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Profile: Jeff Bezos, The Remarkable Founder of Amazon, Blue Origin and More

Few entrepreneurs have had such an impact on the American landscape as entrepreneur Jeff Bezos. Known to many as the founder of Amazon, the world’s largest e-commerce store, Bezos is also the founder of other enterprises such as Blue Origin, his space company. Here we take a closer look at lessons we can learn from this visionary and exceptional individual.

Jeff Bezos, 2005. etech

Have a Vision and Plan for the Long Term

While the founders of most tech startups were eager to rake in the dollars and establish their ‘credibility’ to investors through immediate profitability, Amazon founder Jeff Bezos took a decidedly different path. He shared his innovative ideas and long-term vision early on in his letters to shareholders and his team, asking them to make up their own minds whether his venture was worth investing in or not. He was frank about it, sharing that most investors did not think so in his first 1998 Letter to Shareholders.

Despite the low expectations set by financial pundits, Amazon defied such dire predictions. Shockingly enough, the stock price went from $5 a share to over $1800. There were times in between as well where the stock dipped but unlike many others, Bezos did not see the value of the business defined by its share price alone. From day one, it was clear that Amazon had a long-term vision and intended to expand at scale, as fast as it could to meet that vision.

Amazon share price.png

Amazon is truly a story of longevity and remarkable employment. In terms of business longevity, Amazon has outlasted many other competitors and players in the same field, while achieving a remarkable feat - employing over 500,000 people and thus becoming America’s second largest employer after Walmart.


Establish and Grow High Standards in Your Company Culture

In his annual letters to shareholders, Bezos is refreshingly honest and direct, while explaining his long-term vision for the company.

“How do you stay ahead of ever-rising customer expectations? There’s no single way to do it — it’s a combination of many things. But high standards (widely deployed and at all levels of detail) are certainly a big part of it. We’ve had some successes over the years in our quest to meet the high expectations of customers. We’ve also had billions of dollars’ worth of failures along the way. With those experiences as a backdrop, I’d like to share with you the essentials of what we’ve learned (so far) about high standards inside an organization.”
— Jeff Bezos, 2017 Shareholder Letter

Jeff Bezos’s 2017 Letter to Shareholders


Be customer-obsessed.

Bezos explains how it is much more important to focus on the customer instead of your competitors. You have to identify your customer.

“The No. 1 thing that has made us successful by far is obsessive compulsive focus on the customer as opposed to obsession over the competitor.”
— Jeff Bezos, Interview with the Economic Club
Image via Amazon

Image via Amazon

By focusing on what customers want or need, Amazon has won customer loyalty and thus high profitability. A great example of this is Amazon Prime which offers free, fast shipping to its customers. That thinking has paid off. Amazon Prime customers spend an average of $1,300 in a year, approximately twice that of non-members. Amazon has over 100 million Amazon prime customers.

“Who is your customer for the Washington Post? Readers. Full stop. Where do the advertisers want to be? Where the readers are.”
— Jeff Bezos, interview with the Economic Club

Invest in ideas with unlimited upside.

“A dreamy business product has at least four characteristics. Customers love it, it can grow to very large size, it has strong returns on capital, and it’s durable in time—with the potential to endure for decades. When you find one of these, don’t just swipe right, get married.”
— Jeff Bezos, 2014 Shareholder Letter

Jeff Bezos’s 2014 Letter to Shareholders


The 2 Pizza Rule: Get focused work done with small teams.

Bezos is famous for his “2 Pizza Rule” where he suggests that you work in smaller teams and never have meetings that require more than two pizzas to feed everyone present. This helps the group stay focused and nimble, and avoid long, unproductive meetings.

Every new idea has started out with a small group of people.

“I want it to always have the heart and soul of a small company.”
— Jeff Bezos, Amazon CEO

Decentralize decision-making and delegate.

Bezos, like many successful CEOs and leaders of large organizations have said before, emphasizes the importance of delegating and decentralizing decision-making. This enables swifter, agile responses to any customer need and opens up the door to innovation and new ideas. Bezos recognizes the potential for invention and creativity here and takes it a step further.

“We have the good fortune of a large, inventive team and a patient, pioneering, customer-obsessed culture — great innovations, large and small, are happening everyday on behalf of customers, and at all levels throughout the company. This decentralized distribution of invention throughout the company — not limited to the company’s senior leaders — is the only way to get robust, high-throughput innovation.”
— Jeff Bezos, 2013 Shareholder Letter

Jeff Bezos’s 2013 Letter to Shareholders


Focus on inputs and the outputs will take care of themselves.

Unlike a majority of publicly traded companies that invest a lot of time and energy discussing actual financial results and debating projected financial outputs, Amazon puts its energy and time into improvement.

