Fred Pattje, Amazon Executive: “The human factor will never disappear no matter how much technology a company has"

"The human factor will never disappear no matter how much technology a company has”said Fred Pattje, director of Amazon Customer Fulfillment in France, Italy and Spain. He spoke to the students of the Degree in Applied Management, on the occasion of the presentation of the end-of-term projects and the celebration of the day of their patron saint, St. Elizabeth of Hungary.

Of Dutch origin and based in Spain for thirty years, Fred Pattje has been working at Amazon since 2011 and was in charge of setting up the group's first logistics center in Spain. Today there are more than thirty operations centers spread throughout the country.

Under the title "The Amazon network: fast & sustainable" he offered a vision of how Amazon works and how the multinational is committed to sustainability. In this regard, Pattje pointed out that the group has a solar panel farm in Seville in Spain and that they plan to create another one in Aragon. "We are on track to use 100% renewable energy in our operations globally by 2025," he concluded.

"Motivating the people on your team is easy, the hard part is getting their commitment"

The Amazon executive assures that, despite having a team of 50,000 people of 65 nationalities for which he is responsible, he feels very calm when he is away from his office. He explained that the key is to form a good team and take care of them: "Motivating people who you work with is easy, the difficult thing is to get their commitment, but if you get the latter, it is easier to keep them on your team".

Likewise, for Pattje it is essential to have a professional development plan within the company for each employee and "to know the added value that each one can contribute". He also emphasized the need to train managers to be leaders, "who do not command, but coordinate" and who have a "continuous listening attitude".

During the conference, Pattje recalled that before working at Amazon he had the opportunity to be an entrepreneur: "It was an absolute failure, but you have to address things as they are and react in time. Every problem you encounter along the way is an opportunity to improve."

"The difference is not in what you do, but in how you do it"

Antonio María Fernández, Director of Development at ISSA School of Applied Management, on behalf of the Board of Management and the faculty, congratulated the students and opened the conference with a few words in which he emphasized that the students should look at the multinational to appreciate that "the difference is not in what you do, but in how you do it".

Ángela Jodar and María Victoria Pistilli, student delegates of the Degree and fourth-year students, closed the session by thanking their classmates and professors for everything they had shared and learned throughout their degree. They also encouraged the students of lower years to make the most of and enjoy the University to the maximum: "Get involved, make the most of each class, and participate in all the activities that the University offers, it's really worth it".