{"id":453,"date":"2021-10-05T15:04:30","date_gmt":"2021-10-05T19:04:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.shu.edu\/inthelead\/?p=453"},"modified":"2021-10-05T15:20:53","modified_gmt":"2021-10-05T19:20:53","slug":"in-focus-michael-cappelluti","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.shu.edu\/inthelead\/2021\/10\/05\/in-focus-michael-cappelluti\/","title":{"rendered":"In Focus: Michael Cappelluti"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>How Seton Hall\u2019s leadership lessons play out in Amazon\u2019s corporate culture.<\/h2>\n

Hometown<\/strong>: Marlboro, New Jersey<\/p>\n

Career<\/strong>: Senior Program Manager at Amazon, the world\u2019s largest e-commerce company<\/p>\n

\u201cIf you\u2019re part of a customer-obsessed organization, that means that other people are going to be customer-obsessed about you. Emphasizing the value of strong interpersonal relationships in business is absolutely crucial.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

\n

IN THE LEAD<\/strong> Why were you attracted to working at Amazon?<\/p>\n

MICHAEL CAPPELUTTI<\/strong> In my opinion, Amazon is the most fascinating supply chain in the world. Its customer-obsessed culture relentlessly solves a logistics challenge that has been present since the beginning of e-commerce: How can we get as many packages to customers as quickly as possible? This is an effort I was intrigued to be a part of.<\/p>\n

ITL<\/strong> What skills did you learn in the Buccino leadership program that help you in your current role at Amazon?<\/p>\n

MC<\/strong> The Buccino Center\u2019s focus on experiential learning prepared me extremely well for Amazon\u2019s \u2018learn by doing\u2019 philosophy. Perhaps more importantly, though, the leadership program grooms its leaders to be forward-looking and future-oriented \u2014 both particularly relevant characteristics to demonstrate at a company like Amazon.<\/p>\n

ITL<\/strong> Can you give an example of how the leadership program prepared you to be, as you called it, forward-looking and future-oriented?<\/p>\n

MC<\/strong> Absolutely. I think the best example I can give was Professor [Jack] Shannon\u2019s Disruptive Strategy course. His course really inspired me to challenge the status quo. After just a few lectures, I quickly found that I had a passion for futurism that would later lead to an interest in scaling e-commerce through efficient supply chains\/logistics. Before I took the course, I probably had a relatively nonchalant attitude when it came to the concept of faster delivery. But after taking Professor Shannon\u2019s course, I realized that the companies that could overcome those types of futuristic barriers were the ones that were ultimately going to achieve sustained success.<\/p>\n

ITL<\/strong> When did you make the decision to apply to Amazon?<\/p>\n

MC<\/strong> That\u2019s an interesting story because I completed my degree in three years, but I didn\u2019t know I was going to graduate in three years until the fall semester of my last year. My friends and I were always talking about the FAANG companies [Facebook, Apple, Amazon, Netflix and Google] and what their businesses would mean for the future of society. As a young professional, that was something I was eager to be a part of.<\/p>\n

ITL<\/strong> To finish your degree in three years takes a special mindset. I\u2019ve heard you talk about the importance of a \u201cDay 1 mentality\u201d at Amazon. What does that mean?<\/p>\n

MC<\/strong> At Amazon, \u201cevery day is Day 1\u201d in that there is always something new to learn, there is always freshness in our ambition and there is always excitement about what new solution we could find on any given day.<\/p>\n

This mindset helps us to break monotony that some people might experience at work. A non-complacent, \u201cnever settle for less\u201d-type attitude can go a long way in helping someone find value in their role.<\/p>\n

At Seton Hall, I wrote a philosophy paper on the idea of \u2018hyper specialization\u2019 and how that concept can lower someone\u2019s morale. When every day is Day 1, there is no \u2018super zoomed in\u2019 situation of complacency. While we organically might find ourselves zoomed in on the work we do, we put mechanisms in place to remain forward-looking and focused on the big picture.<\/p>\n

ITL<\/strong> The pandemic has radically impacted global logistics and our supply chains. What are the most important leadership skills you need to excel in this environment?<\/p>\n

