Page 22 - Forbes Magazine-September 30, 2018

burgeoning favorites. As Bezos’ public slaughter hidebound dinosaurs: Even if $158 1
profi le has expanded, public ut ter ances 19 venture capitalists say no, it just takes Billion
and interviews (despite his ownership of a 20th to say yes to get a disruptive idea TO INFINITY
the Washington Post) have become in- into business.
creasingly rare. Bezos refuses to discuss Accordingly, Bezos has structured AND BEYOND
Donald Trump, who has taken to beat- Amazon around what he calls “multi-
ing up on him and the Post on Twit- ple paths to yes,” particularly regarding JEFF BEZOS’ NET
ter, but he clearly understands he has a “two-way doors”: decisions that are oft en WORTH AND RANK
ON THE FORBES 400
target on his back. When asked, as the based on incremental improvements
head of an ascendant advertising com- and can be reversed if they prove un-
pany, whether he took any lessons from wise. Hundreds of executives can green-
Facebook’s travails last year, his answer light an idea, which employees can shop
was succinct, political and inconceiv- around internally. “He knows and we
able. “No,” says this advocate for cor- know that you can’t invent or experiment
porate learning, pausing for a few sec- without some failure,” says Jeff Wilke, the
onds to underscore that he wasn’t going longtime Bezos lieutenant who runs Am-
there. Ditto questions about becoming a azon’s consumer and retail operations.
data company. “I’ve never really thought “Th ose we sort of celebrate. In fact, we
of Amazon in that way,” says the man want them to occur all over the place. Jeff
who runs as data-driven a company doesn’t need to review those. I don’t need
as any, before reverting to his stump to review those.”
speech. When it’s suggested that it’s at But regarding the larger ideas and
least a tool, Bezos quickly interjects: verticals—a.k.a. “one-way doors”—that
“One of many tools.” change the direction of the company,
Nevertheless, during the morning he Bezos prides himself on playing “chief
spent with Forbes outlining how he chan- slowdown offi cer.” He’s looking for three
nels innovation and chooses where to ex- things. First, originality. “We have to
pand, a road map for Amazon’s future have a diff erentiated idea. It can’t be a $81.5
Billion
emerged. Given Amazon’s size, it moves ‘me too’ off ering,” he says. Second, scale.
both vertically and horizontally, each di- “We’re gift ed with some very large busi-
rection portending a lot more disruption. nesses we’ve built over time, and we can’t
Even fi ve years ago, Bezos seemed con- aff ord to put our energies into some-
tent merely to try to sell everything to ev- thing that if it works, it’s still going to be $67
Billion
erybody, becoming the bane mostly of small.” And, fi nally, a Silicon Valley-wor-
retailers and wholesalers. But this mas- thy ROI. “Even at substantial scale, it has
ter innovation artist now has the ultimate to have good returns on capital.”
palette: any industry he chooses. Ultimately, the ideas that hit that troi-
ka, Bezos says, emanate from one of two
FOR THIS UNCONSTRAINED era, the models. Either by looking back-
most important word at Amazon is yes. ward at customer needs—as in $47
Billion
Bezos explains, correctly, the tradition- we’ve noticed people act a cer-
al corporate hierarchy: “Let’s say a ju- tain way, so let’s try to serve them
nior executive comes up with a new idea with a product. Or peering for-
that they want to try. Th ey have to con- ward—we know how to
vince their boss, their boss’s boss, their do something valuable,
boss’s boss’s boss and so on—any ‘no’ in $30.5
Billion
that chain can kill the whole idea.” $27.2
Th at’s why nimble startups so easily Billion
$23.2
Billion
$19.1
Billion
$12.6
Billion
$8.7 $8.8
Billion Billion

2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018
33 28 18 13 11 12 15 4 2 2 1
1 BASED ON 8/27/2018 STOCK PRICE.
SEPTEMBER 30, 2018 FORBES | 77