Knee Pad Email

Check this out. Even the great Amazon.com can do the knee pad every now and then.

Amazon CEO: Deleting Your Kindle Books Was “Stupid, Thoughtless”

from Mashable! by Pete Cashmore

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In response to Amazon’s controversial move last week to remove specific copies of George Orwell books from Kindles, Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos apologized on the Kindle forums today, calling the decision “stupid, thoughtless, and painfully out of line with our principles”.

The move resulted in a small backlash last week as Kindle owners found the books missing from their devices and a refund in their accounts: the publisher, it transpired, did not have the rights to sell the books and had added them to the store using the Kindle’s self-publishing platform. But buyers were surprised to learn Amazon could simply take back their books, and Amazon later vowed not to do it again.

Today, CEO Jeff Bezos extended the apology to members of the Kindle forum:

This is an apology for the way we previously handled illegally sold copies of 1984 and other novels on Kindle. Our “solution” to the problem was stupid, thoughtless, and painfully out of line with our principles. It is wholly self-inflicted, and we deserve the criticism we’ve received. We will use the scar tissue from this painful mistake to help make better decisions going forward, ones that match our mission.

With deep apology to our customers,

Jeff Bezos
Founder & CEO
Amazon.com

Indeed, in a video announcing Amazon’s acquisition of shoe retailer Zappos this week, Bezos highlighted the company’s customer-centric approach. Perhaps the shoe marketer, which has already mastered Twitter, can help Amazon deal with social media flare-ups in the future.

5 Things Leaders MUST Do

According to leadership experts James Kouzes and Barry Posner, there are 5 things that every leader must do in all times…especially these times.

1. Model the Way: be what you say, walk your talk, demonstrate that you can be trusted

2. Inspire a Shared Vision: give people a sense of direction, of hope, of a better future that they can buy into

3. Challenge the Process: always press the edge, live continuous improvement, refuse to accept the status quo, encourage others to do the same

4. Enable Action: train, let others decide, support their ideas, provide equipment and coaching

5. Encourage the Heart: demonstrate frequent, creative, personalized appreciation and celebration

The “New” GM?

The "new GM" emerged Friday from bankruptcy. Government Motors is now owned by the federal government (60.8%), the UAW (16.6%), the Canadian and Ontario governments (11%) and the balance by bondholders. QUESTION: will GM make the governments more business like OR will the government-owners make GM more government like?

A New Minority

When those who don’t produce but leach off the government (including politicians and their bloated staff) outnumber those of us who actually work and produce, will we then get special treatment from the government?

No Time for Lost Focus

There is no time for anyone to lose focus on the MAIN THING. That’s true in the best of times and especially in these times. Leaders are diligent to determine what the MAIN THING is and then to KEEP THE MAIN THING THE MAIN THING.

Beware of distractions—trivial activities, bad attitudes, needless conflict, technology glitches. There are 2 or 3 critical items for every branch and every team member. Identify them. Post them on the wall. Talk about them. Come back to them. Live them.

Success in battle belongs to those who know what the vital objective is and resolutely drive toward that ONE thing.

Why Does the Media Hate Sarah?

Don’t get me wrong. I’m not saying Sarah Palin is or is not qualified to stand on the national leadership stage. But I am amazed at the persistence of the media in trying to defame her when I see people like Barney Frank, Christopher Dodd, Al Gore, Timothy Geitner, and others whose corruption or failures are monumental getting a passing mention and then a free pass.

Government Jobs Aren’t Real Jobs

I’m not saying that government employees don’t work hard—some do and some don’t; that’s a topic for another blog another time. What I am saying is that when the government increases its employee base by 10 or 10,000 nothing is produced. Work may be done but no products are produced, no profits are generated, no innovations are created, no wealth is increased. These are activities not jobs. Only jobs in the private sector do what jobs are meant to and that is increase the overall GDP and thus the overall economic well being of the population. That is why Keynesian economics doesn’t work and that is why I am so adamantly opposed to large government—as were the founding fathers!