Amazon launches AFBP to prepare MBA graduates for leadership roles

Amazon on Friday launched its flagship leadership development programme ‘Amazon Future Builders Program’ (AFBP) for students enrolled in premier B-Schools in India, including IIMs, ISB and XLRI and prepare them for leadership roles at the company. The programme allows students to gain a breadth of experience across Amazon’s businesses through a two month ‘incubator’ period, followed by a 24-30 months period where they gain domain expertise in particular ‘Lines of Business’ (LoBs), Amazon said in a statement. The in-depth business experience will be augmented with learning, training, networking, and mentorship opportunities, it added. “The culmination of this experience will lead to students emerging as future leaders poised to occupy key leadership roles at Amazon,” it said.




AFBP will be offered at top business schools in India starting with the Financial year 2021 final placement season. Interested students can connect with their placement cell in their respective institutes, following which selected candidates will be invited to take an online assessment and video/phone interviews. Post completion of their course, these selected students will start with the AFBP incubator. Once they join AFBP, each participant (who is now an employee) is part of a two month-incubator where they learn about various Amazon businesses, including AWS, Consumer, Devices, Finance, Operations, and Prime Video. Post the incubator, the candidate joins the Line of Business they were selected for and gains domain expertise for a period of 24-30 months. “AFBP has been introduced to provide students with crucible experiences to build their future careers at Amazon. It provides role clarity within our Day 1 builder mindset to roles, provides opportunities to hone highly specialised and general management talent who can take on leadership roles in the future…” the statement said. Some of the key AFBP job functions include business development manager, category manager, financial analyst, marketing manager, operations manager, product manager and others across Amazon’s various businesses in India.

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“Amazon has launched its flagship leadership development programme, AFBP for students enrolled in premier B-Schools in India. We have worked backwards from the business needs to curate a student hiring program which offers a unique value proposition,” Amazon India Director (HR) Swati Rustagi said. AFBP is designed to transform students into well-rounded business leaders who demonstrate the ability to think critically, solve complex business problems and are well assimilated into our peculiar culture which will enable them to build a long term career with Amazon, she added.