John Rossman is a Managing Director with Alvarez & Marsal in Seattle, specializing in technology strategy, multi-channel operations scaling and platform enablement in multiple industries including retail, service and public sector. With more than 26 years of technology strategy, design, implementation and operating experience, Mr. Rossman has led several complex businesses and programs resulting in innovative business models. He has worked with clients across a broad range of industries including retail, insurance, education, forest products, industrial products and transportation.
Mr. Rossman is the author of The Amazon Way: 14 Leadership Principles of the World’s Most Disruptive Company and The Amazon Way on IoT: 10 Principles for Every Leader from the World's Leading Internet of Things Strategies. He is an expert on digital disruption and assisting his clients to build and execute new business models. His latest book Think Like Amazon: 50 1/2 Ideas to Become a Digital Leader came out in May 2019.
He has served as the Senior Technology Adviser to the world’s largest philanthropy for more than three years, assisting in strategy and execution of complex data, technology integration, IP and multi-party program management initiatives that help to improve student outcomes.
He has also assisted multiple retail and service companies with their multi-channel strategies and execution. These assignments include definition of strategic outcomes, process and technology architecting, process scaling assessments and implementations and managing significant cultural and organizational leadership change tied to multi-channel strategies.
Before joining A&M, Mr. Rossman was Director of Enterprise Services at Amazon.com, managing worldwide services to enterprise clients such as Target.com, Toys R Us, Sears.ca, Marks and Spencer and the National Basketball Association (NBA). In this role, he had full operational and technical ownership for existing clients, overseeing e-commerce solutions such as online merchandising capability, website technologies, branded fulfillment delivery and branded customer service.
As Director of Merchant Integration at Amazon.com, he was responsible for developing the Merchants @ program, one of the largest B2B networks with thousands of sellers, offering products in new categories such as apparel, sporting goods, consumer electronics, health and beauty and home.
John Rossman also served as the interim CIO for a large rental business retailer and helped implement multiple cost reduction and service improvement programs. Previously, he was a partner with Arthur Andersen Business Consulting. Mr. Rossman earned a bachelor’s degree in industrial engineering from Oregon State University.
"John is perhaps one of the foremost experts on Amazon and corporate cultures that focus on innovation. His recent book on the Amazon Way is a testament to the core insights John has been able to surface. Recently, John was invited to do a forum at Xerox PARC. We were not only oversubscribed for the forum, but the audience itself gave John and his presentation the highest rank of all the seminars this past year. I highly recommend John as a speaker to all audiences interested in corporate innovation, company cultures, and the impact of emerging technology on new business models.”
"It was a privilege to have John Rossman speak at our March 25th, 2015, Georgia Technology Summit. Our Summit is one of the largest tech events in the SE, with over 1,300 attendees participating. This year's Summit theme was "Disruptive Innovation - The Power to Inspire". John's remarks were right on target. Combining key points in his Book, the Amazon Way, with his broader knowledge base, made for a quality presentation. One participant sent me an unsolicited note comparing John's presentation to a high-level Ted Talk. I would recommend John for speaking opportunities for an event of any size when the topic revolves around innovation and/or disruption. He was also a pleasure to work with, which is a sometimes overlooked aspect when it comes to speaker selection, yet of critical importance."
"We needed an expert to speak at our corporate leadership event—someone who was able to speak at length on adopting different corporate cultures and looking at business from a different perspective than our own. While people may not think of Amazon and AAA Washington as having much in common, finding ways to make a business more efficient and keeping the customer in focus is a basis for all organizations. His personal history at Amazon gave us a unique view of an incredibly successful company and what it takes to innovate, lead, and sometimes disrupt the status quo."
"In planning our 2015 product organization kickoff, we looked for a speaker who could both inspire and offer practical insights on execution. We were lucky to have John Rossman present to the team. John introduced us to the key leadership principles he observed during his time at Amazon, which are also described in his excellent (and accessible) book, The Amazon Way."