"I will tell you the secrets of Bezos and Amazon" - The Press

Businessweek Into A journalist tells the story of the giant trade information and its founder
between success and gray areas

Into It has not yet passed the mark of fifty years – will make them in January – but Jeff Bezos, the founder and CEO of Amazon, is already one of those characters that will remain in the history of the Internet. Not only for having created from scratch one of the largest, most innovative and versatile companies that exist in the digital economy, capable of successfully introducing products such as the Kindle, revolutionizing the reading habits of an entire generation of consumers, but for ‘ approach to the business world. Bezos, unlike so many soldiers of fortune of the new economy has always believed in long-term projects, and it is perhaps for this reason that while many rivals have broken out with the bubble of the millennium, Amazon is still there: more powerful, aggressive and formidable than ever. And after all little known, without the bulk of hagiographic literature or dystopian that has accompanied the rise of companies like Google, Apple or Microsoft. For this reason, the book of American journalist Brad Stone, “Sell everything – Jeff Bezos and Amazon was” out Monday (Hoepli, 18 €), is a very interesting read. Stone is a veteran among the reporters who deal with Silicon Valley and his story comes out radiographed Amazon and naked, with all its strengths and weaknesses. Here is an interview that the author has granted The Stampa.it.

Why did you write a book on Amazon?

Into the past few years there have been many deep and well-written books on Google, Apple and Facebook. These technology companies, along with Amazon, are changing the world. I thought there was finally an opportunity to tell the story of the Amazon – one of the first companies of the Internet, which has changed the way we shop and read. I have dealt with Amazon since the late 90s for Newsweek, the New York Times, and now for Bloomberg Businessweek. I have relied on all these years of journalistic work, and on many interviews with senior executives from Amazon, including Jeff Bezos, in the two years it took to research and then write the book.

From her story reveals a mixed picture of an extremely aggressive, which is not always made many qualms about dealing with partners and rivals, and whose employees, at all levels, are subjected at a rate of grueling work. We have to be afraid of Amazon, and the business model that is?

Into I do not think that consumers should be afraid to Amazon. The company is structured to please consumers and has created many best options in the traditional shopping experience. But the rivals should be afraid. Amazon is an extraordinarily disciplined company with a business model very efficiently, led by a CEO in the leg that is infinitely loved by shareholders and which is therefore allowed to expand without being too much to look at quarterly profits. The rivals have to protect their business from Amazon, for example, making sure you have a single “customer proposition” that can not be easily copied. And the partners have to be very careful to protect their interests when dealing with Amazon, because Amazon will continue to seek to redefine the agreements to please their customers and pursue its interests.

Bezos seems to have built the company in his image and likeness, as Jobs did with Apple. What do you believe would happen if it were to leave the company?

Into Jeff Bezos is about to turn 50 years old and everything suggests that still remain many years at the helm. But the possibility that leave will always be a basic concern for any investor to Amazon. The company is incredibly complex and varied and it is difficult to imagine that someone else is as versatile as Bezos, who is able to drive it. That said, there are senior executives of Amazon as Jeff Wilke, Andy Jassy and Diego Piacentini who have worked for the company for many years and have a mindset very similar to that of Bezos.

the Bezos has been helpful in gathering material for the book? There are details that he found it difficult to know and who are considered “secret” society?

Into Although Bezos has told me personally that thinks it is “too early” to tell the story of Amazon, he also said “I’m rooting for you,” and endorsed many interviews with family, friends and leaders from Amazon. At the same time, there are many secrets of Amazon that I have tried and failed in revealing. For example, the company is notoriously private when it comes to its internal metrics. I know nothing more than anyone else, for example, on how many Amazon Prime members there are, in spite of all my efforts to find out. Overall, Amazon is very disciplined in managing its internal communications and its metrics. It made me so very happy to get hold of a very revealing memorandum, written by Bezos in person, which I have reproduced in Chapter 11. The memo “Amazon.Love” written by Bezos for his executive staff reveals his thoughts on how he would like the company to be loved rather than feared, when they will be even bigger than it is today.

seem to be no limits to what Bezos aspires to do and what it is capable of doing. What are the next steps of Amazon, according to the information collected?

Into Amazon is expanding in almost every direction imaginable. It is amazing to observe. The company is expanding internationally – has recently introduced new sites in Mexico and India. Is building new hardware, we could see a set-top box (a kind of decoder to view the channels via the Internet or cable, ed) Amazon TV at the end of this year or in early 2014, and perhaps even the new Amazon phones. It is also adding new types of product to its “universal store.” He recently unveiled the category “Amazon Art” and is expanding the sale of food in the United States. There are simply no limits to the type of products that Bezos believed to be sold online, and the areas of the world where he hopes to excel.

What are the strongest competitors of Amazon, those who fear the most?

Into The Amazon executives say that their focus on customers, not on competitors. But I do not think this is entirely true. I think Bezos and the Kindle team are working hard to create an ecosystem of products and services that can compete with the Kindle platforms from Apple and Google. This is critical. As consumers are increasingly buying, watching movies and reading e-books on their tablets and smartphones, Amazon needs to improve its business relating to devices or risk losing customers to these rivals. Amazon probably also closely observes what they do retail giants such as Walmart and Tesco.

What is your opinion on both the human and the professional, on Jeff Bezos and Amazon in general?

I have enormous respect and admiration for someone who has created so much in so little time. In less than two decades Bezos has made it immeasurably easier to shop and gave readers instant access to almost every book published in the last hundred years. While I wonder if some of its business strategies are not unnecessarily cruel, on the other employs more than one hundred thousand people and has supported many families and many careers. There are certainly aspects of Amazon that should be put under observation – such as the treatment of workers in its “fulfillment centers” (distribution centers, at the center of some controversy for the working conditions “inhumane” ed) but in Overall, it is a great story of how a man and his colleagues have placed a huge bet on the Internet and they won.