Lessons Learned from AWS Leadership Transition

After just three years, AWS is making another change at the top of the leadership org-chart. What lessons can we learn from leadership transitions and what might come next?

SHOW: 822

SHOW TRANSCRIPT: The Cloudcast #822

SHOW VIDEO: https://youtube.com/@TheCloudcastNET 

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SHOW NOTES:

• Andy Jassy makes AWS leadership announcement
• “There’s no AI without the cloud”, says AWS CEO (Decoder podcast)
• Six things to know about the new AWS CEO, Matt Garmin

AWS HAS NEW LEADERSHIP. WHY NOW? 

• Adam Selipsky is out, Matt Garmin is in. What does it mean?
• Why is AWS making the change now?

WHAT LESSONS CAN WE LEARN FROM SELIPSKY’S 3 YEARS AS AWS CEO

• Probably don’t take the job immediately after someone is the Nick Saban of tech
• Don’t be the complete opposite of the previous boss (wings guy vs. wine guy)

[Andy on X] Lead Amazon, married and father of two kids, big sports/music/film fan, experienced buffalo wings eater. Go Kraken!

[Adam on X] Husband & dad. Water skier/tennis player. Fan of Seahawks & Sounders. CEO at #AWS.

• [Andy Jassy] I’ve always had a lot of respect for Adam, and we met several times to discuss the possibility of coming back to lead AWS. In those conversations, we agreed that if he accepted the role, he’d likely do it for a few years, and that one of the things he’d focus on during that time was helping prepare the next generation of leadership.
• [Andy Jassy] Matt has an unusually strong set of skills and experiences for his new role. He’s very customer focused, a terrific product leader, inventive, a clever problem-solver, right a lot, has high standards and a meaningful bias for action. 
• Realize when your job is to lead and inspire vs. producing the weekly report
• The post-ZIRP CEO of AWS
• 2021 - $62B, , 2022 - $80B, 2023 - $90B, 2024 - $100+B
• Lost key people
• Behind on GenAI vs. other clouds
• “Wartime CEO” vs. “Peacetime CEO”

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