Amazon

If you are ambitious and work because you want to prove yourself to be better than others, rise up the ranks, or just make some money, this is a great company to work for.

As a manager, if you can see people as resources and treat them as replaceable components, you will be 'successful'.

You are expected to meet your goals and you are handsomely rewarded for meeting them and obeying your management.

Goals are set working back from the customer, so the work is bound to make an impact for the customer, if done properly.

A good place to taste mindless pressure and competition, and reflect on why we work in the first place.

I'm on my way out after a year because I can't stand the culture and the people that this culture breeds, so take my review with a grain of salt.

• It's a matter of time before this company implodes or becomes obsolete.

• What keeps most people around is the compensation. A significant part of the compensation comes from stocks, so the only way for this company to grow is to grow. Growth pumps up stock prices, and stock prices attract more talented people. This is the fundamental force that feeds the flywheel and keeps Amazon growing.

• New products and services come to fruition by simply brute-forcing; throwing money and people at it until it sticks. The initial success rate is low, but as long as the company has money, it eventually gets somewhere.

• Given a similar opportunity elsewhere, a lot of the competent and talented people would jump ship, and the stock prices would stumble. Once the stock price stagnates or dips, the feedback loop will start working against the flywheel, putting it at a halt faster than it made it spin.

• If you care about your work and making a meaningful difference in people's lives, I don't believe you will find the experience of working here enjoyable as a leader.

• If you are driven by gaining and exercising power, join the company while you can, because people who do the work and care about the work are bound to leave in a heartbeat when the time comes.

Find a way to keep the flywheel fed while keeping your employees happy. The new leadership principles are a good start. I hope they are enforced.

Obsess over your employees' well-being as much as your customers'.

Give your employees a reason to stay around other than compensation.