Philip Moyer attributes a significant portion of his career impact to his tenure at Amazon, where the company prioritizes customer satisfaction over shareholder interests.
Vimeo’s new CEO, Philip Moyer, has extensive experience with major tech firms. Most recently, he headed Google’s applied AI engineering team. Prior to that role, he spent 15 years as a general manager in sales and technology at Microsoft, as well as two years focusing on financial services at Amazon. He describes his time at Amazon as particularly “instructive,” emphasizing a unique rule against the use of adverbs.
According to Moyer, this policy led to a focus on solving customer problems rather than detailing product features, which proved to be an enlightening shift in communication.
Moyer observed Amazon’s distinctive leadership practices, including the “two pizza rule” for maintaining small team sizes and principles like “bias for action” and “disagree and commit.” However, he was most impressed by Amazon’s customer-centric approach, which he believes is crucial for a company’s success.
Moyer expresses concern that firms may lose direction when they prioritize corporate jargon and numerical analysis over addressing genuine customer issues. He incorporates these insights in his role at Vimeo. The video platform, previously on a downward trajectory, is now expected to achieve double-digit growth by the year’s end, according to Moyer.
As the leader of an $800 million company, Moyer shares advice for aspiring business leaders: avoid anxiety and commit to the work at hand. He cautions that no enterprise is as effortlessly created as it may seem and highlights that success is often the result of a decade-long effort, as seen with companies like OpenAI.
He encourages perseverance, stating that even labor that initially goes unrecognized will eventually lead to success. This narrative was originally published on Fortune.com.
