Technology is useless if not used for the greater good of serving the customer. We are a strongly customer-oriented company, and we often use the “working from the customer backwards” approach. This means that in your thought process, you start with the customer and work your way backwards until you have found the simple and minimal technology that you need to satisfy the new customer requirement. It is important that engineers who come to work at Amazon understand that we do not build technology for technology’s sake, but to support the customer.

A Conversation with Werner Vogels, CTO, Amazon.

I’ve had the good fortune of following this approach at my previous job and, honestly, there’s no better way to build a great product.

People who really dislike their jobs have fallen into a place where they’re no longer inspired by their work. There’s no challenge, they don’t know where they’re going, there’s no room for growth. I think a big reason why that’s a problem in corporate America is that organizations utilize human capital as if they’re machines or part of a machine.

Tom’s Cool Friends: An interview with Brett Farmiloe and Zach Hubbell, Pursue the Passion road-trippers.

Is this true of corporate India? What do you think?