November 16, 2005. Copyright 2005, Graphic News. All rights reserved

Jeff Bezos, the entrepreneurÕs entrepreneur
By Joanna Griffin

LONDON, November 16, Graphic News:  Jeff Bezos, founder of Amazon.com, is not Wall StreetÕs best-loved businessman. The online retail giantÕs warning of a slow holiday season is unlikely to warm the hearts of analysts eager for some stability in its shifting fortunes. Meanwhile, however, its chief executive talks of nothing but further expansion. So, is Jeff Bezos merely misunderstood?

In any case, Amazon has already secured something rare for an online retailer: a place in the publicÕs affections. During a 10-year history in which Bezos has been both feted as Time magazineÕs Person of the Year (1999) and written off as the upstart founder of just  another doomed dotcom, Amazon has somehow transcended the genre it pioneered.

Today the worldÕs largest virtual store sells goods worth $225 per second. Through deals with retailers such as The Gap, LandÕs End and Toys R Us, it has expanded its range of products across 31 categories. In 2003 Amazon finally posted its first full-year profit with annual sales of more than $5.25 billion. But Bezos has no notion of stopping there.

ÒOur visionÓ he has said, Òis the worldÕs most customer-centric company.Ó This Òcustomer obsessionÓ has consistently served Amazon well in sometimes surprising ways -- from the start booklovers turned to it for obscure titles, learned from bad reviews and passed tips. All the more remarkable if you consider that Bezos is the entrepreneurÕs entrepreneur, who reportedly chose to sell books because they were the most viable virtual stock.

Jeffrey Preston Bezos was born on January 12, 1964, in Albuquerque, Texas, to a teenage couple whose marriage lasted barely more than a year. In 1969 his mother married Mike Bezos and the family eventually settled in Florida. After graduating from Princeton in computer science and electrical engineering, Bezos headed for New York, the hub of a new union between technology and finance.

Working as a financial analyst for D.E. Shaw, Bezos helped to build one of the most technically sophisticated quantitative hedge funds on Wall Street. There, Bezos, a self-described ÒnerdÓ who famously told friends he was looking for a woman who was Òresourceful enough to get him out of a Third World prisonÓ, met wife MacKenzie, a fellow Princeton graduate.

In 1994 he began searching for products that were easy to sell over the internet, and hit upon the idea of selling books. With a $300,000 loan he and Mackenzie drove across country to Seattle, and set up business from their garage. On July 16, 1995, Amazon went online -- by September it was selling books worth $20,000 a week.

From the start Bezos, whose self-deprecating demeanour is said to conceal business nerves of steel, was bold. He stocked a million titles and continued to innovate, blazing the e-commerce trail. AmazonÕs growth at the expense of profits has raised eyebrows and its share price has wavered -- it now hovers around $45. Today analysts question whether it can keep up with a new wave of dotcoms, but Bezos believes the skyÕs the limit.

A characteristic of his business style is the marriage of innovation and diversification -- downloadable digital music is next in his sights -- with old-fashioned values. Bezos, who is known for rigorously grilling potential employees, is said to favour frugality. He is 41st on ForbesÕ list of the worldÕs richest people, but says the pursuit of money holds no fascination.

What does enthrall him, however, is space. Earlier this year the entrepreneur went public with his space-research facility Blue Origin, where a team of scientists and astronauts are working on his boyhood dream of establishing a human presence in space. Now that he has pushed back so many boundaries in the world of commerce, Bezos is ready for the final frontier.
/ENDS