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What’s Next for Amazon After Jeff Bezos? No Drastic Changes, Just More Growth and Optimization
Aug
Jeff Bezos has announced to step down as Amazon CEO in Q3 2021. Founder of e-commerce giant to step down as CEO Andy Jassywho currently leads the cloud computing division at Amazon.
The announcement follows a hugely successful 2020 for Amazon, which was a success despite (or perhaps because of) the COVID-19 pandemic. Cash flow from operations rose 72% from a year earlier to $66.1 billion, and net sales rose 35% to $386.1 billion.
Amazon has its critics, with critics highlighting concerns about working conditions, tax minimization, anti-competitive practices, and privacy. But its massive size and continued phenomenal growth make it a force to be reckoned with.
How did Amazon get to this position and what does the future hold for the company under novel management?
How it all started
Almost 27 years ago, in 1994, Bezos left his job as a senior vice president at a hedge fund to start an online bookstore in his garage. At the time, the retail utilize of the Internet was in its infancy.
Bezos decided that books were the perfect product to sell online. Initially called Cadabra, the novel business was soon renamed Amazon and borrowed $300,000 from his parents to get it off the ground.
Read more: Amazon turns 25 – here’s a look back at how it changed the world
Books proved popular with a growing number of online shoppers, and Bezos began adding other products and services to Amazon’s offerings—primarily e-readers, tablets, and other devices. Amazon now generates revenue primarily through retail, online services, and subscriptions.
Amazon’s Rise and Rise
Amazon is currently one of the most valuable companies in the world, valued at over 1.7 trillion US dollars. That’s more than the GDP all but 10 countries of the world. This is also largest employer with a vast predominance among technology companies.
The key to Amazon’s dominance has been steady expansion. After entering the e-reader and tablet markets, it expanded more broadly into technology products and services.
The expansion has not stopped yet and Amazon Product Lines currently includes media (books, DVDs, music), kitchen and dining products, toys and games, fashion, beauty products, delicatessen and groceries, household and garden products, sporting goods, medicines and pharmaceuticals, financial services and many more.
Amazon recently expanded its operations to include brick-and-mortar stores, as confirmed by purchase of the Whole Foods chain in 2017creating your own high-tech stores, such as Amazon Go toand its advanced distribution and delivery services such as Amazon Prime.
Read more: Fear not, customers: Amazon’s geoblocking in Australia won’t restrict your style
Amazon is becoming more and more vertically integratedwhich means that it no longer simply sells someone else’s product, but produces and sells its own. This gives the company a position of extreme market dominance.
Doug Strickland/AP
Criticism
Amazon is hugely popular with customers but faces criticism from supplier rights advocates, unions and governments.
Industrial relations issues such as fair pay, unsafe working practices and unrealistic demands seem to be the most common areas of concern. British report found:
Amazon does not have a minimum wage policy and does not mention in its supplier code that wages must be sufficient to cover workers’ basic needs.
Other concerns include the alleged unsafe working conditions and whistleblower politics.
In March 2020, as COVID-19 began to spread, The employees claimed they had been fired for raising concerns about secure working conditions. Amazon Vice President and veteran engineer Tim Bray he resigned from solidarity and nine US senators issued open letter to Bezos, who wanted to clarify the layoffs.
More general criticism Over the years, breaches of the company culture have become apparent, including inadequate breaks, unrealistic demands and an annual “downsizing” of staff – referred to as “deliberate Darwinism.”
Another strand of criticism concerned Amazon’s market size and antitrust laws. Antitrust law exist to keep vast companies from creating monopolies. Amazon poses a challenge because it is a manufacturer, an online retailer, and a marketplace where other retailers can sell products to consumers.
Privacy concerns also harassed Amazon products such as Echo intelligent speakers, Ring home cameras and Amazon One palm scan ID devices.
Read more: Amazon Echo privacy issues extend far beyond voice recordings
Finally, the quantity Amazon pays corporate income tax in Australia was challenged. The company used a number of tactics to legally reduce the income taxes it pays around the world.
What does the future hold for Amazon after the COVID-19 pandemic?
What will change at Amazon if Bezos leaves? It’s unlikely we’ll see a dramatic change in the low term. First, Bezos isn’t leaving entirely—he’ll stay involved as “executive chairman.” Second, his successor, Andy Jassy, has been with Amazon since 1997.
Jassy is the CEO of Amazon Web Services (AWS) and already one of the most significant people in the technology industry. AWS is at the forefront of simplifying computing services, driving the cloud computing revolution and influencing the way organizations buy technology.
Isaac Bracken / AP
Jassy’s long history, deep knowledge of the organization, and technology expertise will undoubtedly prove to be a good fit for Amazon.
But he faces a monumental task. Jassy will inherit responsibility for over a million employees, selling millions of different products and services.
His expertise in AI and machine learning at AWS will become increasingly significant as they play an increasingly significant role a bigger role in Amazon operations – everything from warehouse optimization and providing better search results Down business forecasting and monitoring Warehouse workers AND delivery drivers.
Physical lockdowns and the acceleration of online growth caused by the COVID-19 pandemic have created the perfect conditions for a company that has been dubbed “everything store”. Supporters and critics will be watching with interest to see if this continues to be true in a post-COVID-19 environment.