“To be clear, we take these financial outputs seriously, but we believe that focusing our energy on the controllable inputs to our business is the most effective way to maximize financial outputs over time. . . . Our goal-setting sessions are lengthy, spirited, and detail-oriented. We have a high bar for the experience our customers deserve and a sense of urgency to improve that experience.”
— Jeff Bezos, 2009 Shareholder Letter

Jeff Bezos’s 2009 Letter to Shareholders


Measure your company by free cash flow.

“Why focus on cash flows? Because a share of stock is a share of a company’s future cash flows, and, as a result, cash flows, more than any other single variable, seem to do the best job of explaining a company’s stock price over the long term.”
— Jeff Bezos, 2001 Shareholder Letter

Jeff Bezos’s 2001 Letter to Shareholders


Nurture your young ideas to grow into large enterprises.

Few companies or leaders are as patient as Amazon or CEO Jeff Bezos have been regarding the time it takes ideas to take root, grow and be financially viable and self-sustaining.

“In some large companies, it might be difficult to grow new businesses from tiny seeds because of the patience and nurturing required. In my view, Amazon’s culture is unusually supportive of small businesses with big potential, and I believe that’s a source of competitive advantage.”
— Jeff Bezos, 2006 Shareholder Letter

Jeff Bezos’s 2006 Letter to Shareholders


R&D is part of every department.

While Amazon is famous for its emphasis on a data-driven approach throughout its online and physical stores, Bezos also points out how essential research and development, achieved through experimentation, brainstorming and invention is to the company’s internal work processes.

Image via FactSet

Image via FactSet

“And while many of our systems are based on the latest in computer science research, this often hasn’t been sufficient: our architects and engineers have had to advance research in directions that no academic had yet taken. Many of the problems we face have no textbook solutions, and so we — happily — invent new approaches.”
— Jeff Bezos, 2010 Shareholder Letter

Jeff Bezos’s 2010 Letter to Shareholders


Build on Top of Existing Infrastructure, Embrace Change and Accelerate Growth

“The current online shopping experience is the worst it will ever be. It’s good enough today to attract 17 million customers, but it will get so much better. Increased bandwidth will result in faster page views and richer content. Further improvements will lead to ‘always-on access’ (which I expect will be a strong boost to online shopping at home, as opposed to the office) and we’ll see significant growth in non-PC devices and wireless access. Moreover, it’s great to be participating in what is a multi-trillion dollar global market, in which we are so very, very tiny. We are doubly-blessed. We have a market-size unconstrained opportunity in an area where the underlying foundational technology we employ improves every day. That is not normal.”
— Jeff Bezos, 1999 Shareholder Letter

Jeff Bezos’s 1999 Letter to Shareholders


Know Your Strengths and Work at Your Most Productive Times.

In an interview with David Rubenstein at the Economic Club of Washington D.C., Bezos explained that he aims to have his ‘high IQ’ meetings in the morning before lunch. He prioritizes sleep, exercise and time with his family.

“I like to read the newspaper, I like to have coffee, I like to have breakfast with my kids before they go to school. So, I have my puttering time—it’s very important to me.”
— Jeff Bezos, interview with the Economic Club

He spends time with his family in the morning, reads the newspaper, enjoys coffee and personal time before diving into work at Amazon and his other ventures.

“I like to do my high-IQ meetings before lunch. Anything that’s going to be really mentally challenging—that’s a 10 o’clock meeting. Because by 5 p.m., I’m like, ‘I can’t think about that today. Let’s try this again tomorrow at 10.”
— - Jeff Bezos, interview at the Economic Club
 
 
tags: Jeff Bezos, Profiles, Amazon, Blue Origin, lessons, leadership, entrepreneur, innovation, inventor, customer happiness, customer experience, achievement, long-term planning
categories: Profiles, Inventions
Monday 11.26.18
Posted by Elf
 

Profile: Kyxz Mendiola and the Smallest Concept Flying Car That Uses Drone Tech

Kyxz Mendiola, an inventor from the Philippines, recently successfully completed a test flight for the world’s smallest concept flying car.

Image via Kyxz Mendiola

Image via Kyxz Mendiola

Fascinated with the concept of flying cars and hoverboards from Back to the Future, Mendiola was determined to build his own flying car. A former dancer and camera operator, Kyxz Mendiola recently took his concept flying car out in a successful test flight, flying and hovering for a little over ten minutes. His concept flying car “Koncepto Milenya” is a single-passenger vehicle that is powered by unmanned drone technology or ‘multicopter’ technology. Koncepto Milenya can fly as high as 20 feet above ground and go up to speeds of 40 mph. 

 Mendiola spoke to Reuters after what he said was the first public test flight of his invention.

