Jeff Bezos

Early Life
Jeff Bezos was born on January 12, 1964 in Albuquerque, New Mexico, to Jacklyn Gise. Jeff’s parents divorced at a young age. His mother later married Michael Bezos and Jeff was legally adopted by Michael. Jeff Bezos hasn’t been in contact with his father since the divorce. Jeff Bezos spent many summers, as a youth, working on a ranch in Albuquerque. When Bezos was a toddler he showed high mechanical aptitude and even tried to disassemble his own crib.

Bezos showed a lot of interest in science and engineering as a teenager. “He rigged an electric alarm to keep his younger siblings out of his room. He converted his parents' garage into a laboratory for science projects.” His family moved to Miami, Florida, where Bezos attended Miami Palmetto Senior High School. He was valedictorian at his high school. For college he decided to attend Princeton University and studied Physics with a Bachelor of Science in electrical engineering and computer science.

Bezos was always an extremely hard worker. He worked several jobs during college to pay for his education at Princeton University. He was always skilled in figuring out how things work. He would spend hours upon hours taking apart machines and rebuilding them during high school. When he was a teen, he wanted to own an "Infinity Cube". However, he didn’t have the money to purchase it. So instead, he built his own cube out of scrap mirrors that he found. During college he took engineering classes that allowed him to excel among his peers.

Career and Accomplishments
Jeff Bezos started his career in 1994 by allowing himself to think creatively and efficiently. He reviewed the top mail order businesses and decided to brainstorm on which entities could be more economical on the internet. He soon discovered that books would be the perfect choice, since the database for it would be too large to have a mail catalog, and with the new rising internet, the possibilities would be endless.

Jeff typed his business plan in a car, and quickly decided his company would be called “Amazon,” since the association would be relevant to one main source (the river) with countless divisions.

On July 16, 1995 Bezos conducted a worldwide test allowing beta testers to use his website. “In 30 days, with no press, Amazon had sold books in all 50 states and 45 foreign countries. By September, it had sales of $20,000 a week”. The company officially went public in 1997.

After two years of having an amazingly flourishing business, the market shares of Amazon was greater than Borders and Barns & Noble, and was offered to take on a deal by Borders itself to handle their own internet traffic. Amazon had taken over the world, in more ways than one. However, Bezos wasn't done yet. He decided to branch out into selling more than just books on Amazon. Items like music CDs, toys, electronics and much more were now being sold. It has been said that Bezos’s expansion was one of the “smartest strategies in business history.”

In October 2002, Bezos lined up many clothing reatilers and contracted partnerships to sell clothes on Amazon. This sky-rocketed sales and increased the amount of Amazon’s users. Almost a year later, in September 2003, Amazon created a commercial search engine and launched an online sporting goods store. Amazon is currently the largest online retailer, with about three times more sales than any other competitor.

Bezos states, as recorded on Accomplishments.com, “There are Six Core Values: customer obsession, ownership, bias for action, frugality, high hiring bar and innovation." "Our vision," he said, "is the world's most customer-centric company. The place where people come to find and discover anything they might want to buy online.”

In 2004, Bezos founded an aerospace company named Blue Origin, to help in the creation of spaceflight technology. His passion for space and technology has been beneficial to the aerospace world and he has been able to fulfill his own personal enjoyment of the subject.

In 2007, Amazon came out with, yet again, another money making, world changing feature. Amazon introduced “The Kindle,” a handheld device in which allows users to read and purchase books directly from the device. Bezos “captured” 95 percent of the U.S market for books. “E-books” had become the latest innovative form of technology for users.

In 2010, The Wylie Agency gave Amazon the digital rights to the works of many authors and books.

Jeff Bezos accomplished forming an entire new digital world for books, the way we read them, and the idea that we will forever appreciate them as Amazon became one of the building blocks for many new ideas to come.

Contributions
Jeff Bezos is the founder of Amazon.com which is one of the largest online companies and is on the cutting edge of technology. Bezos founded Amazon.com in 1994, and it primary use was to sell books to everyone no matter where they live. Today Bezos is contributing more than selling paper books to the world. Now anyone can purchase and sell clothes, books, music, games, and almost anything on Amazon.com. Bezos is creating new ways to use technology to keep customers happy, and to stay ahead in the technology world when it comes to matters concerning Amazon.com.

Jeff Bezos is creating ways to improve the way people listen to music, read books, and use the web on their mobile device. Bezos have created mobile device called the Kindle that let users read books, watch movies, and listen to music. The latest Kindle is called Fire. The Fire is said to be better than the iPad. In wired.com Steven Levy states “''The iPad emphasizes downloads—customers who buy music, TV shows, or movies through iTunes must download them to their machine. Amazon, by contrast, emphasizes streaming. They can then stream it freely, along with more than 100,000 videos. That’s probably why the Fire’s virtual hard drive is just 8 GB, half the size of the smallest iPad''.” Bezos has set the price for the Kindle at a price that most people can afford. The price range for the Kindle is from $79.00 to $499.00 which is a reasonable price compared to its competitors like the iPad. Bezos says “''We were determined to build the best services but to price them at a level that customers couldn’t match, even if they were willing to use inferior products. Tech companies always have high margins, except for Amazon. We’re the only tech company with low margins.''” The same technology is offered on Amazon.com but is called Prime. It allows members of Amazon Prime to stream videos, books, and TVshows to their PC.

