Posted by Jeff Bezos, the CEO and President of Amazon has decided to step down. The 57-year-old technopreneur, businessman and investor will step down as CEO and move to the role of Executive Chairman of the Amazon Board. Amazon Web Services CEO Andy Jassy will move to the role of CEO Amazon.
“I’m excited to announce that this Q3 I’ll transition to Executive Chair of the Amazon Board and Andy Jassy will become CEO.”
“In the Exec Chair role, I intend to focus my energies and attention on new products and early initiatives,” Jeff Bezos wrote in an email to Amazon’s 1.3 million employees, sharing his decision of stepping down.
The richest man on the earth, Bezos had conceived the idea of Amazon some 27 years ago. He started Amazon in 1994 just three years after the internet was available to the public in the US.
Initially, Amazon’s started with an online book store but slowly expanded into e-commerce products and technology services. Bezos’ vision on internet and technology shaped into the cloud computing services platform AWS in 2006.
Since then, Bezos is considered among the top technopreneur globally. His tech innovation and disruptive ideas have turned into commercially profitable business ventures. As Amazon expanded its technology-led businesses during the past 27 years, Bezos has amassed huge wealth, recognition and fame.
Today, Bezos Amazon worth is over $185 billion and his worth has crossed the $200 billion mark in 2020. He’s the richest man in the history with a net worth of $204.6 billion, surpassing Bill Gates’s net worth of $116.1 billion.
However, all that hasn’t stopped Bezos from expanding his business empire and passion into diverse areas like media and entertainment, aerospace, climate change and non-profit work.
After leaving the CEO’s post, Bezos in the Executive Chairman’s role has plans to focus on his passion and other businesses. He revealed in his email.
“As Exec Chair I will stay engaged in important Amazon initiatives but also have the time and energy I need to focus on the Day 1 Fund, the Bezos Earth Fund, Blue Origin, The Washington Post, and my other passions.”
“I’ve never had more energy, and this isn’t about retiring. I’m super passionate about the impact I think these organisations can have,” Bezos wrote in his email.
With Bezos decision to step down and giving the charge to Andy Jessy as CEO – will there be any major impact on Amazon’s overall business and future?
“Amazon’s decision to hand AWS CEO Andy Jassy, the job of replacing Jeff Bezos as Amazon’s chief executive completes Amazon’s shift from being a retailer to a technology company,” said David Bicknell, Principal Analyst – GlobalData.
“AWS is pivotal to Amazon’s business. It accounts for a massive 52% of Amazon’s quarterly operating profit, but only 12% of total sales. It will continue to be the engine of Amazon’s growth and its most important unit for years to come,” pointed out Bicknell.
Most of Amazon’s business operations are technology driven whether – be the e-commerce, media, smart devices or cloud services.
“Technology is at the heart of Amazon’s operations. And its success is driven by its strength in the key themes disrupting the tech, media, and telecoms (TMT) sectors, including cloud, artificial intelligence (AI) and the future of work,” explained Bicknell.
Certainly, cloud computing is the centre stage when it comes to enterprise technology and services. This Cloud shift is quiet visible and forced many tech giants including Microsoft, HPE, IBM and others to focus their software business on cloud-based offerings.
In GlobalData’s sector scorecards, Amazon scores five out of five for the cloud, AI, and future of work themes. “This is indicating that the company’s positioning in these themes will significantly improve its future performance,” said Bicknell.
Amazon is also ranked number one in GlobalData’s application software and IT infrastructure sector scorecards. It is second to only Microsoft in cloud services and Apple in consumer electronics.
From the technology and cloud perspective, Amazon’s future looks prosperous and profitable and probably is same as well for Jeff Bezos.
Notably, why Bezos decision to leave the CEO’s post has grabbed worldwide attention? Because he’s leaving the powerful CEO’s post in his prime and passing on the baton. Not many successful entrepreneurs and businesses have able to do such in the past.