Jeffrey Bezos, Amazon.com Inc.
Company: Amazon.com, Inc., Seattle, WA
Company Description: Amazon.com, Inc., a Fortune 500 company based in Seattle, opened on the World Wide Web in July 1995 and today offers Earth's Biggest Selection. Amazon.com, Inc. seeks to be Earth's most customer-centric company, where customers can find and discover anything they might want to buy online, and endeavors to offer its customers the lowest possible prices.
Nomination Category: Management Awards Categories
Nomination Sub Category: Executive of the Year - Services
Nomination Title: Jeffrey Bezos, Chairman of the Board, President & CEO
Tell the story about what this nominee achieved since January 1 2010 (up to 500 words). Focus on specific accomplishments, and relate these accomplishments to past performance or industry norms. Be sure to mention obstacles overcome, innovations or discoveries made, and outcomes:
From the beginning, Bezos sought to increase Amazon’s market share as quickly as possible, at the expense of profits. When he disclosed his intention to go from being "Earth's biggest bookstore" to "Earth's biggest anything store," skeptics thought Amazon was growing too big too fast, but a few analysts called it "one of the smartest strategies in business history."
Through each round of expansion, Jeff Bezos continually emphasized the "Six Core Values: customer obsession, ownership, bias for action, frugality, high hiring bar, and innovation." "Our vision," he said, "is the world's most customer-centric company. The place where people come to find and discover anything they might want to buy online." Amazon moved into music CDs, videos, toys, electronics and more. When the Internet's stock market bubble burst, Amazon re-structured, and while other dot.com start-ups evaporated, Amazon was posting profits.
In 2010, Amazon signed a controversial deal with The Wylie Agency, in which Wylie gave Amazon the digital rights to the works of many of the authors it represents, bypassing the original publishers altogether. This, and Amazon's practice of selling e-books at a price far below that of the same title in hardcover, angered several publishers, as well as some authors, who see their royalty rates threatened. But it appears that the advent of electronic reading devices is increasing the overall sales of books, which can only benefit readers and authors alike. By mid-2010, Kindle and e-book sales had reached $2.38 billion, and Amazon's sales of e-books topped its sales in hardcover. With e-book sales increasing by 200 percent a year, Bezos has predicted that e-books will overtake paperbacks and become the company's bestselling format within a year. Having already revolutionized the way the world buys books, Jeff Bezos is now transforming the way we read them as well.
2010 Financial Results: Net sales increased 36% to $12.95 billion in the fourth quarter, compared with $9.52 billion in fourth quarter 2009. Excluding the $139 million unfavorable impact from year-over-year changes in foreign exchange rates throughout the quarter, net sales would have grown 37% compared with fourth quarter 2009. Net sales increased 40% to $34.20 billion, compared with $24.51 billion in 2009. The unfavorable impact from year-over-year changes in foreign exchange rates throughout the year on net sales was $86 million.
Highlights • Selling more Kindle books than paperback books. • Millions of third-generation Kindle devices sold with the new advanced paper-like Pearl e-ink display in the Q4 and the third-generation Kindle eclipsed "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows" as the bestselling product in its history. • The U.S. Kindle Store now has more than 810,000 books including New Releases and 107 of 112 NY Times Bestsellers. • Amazon added to its growing list of "Buy Once, Read Everywhere" Kindle apps, launching a Kindle app for Windows Phone 7. • The Company announced Price Check for iPhone, a new price comparison app that provides shoppers an easy way to compare in-store prices with the low prices from Amazon.com and other online merchants.
List hyperlinks to any online news stories, press releases, or other documents that support the claims made in the section above. IMPORTANT: Begin each link with http://, and enclose each link in square brackets; for example, [http://www.youraddress.com]:
Additional Sources: http://www.achievement.org/autodoc/page/bez0bio-1.com http://online.wsj.com/article/PR-CO-20110127-912217.html?mod=crnews.com
Provide a brief (up to 100 words) biography about the nominee:
Jeffrey Bezos is the founder, president, chief executive officer, and chairman of the board of Amazon.com. He is a graduate of Princeton University. He worked at Fitel, Bankers Trust and as a financial analyst for D. E. Shaw & Co. before founding Amazon in 1994. He rose quickly at Shaw, becoming a senior vice president, and looked forward to a bright career in finance, when he made a discovery that changed his life -- and the course of business history.