Analyzing Business Leaders: Jeff Bezos
You’ve heard of him. Yup, the guy that decided selling books online and shipping them to your door was a pretty good idea. Now, instead of just books and periodicals Bezos’s company, Amazon, can ship you just about anything under the sun within the states (as long as it’s legal of course). Now as one could imagine this shift from being an online Barnes & Noble to become a commercial online shopping website was quite the change, and not an easy one at that. In this we’ll be looking at where Bezos started and what got him to where he is today- the 3rd richest man in the world (from Forbes List).
Even as a kid in high school Jeff Bezos was always excelling in academics. Jeff joined the Student Space Program at the University of Florida and received a Silver Knight Award for excellence, a prize awarded to outstanding high school scholars that excel for the betterment of the community. Upon graduating top of his class as valedictorian, he later attended Princeton University to study physics, but got back to his love of computers and graduated summa cum laude. Bezos managed to graduate with two degrees by the end of college- 1 in electrical engineering, and the other in computer science. This set himself up for the future success of his company no doubt, being an already intelligent man and studying at a very prestigious university, this led Bezos to strive for success.
Jeff saw a brighter future ahead for himself when looking at statistics that placed the future of online sales at a predicted rate of 2,300% (Kaul). “Jeff left his well paying job at a New York City hedge fund company after learning about the rapid growth of internet use” (Kaul). This was a risk no doubt, but also one Bezos was willing to take, and it surely paid off in the end. Originally, Amazon was set up to sell 20 products of different types. This was so Bezos could identify what was at the highest demand for online sales. This narrowed the merchandise to 5 different things- compact discs, computer hardware, computer software, videos, and books. Again he changed his model even further, recognizing that the most profitable thing to sell would be books, so he focused in on that market. Eventually, after starting Amazon in 1994, many products have been the main focus of the company, but as it has evolved, Amazon now sells over 480 MILLION products. Ludicrous.
So all in all, Bezos did not simply achieve his riches without hard work. From being an excellent student throughout high school and college, he took the knowledge he had developed and proceeded to make a company that is shaping how we citizens live our day-to-day lives. Whether or not you believe Amazon is benefiting or hindering society, you can’t help agree that it’s damn convenient.
Citation:
From library.buffalo.edu
S., Kaul. (2016, February 22). Jeff Bezos. Retrieved September 9, 2017, from http://go.galegroup.com.gate.lib.buffalo.edu/ps/i.do?p=ITOF&u=sunybuff_main&id=GALE|A444011371&v=2.1&it=r&sid=summon&authCount=1
https://www.cbsnews.com/pictures/richest-people-in-world-forbes/19/