“It was amazing. All the hard work paid off. Everything worked perfect.”
— Kyxz Mendiola
Image via Kyxz Mendiola

Image via Kyxz Mendiola

Mendiola is not an aviation expert or engineer by trade, but he took the time to study the dynamics of a flying vehicle. He experimented with drones, and used drone technology to successfully create his own hoverboard prototype last year.

In fact, Mendiola is far from being an engineer by trade or schooling. He was a member of the Philippine All Stars, a hip hop band. Mendiola put in all of his life savings to build his dream project. His initial prototype was limited by what he could buy so he could not purchase the best motors that he wanted to use.

In his interview with Reuters, Mendiola explained how it took a long time for him to save up enough money for the components of the single-seater vehicle that is powered by six lithium-ion batteries. The passenger pilots the craft using a portable radio frequency controller similar to flying a drone.

Nonetheless, he continued undeterred. Finally, he built out his latest version using carbon fiber and excellent motors. The vehicle has a safety feature with 16 rotary motors so that the vehicle will continue operating even if one or two motors fail.

“When we have to go somewhere about an hour’s drive, this can take you there in five minutes.”
— Kyxz Mendiola
Image via Kyxz Mendiola

Image via Kyxz Mendiola

Mendiola’s concept car has been featured by Time magazine and the video has been viewed online over 10 million times. An Australian company, Star8, is partnering with Mendiola to develop the vehicle after viewing viral videos on social media. Star8 Chief Executive Jacob Maimon said that he wanted to mass produce the vehicle and market it in Australia, Europe and Hong Kong, after his company helped Mendiola perfect the machine.

“We will get there very fast now, what with the help that we can give him.”
— Jacob Maimon, CEO, Star8

Kyxz Mendiola demonstrates beautifully what you can achieve when you have got a great idea and the creativity and determination to make it happen.

tags: Star8, flying car, drone technology, invention, profile, creativity, kyxz mendiola, kyxz mendiola biography, inventor, Philippines, aviation, flying car concept
categories: Profiles, Inventions
Monday 11.26.18
Posted by Elf
 

Profile: Stan Lee, Marvel Legend, Comic Book Writer and Creator of Beloved Superheroes

Few storytellers have inspired the imaginations of adults and children alike across the globe so vividly with such a lasting impression as Stan Lee.

stan-lee-and-supes-7x4-1.jpg

In many ways, Stan Lee was considered a real-life hero to fans of his comic books and the movies inspired by them. When he passed away on November 12 of this year at 95, he left behind a legacy of stories with far-reaching influence across the globe. He was known for iconic characters such as Spider Man, Iron Man, Thor, X-Men, Black Panther, Incredibe Hulk, Daredevil, Fantastic Four and more.


Create characters that people can relate to.

Comic book writer and storyteller Stan Lee brought to life superheroes with flaws - men and women who had imperfections and problems that differed greatly from the ideal archetypes that were written for preteens. Lee had started early in the business, like Walt Disney, following his heart, to work in the creative industry writing stories.

For example, Peter Parker was an anxious teenage science student when a radioactive spider bites him, transforming him into the agile, super strong Spider Man. Despite his heroic acts where he changed the world for the better, Spider Man still struggled with his teenage problems with girls, being bullied and his own angst. He was flawed, lovable and heroic all at once - a complex, compelling and relatable character. While Batman was a superhero of epic proportions, Spider Man was a kid with real problems who was making things up as he went along, who inspired us but also invoked our sympathies. Peter Parker was truly a friendly, neighborhood Spider Man!

“Stan Lee was as extraordinary as the characters he created. A superhero in his own right to Marvel fans around the world, Stan had the power to inspire, to entertain and to connect. The scale of his imagination was only exceeded by the size of his heart.”
— Bob Iger, Disney CEO

Through his own work and collaborating with Jack Kirby, Steve Ditko and others, Lee took Marvel from being a small independent venture to the No. 1 publisher of comic books in the world, and then, a multimedia company. In 2009, the Walt Disney Co. purchased Marvel Entertainment for $4 billion. Some of the world’s biggest superhero films of all time, feature Marvel characters such as Avengers: Infinity War that raked in $2.05 billion worldwide and Black Panther that topped domestic superhero movies at $501 million in 2018, becoming the tenth highest grossing film in the United States.


