Question

Please, i need an analysis on the life of jeff bezoz founder and ceo of amazon, his background, career and key leadership characteristics. also how does a company cope with accelerating change. and how can a firm encourage innovation.

Answer 1

1. Analysis of the life of Jeff Bezos, the founder and CEO of Amazon, his background, career and key leadership characteristics

Jeff Bezos always had a scientific acumen and is open to taking risks. He is also gifted with a sound brain and democratic leadership traits. The visionary was never bogged down by challenges and actively endured to overcome them through honest and sincere efforts. He is also a socially conscious person and aligns his personal goals with society-related benefits wherever he can.

Jeffrey Preston Bezos was born on 12 July 1964, in Albuquerque New Mexico in the United States of America. The parents of Jeff divorced when he had the age of 4 years and his mother married a Cuban immigrant later on. Jeff showed scientific temperament and inclination from the very early years of his life. He turned his father's garage into a small laboratory while also creating an electric alarm that he can use to keep his brother away from his room. He attended his high school in Miami and in this city only he initiated his first business by the name Dream Institute, which was an educational camp for school children. He also worked as a cook in McDonald's during this time. Jeffrey was a very bright student and was a high school Valedictorian, “Silver Knight” award winner and a national merit scholar. Jeffrey completed his graduation from Princeton University. He had good grades in his graduation and was awarded the Computer Science and Electrical Engineering Bachelor of Science degrees. During his college years, he also led the “Students for the Exploration and Development of Space” International Group.

Career

After graduating from Princeton University, Jeffrey worked with many different firms on the Wall Street and these included D.E. Shaw, Bankers Trust and Fitel. Jeffrey was very successful here and was the Vice President of D. E. Shaw at an age of 30. Still, he risked and left the sector and his career in the Wall Street to venture into the untapped and yet to be explored the world of e-commerce.

Launch of Amazon

The largest E-Commerce giant today Amazon was founded in the garage of Jeffrey. Jeffrey along with a few more employees started developing the software and later the operations expanded into the bedrooms. Amazon initially (at this point of time) sold books only, and without any press promotion and advertising, Jeffery was selling books in the USA and 45 other foreign countries in less than a month. 3 years later Jeffrey’s Amazon went public through an IPO for Initial Public Offering. As years passed on, more and more products and services were added to Amazon portfolio and the company expanded to many different countries.

Jeffrey was also one of the first investors in Google and has also invested in biotechnology firms and in the healthcare sector.

Leadership characteristics of Jeffrey Preston Bezos

Jeffrey used the “regret minimization” framework in his early days of careers at DE Shaw, where he took decisions in lieu of the regret or satisfaction they would provide years later. For instance, he quit financial services to enter into E-Commerce world as the decision would offer to him more satisfaction and lesser regret than if he took the decision of continuing in the financial world. He also quantified all the operations to the maximum extent at Amazon, and data and its analysis were of good importance to him. Jeffrey also diverted the profits back to the company so that its size and operations could be increased. He is also of the opinion that one should aim to achieve of work-life harmony and that the professional and private lives of an individual are interconnected and calibrate each other. The five most important principles that Jeffrey find relevant to business include ethics and customer friendliness, among others. Some of the important characteristics of Jeff Bezos leadership are given below.

1. Customer-friendly- focusing on the customers more when compared to the competitors.
2. Democrat- empowering staff and employees.
3. Adventurism- gaining leadership in the market through risk.
4. Ethical- facilitating morality among staff members.
5. Social- facilitating company culture.
6. Creativity and innovation-launch of Amazon.
7. Realistic- making decisions only after careful analysis of data.
8. Generous- Jeffrey makes a good number of donations and has an inclination to develop businesses that help improve common citizen’s life.

1. How can a company cope with accelerating changes?

The organization may be affected by many different external and internal factors and the changes that occur to them. Some of these include recession and a new technological advancement that changes the competitive horizon among others. Some ways through which an organisation can cope and respond to the changes include:

Simplification- The company should narrow down its different strategies and market perspectives and simplify them so that it can heed to the individual situation and demand better. Uncertainty increases with the number of external variables a business faces. A company should understand that minute analysis will help them to work on specific and requisite areas only, thereby saving time and efforts.

Diversification- A company can diversify to create different products and offering lineups so that even if one product faces market instability, other make up the gap. Well established businesses having better brand value, diversify most often. As their brands are having good market reputation and popularity, the new offerings do not face much competition.

Avoiding aggression- A company should limit its operation and should not unnecessarily increase the number of staff infrastructural investment. It should rather focus more on making the operations more optimized, technologically evolved and lean.

Market research and forecasting- A company should always analyze the current market scenarios and should try to forecast upcoming situations, apart from focusing on current operations.

1. How can a firm encourage innovation?

Companies and business organizations can encourage innovation by:

1. Having processes that have an inherent and inbuilt ability towards capturing ideas (for example suggestion boxes at the workplace).
2. By empowering staff and by creating a more supportive atmosphere in the organization.
3. Encouraging and rewarding experimentation and risk-taking that yields good results.
4. Considering creativity and openness in the new staff while hiring them.
5. Making employee forums and setting up brainstorming sessions.
6. Encouraging research.