Steve Kessel had been overseeing sales of physical books, music, video, and more - a core component of Amazon's business. He put Steve Kessel, Amazon's VP of media retail, in charge of the company's digital business. In developing the Kindle, we learned a critical lesson in business longevity - and in what it takes to define the change around you.Ī few months after that meeting with Steve Jobs, in January 2004, Jeff made his first move. We were there to help it happen: Colin started at Amazon in 1998, Bill joined in 1999, and we spent decades as senior executives working with Jeff. This is the story of the creation of the Kindle. Related: Are You Ready for a Change? Here Are 5 Ways to Get Mentally Prepared. What he did do was take his time, process what he learned, and form a plan that revolutionized the company - and did the exact opposite of chasing Apple into the music-selling business.
What he didn't do (and what many companies would have done) was to kick off an all-hands-on-deck project to combat this competitive threat, issue a press release claiming how this new service would win the day, and race to build a copycat digital music service. All we can say is what Jeff did and did not do afterward. We knew that we'd need to invent our way out of this dilemma by obsessing over what the best customer experience would be in this new paradigm.ĭid that meeting with Steve Jobs impact Jeff's thinking? Only Jeff can speak to that. But no one wanted to miss the moment, either, and be unable to catch up. No one wanted to get in too early with a product that did not yet have a market. But we all knew that being the exclusive seller of antique CDs did not sound like an appealing business model for Amazon. We were their guests, and the rest of the meeting was uneventful.
You'll be able to charge a premium for CDs, since they'll be hard to find." Jeff did not take the bait. The business will be high-margin but small. He said, "Amazon has a decent chance of being the last place to buy CDs. His next comment could be construed as either a matter-of-fact statement, an attempt to elicit an angry retort, or an attempt to goad Jeff into making a bad business decision by acting impulsively. Steve said that CDs - which Amazon sold many of - would go the way of other outdated music formats like the cassette tape. Now anyone with a computer would be able to purchase digital music from Apple. Apple's first foray into building software on the competing Windows platform showed how serious it was about the digital music market. Up until this point, if you wanted to buy digital music from Apple, you needed a Mac, which made up less than 10 percent of the home computer market. Related: 4 Undeniable Signs That Your Industry Is Ripe for Disruptionĭuring the demo, Jobs talked about how this move would transform the music industry.
0 kommentar(er)
