I will say upfront that I am a regular customer at Amazon. I shop there more than everywhere else combined, except for food and medicine that is. I am an Amazon guy.
When Jeff Bezos came upon the scene in the late 1990s with the simple idea of selling books online I thought he was a guy for the 21st century. He was taking the long view when most CEO’s were anguishing over the next quarter’s profit. Amazon has grown even beyond my expectations. Their two-day delivery is beyond belief in the corporate world.
I saw the other day the following quote from him it is “Day 1” which allows Amazon to continually move forward. According to him Day 2 is stasis followed by irrelevance, followed by death. So, to Jeff, it will always be Day 1.
Another important distinction between Mr. Bezos and the typical current day CEO is that he practices the theory of the three-legged stool. That is that all corporations are made of up a mix of owners/stockholder, customers, and employees, and that attention should be given to all three legs to keep the corporation balanced. That used to be the norm but during the Reagan years and the hyped MBA programs, the total attention was given to the owners. Some people call this “shareholder capitalism” vs “stakeholder capitalism.”
When Amazon went public, Bezos wrote a shareholder letter that basically said he wasn’t going to worry about them (the shareholders). Instead, his total attention would be customer satisfaction. Everything he does is skewed towards customer satisfaction.
Fast forward to today and Amazon is the fastest growing corporation and has the most loyal customers and highest customer satisfaction. Yes, there is harping about how much he demands from this employees. He wants them to be as focused as he is on customer satisfaction and some simple can’t do that. Some complain that they are losing their jobs to automation/robots but that is normal for today and is a step forward to me.
Amazon is always looking for ways to do things more efficiently and as a result sometimes jobs change in the process. Amazon is about embracing change and that is what a 21st-century corporation should be about, at least in my twisted mind. 🙂
RJ's Corner 
Why do you think that the population seems to be against “big box stores” and for Amazon? The major argument against the “big box store” was that it put small stores out of business. Amazon’s goal is to put every brick and mortar out of business. There is an Amazon distribution center near me. They hire about 1/20th of the people that all of the stores they put out of business employed. I work hard to buy local. Everyone needs a job in my area- and Amazon is them quickly. Full discloser- my husband is an Amazon addict. 🙂
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I’m not against the big box stores more than I am just more satisfied with the Amazon experience. Except for groceries and meds I have to travel about 25 miles to do most of my shopping. That means $5 and more than an hour already spent even by the time I get there. Then when I do start shopping I usually can’t find anyone to help me locate what I want so I end up spending 10 to 20 minutes just to find the item. Comparing Amazon to that I spend about 20 seconds logging in and entering what I want, then wait about 3 seconds for a dozen or more choices. When I decide what I chose it is usually 10% or more less expensive. I then wait two days for it to be delivered; if I am not please it is very easy to return without standing in a long line.
Now I admit that I don’t buy much clothes without the touch but I don’t buy much clothes anyway. It just seems that most of the big box stores are relying on past practices for their sales. I would love an app that I could log on to when I enter the store to direct me to the item I am wanting to buy. That is very doable but no one has it?
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