MC<\/strong> Customer obsession. This is one of Amazon\u2019 leadership principles, and it\u2019s an extremely valuable characteristic for anyone in any business.<\/p>\n

Customers can be so much more than just someone purchasing something. They are your downstream and upstream counterparts. They are janitors, safety personnel, associates, senior leaders. They can be, literally, anyone. Realizing that the work you do impacts everyone \u2014 even in an organization with over 1.5 million employees like Amazon \u2014 helps me to find value in the work that I do and strive to always put my best foot forward.<\/p>\n

During the pandemic, it\u2019s unfathomable to think about how many people were relying on Amazon. We had quarantines and travel mandates. Some people were afraid to even go outside. People needed us, and because of that, I found significant meaning in what I was doing.<\/p>\n

ITL<\/strong> One of the fundamental pillars of the Buccino leadership program is feedback. In fact, providing feedback might be the most impactful thing we do. Was there any feedback that you received in the program that was meaningful to you?<\/p>\n

MC<\/strong> I got some really rich feedback during my time with the program. I remember specifically some feedback I got in my Peer 360 during my freshmen year. There was a comment, in particular, that read something to the effect that \u201cMike is a super smart guy and he always has good things to say, but my advice would be to take a step back and listen sometimes, too.\u201d<\/p>\n

That really stuck with me, and I\u2019m proud to say that in every peer piece of feedback from that point on, I got feedback that was more like \u201cMike was always willing to listen, and then add his contributions after.\u201d<\/p>\n

Everyone wants their ideas to be heard. Everyone wants to have their contributions valued.
\nThat one change was important to my success in the program, or at least in gaining the respect of my peers. This is something that has paid dividends in my career.<\/p>\n

ITL<\/strong> Knowing what you know now, are there any skills that we should be giving students in the Buccino leadership program that we didn\u2019t when you were a student?<\/p>\n

MC<\/strong> If you\u2019re part of a customer-obsessed organization, that means that other people are going to be customer-obsessed about you. Emphasizing the value of strong interpersonal relationships in business is absolutely crucial. While there is always desire to \u201cbe the best,\u201d that doesn\u2019t necessarily have to mean competition. It means, \u201chow can I best serve my peers and customers today?\u201d I believe that is the epitome of servant leadership, which I believe is at the heart of the Buccino leadership program.<\/p>\n

I think when students come into college, especially business students, there\u2019s a preconceived notion that they have to be the best, adopt a Wall Street mentality and box-out their peers so that all of the opportunities get funneled to them.<\/p>\n

The downside to that is [that] in a super alpha, ultra-competitive business school setting, there are some great ideas that end up hidden because some people might have a quieter, less aggressive personality type and therefore never get their ideas out.<\/p>\n

When we\u2019re all tackling big problems and challenging the status quo, everyone has the same goal in mind. To tackle this big ask, we have to get as creative as possible and leverage as many people to generate as many great ideas as possible. Almost organically, it creates a team setting versus an environment of \u201cevery person for themselves.\u201d<\/p>\n

Instead of being in competition with your peers, compete with the status quo. If you can channel that healthy competitive spirit, you can make a world of change. If you have 25, or 80, or 150 people doing that \u2014 or like Amazon where you have 1.5 million workers doing that \u2014 there\u2019s no ceiling.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

How Seton Hall\u2019s leadership lessons play out in Amazon\u2019s corporate culture.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":382,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[16,10],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-453","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-fall-2021","category-in-focus","et-has-post-format-content","et_post_format-et-post-format-standard"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.shu.edu\/inthelead\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/453","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.shu.edu\/inthelead\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.shu.edu\/inthelead\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.shu.edu\/inthelead\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.shu.edu\/inthelead\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=453"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.shu.edu\/inthelead\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/453\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":454,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.shu.edu\/inthelead\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/453\/revisions\/454"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.shu.edu\/inthelead\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/382"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.shu.edu\/inthelead\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=453"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.shu.edu\/inthelead\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=453"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.shu.edu\/inthelead\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=453"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}