Amazon is not only a retail powerhouse but it also hosts many companies. Companies Like Foursquare, NASA, PBS, and Virgin Atlantic rely on Amazon’s cloud computing platform, as reported in wired.com.

Awards and Recognitions
From a very young age, Bezos showed interest in computer science and entrepreneurship. Valedictorian of his high school, he received the prestigious Silver Knight Award in 1982; a scholarship given each year by the Miami Herald to select high school seniors. Bezos went on to graduate Summa Cum Laude from Princeton University with degrees in electrical engineering and computer science in 1986.

 After graduation, he took a job a Fitel, a startup company building a telecommunications network selling equity. At just 24, he was head of customer service and software development. Two years later, he took a job at Bankers Trust Corp, where he developed software for personal computers. Only ten months later, he was promoted to Vice President. However in a world before the World Wide Web, it was very difficult to attract new customers and he quickly lost interest. In 1993, Bezos married his love and former classmate at Princeton. Bezos founded Amazon.com in 1994 after predicting a massive growth in Internet use across the world. At this time in the early 90’s, Internet use was increasing over 3000% annually. He knew this was his chance to shape the Internet and corner his market. With a $300,000 investment from his parents and a new business model Amazon was born- a heap of extension cords and computers in a garage.

The company went public in 1997 and shares had risen 233 percent in the first year. Around the turn of the century, Amazon.com had moved from selling books to just about everything. Customers totalled to millions of people all around the world. With innovative ideas such as his patented 1-click ordering system, customer reviews and e-mail order confirmations which he is recognized as an innovative entrepreneur. With annual sales of over 10 billion, his work is recognized worldwide.

In 1999, Bezos was named Time magazine’s Person of the Year, which is framed in the lobby of his company headquarters. In 2004, Bezos founded an aerospace company, Blue Origin, to research one of his many passions. It went on to receive funding from NASA and is still successful. In 2008, he was selected by U.S. News & World Report as one of America's Best Leaders. In 2007, Amazon introduced Kindle, which took the market by storm and forever changed how we buy and read books. Because of the affordable price and convenience, Amazon captured 95% of the U.S. market through the e-book online marketplace. He was awarded The Economist magazine’s annual Innovation Award for his work on the Kindle. He is nominated for the 2012 Small Business Influencer Award in Leadership. Jeff Bezos revolutionized the way we use the Internet, how we order items online and now, how we read books forever.

Patents, Publications, and Other Intellectual Property
Jeff Bezos and Amazon revolutionized ecommerce. Buying, selling, and marketing merchandise online have become easier due to the patents Amazon and it's founder Bezos have filed with the USPTO. Bezos and Amazon have filed over 50 patents since it's founding. Although most patents directly pertain to the current and past features found on the website, there are a few that have had direct effect on the entire ecommerce market.

Starting with one of the most significant patents to directly impact online buying and Amazon's online store is Bezos' "1 Click" patent he filed as US Patent Application Number 20110194230 in early 2007. Before "1 Click", buyers had to go through a systematic process of information inputting and reviewing before a final purchase could be made. 1-Click allows you to bypass all the trouble due to the fact Amazon will store the buyers information on it's secure server, so that the buyer simply has to press 1 "buy" button. This button automatically inputs the buyers billing and shipping information, and does not require any checkout software. This technology has made its way to other major companies online stores such as Apple's iTunes store.

Another major and more recent patent Bezos has filed is aimed at todays smartphone market. Smartphones are easily dropped and damaged. Bezos' newest patent US 5960411 uses the idea of putting airbags in cell phones. The devices accelerometer can send a signal to the airbags letting them know the phone is on free fall. Bezos believes this could have a significant role in the smartphone market due to the high rate of accidental damages to cell phones. This technology however is very prototypical and most likely will not make it to production, although Bezos stands firm that his patent can be a "gamechanger" in todays smartphones.

Bezos and Amazon also filed a patent aimed at today's social networking market. His hopes are that the patent can help Amazon take aim and compete with social networking giant Facebook.

Critical Analysis and interpetation

 * http://allthingsd.com/20120906/making-money-while-keeping-prices-low-amazon-ceo-jeff-bezos-explains-it-all-mostly/
 * -Article looking into how Jeff focuses Amazons priorities on the customer
 * http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/post-leadership/post/amid-chick-fil-a-uproar-amazon-ceo-jeff-bezos-takes-a-stand-on-gay-marriage/2012/07/27/gJQA2Zy2DX_blog.html
 * -Jeff Bezos and his stand for marriage equality
 * http://www.economist.com/node/21548487


 * -How Jeff Bezo's, ability to look at the long run of things helped lead to Amazon's success.


 * http://www.wired.com/magazine/2011/11/ff_bezos/all/1


 * - A look into Jeff Bezo's many forays into technology in and outside of Amazon.


 * http://www.usnews.com/news/best-leaders/articles/2008/11/19/americas-best-leaders-jeff-bezos-amazoncom-ceo


 * - U.S. News states just why Jeff Bezos is one of America's best leaders.


 * http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jeff_Bezos


 * - Wikipedia's article and over all summation of Jeff Bezos.