Leadership is the influence a member of a group holds over other members that help an organization in achieving its goals. The effectiveness of a leader is gauged by the performance of an organization in terms achieving set goals and targets. The success and well being of an organization depend on its leader, and he or she is responsible for steering the company to achieving its goals and objectives. This paper is about the leadership style of Jeff Bezos and how he has managed to stave off stiff competition in online business to raise Amazon to where it is today.
Amazon started off as an online retailer books retailer. Bezos transformed the company to incorporate a wide range of products and services under its portfolio. Presently, the company has added production of consumer electronics such as kindle-book readers and kindles fire tablets among its undertaking. The company also provides cloud and data processing services to individuals or government organizations such as NASA. The company has customer websites in countries of operation, and each website is optimized for customers in each country of operation. The company also offers international shipping services to countries outside its operation zones (Baer, 2014).
Jeff Bezos is an intelligent leader. A former vice president in the supply department, Bruce Jones, described Jeff as a leader who challenged and criticized leaders and experts from various leadership categories in the organization. He offers constructive criticisms and suggestions, even on disciplines that he is not well versed with (Anders, 2012). In one particular situation, Bruce and his team were making a presentation on distribution chains. Jeff asserted that they were all wrong, then went ahead to lay out a distribution mechanism that all the other professionals in the meeting agreed with. This was despite the fact that Jeff had very little experience on distribution centers and no training on control theory or control systems. Jeff Bezos' high intellectual capability is also detailed by journalist McGinn (2013). McGinn describes him as a leader who belittles his employees and overturns most of their decisions even though he has less information on the subject than they do. The reason for this, as explained in McGinn's article is because Jeff is the smartest person in the company, and he wants his employees to measure up to his level.
Jeff Bezos is a dominating leader. He assumes unconventional and controversial leadership tactics that an average leader would be uncomfortable with (Brackett, 2000, p.68). His dominating character came out clear in the early 2000s when departments heads were encouraging interdepartmental communication. Jeff strongly opposed this idea and offered a counter argument that too much communication leads to people agreeing on many issues which work against the creative conflict culture off Amazon. Jeff's dominance is also evidenced by the way that he addresses his employees. He uses a patronizing tone to dismiss ideas that he deems as below par for the company to engage. He shoots down presentations by posing such questions such as inquiring whether they are lazy or just too incompetent. When he is strongly opposed to an idea, he reminds his juniors that he is still the CEO by offering to fetch a certificate that has his name on it.
Jeff has a public email address, . He uses this email to collect customer feedback on products and services offered. Customers send their complaints to this email address, and he forwards them to the concerned employees. A forwarded email from Jeff to an employee is accompanied by a question mark. He uses the question mark to keep employees on toes in their jobs. A question mark from Jeff mortifies employees because they must prepare an explanation in a matter of hours and pass it through a series of managers (Gallos, 2008, p.57).
Jeff Bezos is a man of integrity. In 2010, Jeff received email complaints from customers who claimed they were receiving personalized sales messages pitching intimacy facilitators such as lubricants. Even though email marketing was responsible for raking in hundreds of millions in annual sales, Jeff shut down the mailing channel. He argued that the company could not risk losing customer trust, which was more valuable than any amount of revenue (Stone, 2013).
Power is the ability to influence others to do something and act in a way that they would not if left to their own means. In business, power is manifested by the ability to control and direct the course of an organization in attaining its goals and objectives. Power can be classified as informal or formal. Informal power possessed by an individual is determined by character while formal power is defined by the position held in the organization. Jeff Bezos possesses informal and formal power. He derives formal power from his position as CEO of Amazon and informal power from his work ethics. Jeff exhibits two forms of informal power, charismatic and expert. Jeff's expertise as a corporate leader is evidenced by the fact that he does not rely on Wall Street when formulating decisions for his company. Jeff structured Amazon to revolve around his business mastery rather than depend on externalities that would hurt his business from time to time due to their uncontrollable nature. From recruiting investors to top management level employees, Jeff handpicked people who believed in his vision such as Bill Miler. The success of Amazon is due to Jeff Bezos business acumen (Sanghani, 2013).
Jeff has a charismatic persona that commands respect and admiration. His work ethics has been benchmarked by many organizations, and he has been featured in countless business magazines and blogs. Books have been written on him such as “The Everything Store: Jeff Bezos and the Age of Amazon” and his name is synonymous with success. Jeff is a billionaire and one of the thirty richest people in the whole world. The fact that he continues to work hard in his business even at his age and after amassing so much wealth endears him more to his admirers.
Under Jeff Bezos guidance, Amazon has grown from a book retailer to a business empire that stocks up to 20 million products. Jeff has single-handedly molded the company from a garage startup to a multi-billion dollar business. His unorthodox leadership styles have led to the unprecedented growth of the company. One such managerial tactic that Jeff has applied is the use of an empty chair in boardrooms. The empty seat serves to remind the management team of the most important, but the absent player in the company's success, the customer. According to Jeff, the customer is the most important player in the business. He has demonstrated this by giving customers a direct channel of communication through his public email address free from the bottlenecks of bureaucracy. Jeff as a leader is obsessed with customer satisfaction. He pushes his staff to ensure they minimize customer concerns pertaining to delays, faulty or out of stock goods. This is evident by the fact that he extended delivery time to run from 6 a.m. to 7 p.m. in the UK and some cities in the US. His protection of the customer has paid off. In an annual survey conducted by the University of Michigan that analysis customers satisfaction through a customer satisfaction index of the 225 largest companies in America, Amazon has always topped the online retailing section. The company also appears in the top ten when ranked amongst all companies.
Jeff Bezos is certainly a success story in business. His work culture and business acumen has catapulted Amazon from a book retailer to an international business empire. The company has diversified operations from solely selling to manufacturing electronics and offering cloud and data analysis services. Amazon leads in retailing business in America amidst competition from other online retailers such as eBay. Jeff's leadership skills and high intellectual capacity promise a bright future for the company.
References
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Baer, D. (2014), 5 Brilliant Strategies Jeff Bezos Used To Build The Amazon Empire, Busness Insider, Viewed 01 October 2014 < http://www.businessinsider.com/the-strategies-jeff- bezos-used-to-build-the-amazon-empire-2014-3#ixzz3Hqwcurhr>
Brackett, V. (2000). Jeff Bezos. Philadelphia, PA, Chelsea House Publishers.
Gallos, J. V. (2008). Business leadership: a Jossey-Bass reader. San Francisco, Jossey-Bass.
McGinn, D. (2013), How Jeff Bezos Makes Decisions, HBR Blog Network, Viewed 01 October 2014 < http://blogs.hbr.org/2013/10/how-jeff-bezos-makes-decisions/>
Sanghani, R. (2013), How Jeff Bezos rules his Amazonian empire, The Telegraph, Viewed 01 October 2014 < http://www.telegraph.co.uk/technology/amazon/10379912/How-Jeff- Bezos-rules-his-Amazonian-empire.html>
Stone, B. (2013), The Secrets of Bezos: How Amazon Became the Everything Store, Bloomberg Businessweek, Viewed 01 October 2014 <http://www.businessweek.com/articles/2013- 10-10/jeff-bezos-and-the-age-of-amazon-excerpt-from-the-everything-store-by-brad-s tone>
