On Tuesday, February 2, 2021 the CEO and founder of Amazon, Jeff Bezos, announced that he will step down as CEO to become executive chairman of Amazon. His post as CEO will be taken by Andy Jassy, currently the head of the cloud computing division, AWS. Bezos, 57, said this was the "optimum time" for such a switch, which, by the way, would happen in the third quarter of 2021.
In a letter to Amazon staff, Bezos said that, "while he remains committed to Amazon's important initiatives," he will turn much of his attention to climate change issues, Blue Origin, the space exploration company, and the newspaper' The Washington Post” of which he is the owner. Using a colorful expression he said that he will only be there for the "one door decisions". Decisions from which he does not go back.
Bezos was CEO of Amazon in 1994, the date the e-commerce giant was founded. Today he is one of the richest people in the world, with a personal net worth that Forbes estimates at $200 billion, just under the value of the Italian Recovery Plan. Also in the letter to staff, Bezos said: "I've never had more energy than now and it's not about retiring." It is to be believed.
Below is a profile of Andy Jassy written by two journalists of the "New York Times" and published in the New York newspaper.
The shadow of Bezos
In 2002, Andy Jassy, then a junior executive at Amazon, began closely following Jeff Bezos, the founder of the online bookstore.
He followed him everywhere, including board meetings. He also attended his phone calls, recalls Ann Hiatt, who was Bezos' executive assistant from 2002 to 2005.
The idea was that Jassy would become a sort of "brain double" for Bezos so that he could replicate his boss' thoughts and anticipate his questions.
“I thought I had achieved very high standards before I started that job,” Jassy said in a podcast interview last fall about her 18-month stint alongside Bezos. “Then in doing that shadow job, I realized my standards weren't high enough.”
Soon to head Amazon
Now Jassy, who has remained close to Bezos for more than two decades, has been charged with taking up his legacy and carrying it forward. This summer, the 53-year-old will take over as chief executive officer of Amazon when Bezos steps aside to become executive chairman.
Few corporate successions, after that of Microsot and Apple, have received and will receive attention like this. Jassy must lead Amazon — which has grown into a $1,7 trillion-dollar company with 1,3 million employees operating worldwide in e-commerce, logistics, cloud computing, entertainment and smart devices — always under the watchful eye of Bezos, who always remains the largest shareholder. It's no coincidence that Wall Street didn't blink at the announcement.
Amazon, which has experienced tremendous growth, now faces increasing challenges. In Europe and the United States, the Seattle firm is under scrutiny by regulators and legislators due to its immense power.
Its own workforce has become increasingly active in negotiating working conditions with the company. Some investors and employees question whether Amazon, with its colossal size, can maintain its innovative methods without bureaucracy strangling it.
On to the Bezos model
Jassy has not spoken publicly about his vision for Amazon, but those who know him are confident he will continue Bezos' work without making any abrupt breaks or deviations from that model. Jassy himself helped conceive and implement many of the mechanics of the company and its internal culture.
“Andy is part of the whole Amazon culture,” said Tom Alberg, managing partner of Madrona Venture Group and a member of Amazon's board of directors through 2019. “I really think there will be strong continuity.”
In an email to employees announcing the transition, Bezos said, “He will be an outstanding leader. He has my full confidence ”.
Graduated from Harvard
Jassy was raised in Scarsdale, NY, the median of three children. His father ran a leading law firm and his mother devoted much effort to art and culture when she wasn't working at home. He graduated from Harvard with a degree in public administration and contributed to the economics section of "The Harvard Crimson", the university's student newspaper.
Jassy wanted to be a sportswriter, but ended up in marketing after graduation. He even tried starting his own business with a colleague before attending Harvard Business School.
At Amazon since day one
In 1997, while on his way to a Shawn Colvin concert in New York, he was summoned to Amazon (then in New York) for a job interview. He got the job, took his final exam on a Friday, and started working at Amazon the following Monday, three weeks before the company went public.
In 2002, after holding roles in marketing and music, Jassy was chosen by Bezos to be his "shadow", a position as chief of staff also with the aim of selecting the most promising leaders.
“His job was to be an intellectual sparring partner for Jeff,” said Hiatt, a former executive assistant to Bezos. She recalls Jassy helping Bezos explain the benefits of the Prime program in order to persuade a rather skeptical board about launching the free shipping program.
