Late last year, when Bryce Mathern signed on with the Company of Friends (CoF) -- Fast Company's readers' network -- he became the 10,000th member of the group. Mathern, 27, is operations manager for Amazon.com, and he joined CoF while working to establish a new distribution center in Slough, England. To celebrate the 10,000-member milestone (and to help clean out Associate Editor Heath Row's office), Fast Company showered him with hats, T-shirts, coffee cups, and posters. In turn, Mathern shared some of what he learned while helping one of the flagship companies of the new economy ease into Europe.

What Are You Working On?

'Setting up a distribution center in the UK was a real challenge. We bought a British book distributor and had to acculturate its employees to what Amazon does. These employees were an incredibly talented bunch, but there was a sense of 'Oh, the Americans are here.' I learned how to work in situations in which I didn't have much say or control. In fact, when I got to England, it wasn't clear who was in charge, because work roles hadn't been finalized yet. But I decided that I would run the distribution center, and I did what I needed to do. That's pretty normal for Amazon.'

Favorite FC Story

'One early piece on meetings (The Seven Sins of Deadly Meetings, April:May 1996) was especially helpful. I was running the Seattle distribution center when I read it, and I incorporated some of its ideas -- having an agenda, taking notes -- into how my team works. Now we have some of the most effective meetings in the entire company.'

Guiding Principle

'Give everyone a say in what's going on. The most successful people at Amazon have been those who focus on pushing decision making further and further down the line. That's how you build successful teams. People want to feel that they're doing more than just entering data into a computer or putting books into boxes.'

Coordinates: Bryce Mathern, bryce@amazon.com

From: May 1999 issue