Anyone who runs such a successful and valuable group like Amazon leads should actually be completely convinced of it. In the case of CEO Jeff Bezos, however, things seem to be different. At the very least, the billionaire has made rather unexpected predictions about the company’s future. Or maybe he’s just being realistic.
Amazon before the end: That’s what Jeff Bezos predicts
Jeff Bezos founded his company back in 1994. Back then it was purely a book mail order business. In the meantime, she has made him one of the richest people in the world. Apparently, Bezos does not believe in long-term success. Since 2013, there have been several situations in which he predicted Amazon’s demise.
2013: Jeff Bezos interviewed by CBS
As Business Insider reports, such a statement first appeared on the Columbia Broadcasting System (CBS) show “60 Minutes” in 2013. Bezos introduced his automated drone delivery system as part of the show. At the same time, he gave insight into the future of Amazon:
“Companies have short lives… and Amazon will one day be gone.”
jeff bezos
At the time, however, he was not concerned about this because he believed it would correspond to the natural life cycle of companies.
2017: Letter to Amazon Shareholders
Four years later, Bezos was a little sharper in tone. In a written message to Amazon shareholders, he is said to have spoken of an “agonizing and painful decline”.
This would be the final result that would befall an established company once it stagnated and then became irrelevant. Bezos then went on to write in the letter about how that very transition to stagnation (“Day Two” as he called it) could be averted.
2018: Jeff Bezos’ speech to the General Assembly
In his statements about the possible end of Amazon, Bezos referred to the bankruptcy of the US giant Sears at a general meeting. The once world’s largest retail group filed for bankruptcy in October 2018. Also because he could no longer compete with Amazon.
According to footage obtained by CNBC, Bezos declared at the time that Amazon would one day go under. If you look at large corporations, you realize that their life expectancy is more like 30+ and not a hundred years. When asked by an employee about the bankruptcy of companies like Sears, he replied:
“Amazon is not ‘too big to fail’… I can even promise you that one day Amazon will fail.”
Amazon will be 30 in three years. It remains to be seen whether Jeff Bezos will be right in his predictions. According to the current developments of the company, it does not look like a decline for the time being. On the contrary. Amazon is one of those corporations that has earned very well from the corona pandemic in recent years.
Sources: CNBC, Business Insider