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Email from Jeff Bezos to employees

aboutamazon.com

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Re: Email from Jeff Bezos to employees

#221

Post by paxys »

edanm wrote: post #58
jgalt212 wrote: post #32

Earlier quoted context omitted.

without Andy (and AWS), I'd posit that Jeff would just be another regular old billionaire who'd own a sports team, but otherwise folks would not know much about.

I'm pretty sure you're wrong. Most people have no idea what AWS is, but know what Amazon the consumer business is. AWS is only well known among tech circles.

While regular consumers may not know what AWS is, Amazon's core business was able to sustain losses for 10+ years only because of profits coming from there.

Re: Email from Jeff Bezos to employees

#223

Post by 8ytecoder »

paxys wrote: post #168
somethoughts wrote: post #114

It will be interesting to watch how Andy Jassy as head of AWS (dealing with building out data centers, SW partnerships, API uptime, negotiating with Intel, designing Graviton CPUs, etc.) will be able to transition to such things as Prime Video content licensing discussions and goal setting for Whole Foods and the nuances of warehouse distribution labor disputes. As a founder of Amazon - having built Amazon from nothi…

Anecdotally I have heard that Amazon as a company does delegation very effectively. Individual departments have complete autonomy over their own business decisions, and this applies on the engineering side as well. I do agree that the shitstorm over warehouse workers, automation, unionization etc. is only going to get a lot worse over the next few years, and Jassy may even find handling that becoming his primary job.

Jeff is a man of contradictions. I’ve heard him micromanage to the level that individual AWS launch pages were reviewed and approved by him; so were the choice of databases (oracle vs MySQL) and SOA. At the same time, he gives extreme leeway and time for product teams to prove their mettle. The general assumption is you have 7 years from start to profitability. It’s a long time by tech industry standards. (Just look at Google).

Re: Email from Jeff Bezos to employees

#224

Post by titzer »

Bostonian wrote: post #190
munificent wrote: post #106

Earlier quoted context omitted.

For comparison, using national total wealth, that makes Amazon worth more than Saudia Arabia, Denmark, Portugal, or New Zealand. It's $280.5 billion in revenue in 2019 put it above the GDP of Romania, Peru, Ukraine, etc. Corporations should never be allowed to get this large.

That's the equivalent of saying "corporations should be limited in what services they provide and to how many people". And I disagree with that.

It's equivalent to a lot of different sentences. Any given market has a maximum size, so if you want to limit the size of a corporations' market share, you are absolutely limiting "what services they provide and to how many people". Or are you totally for monopolies?

Re: Email from Jeff Bezos to employees

#225

Post by ehsankia »

boringg wrote: post #119
ksec wrote: post #66

From https://www.aboutamazon.com/news/company-news/email-from-jef... >Fellow Amazonians: >I’m excited to announce that this Q3 I’ll transition to Executive Chair of the Amazon Board and Andy Jassy will become CEO. In the Exec Chair role, I intend to focus my energies and attention on new products and early initiatives. Andy is well known inside the company and has been at Amazon almost as long as I have. He will be a…

I imagine he's pretty burnt out of running the day to day. Time for something new after 2 decades. Love or hate Amazon it has been a force on the planet.

Absolutely. I could see him shifting more in the Gates or Musk kinda life, funding more fun projects or philanthropies. Not gonna lie running Amazon after 20 decades probably isn't as fun as running an aerospace company or other pet projects. He probably has lots of ideas he wouldn't mind throwing money at and investing in.

Re: Email from Jeff Bezos to employees

#226

Post by mullingitover »

dantheman wrote: post #203
mullingitover wrote: post #188

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Bonus question: Why should governments be allowed to get that big? I would argue that most of our current problems are happening because our governments are small, ineffective, and corrupt. I would prefer big, effective, smart, and transparent governments that can take decisive action any day of the week. I'd go so far as to abolish state governments entirely and split their powers between counties and the federal…

small and corrupt, so let's make them bigger and corrupt? How much do you think the government should forcefully take from its citizens to get bigger?

I mean, that's not what I said at all, and then I see you're breaking out the old 'taxation is theft' sawhorse.

Personally I'm a 'taxation makes civilization possible' man myself, and I find that the 'taxation is theft' people rarely make meaningful contributions to society.

Re: Email from Jeff Bezos to employees

#228

Post by tomcam »

maverickJ wrote: post #85

Love him or hate him, Jeff Bezos has been a legendary figure in the world of business for over 25 years now. His focus on the long term has led to the tremendous success Amazon has undergone. When he started selling just books, he was laughed at by some people; but he had a why behind starting off with books. One thing is certain, Bezos has stayed consistent on his principles. His annual letters to his shareholders c…

I was there as a developer and a consumer. I don’t remember anyone laughing at him for selling books. It was an obvious play to most of us.

Re: Email from Jeff Bezos to employees

#229

Post by mywittyname »

faangeng wrote: post #89
keanebean86 wrote: post #81

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Retiring at 57 is pretty risky. Hopefully his savings hold out. He's looking at 30 more years of life. Personally I would be too cautious to leave this early. Edit: risking -> risky; fixed life sentence

Yeah maybe he should've worked a few more years to shore up his net worth a bit, a 50% drop in the market might force him back to work

What a world we live in where a guy can work for 30+ years in Big Tech and still not be able to comfortably retire.

Re: Email from Jeff Bezos to employees

#230

Post by afavour »

techlatest_net wrote: post #213
ignoramous wrote: post #70

> This journey began some 27 years ago. Amazon was only an idea, and it had no name. Jeff's pitch at the time (1997); so on point, so precise: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rWRbTnE1PEM > The question I was asked most frequently at that time was, “What’s the internet?” Blessedly, I haven’t had to explain that in a long while. Here's Jeff explaining the Internet (at a TED talk): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vMKNUy…

And here is the video from 1999 [1] showing his obsession with customer which is why customer support is in the DNA of Amazon 1. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vxwjzVW7z5o

I'd argue that the customer experience of Amazon has declined dramatically in the last few years. Maybe there should be more internal viewings of that video.
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