当2020年新冠疫情扰乱亚马逊运营乃至整个世界时，尤迪特·马丹（Udit Madan）承担了一项关键的额外任务：设法从海外采购数十万只口罩供亚马逊仓库员工使用，并推动员工疫苗接种计划落地。
当时，马丹还是亚马逊一名“火箭式晋升”的副总裁，仅30岁出头——在这家科技巨头的数百名同职衔高管中，他很可能是最年轻的一位。他对所承担的任务并无特定经验，尤其是在这种前所未有的混乱局面下。
但正如亚马逊的同事们所了解到的那样，马丹已证明自己是个擅长快速学习的人。他最终解决了问题。
这一关键特质解释了为何亚马逊首席执行官安迪·贾西（Andy Jassy）近期悄然将38岁的马丹提拔为高级副总裁，并将其纳入公司备受尊崇的11级管理层。据一位知情人士透露，2022年全球消费者业务首席执行官戴夫·克拉克（Dave Clark）离职时，忙碌的贾西曾亲自联系马丹了解情况——这一出人意料的举动让克拉克的许多直接下属深感震惊。（该知情人士与本文引用的其他知情人士一样，均为《财富》杂志所熟知，但因担心公开谈论亚马逊内部运作会遭报复而要求匿名。）
如今，马丹实质上担任亚马逊首席供应链官一职，负责管理全球超100万名仓库和物流员工。随着特朗普政府的对华关税博弈或将扰乱亚马逊的全球货物运输，他再次临危受命，需在混乱中维持秩序。除员工外，马丹还监管着由数万辆卡车、约100架货运飞机组成的运输网络，以及分布在20多个国家的2000多座仓库——这些仓库配备了75万多台机器人，且数量还在增加。当这家“万货商店”的运动鞋、沙发或杂物运输受到威胁时，最终都要由马丹来解决。
不过，在最近一次接受《财富》杂志采访时，马丹坚称，他和他的团队实际上已为这一天做好准备，这要归功于过去在疫情一波又一波来袭期间以及随后供应链和港口运输中断的情况下，运营公司庞大的仓库和运输网络所面临的挑战。诚然，关税乱象要求马丹领导的团队之间进行更频繁的沟通，但这位供应链负责人认为，他的部门如今已具备应对过去两个月这类潜在危机的能力。
马丹在接受《财富》杂志采访时表示：“过去五年作为一个团队，我们在运营中构建了强大韧性，也促使我们加大物流网络的灵活性建设，以应对我们频繁看到的更多固有变数。”
马丹所指的是亚马逊近年来推出的新货运和仓储服务。其中一项是亚马逊仓储与配送服务（AWD），该服务允许亚马逊供应商和卖家以付费的方式将大量库存存储在亚马逊专用仓库中，然后当客户对该商品的需求增加时，由这家科技巨头将少量商品分配到各个配送中心。（对于一些在亚马逊上销售商品但不想自己运营仓库或雇佣第三方物流公司的商家来说，这项服务是一个受欢迎的替代方案。但亚马逊仓储与配送服务也受到一些卖家的批评，他们觉得自己被迫使用这项服务，只是为了避免支付亚马逊新出台的费用，结果在去年的假日季却发现其运营情况令人失望。）
马丹表示，亚马逊新推出的卡车运输和仓储服务对亚马逊大有助益，因为该公司协助部分供应商和卖家在部分新关税生效前将更多库存运抵美国。
擅长预见趋势的工程师
马丹在印度海得拉巴长大，之后在新德里读高中，最终移居美国，就读于德克萨斯大学奥斯汀分校。尽管曾一度考虑从医，后来又对投资银行的职业道路产生兴趣，但在获得计算机科学和经济学学位后，马丹于2008年以软件工程师的身份加入了亚马逊。22岁时，他晋升为经理，并很快开始负责亚马逊新推出的“最后一英里”配送业务的大型技术体系，包括亚马逊Flex（由普通零工完成的配送服务），以及新亚马逊配送服务合作伙伴（DSP）网络（由通常专门负责配送亚马逊包裹的中小型配送企业组成）。
马丹曾在一次采访中说道：“当我加入亚马逊后，公司不断给予我承担更多职责的机会，让我能够突破自我。对于每一位曾领导过我的管理者而言，重要的不是我在公司待了多久，也不是我首次担任管理职位时才22岁，这些都无关紧要。他们看重的是我的能力。”
马丹的一位前同事说，他之所以能在同行中脱颖而出，是因为他既能深入钻研细节，又能拓宽视野以理解更全面的战略和业务影响——这是许多亚马逊成功高层领导者的关键特质。
消息人士称：“令我印象深刻的是，一个拥有核心工程背景的人能够深入研究财务分析，而且还能预见未来趋势，凭直觉把握竞争格局的走向。”
到2017年，他被亚马逊当时的全球供应链运营主管戴夫·克拉克选中，担任梦寐以求的角色——技术顾问或“影子”——基本上相当于幕僚长。多位接受《财富》杂志采访的前高管指出，这一职位是马丹职业生涯的转折点。据一位曾在那段时间经常与马丹互动的前亚马逊副总裁称，在克拉克的领导下，马丹变得“更像观察者和深思者”，而不再像以往那样直言不讳。
另一位前领导表示，在克拉克手下学习一年后，马丹“蜕变成了一位完全不同的高管。”
这位前亚马逊高管表示：“他充分汲取了戴夫的指导和领导经验。”
虽然马丹不会将那一年的“影子”角色视为其在亚马逊成长为领导者过程中比其他经历更关键的因素，但他确实告诉《财富》杂志表示，这段经历提供了一段“更为集中的”时期，在此期间“你得以接触更多元的视角来充实自己，同时也有机会与更多不同的优秀人才打交道。”
在过去的六年里，马丹承担了更多职责。2019年，他晋升为副总裁——这一职位在亚马逊属于高级管理岗位，而在其他公司可能更接近中层管理职级。随后，在2022年末，亚马逊首席执行官安迪·贾西将马丹纳入“高级团队”，该团队由亚马逊的29位最高层领导组成，他们每周都会与首席执行官会面，就从关键项目启动、紧迫危机到长期战略以及多年“高级团队目标”的进展情况等各类事务提供咨询建议。
今年早些时候，马丹再次晋升为高级副总裁，成为公司仅有的18位高级副总裁之一。当这一消息在内部公布时，他告诉团队成员，这是对他们为服务客户和推动业务发展所做工作的认可，无论是提高配送速度，还是将公司服务拓展至更多农村地区的客户。
在接受《财富》杂志的视频采访时，马丹穿着休闲的领尖钉扣式衬衫，显得亲切但不失审慎。
如果说有哪方面是前高级同事希望马丹有所改进的，那就是他的情商或者说“情绪智力”。尽管前同事们一致认为马丹作为管理者绝非那种行事草率或爱发脾气的人，但他们回忆说，马丹有时在与员工建立个人关系方面存在困难。在2010年代末的一个例子中，在担任“影子”角色后，他在新年伊始接管了一个新配送团队。据一位前高管称，该团队刚刚度过了一个相当成功的假日季，马丹本可以通过至少认可这一成绩来赢得新下属的好感。然而，他却反其道而行之，出其不意地指责他们存在一系列他认为应由他们负责的失误。
前亚马逊内部人士称，这种情况在亚马逊并非罕见——许多公司高层之所以能晋升到高位，更多是因为他们的智商而非情商。然而，当他们开始管理数千甚至数十万员工的团队时，提升情商就变得更为重要。
