A Review of Jeff Bails’ Book “Bezo: A Manifesto for Global Wealth”
Some time ago when I was doing some literature review for a class at the University of San Francisco, I came across an interesting article by economic philosopher, Jeff Hermes entitled “Jeff Bezos and the Hippie Biography,” in which he makes a case for why Amazon would indeed be worth one billion dollars if it is not controlled by Jeff Bezos. This article is well worth a read if you are a fan of Amazon and have not yet checked out the recent bestselling book, The Artist’s Way. I will summarize some of the key points that are discussed in the article below. The primary thesis of the article is that Amazon, which is run by Jeff Bezos, is an example of how classical economists inappropriately romanticize the free market, which in turn harms capitalism.
Arguing that there is nothing special about Amazon is similar to what many free-market economists say, that there is nothing special about capitalism. The only thing special about capitalism is the freedom to select goods and services according to your preferences. A properly run company, according to this line of thinking, would simply allocate resources to maximize its own profits while sharing the resulting benefits with its customers.
Amazon, as an example, is one of the most successful companies in history and was founded by a brilliant entrepreneur, Jeff Bezos. His company sold products on the internet at a discount and grew into one of the biggest retailers in the world. What attracted him to Amazon was not its low cost of operation but the enormous amount of power it could exert through its massive online presence. It created a culture of customer loyalty, which has enabled it to become one of the biggest companies in the world. The power of this culture, according to Jeff Bezo’s view, should be harnessed and used to create wealth. As he sees it, Amazon’s incredible success should be emulated by other companies so that the wealth created by capitalism can spread to more people.
In his book, “Bezos: A Manifesto for Global Wealth”, Jeff Bezo defines wealth as “the real, individual value of a possession or group of possessions.” In essence, he defines wealth as an abstract concept tied to the exchange of goods and services. The main objective of Jeff Bezo is to show how the power of this market – which he refers to as the Amazon -should be utilized to create wealth. This is why his book has received such a wide range of attention from a wide spectrum of readers. For conservative readers, Amazon’s success may be highly surprising. Jeff Bezo’s message is that one can create wealth using the internet.
The basic premise behind Amazon is that the company can use its vast customer base to drive its prices lower and expand its market share. Jeff Bezo claims that by following this formula, Amazon can create wealth through its internet retail store and increase its customer base. In his book, Jeff Bezo goes against the prevailing thinking of most business professionals who believe that internet marketing is a complex process that requires a large investment. Instead, Jeff Bezo claims that Amazon’s relentless focus on offering low cost, quality products has created a market environment where no business should fail.
Furthermore, in his book, Jeff Bezo targets large retail companies that have failed to adopt smarter online marketing strategies. Specifically, he targets Wal-Mart and Nabisco, who were both late to the internet retailing party. Through his research and case studies, Jeff Bezo creates a compelling argument for why these large corporations were late to the party and why they ultimately failed. Through this book, you will learn why internet retailing is destined to be the most successful retailing model of the 21st century and why Jeff Bezo’s work with Amazon has created a revolution in the retailing industry.
