Jeff Bezos the founder amazon.com
Born January 12, 1964 Jeffrey Preston “Jeff” Bezos the founder and CEO of Amazon.com which isthe largest online merchant of books and a wide variety of products on the World Wide Web.
He graduated from Princeton University in 1986 with a Bachelor of Science in electrical engineering and computer science. After graduating he worked at several jobs that made that allowed him to put his computer science training to use.
In 1994 the entrepreneur in him spotted an opportunity to use the internet to sell books. He recognised that this new platform can be more effective than mail order and there was no comprehensive mail order catalogue for books. Any such catalogue would be too big to mail but perfect for the Internet, which could share a vast database with a virtually limitless number of people. At booksellers convention he discovered that the major book wholesalers had already compiled electronic lists of their inventory.
On July 16, 1995, he opened his site to the world, and in 30 days with no press, Amazon had sold books in all 50 states and 45 foreign countries. By September, it had sales of $20,000 a week. He and his team continued improving the site, introducing such unheard-of features as one-click shopping, customer reviews, and e-mail order verification.
From the beginning, he sought to increase market share as quickly as possible, at the expense of profits. When he disclosed his intention to go from being “Earth’s biggest bookstore” to “Earth’s biggest anything store,” skeptics thought Amazon was growing too big too fast, but a few analysts called it “one of the smartest strategies in business history.
Over the years he moulded the company into one of the most adaptable creatures of the modern business. When the Internet’s stock market bubble burst, Amazon re-structured, and while other dot.com start-ups evaporated, Amazon was posting profits. This adaptability is seen in the fact that company now sells more e-books than hard covers and it pioneered the e-book reader with its kindle series that it sells at a low price in order to tie customers to its large e-book library.
As the company expanded he continually emphasized the “Six Core Values: customer obsession, ownership, bias for action, frugality, high hiring bar and innovation.” “Our vision,” he said, “is the world’s most customer-centric company.
The company is managed by three board committees: the Audit Committee as well as the Nominating and Governance Committee and third committee, the Leadership Development and Compensation Committee. Almost half of the current directors have been on the board for five years or less. This denotes new ideas and autonomy are presumably being brought into the boardroom. While longer tenure implies a deeper understanding of the company, it also implies increasing familiarity and even friendship amongst the group. This tends to discourage independent thinking and objectivity.
The board’s is not populated by CEOs or even retired CEOs but by capitalists, a number of senior level business executives from varied industries, an eminent scientist and representation from the non-profit sector. The idea that active CEOs may not have the time to adequately serve on boards other than their own may have come into play in structuring the Amazon board.
As I look at amazon,com I cannot help but be inspired by his knack for spotting opportunities, the methodical manner and courage in which he peruses his ventures and how he has adapted the company over the years to cope with the changing times.
Some may question my selection of amazon.com for a an e-learning company but I believe that by making printed and electronic material available to all in a way that no other company has qualifies it to be one.
Reference
Jeff Bezos Biography — Academy of Achievement. (n.d.). Academy of Achievement Main Menu. Retrieved September 20, 2012, from http://www.achievement.org/autodoc/page/bez0bio-1
Lenkov, P. (n.d.). The Impact of Amazon’s Amazing Board of Directors – Seeking Alpha. Stock Market News & Financial Analysis – Seeking Alpha. Retrieved September 20, 2012, from http://seekingalpha.com/article/150519-the-impact-of-amazon-s-amazing-board-of-directors
Posted in: Week 04: Entrepreneur Bootcamp
Jonathan 8:03 pm on September 26, 2012 Permalink | Log in to Reply
It’s amazing to see how Amazon is growing in all different ways. It has essentially become synonymous with online shopping. I couldn’t agree with you more on the idea that it is an e-learning company. If it isn’t then it certainly is a distributor of material. I can’t count the amount of times that I have gone back to Amazon to purchase texts, at least towards the last year in undergrad. The growth of the company truly has no limits. It has gone from selling books to literally everything.
I recall being down in US and having the option to purchase and have same day delivery? Wow! Very powerful company and you can bet they are chomping at the bit to get into the digital textbooks.
teacherben 8:56 pm on September 26, 2012 Permalink | Log in to Reply
Not specifically about educational technology, but interesting from a business point of view, I read an article a couple months ago about how the US govt.., under pressure from various brick-and-mortar retailers, was forcing Amazon to charge sales tax. The article warned that this might ultimately work against them. Until now, Amazon only charged sales tax in places where they had a physical presence (distribution centers and so on.) They limited the number of these that were out there so they could minimize the number of places where they had to charge taxes. Now that they have to pay taxes all over the place, they are likely to start building up a physical presence in a lot more place, now allowing them to expand their services in a big way, such as offering same-day service. So, in trying to level the playing field, Barnes and Noble and some of the others unleashed a beast. A couple months later, this does indeed seem to be the case. They are building all over the US.
jkotler 1:57 am on September 27, 2012 Permalink | Log in to Reply
I found your biography on the founder of Amazon.com to be quite interesting because I am quite familiar with the company (and buy many books through it on my kindle) but honestly never knew about its CEO and their beginnings. As well, I too find it inspiring when I learn about a company that is able to adapt so well to the changing market, which especially now changes quite rapidly.
Pat A Son 7:07 am on September 29, 2012 Permalink | Log in to Reply
If amazon was a creature Darwin would be proud of it 😉
pcollins 8:02 am on September 27, 2012 Permalink | Log in to Reply
Gosh, only one person behind amazon – that’s amazing. I honestly thought that it must have been a group design. And it’s interesting to envision it as a e-learning venture. I do a lot of “quik-search” to learn about authors/get reviews/find related topic books. Not that I would probably ever include an amazon cite in my references, but for daily life and general knowledge there is a lot to be found.
PC
kstackhouse 9:14 am on September 27, 2012 Permalink | Log in to Reply
I think Amazon has become a great resource for students and educators. I have bought several books for MET courses through Amazon, one book was $20 less than at the UBC bookstore…which charges $25 to ship within Canada. I got my book shipped for free…
I also use Amazon to order books for our school. We can buy them much cheaper this way and the shipping and payment is always a breeze. As you say, they are becoming the everything store. I have also purchased cameras, external hard-drives, and other materials for classroom use.
Students (and most users) are using the reviews feature as a great way to help them select books. This has been great when a student asks me about a book down in the library or one of the extra ones on my shelf. I direct them to the reviews on Amazon and other sites to help them decide if this is a book they might want to select.
Pat A Son 7:03 am on September 29, 2012 Permalink | Log in to Reply
I got my credit card in order to purchase books on amazon, books that were not available locally. Now my students take it one step further they are purchasing previous versions of text at minimal cost in order to save. This is something I never do but it is an option they exploit, And yes I use the review all the time. All in all I amazon to be a gem for students and educators alike.
Jonathan 9:24 pm on September 28, 2012 Permalink | Log in to Reply
Ken — Great point about the user reviews. I forgot about that feature. Those reviews are immensely popular and useful when it comes to online buying. Amazon definitely setup their venture properly in allowing for the user feedback to come through on all of their products.