Washington, United States:
Jeff Bezos sets his sights on a new frontier in space in the coming days following constructing a gargantuan enterprise empire which has in quite a few strategies conquered the Earth.
His journey into space aboard a reusable rocket constructed by his firm Blue Origin comes just two weeks following he stepped aside as chief executive of Amazon, which grew from a garage startup into one of the world’s most formidable firms.
Bezos, 57, remains executive chair at the technologies and e-commerce colossus he founded 27 years ago. But he is clearly seeking to even loftier ambitions.
With a fortune worth more than $200 billion, Bezos has been at or close to the leading of the world’s richest individuals, even following his divorce settlement.
He owns some 10 % of Amazon, a behemoth with a presence in dozens of nations and some 1.3 million staff.
But Bezos usually points to his humble beginnings: born to a teenage mother in Albuquerque, New Mexico and adopted at the age of 4 by his Cuban immigrant stepfather.
Bezos was attracted by laptop science when the IT sector was in its infancy and studied engineering at Princeton University.
After graduating, he place his abilities to work on Wall Street, exactly where by 1990 he had risen to be a senior vice president at investment firm D.E. Shaw.
But about 4 years later he shocked peers by leaving his higher-paid position to open an on-line bookseller referred to as Amazon.com, backed by income from his parents.
‘Keep inventing’
In his parting letter to employees, Bezos mentioned the corporation succeeded by following his mantra: “Keep inventing, and don’t despair when at first the idea looks crazy.”
In public appearances, Bezos usually recounts the early days at Amazon, when he packed orders himself and drove boxes to the post workplace.
Today, Amazon has a market place worth of more than $1.8 trillion. It posted 2020 annual revenues of $386 billion from operations in e-commerce, cloud computing, groceries, artificial intelligence, streaming media and more.
“Bezos has been a transformational leader… in book selling, the retail market, cloud computing and home delivery,” mentioned Darrell West, a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution’s Center for Technology Innovation.
“He was a pioneer who introduced many of the conveniences that people take for granted, such as going to an online store, ordering something, and having it delivered to your home the next day. The whole e-commerce sector owes many of its innovations to this individual.”
Bezos “had an instinct for the right thing” in obtaining the next market place, mentioned Roger Kay, analyst at Endpoint Technologies Associates.
Kay mentioned Bezos deftly transitioned from books to other merchandise to an on-line marketplace, and effectively constructed the cloud infrastructure for the corporation which became the very lucrative Amazon Web Services.
Amazon outlasted its rivals by forgoing earnings in its early years “and reinvesting everything into expanding,” Kay mentioned.
“If you look at the trajectory now, it was all logical,” Kay added. “You can say Bezos has been one of the best business architects of his time.”
Bezos has been fascinated by space considering that watching the 1969 Apollo moon landing as a youngster and sees space as significant to the future of the planet.
He has spoken about the possibility of humans living in space colonies, drawing suggestions from science fiction writers as effectively as scientists.
“We humans have to go to space if we are going to continue to have a thriving civilization,” Bezos told a 2019 CBS News interview.
“We have become big as a population, as a species, and this planet is relatively small. We see it in things like climate change and pollution and heavy industry. We are in the process of destroying this planet… we have to preserve this planet.”
Lasting legacy
Bezos is stepping away from day-to-day Amazon management to devote more time on projects which includes Blue Origin.
He owns the Washington Post newspaper and has devoted time and funds to efforts to fight climate modify.
While Amazon has boasted of its $15 minimum wage and other positive aspects, critics say its relentless focus on efficiency and worker surveillance has treated staff like machines.
The Teamsters union lately launched a campaign to organize Amazon staff, claiming its workers “face dehumanizing, unsafe and low-pay jobs, with high turnover and no voice at work.”
Bezos appeared to respond to worker issues earlier this year when he referred to as for a “better vision” for staff following a bruising battle more than a unionization vote in Alabama, which eventually failed.
He laid out a new purpose for the corporation to be “Earth’s best employer and Earth’s safest place to work,” in his final letter as chief executive.
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