2006 – Creating a jungle of exceptional businesses

I have always been intrigued by the letters sent to shareholders by both Warren Buffet and Jeff Bezos. They are inspiring and, for wannabes like yours, indeed a source of motivation and hope. So I am creating a series of articles on what learnings I took away from the letters of Jeff Bezos. This is the tenth letter in the series.

You can check out the complete series here: https://alphonserajdavid.com/category/book-reviews/non-fiction/jeff-bezos-stakeholder-letters/

Amazon is no longer a kid; it’s a young child. Time, the right kind of investment, and leadership have made the core business mature and grow fast as it nears the teenage years where it will shoot to dizzying heights.

But Amazon is not about a single tree. It’s about the creation a forest of fast-growing trees

Learning #1: New businesses takes some discipline, a bit of patience, and a nurturing culture

At the end of the day creating sturdy new businesses take time. But building businesses that in time will grow to be as significant as the core e-commerce business will take discipline and patience.

Learning #2: Incremental business is easy at established businesses but new business lines are not

At the end of the day, once your business gets established it should become easier to create new business lines as there is lower risk. But somehow it becomes difficult. Firms, which have become great at implementing strategic growth plans somehow are not equipped to build new business.

The only way to break the chain is to make sure the culture of hustle is swapped with the culture of patience and nurture with thoughtful decision making

Learning #3: Focus on opportunities that bring strong customer-facing differentiation to the marketplace

Focus on identifying markets that have underserved opportunities and go into it only when you have strong customer-facing differentiation in the workplace.

Focus on creating differentiation that the customer can easily see and feel.

Learning #4: Fast growth is not synonymous with meaningful earnings

Small businesses take time to give meaningful earnings. Even if it’s a runaway success, it takes three to seven years. Don’t scoff at it. Instead, look at it at the same sense of wonderment that you felt when your first business got that amount.

Jeff, claims that Amazon’s competitive advantage.

Nurturing talent to build new businesses.