Unconventional Innovation at Amazon

In a recent Business Week article, they interview John Bezos, CEO of Amazon. Amazon is known for its constant innovation and for how they pursued through difficult times, such as after the .com bubble burst and when their stocks were down to $6 after September 11. How'd they make it through the tough times? They continued to innovate. I found that John Bezos had several great points throughout the article: --There is no bad time to innovate, but you must keep your innovation focused on what your customers want. If you're innovating for something they don't want, they there's no reason to be innovating. --You have to be willing to be misunderstood if you innovate. Since you are presenting totally new ideas that no one knows about, then there's going to be some skepticism. --Amazon has done their best not to become 'skills' focused. If a company relies on their skills inside the company, and refuses to reach out when they know they can' t do anything, their innovation will be hampered.