Jeff Bezos steps down as Amazon boss

Businessman Jeff Bezos is stepping down from online giant Amazon exactly 27 years after he founded the company.

Some say that Bezos’ huge success is down to a series of unusual leadership principles he developed. While others argue they demonstrate everything that is wrong with Big Tech.

Profit was a long term goal for Bezos, as his main focus was on customer satisfaction. He knew that for a company to become successful, it needed happy customers, something he strived to achieve at almost any cost. When solving problems, the first thought was how to fix it for the customer.

However, Bezos has received much criticism and negative press over the years. The world’s richest man is accused of paying no tax in 2007 and 2011. Other stories paint Amazon as a ruthless business that dominates the market. This has not done much to help Bezos’ reputation lately.

Although those who work closely with Bezos see a different story, and do not recognise an uncaring of selfish character. They see a visionary who has created a legendary work philosophy and a company worth $1.8trn (£1.3tn).

‘Bruising work culture’

Bezos is a fan of working in small teams to keep meetings productive, and has a rule that you are able to feed the whole group with two pizzas.

He prefers written memos for executives to discuss, and doesn’t like PowerPoint presentations.

To avoid dominant personalities taking over, he will ask each person present at a meeting how they feel about a question.

One of Amazon’s 14 “leadership principles” refers to having “the backbone to disagree”. Bezos likes people who will fight back, and is open to having an argument. He is passionate about the subject, and although conversations may get heated at times, it is never personal. It goes on to say leaders should “not compromise for the sake of social cohesion”.

However, some question if the philosophy is always interpreted correctly down the chain, as former employees claim a “bruising work culture” at Amazon.

Bezos is obsessed with metrics, with an interest in engineering, inventions and machines. While this is not necessarily a bad trait in the world of logistics, some say the obsession comes at the cost of humans. This is particularly an issue for employees working in the firm’s warehouses. Many workers say they feel like just a “cog in a machine”, and feel they are “constantly monitored”.

Fostering innovation

Bezos likes his team at more senior levels to have autonomy because he believes it fosters innovation.

One example is the highly successful cloud computing service Amazon Web Services (AWS). On the face of it the concept does not have much to do with Amazon’s core e-commerce business, but Bezos backed the idea. He gave trusted employee Andy Jassy the freedom, and capital, to create a company within a company. Jassy will now take over the CEO role of Amazon, as Bezos views him as an entrepreneur, not just a manager.

Bezos continually made brave decisions and took risks. He has what many describe as a “backwards” approach to problems. The process is to plan a reverse timeline, by starting with writing a press release and thinking about the launch.

He believes in the power of long term thinking, and always viewed the business with the long game in mind. Whether you like him or not, Jeff Bezos is proven an extremely bright and able leader who has changed how companies around the globe operate.

Later this month, he aims to fly into space on the first crewed flight by his company Blue Origin.

Thank you for reading Jeff Bezos steps down as Amazon boss

---