The presentation is based on Brad Stone's book 'The Everything Store: Jeff Bezos and the Age of Amazon'. The presentation portrays Bezos as a creative and visionary leader but also as ruthless person.

1. JEFF BEZOS
The analysis of traits, behaviours and
attitudes of Jeffrey Bezos based on ‘The
Everything Store: Jeff Bezos and the Age
of Amazon’ by Brad Stone.
Slawomir Starzec
Date: 5th May 2015

2.  The author of The Everything Store is a
senior writer in Bloomberg Businessweek
who specialises in technology and is known
for writing cover stories on leading
technology companies such as Apple,
Google, Facebook,Twitter andYahoo.
“It’s the long-
anticipated,
honest account of
the company of
our age, and
deeply personal
look at the iconic
entrepreneur who
founded it.”
“Brad Stone
captures Jeff’s
passion and
brilliance in this
well-reported
and compelling
narrative.”
Published in 2013 and chosen as a Best Book of
2013 by TheWashington Post.
The gathered material of 300 interviews combined
with Stone’s fifteen years of writing on Amazon
resulted in 361 pages of a comprehensive biography
of Amazon and its founder enriched by unknown
stories and facts.

3. CHILDHOOD
 Jeff Bezos was born on January 12, 1964, in
Albuquerque, New Mexico, to a teenage mother,
JacklynGise Jorgensen, and his biological father,
Ted Jorgensen.
 Bezos's parents divorced within a year, and
when Bezos was four years old his mother
married his step-father Mike Bezos, a Cuban
immigrant.
 Brad Stone argues, that the fact of being
adopted gave Bezos a powerful motivation to
succeed like other technology icons, Steve Jobs
and Larry Ellison.
 Interested in how things work – at the age of
three, disassembled his crib with a screwdriver
because he insisted on sleeping in an ordinary
bed.
Bezos had an early love of computers and
studied computer science and electrical
engineering at Princeton University.

4.  Started from the Bezos family garage in 1995.
(First sold book - Douglas Hofstadter's Fluid Concepts
And Creative Analogies: Computer Models OfThe
Fundamental Mechanisms OfThought).
 Within 30 days his siteAmazon could sell books in
50 states and 45 foreign countries.
 Employs 154.000 people.
 145 fulfilment centres across the world.
 270 million active users (Statista.com, 2014).
 Amazon US store sells 323 million of products.
Worth $38 billion (Forbes, 2015).
FACTS

5. VISIONARY
RELENTLESS
STRATEGY
CREATIVE
RUTHLESS
LEADERSHIP

6. VISIONARY
 Bezos believed that technology offered
limitless possibilities i.e. limitless selection,
exceptional customer experience.
 He had a vision that technology could change
the way people shop.
The venture of building e-commerce shop in
the 1990’s was seen as inviable.
 He had a vision to transform Amazon from just
a retailer to a technology company which would
be difficult to compete with.
 He pursues his childish dreams which tend to
become reality as Blue Origin - a privately
founded aerospace program which develops
technologies to enable private human access to
space.

7. “Physically I’m a chicken.
Mentally, I’m bold.”
Jeff Bezos

8. CREATIVE
 Exceedingly creative in achieving high goals. He
once introduced the idea of the effects of a zero-
gravity environment on the housefly (High school
friends).
 He has a rare ability to envision new trends (i.e.
diversification into digital books when very few e-books
were available).
 He’s involved in visionary projects (i.e. Amazon
PrimeAir allowing 30 min delivery through drones).
Amazon Prime Air
 Described by friends as unnaturally gifted and
ambitious in inventing new things.

9. RELENTLESS
Bezos holds to the motto “Step by step. Ferociously”
which captures Amazon’s philosophy.
 Friends and workers say that Bezos extremely
focused on achieving results.
 If you're not stubborn, you'll give up on
experiments too soon.
 Relentless.com – one of the first names of Amazon
Bezos liked the most.

10. “Are you lazy or just incompetent?”
Jeff Bezos

11. RUTHLESS
 Stone argues that Bezos , like Steve Jobs, BillGates, and
Larry Ellison, lacks a certain degree of empathy which
allows him to treat workers as expendable resources.
 He can coldly allocate capital and manpower without
considering human factor.
Bezos has a volcanic temper and during his emotional
outbursts he would not hesitate to call people ‘complete
idiots’.
 He devised a ruthless ‘Gazelle Project’ to approach
publishers in an aggressive way as a cheetah approach
gazelle (lower prices, longer bill payment periods).
When focused on some project, he would work people
to exhaustion and expect complete commitment.
 Many CEOs left Amazon (e.g. ErickGoss) as they
couldn’t reconcile ruthless Amazon’s tactics with their
personal values .

12. “Our vision is to be the world’s most consumer-centric
company, where consumers can come to find anything
they want to buy online. ”
Jeff Bezos

13. STRATEGY
 Stone argues that particular passions of Bezos
(books) guided the Amazons strategy.
 Aggressive strategy of Amazon (acquisitions) is a
manifestation of personal traits of Bezos.
 Always focused on a long-term strategy even if it
means to obtain ‘0 margin profit’ (as through its
formative years).
 No matter what you sell - offer wider selection,
lower prices and fast, reliable deliver.
 “Everyone has to be able to work in a call center”
(every A. employee has to work in call-center for 2 days
every year).

14. “Put the customer first. Invent. And
be patient.”
Jeff Bezos

15. LEADERSHIP
 Amazon’s 14 leadership principles
 Customer obsession (empty chair at
meetings)
 Ownership (Never say ‘that’s not my job’)
 Invent and simplify
 Leaders are Right, a Lot
 Hire and Develop the Best
 Insist on the Highest Standards
Think Big (Get big fast)
 Bias for Action
 Frugality
Vocally Self Critical
 EarnTrust of Others
 Dive Deep
 Have Backbone; Disagree and Commit
 Deliver Results (Bezos is an aggressive
manager who expects immediate results)

16. “Work hard, have fun and make
history.”
Jeff Bezos

17. THANKYOU