, apparel, and cloud computing. But what is at the heart of Amazon.com’s rise to success? Is it the tens of millions of items in stock, the company’s technological prowess, or the many customer service innovations like “one-click”? As a leader at Amazon who had a front-row seat during its formative years, John Rossman understands the iconic company better than most. From the launch of Amazon’s third-party seller program to their foray into enterprise services, he witnessed it all—the amazing successes, the little-known failures, and the experiments whose outcomes are still in doubt. In The Amazon Way, Rossman introduces readers to the unique corporate culture of the world’s largest Internet retailer, with a focus on the fourteen leadership principles that have guided and shaped its decisions and its distinctive leadership culture. Peppered with humorous and enlightening firsthand anecdotes from the author’s career at Amazon, this revealing business guide is also filled with the valuable lessons that have served Jeff Bezos’s “everything store” so well—providing expert advice for aspiring entrepreneurs, CEOs, and investors alike.

    Big Bet Leadership: Your Transformation Playbook for Winning in the Hyper-Digital Era

    Elevate Your Leadership Game: Discover the Secrets to Winning Big in Business and Innovation

    Big Bet Leadership equips business leaders with the principles and tactics to achieve critical results and solve complex problems facing businesses today. You will capture the upside potential while avoiding the many failure points inherent to AI strategies, growth strategies, M&A, innovation programs, operating model transitions and digital transformation.

    Discover strategies and tactics to:
    – Uncover hidden growth opportunities by identifying customer frustrations and crafting winning solutions.
    – Lead with clarity and purpose through masterful communication that inspires action and alignment.
    – Make smarter decisions faster with high-impact experimentation methods.
    – Break through inertia and analysis paralysis by building focused teams and fostering innovation.
    – Incorporate the three critical habits of transformation legends Jeff Bezos, Elon Musk, Satya Nadella and John Ledger to become a systematic innovator.
    – Maximize return on effort by implementing a streamlined governance approach.

    Co-authored by John Rossman, an early Amazon executive who played a key role in launching the Amazon Marketplace and author of The Amazon Way and Think Like Amazon, and Kevin McCaffrey, a seasoned executive from Google, and T-Mobile, this fast-moving book melds their direct leadership experiences with comprehensive research and authentic stories.

    The frameworks provided, such as the three mega forces shaping the coming Hyper-Digital Era, the Big Bet Vector, the Three Futures Memo and many others, provide immediate actionable techniques to leading high-ambition transformations.



    Think Like Amazon: 50 1/2 Ideas to Become a Digital Leader

    The former Amazon executive who launched and scaled Amazon Marketplace delivers the ultimate playbook on how to “think like Amazon” and succeed in the digital age.

    “What would Jeff do?” Since leaving Amazon to advise start-ups and corporations, John Rossman has been asked this question countless times by executives who want to know “the secret” behind Amazon’s historic success. In this step-by-step guide, he provides 50 ½ answers drawn from his experience as an Amazon executive—and shows today’s business leaders how to think like Amazon, strategize like Bezos, and beat the competition like nobody’s business.

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