The investment in the software
Jassy also spearheaded Amazon's entry into a new field: cloud computing. At the time, Bezos was quite frustrated with Amazon's software development team. They were taking too long to complete projects, even as the company was enlisting new developers to speed up product launches. Then Bezos asked Jassy to look into it and sort it out.
Jassy found that development teams spent more time designing and building infrastructure than developing new products. So she decided to reconfigure Amazon's method to allow different development groups to share the same building blocks of software.
AWS is born
In 2003, Jassy and other executives gathered at Bezos' home. They saw a good business opportunity in helping other companies solve the same problems Amazon had encountered.
But before the project could get off the ground, Jassy was called upon to present a "six-pager" — a narrative memo that in the Amazon world lays out the vision for a new idea — to Amazon's board of directors and explain what resources would be needed to implement the service he had in mind.
“I was very nervous. I did 30 drafts of this document,” Jassy said in a 2017 speech at the University of Washington.
He asked the Board to hire 57 people, a significant number since Amazon employed just 5.000 people at the time. Bezos “didn't bat an eye,” recalls Jassy.
The Eldorado of AWS
The project became Amazon Web Services (AWS). Today it is Amazon's largest source of profits. Outside companies have been quick to buy into the idea of paying Amazon to host the computers and data and to provide the necessary software, instead of investing large sums to buy, build and maintain their own information systems.
Until 2012, Jassy said, Amazon's cloud unit was growing so fast that it used as many computers each day as it did in 2003 to run the whole of Amazon.
Amazon Web Services functioned as a start-up within the company. A start-up with golden eggs. In 2020, AWS sales grew to $45,4 billion, accounting for 12% of the company's revenue and 63% of its profit.
Jaysy's style
Jassy has a reputation for being tough, but never over the top. In meetings, he asks precise questions, but he also knows how to listen, remain calm and let there be an even harsh exchange of ideas.
In emails, Jassy responds to good news simply with "Nice," followed by a seemingly random number of exclamation marks. Many have wondered if the amount of exclamation marks could mean anything.
Jassy also found time to indulge in the entertainment and social activities of the staff. At the Tatonka Bowl, an annual Buffalo-style polo wing-eating contest, she served as master of ceremonies. She handed out a “badge” with a flaming chicken on it to the attendees.
The question of Recognition
After he becomes CEO, Jassy's ideas will come under increased scrutiny. In early 2020, Jassy spoke enthusiastically about providing police departments with Rekognition, Amazon's facial recognition technology. A statement that has been criticized due to the behavior of police departments towards black people.
“Let's see if police departments abuse the technology in any way,” he told the PBS program “Frontline” in February 2020. “So far they haven't. Assuming that they will and therefore excluding them a priori from the most sophisticated technology on the market, does not seem to me the correct decision”.
A rather diplomatic position which, however, subsequent events have pushed towards a radical revision.
Rekognition to the test of facts
But when the Black Lives Matter protests began, Jassy began speaking out publicly on racial issues. And, in June 2020, Amazon announced a one-year moratorium on providing police with Rekognition technology.
“Breonna Taylor's death calls us all to account,” Jassy wrote on Twitter in September 2020 of the police action. “We still don't get it in the US. If we don't start holding police departments accountable for killing black people, we will never have justice and change, nor will we be the country we aspire to be and think we are."
At Amazon, it's always day one
At the AWS conference in December 2020, Jassy gave a glimpse into how he plans to run one of the world's largest technology companies. Echoing Bezos, who has long argued that companies must continue to innovate furiously, Jassy said the key to long-term survival is to reinvent themselves when conditions are right.
Jassy then laid out an eight-step plan for Amazon's "re-invention" and stressed the importance of being "maniacal, relentless and tenacious."
“You have to have the courage to grow the company and force it to change and move forward,” he said.
Source: Karen Weise and Daisuke Wakabayashi, How Andy Jassy, Amazon's Next CEO, Was a 'Brain Double' for Jeff Bezos, The New York Times, February 3, 2021
Other source: Dave Lee, The Amazon machine: Jeff Bezos's revolution — and complicated legacy, The Financial Times, February 5, 2021
