«Amazon Unbound: Jeff Bezos and the Invention of a Global Empire»: the success story of a man and a company that changed the world. Review by ITC.ua

At the beginning of the year, we shared our impressions of a book on Amazon by authors Natalie Berg and Mia Knights called «Amazon and the future of e-commerce». It was a detailed study of the company’s successes from a business perspective, but there was almost no Jeff Bezos or company history in the classic sense. But the book «Amazon Unbound: Jeff Bezos and the Invention of a Global Empire» by Brad Stone pays maximum attention to the founder of the company himself, as well as to various Amazon projects, both successful and not so successful. It also periodically highlights certain key executives of the company, which also influenced its successes and failures. If you’re interested in the history of the last 20 years of one of the largest tech companies in the world, this book is for you.

Pluses:

a quality edition; there is a lasso; a comprehensive history of the last 20 years of the Amazon tech giant and the life of its founder Jeff Bezos; many interesting details about the company itself, its employees, product and service development, as well as Bezos's transformation and other projects

Minuses:

certain chapters are still overly detailed; not everyone will be interested in reading about «the inner workings of» US politics, its social aspects, conflicts, etc.

7.5/10

Rating
ITC.ua

«Amazon Unbound: Jeff Bezos and the Invention of a Global Empire»

Author Brad Stone
Publisher Our Format
Language Ukrainian
Number of pages 480
Cover Solid
Year of publication 2024
Size 140×210 mm
Website nashformat.ua

I understand that the story of Amazon is not as interesting for Ukrainians as it is for Americans and even Europeans. Because the company has not officially «entered» Ukraine, which means that we cannot fully use their services. That’s why Amazon hasn’t become a part of our lives through its services, website, and stores because we are closer to «Nova Poshta» and OLX. However, even we know Jeff Bezos and his company, at least we have heard of him, we know about Amazon, about their world’s largest online grocery store, about their video service, e-books, etc.

And this is not surprising because Amazon is literally the world’s largest e-commerce marketplace. The company itself is a tech giant with a market value of more than $2 trillion, producing and supplying a series of the most popular products, gadgets, services, etc. And we can’t leave out its founder, Jeff Bezos, who this year was the richest man in the world with a net worth of more than $200 billion.

The book «Amazon Unbound: Jeff Bezos and the Invention of a Global Empire» is interesting for the reasons mentioned above. It’s a literal look at the development of a successful online bookstore startup, and it’s also a close look at Jeff Bezos himself.

For example, the author says that the company’s founder and longtime CEO is an innovator in innovation. He is the actual pioneer of the culture of invention. At the same time, Jeff Bezos is shown as a man who gradually began to indulge his ego. The more his wealth grew, the more he transformed himself.

The book does not ignore Jeff’s personal life, but it does so as carefully as possible. It tells about his marriage to Mackenzie Scott, divorce, affair, and subsequent relationship with Lauren Sanchez. However, there are no details and information at the level of «jaundiced» rumors. The book focuses more on the impact of these personal events in Bezos’ life at Amazon.

It also shows him from other, already working, angles. At first, Jeff Bezos is shown to the reader as a manager obsessed with personal control of all processes. But then he transforms into a leader who creates a team of super professionals (the S team) and gradually transfers the management of the company to them.

The book does not ignore other purchases, hobbies, and «hobbies» billionaire. The author will tell interesting stories about his purchase of the popular publication The Washington Post, its further work, and the problems it will bring to the Amazon boss and his company. Blue Origin, its challenges, development, failures, and successes will also be discussed.

«Amazon Unbound: Jeff Bezos and the Invention of a Global Empire» tells in detail about the company’s popular and not-so-popular inventions, services, and gadgets. There will be chapters on Alexa, AWS (Amazon Web Services) Prime, and Kindle, and not to forget the FirePhone, which failed in sales, and other similar things that «ate up» millions and billions of dollars but were not successful.

Despite the rather large volume of 480 pages and the complex and multi-level topic, the book is relatively easy to read. Of course, one has to take into account the segment and genre, so it’s not comparable to reading a detective story, but it will rarely be boring or difficult. The author deliberately tries not to give a lot of numbers and dates, focusing on people and their stories. He focuses on interesting details of the development of a particular device, on the nuances of conquering various foreign markets, on the analysis of the company’s work and its impact on the US and global markets.

The publication itself from «Our Format» is of high quality and has an eye-catching cover. The yellow paper is thick enough and the font is easy to read. Special thanks for the available gusset and colored flyleaves.

Conclusion:

«Amazon without Borders. How Jeff Bezos Built a Global Empire» — is an interesting, but sometimes too thorough, account of the transformation of an online bookstore startup and its boring geek founder into an industry monster under the guidance of a fearless leader with muscles. There is a lot of information about Bezos's personal life, key Amazon employees, and the history of the company's popular gadgets. Other «hobbies» Jeff Bezos' hobbies, including The Washington Post and Blue Origin, are also covered.

The book will appeal to anyone interested in tech companies, gadgets and success stories, business development, etc. But it's worth knowing that the book contains a lot of details and «domestic cuisine» the United States, its laws, policies, etc., which are more designed for American readers and are unlikely to interest Ukrainians. But even without that, the author will have something to appeal to a wide range of readers.