至于马丹本人，这位高管表示，他仍在学习许多领域的知识，“我认为在很长一段时间内都会如此”。
不过，他补充道：“我希望在几乎所有方面，我至少都能比刚加入亚马逊时有所进步。”
在全球贸易战仍在进行之际，他应该会有不少机会来展示自己的进步。（财富中文网）
译者：中慧言-王芳
When the Covid pandemic upended Amazon’s operations—and the entire world in 2020—Udit Madan was tasked with a crucial side job: to figure out how to acquire hundreds of thousands of masks from overseas for Amazon warehouse workers, and help get the employee vaccine program off the ground.
At the time, Madan was a fast-rising Amazon vice president in his early 30s—likely one of the youngest out of hundreds with that same title inside the tech giant. But still he had no specific experience in what he was being tasked with, especially amid a level of chaos he had not experienced before.
But as Amazon colleagues have learned, Madan has proven to be an adeptly fast learner. He figured it out.
That’s one key trait that explains why Amazon CEO Andy Jassy quietly promoted the 38-year-old Madan recently to senior vice president at the company, and into the vaunted Level 11 management tier inside the tech giant. It’s also likely why, according to a source, a busy Jassy personally reached out to check in with Madan in 2022 when worldwide consumer CEO Dave Clark left Amazon—a surprise move that left many of Clark’s direct reports shellshocked. (The source, like others cited in this article, are known to Fortune, but asked to remain anonymous out of fear of retribution for speaking candidly about the inner workings of Amazon).
Today, working as what is essentially Amazon’s chief supply chain officer and overseeing a global employee base north of 1 million warehouse and logistics employees, Madan is being asked to once again orchestrate order amid chaos, as the whipsaw of the Trump administration’s China tariff dance has threatened to roil Amazon’s movement of goods across the globe. In addition to staff, Madan ultimately oversees a fleet of tens of thousands of trucks, around 100 cargo airplanes, and 2,000-plus warehouses in more than two dozen countries–outfitted with more than 750,000 robots and counting. And when the “everything store’s” shipments of sneakers, sofas, or sundries are jeopardized, it’s ultimately Madan’s problem to solve.
But in a recent interview with Fortune, Madan maintained that he—and his teams—were essentially trained for this day, thanks to the past challenges of having to operate the company’s vast warehouse and transportation network during the cascading waves of the pandemic, and subsequent supply chain and shipping port disruptions. Yes, the tariff mess has required more frequent communication between teams under Madan’s purview but the supply chain leader feels his division is by now built to sustain potential crises like that of the past two months.
