Andy Jassy, the CEO of Amazon, engaged for the first time in the very framed exercise of letter to shareholders April 14. On the program a lot of self-congratulations and some discreet questioning.
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In his post since July 2021, Andy Jassy did not fail to subtly salute, from the start of his text, the founder of Amazon and executive chairman of the Board of Directors, Jeff Bezos. He followed in his footsteps to ensure its continuity, in any case to address the shareholders, ” Jeff has set the bar high for these letters, and I’ll try to make them worth reading. “.
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So is this long, very long missive worth reading? Certainly for shareholders, employees and fans of Amazon. For ordinary mortals, a summary is sufficient. Covid, distribution network, employee well-being are the main areas covered.
The angry issues are addressed, except perhaps those related to antitrust lawsuits, but you still have to be patient. Andy Jassy focused on well-being at work. Without addressing the very hot issue of unionization, he recognizes in particular that there is a problematic rate of work accidents. If he affirms that he remains in the average of the sector, he concedes that it is not enough, as had done in his time Jeff Bezos.
Amazon reportedly initiated research for “ create a list of what we think are the top 100 employee experience pain points in order to resolve them. The company swears that it works “ passionately to improve the security of its order distribution network.
What’s at stake for Amazon goes beyond mere goodness. The image of the company has been extremely tarnished by the testimonies of employees on the frantic pace imposed by the company. Image is one thing for customers, it’s also one thing for recruitment, in the United States employers are struggling to recruit. When Amazon, the second largest employer in the country, offers a minimum wage of 18 dollars, well above the national average across the Atlantic, it is with this factor clearly in mind.
After work, Andy Jassy also admitted, ” at our scale, we have a significant carbon footprint “. Inevitably the activities of a giant in both e-commerce and the cloud are particularly polluting. On this point, the leader promises to feed ” our activities with 100% renewable energy by 2025 “. He also says the company has invested in 100,000 electric vans.
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Before these issues, the CEO mainly addressed what marks the beginning of his direction, the Covid. The world leader in e-commerce has benefited greatly from the pandemic. The leader reports, We achieved three years’ worth of planned growth in about 15 months “. Above all, he is pleased that once the confinements have been eased or lifted, Amazon has entered into the mores of its customers. for a greater part of their domestic purchases “.
Slightly boastful, the leader said “ We spent the first 25 years of Amazon building a very large fulfillment network, and we’ve had to double that in the last 24 months to keep up with customer demand. “.
Inevitably, this type of development is not without adjustments, failures, unknowns. The pandemic has disrupted the supply chain, more recently the war in Ukraine has caused an increase in fuel prices and therefore in the transport of goods… For Andy Jassy, if Amazon has been able to cope ” We weren’t starting from nothing “.
Unsurprisingly Jassy said a flattering word for Amazon Web Services, a way of congratulating former AWS CEO Andy on the success. In this letter, the leader of Amazon slipped into the continuity of his predecessor while giving the path he intends to give to the company.