Excerpt From the Business Leader Magazine
2021-02-05
Amazon founder Jeff Bezos has announced that he will be stepping down as CEO of the Seattle-based eCommerce giant this summer.
As part of a group of leading business and entrepreneurial figures in the UK, Our CEO, Zain Ali shares his opinion on this transition in an article for Business Leader Magazine.
“From starting as an online bookstore to becoming the world’s most valuable company, Jeff Bezos’ reign as founder and CEO of Amazon has been an overwhelming success. Whilst there are a number of question marks surrounding ethics relating to anti-trust and worker conditions, which should not be ignored, the most remarkable features of Amazon have to be its innovation.
Under Bezos’ management, Amazon has always been one step ahead, pioneering online retail when people did not know what the internet was, building up mass revenues from behind the scenes with cloud computing, and now dominating the AI smart device market with Alexa. The way Amazon has also tackled international expansion and adapted to local markets such as offering in-store credits for the unbanked to deposit cash in developing regions has always been striking. Bezos’ grit for problem-solving and focusing on the end consumer is a big contributor to the company’s success.
The fact that Bezos is stepping down to focus on new ventures may actually mean there is even more innovation to come from Amazon, with time potentially freed up for more creative thinking. Having slogged for almost three decades, and achieved sales exceeding $386 billion in 2020, now is as good a time as any to take a step back, enjoy the success and focus on other passions. It will be interesting to see how Bezos manages to transition from out of a role of absolute control and power after so many years and how his successor will fare.”
Read the full article here.
