It’s time the founder of Amazon.com Inc. Jeff Bezos’s turn is as the founder / senior statesman – like the Wizard of Oz, often unseen but with seemingly all-powerful control – while the boss of Amazon’s cloud computing arm takes charge.
The change at the top won’t change much about Amazon AMZN,
but can affect the most critical choice facing the business: whether to keep Amazon Web Services and Amazon.com under the same roof.
Although Bezos is often compared to Apple Inc. AAPL,
co-founder Steve Jobs, his departure from the role of CEO is more like the passing of sticks by tech CEO legends like Microsoft Corp’s Bill Gates. MSFT,
and Larry Page of Alphabet Inc. GOOG,
GOOGL,
Bezos is stepping down as CEO as the company sets new records, but remains chairman of the e-commerce giant he founded in the early days of the dotcom bubble.
Just as Page took over from the leader of its most profitable division, Sundar Pichai – first as CEO of Google and then as Alphabet – Bezos wrote Andy Jassy of the company’s largest profit generator, Amazon Web Services. Bezos sounded more like Gates on Tuesday, who went on to found one of the largest nonprofits in the world.
“I’ve never had more energy, and this isn’t about retirement,” Bezos said in an email to employees who made detailed plans for the Bezos Earth Fund nonprofit, building rockets at Blue Origin, and owned by the company. Washington Post. “I am super passionate about the impact I think these organizations can have.”
At Amazon, Chief Financial Officer Brian Olsavsky said Bezos would be involved in what Amazon calls “ one-way issues ”: big strategic decisions, such as the Whole Foods acquisition.
“Jeff has always been involved in that, and that’s where we keep his time,” Olsavsky told analysts of the company’s earnings call.
That really doesn’t mean much change externally, and probably internally too. Big swings like that seemed like the things Bezos had long focused on, leaving day-to-day management to lieutenants. In more recent years, Bezos has been less of the public face of Amazon, amid so much attention to its growing wealth, the commercial race for space, and its recent status as a media mogul. He does not participate in the quarterly earnings calls with Wall Street, but instead writes an annual shareholder letter and chairs Amazon’s annual general meeting. More recently, his public appearances have ranged from elite technology conferences, when they were just a thing, to congressional testimonials at recent antitrust conventions.
“Bezos is not as visible as some CEOs, it will be interesting to see if Andy chooses a different tactic,” said Ed Anderson, analyst at Gartner Inc. Andy has been the visible lead spokesperson for AWS. It will be interesting to see if he takes that with Amazon as well. ”
Also read: Upcoming CEO Andy Jassy helped build Amazon’s cloud
Jassy will also have to prove his ability to run more than just AWS, which is a critical part of Amazon, but nowhere near the size of the full business.
“They are digital commerce, they are a grocery store, they are a transportation company, they are engaged in transportation, storage and production. They have a lot of people in their ecosystem, a lot of workers, they were the biggest employer in the pandemic. There are a lot of things going on, ”said Daniel Newman, chief analyst at Futurum Research.
“Andy was literally a prototype of his ability to run Amazon through his work at AWS,” added Neman.
AWS CEO Andy Jassy speaks at the AWS re: Invent 2019 conference in Las Vegas.
Associated Press
One conundrum that Jassy may face when taking the CEO seat later this year is the biggest question about AWS: Will it remain part of Amazon? Jassy has worked on AWS from the start and has been its most vocal proponent of it, so it seems unlikely he would choose to separate it from the company he runs now.
Scott Galloway, a professor at New York University’s Stern School of Business, predicted in a recent book that Amazon could spin off the company, potentially avoiding any antitrust action the government might take with Big Tech in the coming year . On Twitter, Galloway was asked about his prediction on Tuesday, saying Jassy’s promotion likely reduces the likelihood of that happening, while highlighting Bezos’ achievements.
“I think [a potential AWS spinoff] is one of the problems Andy will face in one form or another, ”said Anderson of Gartner. “This is one of those things that grow over time. There are good arguments for finding both ways. They currently operate as quite independent organizations. “
Bezos will certainly have his say in that decision, just as Gates had a say in Microsoft’s direction until last year. It may seem unthinkable for investors to imagine Amazon without the visionary Bezos, but he could remain as executive chairman for years, even decades, as Gates proved.
Investors must hope that Jassy is more like Microsoft’s current CEO, Satya Nadella, than Gates’ direct successor, Steve Ballmer, who struggled to bring Microsoft into the mobile age. While Jassy tries to maneuver Amazon into the next era, Bezos will still be there to make sure he succeeds.