Amazon’s Jeff Bezos on 60 Minutes. Thinking “Big”
On Sunday December 1st Jeff Bezos Founder and CEO of Amazon was interviewed on 60 Minutes.
60 Minutes is an American television newsmagazine program that is broadcast on the CBS television network. The New York Times has called it “one of the most esteemed newsmagazines on American television.
They reported that there has never been a company quite like Amazon. Conceived as an online book seller, Amazon has reinvented itself time and again, changing the way the world shops, reads and computes. Amazon’s goal is to sell everything to everyone. The brainchild of Jeff Bezos, Amazon prides itself on disrupting the traditional way of doing things.
Amazon has 225 million customers and 96 fulfillment centers. They process 300 items a second. They have earth’s biggest selection of products. Bezos believes in Customer Centricity and Innovation. He believes lowest cost insures customer loyalty.
I have been writing about Amazon since 1995 when they started. Sales the first year was for about $575,000. In 2012 sales grew 27% to $61 billion. A $13 billion increase. I just got my stock statement for November. I invested $1000 each in 9 service leaders. Amazon’s stock is worth $12,596 which is 44% of the value of all 9 firms I invested in. Investors value a real service leader. I suspect they will grow another 25-30% this year and will exceed $75 billion in revenue. We will know in another 30 days.
Everything at Amazon is based on speed, price, selection and customer service. They are probably the best in the world. Jeff Bezos does not focus on short term returns. He constantly looks for ways to reduce prices and pass the savings onto the customer….the opposite of 99% of companies. Bezos said, ” In the long run if you take care of customers you take care of investors.”
According to Bezos, “I would define Amazon by our big ideas, which are customer centricity, putting the customer at the center of everything we do, invention. We like to pioneer, we like to explore, we like to go down dark alleys and see what’s on the other side.”
As of August 2013, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index, Jeff Bezos is listed as one of the wealthiest people in the world with an estimated net worth of $28 billion.[1] He was ranked the second best CEO in the world by Harvard Business Review, after Steve Jobs of Apple.
I encourage you to take 12 minutes and watch the 60 Minutes CBS interview. It will be worth your time. In the last 2 weeks I have placed over 10 separate orders on Amazon because they are so awesome. I think we can all learn a lot from this interview.
