Fortune, studies, lessons in entrepreneurship… Focus on the journey of Jeff Bezos, the richest man in the world thanks to the phenomenal success of Amazon. This is not his only achievement, as he is also the founder of the aerospace company Blue Origin and the owner of the Washington Post. In 1999, he was elected personality of the year according to Time Magazine, at only 35 years old! Today, he has established himself as an essential icon in the business world.
The academic and professional career of Jeff Bezos
Jeff Bezos has been a great visionary since he was little, passionate about computers and technology. Hard-working and determined by nature, he has followed a most admirable journey. A graduate of the University of Florida, he won the prestigious Silver Knight Award in 1982, which opened the doors to Princeton University. He studied physics there but very quickly turned to his passion: computer science.
Jeff Bezos is very talented and excels in everything he does. He began his career as IT and telecommunications network development manager for the startup Fitel. Two years later, he was recruited by Bankers Trust Company as a financial analyst. After a few years, he rose through the ranks and became vice president of the company.
In 1990, he changed companies and worked as a financial analyst for the American investment fund DE Shaw & Co for 4 years. In 1994, Jeff Bezos saw real growth opportunities on the Internet and decided to launch his own business: an online bookstore that he called Amazon. Its ambition is clear: to make Amazon the largest bookstore in history, a successful bet since the site is considered the largest bookstore in the world today.
The history and key dates of Amazon
Jeff Bezos created Amazon in 1994 to take full advantage of the expansion that the Internet was experiencing at the time and above all in order to “minimize regrets” that he could have had not to benefit from the entrepreneurial adventure. If physical bookstores offered 200,000 titles, Amazon had a much larger catalog.
Jeff Bezos recognized himself in the spirit of the Amazon as a place “ exotic and different“. This is where the name of his company comes from. The fact that it comes first in alphabetical order and is one of the longest rivers in the world also worked in its favor and inspired the young entrepreneur.
Two months after its launch, Amazon was making $20,000 in sales every week. This rapid growth propelled the company to the top and led it to go public in 1997. The shares were initially valued at just $18.
In 1999, Jeff Bezos was appointed “man of the year” by the American magazine The Time which saluted, in this case, its contribution in the field of electronic and online commerce.
The internationalization and diversification of Amazon’s offering in the 2000s
Amazon arrived in France in 2000. French bookstores and publishers saw this arrival as a major new threat and a potential upheaval of the publishing market. The same year, the company diversified its offering and marketed a long range of products ranging from video games to renovation equipment. This year also marks the change of Amazon’s logo. It is an arrow going from the letter A to Z forming a smile. This represents, among other things, customer satisfaction and indicates the fact that the company can market all kinds of products.
In 2011, Amazon diversified its activities and no longer limited itself to online commerce. It is in fact launching its Cloud service, GovCloud, intended for administrations and the American Government. Three years later, it marketed its first smartphone, the Fire Phonewhose success was not there. Its marketing therefore ceased a few years later. In 2012, Amazon bought the startup Kiva Systems and used its technology to build robots for the group’s warehouses, to meet growing demand and improve efficiency.
February 2 2021, Jeff Bezos took advantage of the presentation of the results of the American distribution giant to announce his intention to take a step back from the company he has led since its creation, 27 years ago. It is Andy Jassy, current boss of Amazon Web Services (AWS) – one of the group’s most lucrative activities – who should take over the reins of Amazon in the third quarter of 2021. Jeff Bezos will remain executive chairman and has has already declared that he wants to invest in many other projects, particularly philanthropic ones.
