Director of Business Development and General Manager EMEA at Amazon, Abigail Khanna, talks about the importance of finding a business culture that supports you to grow, how she has used it as a compass in her career and why the tech giant is a place where proactive people can really flourish.
How does the tech industry offer a great environment for a career in business development?
A key aspect of working in Tech is about building and managing businesses, and to do that, you need people to build the technology. On top of that though, you also need people to build the business and to think practically about how that business will manifest itself in tangible outputs, both now and in the future. If you enjoy negotiation, external partner management, the thrills and learnings of building a business from scratch, then business development is a career that could really suit you. Before working at Amazon, my last role involved looking after large-scale tech partnerships, this ultimately led to me negotiating to get selected programming onto Amazon devices when it launched the Fire TV stick in the UK. That was my first introduction to Amazon and a year later I moved into a role here where I ran business development for the EMEA mobile partnerships business.
What was it about Amazon’s culture that attracted you?
It’s important to find a company that suits you from a cultural point of view so you can flourish. One of the most interesting things about Amazon is how entrepreneurial it is and how you get to build and create within it. Amazon is a series of autonomous, start up, mid- size and large-scale businesses across many different areas, which is why it has such a culture of innovation. I was promoted to Director in April 2022, and I run Amazon’s third-party distribution channel (Fuse) for Amazon digital subscription services such as Prime, Prime Video and Audible across EMEA, a highly diverse region. I’m highly proactive and work well in a culture where output and delivered, sustained performance drives your credibility.
The environment is entrepreneurial at Amazon, and you must be open to the idea that the answer is not always easily or readily available. You will be challenged to combine available data, seeking diverse perspectives and your own judgement to achieve goals. I’ve loved learning and developing within that culture because it’s a positive way of approaching new businesses and ideas. You learn by taking a crack at things and constantly iterating based on performance and learnings.
How can women assess the potential work cultures that they may be entering?
Success is about finding the right fit with who you are, what you are best at and what you want to achieve in your job. You have to be willing to test and learn based on what you enjoy the most and what you excel at, sometimes you may do things you don’t enjoy and this is also a great learning too. I was excited to experience how entrepreneurial Amazon was as an environment, and I wanted to continue my career in a consumer-based business where I could see the impact I was having (something I had greatly enjoyed at previous roles). It’s still really professionally satisfying to see large-scale launches of impactful deals that deliver tangible benefits to our customers across the region.
Which of Amazon’s leadership principles have had the most impact on you?
I initially underestimated how much Amazon’s leadership principles are woven into everything you do within the company, whether that’s interviewing, launching or managing a business, writing a document (a big part of Amazon culture), or managing your team. It’s a fascinating way of managing and running a business. I would say ‘Deliver Results’ has greatly impacted me because delivering results is a big part of your success in a company like Amazon. That said, delivering results isn’t always about bottom line performance (though that is, of course, important). It could be about other things like how you develop your team, or how you manage something that’s not going well – as well as, importantly, how you work with others and manage relationships. The second leadership principle I would highlight is ‘Are Right, A Lot’. This leadership principle is designed to foster and encourage strong judgement and good instincts, including seeking diverse perspectives to make decisions. As a senior leader within a company, it is important to ‘know where to go’ and set clear direction, often amidst considerable ambiguity, for your team and business.
How can allyship help shift a culture toward equity?
Amazon is a very progressive business, so I have always felt treated equally and with respect as a woman in business. However, this situation can be different externally, particularly at tech conferences where I have been often asked to get the coffees, asked for direction, or it is often assumed by attendees at partner meetings that I am an event administrator. It can be draining to constantly prove yourself in those types of environments. My advice would be if you’re working or operating somewhere where the attitude isn’t as progressive towards women in leadership positions, asking for allyship is important because, often your peers are not aware of the unconscious bias you are experiencing.
What one thing can women ask for in their daily roles that will make a difference to the culture around them?
Getting practical support can make a huge difference. A pivotal moment of my career was when I was promoted to Director and received dedicated EA (Executive Assistant) support. Women often have a higher burden of emotional labour within the work and home environment, whether that be booking restaurants for team activities or sorting out cakes for people’s birthdays. Women often pick this up on top of their day job, but when you do it multiple times over the course of a week, it detracts from spending time on things you need to spend time on to ensure your business is Delivering Results (often in a disproportionate way to male colleagues). Having somebody pick those things up for me (which remain very important to a positive team culture and employee experience) has enabled me (and other female members of my wider team, who may also have been asked) to focus on running the business, fostering a positive team culture, and delivering output.
How do you work within the Amazon culture to balance your life?
Amazon has a flexible approach, and as a parent, I can use that to be there for my family and work. My experience is that what your children need varies according to their age; when my daughter was younger, I wanted to take her to school in the morning; when she was starting out at secondary school, I tried to be around a few times a week at the time she got home from school to check in (as this was the time she wanted to have her mum around). Times have definitely changed for the better. When I had my daughter, women felt like they had to act like they didn’t have children in the workplace. This situation is no longer the case for all parents, and I hope that today employees can bring their whole selves to work, and that’s not just about child-rearing. As you get older, the demands of your job and your personal life often both become more acute and the need for flexibility may increase – for example you may have elderly parents who need care. Learning to switch off is also very important as multi-tasking can make you very tired physically and mentally. Aim to be present at work and present at home as much as possible and set personal boundaries around work and home life as much as possible.
As a leader how do you encourage an environment of openness, flexibility, and balance in your team?
Setting a clear example with your own behaviour, actions and ways of working is the best way of setting a positive team culture. Respecting other people’s boundaries, particularly regarding things like holidays and the time they need to recover and recuperate, is also hugely important as a leader. As a leader, I’ve also developed the skill to be more honest (and with that authentic) about what is going on in my personal life so people feel they can be honest about what is going on in theirs because we are all real human beings, not just a work persona. Importantly I also make sure I factor in some fun to ensure that everyone enjoys coming to work and experiences a positive team environment as much as possible.
What advice would you give to young women coming up about using company cultures as a compass to drive themselves forward?
Join a company where you feel you’d be proud to work in and one that is growing because you will have opportunities when you get there to develop your career in directions you may not necessarily think of when you’re starting. Be prepared to fail, it’s OK, and you will learn as much from your failures as your success. Accept your career is not a straight line; it can be up and down, and there will be times when you want to accelerate and other times when you may not. Don’t judge yourself by what others are doing or what you see on social media – success to one person is not necessarily success to another. You must experience different things to find out what you are good at and when you do find this out, focus on it within an environment and culture that will encourage it.
