Creating an Ownership culture with Ethan Evans

Ethan Evans spent over 15 years at Amazon where he held multiple VP roles across Appstore, Twitch, and Amazon Gaming. During this time, Ethan led teams of over 800 people, launched Prime Video and Twitch Prime programs, and has been issued more than 60 patents. During Ethan’s time at Amazon, he helped craft part of the Ownership leadership principle and witnessed the S-team and countless teams demonstrate Ownership and long-term thinking. 

In our interview, Ethan shares how leaders should act in behalf of the entire company and think long term. From examples of having to push back on a request from Jeff Bezos to working with Andy Jassy and other leaders at milestone moments in Amazon history, Ethan draws from his experience to illustrate how Ownership can be demonstrated and taught within an organization. 

Follow Ethan: 

On LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ethanevansvp/

Website: https://ethanevans.com/

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/c/EthanEvansVP

Podcast: https://theezcoach.libsyn.com/

More from the episode: 

4:30 – The story behind drafting the Ownership principle at Amazon

13:02 – How a billion-dollar Merch by Amazon business came to be from leaders seeing beyond their job descriptions

17:22 – The business model that Amazon has built to encourage ownership thinking

21:25 – The time Andy Jassy (incoming Amazon CEO) exemplified ownership by looking out for peer organizations in a time of crisis

23:16 – Example of 50 VPs and Directors lending their top talent to help Appstore deliver a key deliverable

26:54 – How Ownership can be taught through example and taking an outcome-focused perspective

30:00 – Fear as the enemy of Ownership, and steps to overcome this obstacle