Jeff Bezos resigned as the CEO of Amazon, precisely 27 years after he founded the e-commerce monolith from within the confines of his garage in Washington. Bezos will now be handing over the reins to his longstanding subordinate Andy Jassy. However, he will continue to retain significant clout as the corporation’s executive chairman. Amazon grew from being an online bookstore startup to becoming the world’s biggest e-commerce retailer under Bezos’ leadership. Bezos guided his business through the emergence of the internet and then started a phase of relentless expansion that extended its reach well outside the realm of online shopping.
The world’s wealthiest person informed employees that turning over control to Jassy will enable him to pay attention to various other endeavors of his. Bezos’ other businesses include various philanthropic efforts to combat global warming, as well as in space exploration through his firm Blue Origin. Bezos plans to travel to space himself in 2 weeks on a spacecraft manufactured by the Blue Origin. Jassy joined Amazon in 1997, was the CEO of the company’s most valuable business facet, Amazon Web Services – a cloud computing titan that powers prominent Internet players such as Facebook, Netflix, and Twitter, among numerous others. The change comes at a critical juncture for Amazon Inc., who just like several other organizations have had to transition to a work-from-home or a telecommuting model of operations due to the onset of the COVID-19 epidemic. This became more apparent due to an exponential increase in workloads that caused revenues to skyrocket as individuals were now forced to spend more time indoors, leading to a surge in online purchases, as well as an increase in requested cloud processing solutions.
However, Amazon’s aggressive tactics are being investigated by the US Congress, the Federal Trade Commission, the Justice Department, as well as other concerned European authorities, who allege that the firm is misusing its market monopoly. Amazon delivery personnel as well as other employees have also reported unsatisfactory working conditions, and have even protested about the frantic pace of labor at Amazon plants. Jassy has always regarded Bezos as his mentor, but according to coworkers, he is much more moderate, gentle, and far less susceptible to aggressive episodes when compared to Bezos. One significant task for Jassy as CEO will be taming the harsher aspect of Amazon’s businesses while instilling the firm with a more modest reputation.
