Amazon’s $US200bn man passes the reins to anointed cloud expert heir

Bezos, who founded Amazon in 1994, will transition to executive chair of the company’s board.

Jeff Bezos, who founded Amazon in 1994, will transition to executive chair of the company’s board. (Photo by Mandel Ngan / AFP)

The world’s second-richest man Jeff Bezos will step back from the day-to-day running of Amazon, handing over the reins of the company he transformed from a small online bookstore to a global tech behemoth.

Mr Bezos, who founded Amazon in 1994, will transition to executive chair of the company’s board, with Amazon Web Services boss Andy Jassy set to become Amazon’s new chief executive in the third quarter.

Mr Bezos outlined his decision as Amazon’s quarterly sales rocketed past $US100bn ($131bn) for the first time, cementing its place as a seemingly unstoppable $US1.7 trillion market juggernaut.

The departure will allow Mr Bezos to spend time on some of his many side projects, including space exploration company Blue Origin — which is going head to head with Elon Musk’s SpaceX — as well as his charities, and the newspaper he owns, The Washington Post.

The executive, whose personal wealth is estimated at $US196bn, leaves a legacy as one of the most influential tech and business minds of his time.

Andy Jassy

Scott Farquhar, the co-founder and co-chief executive of Australia’s largest tech company Atlassian, said he had met Mr Bezos many times and that the executive deserved plaudits for building an incredible company.

“The thing that resonates for me is his long-term thinking,” Mr Farquhar told The Australian.

“He said once that ‘companies focus on what’s going to change in the next month or the next year, but at Amazon we focus on what’s going to stay the same’. We really took that to heart at Atlassian. We’re similar-ish companies, with a big focus on the long term.”

Amazon was one of the last tech giants to have a founder as its chief executive, and now powers much of the online economy.

In a letter to employees, Mr Bezos said his departure “wasn’t about retiring”.

“As much as I still tap dance into the office, I’m excited about this transition,” he said in a memo to staff. “Millions of customers ­depend on us for our services, and more than a million employees depend on us for their livelihoods. Being the CEO of Amazon is a deep responsibility, and it’s consuming. When you have a responsibility like that, it’s hard to put attention on anything else.

“As executive chair, I will stay engaged in important Amazon ­initiatives but also have the time and energy I need to focus on the Day 1 Fund, the Bezos Earth Fund, Blue Origin, The Washington Post, and my other passions,” Mr Bezos wrote.

“I’ve never had more energy, and this isn’t about retiring.”

 

Mr Bezos credited invention for his company’s success. “We’ve done crazy things together, and then made them normal,” he wrote. “We pioneered customer reviews, 1-Click, personalised recommendations, Prime’s insanely fast shipping, Just Walk Out shopping, the Climate Pledge, Kindle, Alexa, marketplace, infrastructure cloud computing, Career Choice, and much more.

“If you get it right, a few years after a surprising invention, the new thing has become normal. People yawn. And that yawn is the greatest compliment an inventor can receive.”

Sam Kroonenburg, the chief executive and founder of fast-growing Australian start-up A Cloud Guru, said Mr Bezos had been one of the best business leaders of his generation.

“Under his leadership, Amazon has become famous for its ability to blend insightful strategic thinking with a disciplined operational approach,” he said.

“This strategic thinking led Amazon to launch one of the greatest success stories in tech ­history, Amazon Web Services, literally inventing the category of cloud computing and disrupting the world’s IT market.

“Jeff tipped Andy Jassy to lead this business early, and he subsequently took AWS from start-up to global powerhouse.

“As chief executive of AWS, Mr Jassy has led with an innovation-first mantra. Known for ­putting the customer first, AWS has a track record of taking the long view on technology trends, even being willing to regularly launch innovative new products that put their existing business models at risk.

“I think that Andy Jassy is a great choice for CEO of Amazon and will bring the same focus on innovation and customer obsession to the parent company.”

Todd McKinnon, the US-based chief executive of cloud-based identity software provider Okta, told The Australian that ­Mr Jassy’s appointment represented the latest in an emerging trend of cloud leaders stepping up as chief executives at some of the world’s largest companies.

He said cloud experts typically make for successful CEOs, given they recognise the signals of disruption and know how to react quickly to market shifts.

“Just look at Satya Nadella at Microsoft, John Donahoe at Nike and Arvind Krishna at IBM. We’re now officially in the era of the cloud CEO,” Mr McKinnon said.

“Historically, cloud technologists might not have been the traditional choice to be tapped as CEOs, but that’s changing: they bring perspective and expertise that has become increasingly valuable to business success.

“First off, being able to build a recurring revenue model is critical to a business’s success. It’s also crucial to serving today’s digital-first customers. In a market where consumers not only want instant gratification, but also want to rent, not buy, being a Software as a Service ­expert is invaluable.

“Cloud CEOs also better understand the decision-making around ‘build, buy, partner’ and strategically approach innovation in both technology-focused and business-friendly ways. They recognise the signals of disruption and know how to react quickly to market shifts.

“Cloud leaders like Andy Jassy have already led the massive shift from on-prem to cloud and understand how systemic shifts can ­affect every type of business.

“If you look at today’s Fortune 500 companies compared to those of the 20th century, we can see a huge shift in the business landscape over the past 50 years — and the winners are technology companies. Cloud technologists will continue to reshape the way companies do business.”