Why Amazon.com CEO Jeff Bezos Embraces Failure

For many companies, suffering a nine-figure inventory charge related to a failed product would be a catastrophic event. But forAmazon.com CEO Jeff Bezos, it's just another day at office.

The folks at Amazon barely blinked last quarter when the company took a $170 million writedown related to its much-maligned Fire Phone. In fact, that charge wasn't even mentioned in Amazon's earnings press release, but rather contained in its subsequent Form 10-Q filing with the SEC. And, no, it's not as though Amazon was simply hoping investors wouldn't notice. It's that in the broad scheme of things, Bezos thinks it's relatively insignificant.

In a recent interview with Business Insider, Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos practically guaranteed that more Fire Phones are on the way, insisting that it's "going to take many iterations" to determine whether the project is truly a failure.

Failure is always an optionTo better understand Bezos' perspective, consider his comments surrounding that claim.

Immediately beforehand, Bezos offered several examples to shed light on how Amazon hasalwaysdone business. That notably includes Amazon Auctions, which he laments "didn't work out very well." But out of Auctions morphed zShops, which also failed. Then finally, out of zShops came Amazon Marketplace, which became its third-party seller business and now accounts for over 40% of the total units sold on Amazon.com. What at first looked like a massive failure is now an enormous success.

More comparable along the hardware lines, Bezos went on to note that the Kindle is now on its seventh generation and reminded investors that the company has had trouble keeping up with early demand for products such as Fire TV, the Fire TV stick, and Amazon Echo. To be fair, unlike the crowded smartphone industry, those are all innovative creations operating in relatively young markets, so it may not be entirely appropriateto place the Fire Phone in the same bucket.

But does that mean investors can look forward to more big writedowns? Probably not. As Bezos stated, Amazon has generally erred on the side of caution by not producing enough of its hit hardware products. So the next time(s) around, you can be sure Amazon will bemuchmore careful about managing Fire Phone inventories and learning from its previous failure.

One thing Bezos will never doThat also doesn't mean Amazon is done making -- and potentially failing at -- other big bets. Bezos elaborated on the relative insignificance of last quarter's $170 million charge with one caveat:

That last point is arguably the most significant: However bold or costly Amazon's investment decisions might seem, Bezos willneverallow them to occur should they threaten the company as a whole. So keeping in mind that Amazon is likely to be much more careful with the Fire Phone going forward, you can be sure it won't be allowed to run Amazon into the ground.

The funny thing is, this thought process isn't even remotely new for Amazon. Back in his first letter to shareholders in 1997, Bezos wrote: "We will make bold rather than timid investment decisions where we see a sufficient probability of gaining market leadership advantages. Some of these investments will pay off, others will not, and we will have learned another valuable lesson in either case."

In the end, the first-gen Fire Phone's failure is a horrifying example of the "others will not" category. But astute long-term investors know all too well that the propensity to both embrace and learn from that failure is exactly what made Amazon the thriving business we know today.

The article Why Amazon.com CEO Jeff Bezos Embraces Failure originally appeared on Fool.com.

Steve Symington has no position in any stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool recommends and owns shares of Amazon.com. Try any of our Foolish newsletter services free for 30 days. We Fools don't all hold the same opinions, but we all believe that considering a diverse range of insights makes us better investors. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.