“I used to think what I did was not very important. People are building bridges and engaging in medical research, and here I was doing stories about fictional people who do extraordinary, crazy things and wear costumes. But I suppose I have come to realize that entertainment is not easily dismissed.”
— Stan Lee in interview with the Chicago Tribune in April 2014
1941 Lee’s first writing for Captain America issue written by Joe Simon and Jack Kirby; Image via Marvel

1941 Lee’s first writing for Captain America issue written by Joe Simon and Jack Kirby; Image via Marvel

1969 Peter Parker makes his Marvel debut! Lee’s inspiration for Spider-Man came of his desire to depict an adolescent hero who wasn’t relegated to sidekick. Finding spiders ‘spooky’, Stan and artist Steve Ditko created Marvel’s most globally recogni…

1969 Peter Parker makes his Marvel debut! Lee’s inspiration for Spider-Man came of his desire to depict an adolescent hero who wasn’t relegated to sidekick. Finding spiders ‘spooky’, Stan and artist Steve Ditko created Marvel’s most globally recognized hero. Image via Marvel

2009 The Realm Eternal is brought to vivid new life in this remastered series featuring Lee and Kirby’s Thor! Collecting the "Tales of Asgard" backup stories from Journey into Mystery (1952) #97-104. Image via Marvel

2009 The Realm Eternal is brought to vivid new life in this remastered series featuring Lee and Kirby’s Thor! Collecting the "Tales of Asgard" backup stories from Journey into Mystery (1952) #97-104. Image via Marvel

Image via Marvel

Image via Marvel


Offer Life Lessons in Memorable, Unique Ways

While many readers young and old alike, may never read French author Voltaire, Stan Lee etched Voltaire’s famous words permanently in the minds of comic book readers and fans of the Spider Man movie franchise worldwide. The famous phrase “With great power comes great responsibility” was perfectly illustrated in the stories of Spider Man, teaching readers self-discovery and responsibility.

Spider Man image via Marvel

Spider Man image via Marvel


Provide Individual Empowerment and Representation

Few franchise writers and storytellers have pushed forward the concept of equality and empowerment as vigorously and consistently as Stan Lee did in his Marvel series. His characters also evolved over time and provided powerful examples of freedom and individual achievement and prowess, which in turn, inspired people worldwide. This is most noticeable in the Black Panther series, particularly after the release of the new movie based on Stan Lee’s comics in 2018, that was very popular among the African American community, providing long-desired theatrical representation in an empowering way.

Image via Marvel Studios

Image via Marvel Studios

Stories like Stan Lee’s inspire children and adults to break free of limitations and stereotypes, to see themselves achieving and growing. They help demonstrate virtues and character traits such as strength, honesty, empathy, bravery and intelligence along with a love of integrity, justice and honor. These stories can also address real life issues that communities face or provide metaphors and examples to confront and deal with these issues head on.


Give Credit Where Credit is Due

Lee wanted his character of Peter Parker to be imperfect, awkward at times and relatable. He chose to work with Steve Ditko to do this instead of Jack Kirby who was known for making perfect superheroes. Ditko had studied under Batman artist Jerry Robinson at the Cartoonist and Illustrators School in New York City. When Spider Man’s popularity catapulted Lee into the spotlight, he did not take all the credit for himself and shared it with his co-creator, Steve Ditko. He also publicly stated that he could not have truly envisioned the lovable, flawed, angst-filled teenage character of Peter Parker without the assistance of Ditko.

Image via Marvel

Image via Marvel


Stay Positive

Born on December 22, 1922 in Manhattan, New York, Stan Lee started working at a very young age, taking on odd jobs to help the family and meet the month’s rent. In later interviews after he had achieved success with his comics, Lee shared that his mother’s optimism and encouragement had a very positive influence on his life and perspective, enabling him to believe that he could do anything he wanted. This sunny perspective helped him throughout his career.

Image via Taschen

Image via Taschen

Image via Marvel Entertainment

Image via Marvel Entertainment

Lee would epitomize his optimistic attitude, positive energy and desire to constantly improve with the Latin word that he chose to describe his life and aspirations - Excelsior!

Stan Lee Twitter.png

Excelsior would also become the title of his bestselling autobiography.


Don’t Take it All Too Seriously

Like the master of suspense, Alfred Hitchcock, Stan Lee liked to poke a little fun at himself and the movies inspired by his stories by appearing in cameos. His cameos range from avoiding falling concrete to watering his lawn, delivering the mail, crashing a wedding and more.

Astutely enough, in Spider-Man 3 (2007), Lee chats with Tobey Maguire's character, Peter Parker, on a street by Times Square. They read the news that the web-slinger will soon receive the key to the city.

marvel-studio-stan-lee.jpg
“You know, I guess one person can make a difference…’nuff said.”
— Stan Lee to Peter Parker

Stan Lee spent his entire life creating memorable, lovable characters with real flaws, fears, anxieties and problems to overcome, that audiences could relate to and be inspired by. His legacy will continue on for generations to come.


tags: Profiles, Stan Lee, Marvel, animator, storytelling, Iron Man, Hulk, Spider Man, Thor, Stan Lee lessons
categories: Profiles
Friday 11.16.18
Posted by Elf
 
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