Today the Podcast Podcast Economy
Jeff Bezos, Amazon's boss and the richest man in the world
Continuation of our series on the personalities who marked the year 2018 with Jeff Bezos, the boss of Amazon, giant of the sale on line. The group is often criticized for the working conditions of its employees, for its tax practices and for the non-respect of free competition. But who is the man who created this company?
Crushed skull, affable look, at age 54 Jeff Bezos is for his admirers the man who revolutionized distribution. It all started with a genius idea. In 1986, his degree in arts and sciences in hand, Jeff, adopted son of a Cuban immigrant, works on Wall Street when a headhunter convinces him to come to work at Desco. Created by an academic, David Elliot Shaw, this alternative investment fund is prospecting the Internet for commercial purposes. The experience gained by Bezos at this time, including the idea of a shop " where we would find everything " will serve later to found Amazon. In 2001, he said: " The initial trigger came when I learned that the use of the web increased by 2,300% per year. I had never seen anything with such rapid growth. There, I began to think what kind of business could be done through this tool. "
Worn by the internet bubble
Jeff Bezos finds talented programmers and in 1994 founded an online bookstore in Seattle to which he gives a name referring to the Amazon, the largest river in the world. Its goal: to become the biggest bookstore in the world. Amazon's accessibility is appealing to consumers. Driven by the Internet bubble, the company is growing. Amazon's warehouses are growing everywhere in the United States and around the world. In 2017, the group earned $ 3 billion in net profit, and its boss became the richest man on the planet with a fortune estimated at $ 112 billion by Forbes.
But this climb worries ... It worries first employees of Amazon. Devoted body and soul to their company, executives discover that it does not return them by the same. Bezos imposes infernal work rates, mutual competition and weekend meetings.
The corporate culture of start-ups
Jeff Bezos likes efficiency and requires it from his people, says Eric Villemin, a digital specialist: " Amazon's corporate culture has remained a start-up culture in certain respects. We will spend little. Every expense must be productive. There is a rule that we call the rule of two pizzas. This means that people who are in a meeting and working on a project should not be too numerous. Two pizzas must be enough to feed them. "
The boss has only one obsession in mind: keep the responsiveness of a start-up. The other side of the coin: a very hard treatment of employees, voracious competitive practices and unlimited tax optimization.
The sprawling business
This ambiguity, we discover little by little when we analyze the different aspects of Amazon's operation. The company offers a very personalized service to customers, of course ... But it picks up all their personal data. This constant surveillance and a monopolist position worries, especially the Europeans. In the United States, 44% of the online market already goes through Amazon. Eric Villemin: " Bezos is someone a bit ... crazy, I would say. But it must be said that a lot of money is reinvested in the company to target new sectors, new customers. And today, we can say that Amazon's activities are sprawling. "
After selling online, web hosting, cashless supermarkets, virtual assistant, Amazon has tackled the film industry and space travel. Soon he could sell drugs. A way to engulf entire sections of the economy. To the chagrin of traditional actors.
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