Ecom cowboy: How Amazon's Kumar follows Bezos' fast and fearless philosophy

An Amazon veteran, Kumar swears by Jeff Bezos philosophy of moving fast, taking risks, and not fearing failure

Most mornings, Samir Kumar, who took over as Amazon India’s head in October last year, follows Jeff Bezos’s advice to “dance into work,” listening to songs by Mohammed Rafi or Arijit Singh as he walks down to the office, which is near his home in Rajajinagar, a neighbourhood in the western part of Bengaluru. But on May 6, he skipped his usual playlist. It was his birthday, and as he was heading out, jacket in hand, his wife stopped him. “Let me drive you to work today as a birthday treat,” she said.

 

The couple’s vehicle of choice is a well-worn blue Hyundai i20, bought in Bengaluru in 2012 during Kumar’s first India posting. The automatic hatchback, which they drive themselves rather than have a driver ferry them, reflects the couple’s preference for independence. When the family moved to Seattle, the car remained with Kumar’s father in Delhi, and returned to them years later when the national capital put a restriction on old vehicles. Despite its age, and the occasional noise, the car runs just fine – on days taking Kumar to the nearby Amazon India headquarters at the World Trade Centre. By next year, though, it will have to make longer trips, when the office shifts to the outskirts of the city, close to Bengaluru airport.

 

I meet Kumar for lunch on his 53rd birthday next to his office at the Sheraton Grand Bangalore Hotel. He arrives dressed in a crisp light blue shirt, khakis, and black shoes, and greets me with the ease of an old friend. We quickly order our meal: Paneer tikka, pulao, dal makhani, butter naan, and lime soda. “I’ll head home later to spend time with my wife and daughter,” he says. “I’m from Bihar, and one of my all-time favourite meals is litti-chokha. That’s the plan for dinner.” 

 

Kumar had a classic Indian middle-class upbringing. His father worked for the Indian Railways, the family moved often, and career choices boiled down to doctor or engineer. By the 11th grade, a candid conversation with a neighbour — a respected doctor — made the demands of medicine clear. Kumar chose engineering, a decision shaped as much by pragmatism as ambition.

 

An alumnus of the National Institute of Technology Rourkela, he credits serendipity for setting his career in motion. After earning a master’s in engineering from Utah State University, he took his first job in Olympia, Washington, a quiet suburb of Seattle. While there, a former mentor listed him as a reference for an Amazon role. When a recruiter called for a reference check, the conversation ended with a surprise: Would he like to come for an interview?

 

It was 1999, and Kumar was consulting on Wall Street amid the Y2K frenzy — a lucrative stint, but not a fulfilling one. “I was making good money, but I wasn’t satisfied,” he says. “As a consultant, I didn’t have a sense of ownership.”

 

Intrigued by Amazon’s early mission — then focused on books, video games, and consumer electronics — and already a loyal customer, Kumar agreed to interview and joined later that year. Over the next two decades, he held roles across functions, from finance to serving as technical advisor to a senior vice-president.

 

At times, he considered leaving. At one point, his wife gave him an ultimatum: “It’s either Amazon or us,” he says. Instead of quitting, he pivoted to a finance role to gain broader business exposure.

 

Kumar became part of Amazon’s India story from the start — helping launch the Development Centre in 2004. But the defining chapter of his career came in 2012, when he moved back to his home country to help launch Amazon India.   

 

As the ecommerce giant prepared for its India entry, Kumar visited Mumbai’s Kala Ghoda, then a hub for CD and DVD sellers. He pitched the owner of a small store to sell online. The shopkeeper laughed — it was a dying business — but returned a week later with barcode scanners and a digitised catalog. A year on, he came back with a hug and a gift: A DVD of Chalti Ka Naam Gaadi, a film Kumar had once mentioned wanting to show to his kids. His business had grown, and he wanted to do more. For Kumar, it was a lasting reminder that Amazon wasn’t just building a marketplace — it was changing lives.

 

“That’s the job I’ll tell my grandkids about,” Kumar says. “Coming home and building Amazon India from scratch with Amit Agarwal (senior vice-president) — it was incredible.”

 

His family returned to the US in 2016 so their daughter could attend high school there. Eight years later, when the opportunity to return to India came up, Kumar was enthusiastic — his children were in college, and the timing felt right. “I thought my wife might join me,” he says, “but she made it clear — kids come first.”

 

Initially, he declined the offer. But with flexibility to travel between the two countries, Kumar reconsidered.

