Invent and Wander
Ratings8
Average rating3.1
Fascinating to read the comeuppance of Amazon through Bezos' annual shareholder letters. The second part, which is an anthology of thoughts and speeches is sometimes repetitive, but brings home Bezos' firm beliefs (e.g. customer obsession). The introduction by Walter Isaacson is riveting and sets you up for a great ride.
Highly recommend this book. It is a collection of Jeff Bezos' writings and speeches. No new content was created just for this book. One reading this book gets a clear sense of key Bezos (and therefore Amazon) strategies and philosophies. Great, interesting presentation.
This book is the collection of Jeff Bezos' annual shareholder letters and a few transcripts of his speeches (and articles).
No need to buy a book to access them.
Reading annual letters is almost like a time travel however after a point it gets boring (around when Amazon reaches $100B revenue :)).
5 stars for getting a peek into Jeff Bezos's way of thinking and working, but not for the book itself. I've pondered whether to give it for 3 or 4 stars, mostly for some the following reasons:
* half the content is shareholder letters that everyone can read on Amazon's IR site. I knew this when I bought the book, so it's not a big deal for me. Still, it means that the book was assembled in a rather mechanical fashion.
* there's a lot of repetition in the latter shareholder letters, which is probably not a big deal if you read one of them per year, but becomes kind of annoying if you read them a minute apart
* there's a lot of repetition in 2nd part of the book - I think I read some things like 3 times. Not a big deal, but I would have expected the editors to try to avoid this.
Those small complaints aside, I was impressed by how consistent Jeff was over the years - it's clear he truly had a long-term vision for Amazon and some solid core beliefs, supporting it. I also loved his thoughts on fundamental business premises, Type 1 and Type 2 decisions, the role of senior leaders in a company, the role of big companies in society, inventing by wandering, etc. It's safe to say I like him and Amazon more after reading this book.