1999 - 2009
My time at Amazon.com
Coming right after the Navy experience, the long days and nights of the first peak season in Amazon's expanding fulfillment network was not so bad. Two weeks into learning the Picking Department, I was moved to run night shift Picking and shortly after that first Christmas I was running all of night shift.
Following that first Christmas season, Amazon.com embarked on a path of using Six Sigma to improve its warehouse processes and I was selected as part of the first group for Black Belt Training. A world of Pareto Charts, Control Charts, and Chi-Square analysis became my love language. It was also during this time that I became an expert at Excel, Visual Basic, and taught myself Unix Shell (so that I could parse log files for data...this was before Amazon.com had a data warehouse!). Leading projects also exposed me to every aspect of the business through projects in customer support, merchandising, and even software development.
My Timeline
2002 - 2005
2002 - 2005
2002 - 2005
Sr Change Manager - led a Change Management team of 5 Black Belts and 3 data analysts. Also over saw the Learning team, Maintenance and capital projects, and IT Support Team.
2005 - 2006
2002 - 2005
2002 - 2005
Promoted and transferred to the main UK fulfillment center outside of Milton Keynes, England. Oversaw a team of 600 hourly workers in the picking, packing, and shipping of orders.
2006 - 2008
2002 - 2005
2006 - 2008
After only 1 peak season in England, the Campbellsville, Ky warehouse started a union drive. I was asked to return, be the General Manager, and turn its morale and operations around, which I did in short order.
My time as general manager
In this role, I directed the operations of a 900K square foot "Big Box" distribution center (full P&L responsibility) with 75 managers, 800+ full-time associates, and 2,000+ temporary associates during holiday seasons. During this time, the center shipped just over $1B in sales per year.
This was also when I realized that I was not meant to manage large teams. In a role that size, you don't get to "do" anything. Your role is to influence and guide the team to "do" the right things. Ultimately, I was miserable...I am much better suited for smaller teams where I can be a "player/coach" contributor. Thus, I left Amazon.com looking for smaller teams and bigger problems to solve.
