The next challenge was to decide what to sell beyond books. Yet as the company continues to grow, and expand into new activities, there are calls from both inside and outside Amazon to keep its data-feasting obsession in check. “Each opportunity to interact with a customer is another opportunity to collect data.”įounder Jeff Bezos frames it in terms of being a “customer obsession”, saying the firm’s first priority is to “figure out what they want, what's important to them”.Īnd he qualifies this by saying Amazon mustn’t violate people’s trust in the process. “They happen to sell products, but they are a data company,” says James Thomson, one of the former executives interviewed. The endeavour was timed to coincide with a BBC Panorama documentary I’ve been involved with, which tracks Amazon’s rise through the prism of it being a data-collector. An associated document divides up my reading sessions for each e-book, timing each to the millisecond. It contains details of the 83,657 Kindle interactions I’ve had since 2018, including the exact time of day for each tap.
#DAY ONE AMAZON SOFTWARE#
One spreadsheet actually triggers a warning message saying it is too big for my software to handle. There are more than 60 supplementary columns for each one, containing information such as what device I’d been using, how many items I subsequently clicked on, and a string of numbers that hint at my location. It remains Day 1.Clicking on another file reveals 2,670 product searches I had carried out within its store since 2017. Keep inventing, and don’t despair when at first the idea looks crazy. We are leaders in areas as varied as machine learning and logistics, and if an Amazonian’s idea requires yet another new institutional skill, we’re flexible enough and patient enough to learn it. We serve individuals and enterprises, and we’ve pioneered two complete industries and a whole new class of devices. We have things in the pipeline that will continue to astonish. We are firing on all cylinders, just as the world needs us to. I’m super passionate about the impact I think these organizations can have.Īmazon couldn’t be better positioned for the future. I’ve never had more energy, and this isn’t about retiring. As Exec Chair I will stay engaged in important Amazon initiatives but also have the time and energy I need to focus on the Day 1 Fund, the Bezos Earth Fund, Blue Origin, The Washington Post, and my other passions. When you have a responsibility like that, it’s hard to put attention on anything else. Being the CEO of Amazon is a deep responsibility, and it’s consuming. Millions of customers depend on us for our services, and more than a million employees depend on us for their livelihoods. It is a joy to work on this team.Īs much as I still tap dance into the office, I’m excited about this transition. When times have been tough, you’ve been strong and supportive, and we’ve made each other laugh.
When times have been good, you’ve been humble. I get to work with the smartest, most talented, most ingenious teammates. Other large companies are coming our way. In both cases, we staked out leadership positions and then asked others to come along with us. Two high-impact examples: our $15 minimum wage and the Climate Pledge. I think you should be.Īs Amazon became large, we decided to use our scale and scope to lead on important social issues. I hope you are as proud of our inventiveness as I am. I don’t know of another company with an invention track record as good as Amazon’s, and I believe we are at our most inventive right now. And that yawn is the greatest compliment an inventor can receive. If you get it right, a few years after a surprising invention, the new thing has become normal. We pioneered customer reviews, 1-Click, personalized recommendations, Prime’s insanely-fast shipping, Just Walk Out shopping, the Climate Pledge, Kindle, Alexa, marketplace, infrastructure cloud computing, Career Choice, and much more. We’ve done crazy things together, and then made them normal.
Today, we employ 1.3 million talented, dedicated people, serve hundreds of millions of customers and businesses, and are widely recognized as one of the most successful companies in the world.
The question I was asked most frequently at that time was, “What’s the internet?” Blessedly, I haven’t had to explain that in a long while. Amazon was only an idea, and it had no name.
#DAY ONE AMAZON FULL#
He will be an outstanding leader, and he has my full confidence. Andy is well known inside the company and has been at Amazon almost as long as I have. In the Exec Chair role, I intend to focus my energies and attention on new products and early initiatives. I’m excited to announce that this Q3 I’ll transition to Executive Chair of the Amazon Board and Andy Jassy will become CEO.
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