This week, we speak with Brad Stone, author of the just-published “Amazon Unbound: Jeff Bezos and the Invention of a Global Empire.” Stone is the senior executive editor for technology at Bloomberg News after spending a decade as the technology writer for BusinessWeek and before that the New York Times. He is also the author of the New York Times bestseller “The Everything Store: Jeff Bezos and the Age of Amazon,” and “The Upstarts: Uber, Airbnb, and the Battle for the New Silicon Valley.”
Stone had unprecedented access to Bezos and his senior management when he was researching the company. He describes Amazon as having a huge visible surface area but both retail shoppers and investors know very little as to what is hoping on beneath the surface.
He explains how Amazon Prime became a game-changer for the company. It introduced free 2-day shipping, which eventually became free next-day shipping. Today, it includes Amazon Music, Amazon Video, and numerous other features, and has more than 200 million subscribers worldwide.
Some of the most interesting reporting he did was on how Amazon Web Services exploded into a $50 billion division, the Amazon HQ2 debacle, and how Bezos took on the National Enquirer when they threatened to release a 9non-existent) nude selfie.
A list of his favorite books is here; A transcript of our conversation is available here.
You can stream and download our full conversation, including the podcast extras on iTunes, Spotify, Stitcher, Google, Bloomberg, and Acast. All of our earlier podcasts on your favorite pod hosts can be found here.
Be sure to check out our Masters in Business next week with Social Psychologist Robert Cialdini, Professor Emeritus of Psychology and Marketing at Arizona State University. He is the author of the book Influence, which has sold over 5 million copies in 30 languages. The latest revision is out Influence, New and Expanded: The Psychology of Persuasion (it’s twice as long as the original!).
Brad Stone’s Amazon Books
Amazon Unbound: Jeff Bezos and the Invention of a Global Empire
The Everything Store: Jeff Bezos and the Age of Amazon
The Upstarts: Uber, Airbnb, and the Battle for the New Silicon Valley
Brad Stone’s Current Reading
Caste: The Origins of Our Discontents by Isabel Wilkerson
Klara and the Sun by Kazuo Ishiguro