Secrets of Amazon’s success
Amazon accounts for 44% of total e-commerce sales in the United States. Today, the company has customers of all types (consumers, sellers, retailers, etc.) and aims to put 85% of the world’s products on sale on its site. Amazon’s success comes down to the following three levers:
Secret #1: Jeff Bezos places the customer at the center of his concerns
In the book “The Everything Store: Jeff Bezos and the Age of Amazon,” written by the journalist Brad StoneJeff Bezos declares:
“If you want to know the truth about what makes us different, it’s this: We are truly mind-centered. customerwe are truly oriented towards the long term and we really like invent. Most companies don’t do these things. They focus on the competitor rather than the customer. They want to work on things that will pay dividends in two or three years, and if they’re not working in two or three years, they’ll move on. They prefer to follow closely rather than invent, because it is safer. Very few companies have all three of these elements. »
Most companies operating in the new technology sector have only one obsession: competition. Jeff Bezos, for his part, understood the wealth of customer data. He then proceeded to intelligently exploit this data and adapted the customer journey according to requests and constantly improving their experience. This data also allowed it to optimize purchasing and inventory management.
The customer experience, according to Jeff Bezos, must be impeccable: both simple and convenient, with competitive prices and a complete range of choices (“ the largest choice on Earth “). The customer must have access to relevant content and benefit from remarkable follow-up and after-sales service. The Prime service (100 million subscribers) supports these points and is the basis of Amazon’s exponential growth.
Secret #2: Risk-taking and a culture geared towards innovation
“Given that you have a 10% chance of winning 100 times, you should take this bet every time” —Jeff Bezos
Amazon’s success is based on risk-taking and bold investment decisions that Jeff Bezos does not hesitate to make. We can take the example ofEchothe connected object in the form of a speaker from Amazon that helps you play your favorite music, check the weather or even do research. This innovation represented a significant investment for the company, but proved profitable, knowing that more than 22 million units Echo were sold in 2017.
Amazon’s projects are not always successful, but the example ofEcho proves that the game is worth the effort and that innovation is a winning bet for e-commerce companies.
Secret #3: Diversification of activities
Since the launch of Amazon in 1994, Jeff Bezos has diversified into many fields (music, electronics, health, beauty, automobiles, etc.). Its ambitions continue to grow and its offer to diversify.
The strategy adopted by Amazon has paid off, as its overall traffic continues to increase and its purchasing opportunities continue to increase. The brand has a range of customers that is as wide as it is different and has partnered with several companies operating in several sectors (pharmacy, grocery, furniture, etc.).
Today, Amazon is more than just an e-commerce platform, it is a video (Amazon Prime Video) and music (Amazon Prime Music) streaming service, but also connected objects via the game Echo and an electronic reader: Amazon Kindle. The group also now offers products made in Amazon Basics on its site.
Jeff Bezos net worth
There fortune by Jeff Bezos has broken all records and now exceeds 195 billion dollars. Forbes estimates that Jeff Bezos’ fortune is the largest on record. Bloomberg, for his part, estimates his fortune at $195 billion as of Wednesday April 21, 2021. His fortune represents almost 1% of the US gross domestic product, which amounted to $21.6 trillion in 2019.
It is important to note that Jeff Bezos’ fortune is indexed to Amazon’s market capitalization since the entrepreneur owns a significant number of shares in his company. This is why it evolves daily and may not be the same tomorrow.
This considerable increase is mainly due to the increase in online shopping, caused by the coronavirus pandemic. The company’s market capitalization has skyrocketed and Amazon is valued at $1.681 billion. It must be said that Amazon is the big winner of the coronavirus crisis since consumers have largely turned to online sites during the confinements imposed by governments. As of June 14, 2022, Jeff Bezos’s net worth was $127 billion.
Jeff Bezos still strongly present at Amazon
Jeff Bezos still can’t break away from Amazon, even though he stepped down as CEO last year to focus more on his philanthropic projects and his rocket company. Andy Jassy became CEO last July and told Bloomberg TV that he still communicates regularly with Jeff Bezos about the company. “We still talk all the time, it’s very helpful to be able to ask him for advice. He did this job for so long, and he always made himself available,” Jassy said.
Amazon Chief Financial Officer Brian Olsavsky said in a February 2021 earnings call that Bezos would still be involved in major “one-way” decisions such as acquisitions and business strategy. When Jeff Bezos transitioned to the role of executive chairman, he told employees in a letter that he “would remain engaged in important Amazon initiatives. »
