Innovation Management 

As many people know, Bezos started Amazon.com in his garage after quitting his job at an investment firm in New York. Amazon started selling only books, and that’s not the main reason that made Amazon successful because millions of bookstores were available across the world at that time. Selling books online was the main reason for that huge success. It was an innovation. The internet was new, and Bezos knew that this online bookstore will be the new way of shopping. He had a long-term vision to create something innovative that had never been used before, which makes him a successful entrepreneur. Shortly after his website became viral, many bookstores built their own websites, but it was already too late. Bezos had added electronics, CDs, video games, and clothes, making his website an online market. He kept on adding to his invention and developing it to make it even more successful. Bezos didn’t stop there and kept innovating, which is another entrepreneurial practice. Instead of focusing only on selling products Business to Customer (B to C), he made a great decision to sell product Business to Business (B to B) like selling web services, which created multiple ways for revenue and profit.

Bezos values innovation as he practiced it himself, and he kept on expanding on innovative practices at Amazon like Alexa and Amazon TV.  As of today, Bezos owns multiple businesses besides Amazon, ones that he founded like Blue Origin to provide private space flights, and others that he bought like the Washington Post newspaper.

Customer Obsession; is the first of Amazon’s Leadership Principles which are the principles that manage innovation in Bezos’s eyes. This shows that innovation needs a great leader, which is another entrepreneurial practice. To manage innovation in a successful organization, the leaders and subordinates need to obsess over customers, which is what makes the business grow. Knowing what the customers wish to use or buy, opens many doors to new innovations. Matter of fact, when he programmed Amazon, he created an algorithm that compares a customer’s purchases with other customers who bought the same or similar items and used this pattern to suggest similar items to that customer. Of course, now the algorithm is much more complicated, and this is why when using Amazon people will always see suggestions and even advertisements that fit their needs. Another Leadership and Innovation principle for Bezos is Invent and Simplify. This principle is what the whole Amazon website is about. When looking at the website, one would realize how simple It appears, but the most important is that it provides a convenient service to millions of people.

Bezos has innovation at the top of his list for growing his business, which is not surprising since he is an innovator himself. He always encourages his employees to be long-term oriented in order for them to innovate and come up with new, unique products. Thinking long-term to Bezos is at least 5 to 7 years.  This explains how he viewed Amazon when he was creating its software. One of the most recent innovations is Amazon Go, which looks like a regular supermarket and grocery store but with no cashiers.  What makes this store an innovative one, is that customers would walk and scan a QR code connected to their Amazon account, then they would grab whatever they want and just leave the store. The second they leave the store, the app will notify them of the amount that was deducted from their bank accounts without even scanning a single item in the store. Amazon Go started in 2020, but it is a technology that has great potential for over 7 years ahead. It is already successful, and it is a great example to summarize some of the innovation principles that Bezos emphasizes like:  long-term oriented, simplicity, and customer-driven (for customer convenience)