Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos’ Letters to Shareholders

Jeff Bezos’s legacy is phenomenal. Since throwing in his Wall Street job in 1994 and heading west towards Seattle in a VW campervan to launch an online bookstore (which he initially named Cadabra, before changing it to Amazon), his journey has been unique.

Nobody else has

• Grown a business from zero to $1.5 trillion market cap
• Turned the biggest cost centres into profit centres
• Generated recurring revenues from 82% of US homes
• Hired over half a million people in 12 months

Each year as Amazon CEO, Bezos would write an annual shareholder letter. They became masterclasses in business strategy, and insights into how to achieve success as a leader, in a world of relentless tech-fuelled change.

Some of Bezos’ key themes included

• The importance of a Day 1 mindset
• Why “it’s all about the long term”
• What it really means to be customer obsessed
• How to start new businesses and create significant organic growth in an already successful company
• Why culture is an imperative
• How a willingness to fail is closely connected to innovation

Download the file for Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos’ Letters to Shareholders