 

Now back in India, he is struck by the scale of change. Amazon has grown from zero sellers to nearly 1.6 million. Its fulfillment network has expanded from a single centre in Mumbai to over 43 million cubic feet, with 2,000 delivery stations across the country.

 

Despite the scale, Kumar says Amazon’s mindset hasn’t shifted. “It still feels like Day One,” he says. The biggest opportunities are still ahead. He sees the company’s future in India not through reinvention, but by sharpening its focus on digital commerce fundamentals.

 

“Our customers will always be divinely discontent,” says Kumar. “They’ll want more selection, faster delivery, and better value.”

 

Over the next decade, he expects Amazon India to expand its product selection to rival mature markets like the US and UK, while bringing speed and reliability to tier II and III cities. “Whether it’s a village or a small town, we want to deliver the widest selection in the shortest time,” he says.

 

On the seller side, Amazon aims to boost small business participation and scale exports from $15 billion today to $80 billion by 2030. 

India’s e-commerce market, projected to hit $325 billion by 2030, with 21 per cent annual growth, is fiercely competitive. Players like Flipkart, Meesho, JioMart, and Tata Group are innovating rapidly. But for Kumar, the strategy remains rooted in one principle: Customer obsession.

 

“We benchmark competitors, but our focus is the customer,” he says. “That drives our innovation.” Competition, he adds, isn’t a threat but a motivator. It pushes the firm to move faster, go deeper, and think bigger.

 

Quick-commerce players like Swiggy Instamart, Blinkit, and Zepto have reshaped consumer expectations with 10–15 minute deliveries. Amazon India isn’t rushing to match them, he says, but it is adapting, doing it the Amazon way — deliberate, scalable, and built for the long term. 

 

“We are building a supply chain that is consistent and meets our customers’ expectations,” says Kumar.

 

The company is piloting its faster-delivery service, Amazon Now, in select Bengaluru neighbourhoods, expanding from four to 11 dark stores. In some areas, customers can already get 10-minute delivery on a curated range of items.

 

Kumar says the focus isn’t just on speed; the associates aren’t racing through aisles to pick up the items. The company has rethought the model for efficiency, safety, and reliability, he insists.

 

Amazon’s advantage, he argues, is in scale and selection. Its large-format warehouses on the city outskirts hold up to a million unique items. Besides, he says, the economics of point-to-point dark store delivery aren’t proven. Also, dark stores can only stock a fraction of what customers expect. “You might find 10,000 items, but not the faucet part I needed when my bathroom leaked.”

 

Our food, served long back, is delicious, but it is the conversation that has our attention.

 

Kumar sees the next wave of growth coming from Bharat — India’s tier III and IV cities — and says the company is retooling its platform to serve these markets more effectively. It is investing in fulfillment infrastructure beyond major metros, lowering seller fees to broaden selection, and growing its grocery and fresh offerings, now in over 170 cities. 

 

Complementing these efforts is Amazon Bazaar, a mobile-first marketplace for unbranded, affordable fashion and lifestyle goods aimed at price-sensitive consumers. 

 

From regulatory hurdles to legal disputes with trader bodies, Amazon’s journey in India hasn’t been without challenges. But Kumar views regulatory scrutiny as a constant across global markets — and India is no exception. “When you innovate on behalf of customers, you’re often misunderstood early on,” he says, echoing a principle long held within Amazon.

 

Kumar acknowledges that while navigating India’s regulatory and retail landscape comes with complexities, the firm’s responsibility is to stay focused on what it does best.

 

Under his leadership, Amazon India is embedding artificial intelligence (AI) across customer experience, logistics, and seller support. On the consumer side, tools like Rufus, the in-app AI shopping assistant, and generative AI-powered review summaries aim to streamline product discovery. Enhanced chatbots are improving service responsiveness.

 

For sellers, AI now automates product listings from a single image and upgrades backend catalog management to reduce errors and boost visibility. Kumar says Amazon is also leveraging its AWS backbone to broaden AI access through tools like SageMaker and Amazon Q, while continuously evolving its models.

 

He credits Bezos with shaping his leadership style, especially in the early days of launching Amazon India. In one of their first business reviews, Kumar’s team presented a six-page plan peppered with phrases like “we’ll experiment” and “try it out”.

 

Bezos was blunt. “You’re going to fail,” he said. “I don’t need computer scientists — I need cowboys.” The message: Move fast, take risks, and don’t fear failure.

 

“We called ourselves cowboys from then on,” Kumar says. He still keeps a cowboy hat in his office as a reminder. “In India, we have to think like a startup and invent like crazy. That mindset still drives us.”