“The last five years as a team helped us build a lot of resilience in how we operate,” Madan told Fortune in an interview, “and also prompted us to invest in building more flexibility in our logistics network to handle a bit more inherent variability that we’re seeing happen quite frequently.”
Madan was referencing new trucking and warehousing services that Amazon has launched in recent years. One is Amazon Warehouse and Distribution—or AWD—which allows Amazon vendors and sellers to store large amounts of inventory in dedicated Amazon warehouses for a fee, and have the tech giant then distribute smaller allotments of merchandise to various fulfillment centers as customer demand for the item picks up. (The service has served as a welcome alternative for some merchants that sell on Amazon and don’t want to run their own warehouses or hire a third-party logistics business to run one for them. But AWD has also come under fire from some sellers who felt pressured into using it simply to avoid new Amazon fees they’d otherwise have to pay, only to be disappointed by how it ran during last holiday season.)
Both the new trucking and warehousing services have been helpful to Amazon as the company assisted some vendors and sellers with rushing more inventory into the U.S. before some of the new tariffs hit, Madan said.
An engineer with a knack for seeing around corners
Madan grew up in Hyderabad, India, before attending high school in New Delhi, and finally moving to the US to attend the University of Texas at Austin. Despite at one point considering becoming a doctor, and later flirting with the idea of an investment banking career, Madan joined Amazon as a software engineer in 2008 after graduating with degrees in computer science and economics. By 22, he had been promoted to manager and would soon go on to run large technology organizations for Amazon’s new “last mile” delivery businesses—Amazon Flex, which are deliveries performed by everyday gig workers, and eventually the new Delivery Service Provider (DSP) network, comprised of small and mid-sized delivery businesses often dedicated exclusively to deliver Amazon packages.
“[W]hen I got to Amazon, I was given opportunity after opportunity to take on more, and to be able to stretch myself,” Madan once said in an interview. “For every single leader I’ve worked for, it wasn’t about how long I’d been here. It wasn’t that I was 22 years old when I first got into management. None of that mattered. It was all about what I was capable of doing.”
One former colleague of Madan’s said he stood out among peers for his ability to go both deep into the details, while also widening his viewpoint to understand more holistic strategies and business impacts – a hallmark of many successful top Amazon leaders.
“It was very impressive to me that someone with a core engineering background was able to dig into financial analysis,” the source said, “but also look around corners and have a gut sense of where the competitive landscape was going.”
By 2017, he would be tapped for a coveted role known as a technical advisor or “shadow”—basically a chief of staff—for Amazon’s then head of worldwide supply chain operations, Dave Clark. Several former executives who spoke to Fortune pointed to this role as an inflection point for Madan. Under Clark, Madan became “more of a watcher and deep thinker” than his typical blunt-speaking self, according to a former Amazon vice president who regularly interacted with Madan during that time.
Another former leader, said after a year learning under Clark, Madan “popped out a totally different executive.”
“He absorbed every second of Dave’s mentorship and leadership,” the former Amazon exec said.
While Madan would not single out that one-year “shadow” role as more crucial than others in his development as a leader at Amazon, he did tell Fortune that it provided a “more concentrated” period of time “where you get to both have much more diverse perspectives to inform you and it gives you an opportunity to interface with a far more varied set of really strong individuals.”
Over the past six years, Madan has earned even more responsibility. In 2019, he was elevated to a vice president—which is a senior executive role at Amazon while it might be more middle management at other companies. Then, in late 2022, Amazon CEO Andy Jassy added Madan to the “S-team,” which consists of 29 of Amazon’s top leaders, who meet with the CEO as frequently as weekly to consult on everything from crucial launches and pressing crises to discussing long-term strategy and progress on years-long “S-team goals.”
Earlier this year, Madan was promoted again, to senior vice president—one of only 18 at the company. When it was announced internally, Madan said he told his team it is an acknowledgement of all of their work to serve customers and better the business, whether by improving delivery speeds or expanding the company’s reach to customers living in more rural areas.
Madan, dressed casually in a button-down shirt, came across as personable but guarded, in a video interview with Fortune.
If there’s an area where some former senior colleagues hope Madan has improved, it’s his EQ or “emotional intelligence.” While former colleagues attest that Madan was far from a loose cannon or a screamer as a manager, they recalled him sometimes struggling to connect with staff on a personal level. In one instance in the late 2010s, following his “shadow” role, he took over a new delivery team early in the new year. The team, according to a former top executive, was coming off of a mostly successful holiday season and Madan could have ingratiated himself with his new direct reports by at least acknowledging that success. Instead, he went in the other direction, blindsiding them with a litany of failings he believed they were responsible for.
That’s not necessarily uncommon at Amazon—many company leaders rise toward the top because of their IQ more than their EQ, former insiders say. Then, when they begin overseeing teams of thousands or hundreds of thousands, developing better EQ is stressed more.
As for Madan himself, the executive said he’s still learning across many areas, “and I think that’s going to be true for a very long time.”
But, he added, “I hope across almost every dimension [that] I am at least a little bit better than I was when I started here.”
With a global trade war still underway, he should have plenty of opportunities to show his progress.