Who will be Bezos' successor? The three executives have obvious advantages

Recently, in an interview with BI editor-in-chief Brogert, Amazon CEO Bezos talked about the issue of succession for the first time. The 50-year-old Bezos said: "I already have a succession plan, and all executives have a chance." Although Bezos refused to disclose any information about his successor, we can get a glimpse of several people who are more likely to take the position.

If it is an internal selection, it is a good idea to choose a young and energetic person from the existing executive team, just like Apple CEO Steve Jobs chose COO Tim Cook and Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer chose COO Nadella.

The following is a list of Amazon's executives as published on its website:

Jeffrey Bezos: President, CEO, Chairman

Jeffrey Blackburn: Senior Vice President, Business Development

Andrew Jassy: Senior Vice President, AWS

Diego Piacentini: Senior Vice President, Global Consumer Business

Shelley Reynolds: Vice President, Chief Financial Officer

Thomas Szkutak: Senior Vice President, CFO

Jeffrey Wilke: Senior Vice President, Consumer Business

David Zapolsky: Senior Vice President, General Counsel

The first person who can be ruled out is Shelley Reynolds. Among the above executives, except for Bezos, only Shelley Reynolds is the vice president, while the others are senior vice presidents. In addition, Shelley Reynolds is only responsible for Amazon's financial work and is not directly responsible for specific business, so the possibility of Shelley Reynolds taking over is very small.

Possible succession:★

Another candidate who can be almost ruled out is David Zapolsky. Although he joined Amazon in 1999 and is considered an "old employee", he is the general counsel and is more responsible for supervising whether the company's actions comply with laws and regulations. He is not responsible for specific business, so he can also be ruled out as a potential successor.

Possible succession:★

In the executive team, there is another person who is not in charge of the core business - Chief Financial Officer (CFO) Thomas Szkutak. Before joining Amazon, Thomas Szkutak worked as CFO at General Electric. It can be seen that Thomas Szkutak is definitely good at financial control, taxation, investor relations, internal auditing and other work, but whether he can manage this Internet company with a market value of 100 billion US dollars is still worth discussing.

Of course, it is not without precedent that a CFO is promoted to CEO. In 2013, German Siemens appointed CFO Joe Kaiser as CEO, replacing CEO Peter Löscher, who was dismissed due to poor company performance. As we all know, Amazon's performance has always been criticized by investors. Due to its unrestrained investment in various emerging industries, its business has always been hovering between profit and loss. If investors' profit demands have reached an unprecedented height, it may not be a bad thing to find someone who understands financial control to control the company.

Likelihood of succession: ★★

The next four executives are responsible for Amazon's core businesses.

Andrew Jassy is in charge of Amazon's network business (Amazon Web Services, or AWS business). For many years, Amazon AWS has been the largest and best-quality cloud computing platform. The third-quarter financial report shows that AWS's other business revenue was US$1.38 billion, less than 7% of total revenue. Compared with Amazon's huge e-commerce business, the scale of AWS is far behind. But in Bezos' eyes, AWS is the business with the greatest growth potential, "which may develop into a business comparable to the retail industry."

In addition, data from market research firm Synergy Research Group shows that AWS currently holds 27% of the global cloud computing market, surpassing competitors such as Microsoft, Google , and IBM . Choosing the person with the greatest growth potential to be his successor may be a good choice for Bezos.

Likelihood of succession: ★★★

Jeffrey Wilke is a favorite of Bezos and was responsible for Amazon's most important market, the North American market. Foreign media said that Jeffrey Wilke was the hero behind the company's progress, including more automated assembly line operations and focusing on improving the safety environment of workers in sales centers.

Earlier, Jeffrey Wilke served as the general manager of global operations. At that time, he would accompany CEO Bezos to visit various branches for a week every year. From this, we can see Bezos' trust in Jeffrey Wilke. Does it also mean that Bezos began to train Jeffrey Wilke as his successor several years ago?

Likelihood of succession: ★★★

Diego Piacentini has worked at Amazon for 11 years and is responsible for international consumer business, that is, markets outside North America. The latest quarterly financial report shows that Amazon's international market revenue is US$7.712 billion, accounting for 37% of total revenue, and its contribution cannot be ignored.

But Diego Piacentini is 53, older than Bezos, and is unlikely to be the successor.

Likelihood of succession: ★★

The last executive is Jeffrey Blackburn, who joined Amazon in 1998 and is proficient in corporate cooperation, investment, and acquisitions. He was responsible for Amazon's IPO and the acquisition of companies such as IMDB and Zappos.

Judging from Amazon's development strategy in recent years, in addition to consolidating its core business, investment and acquisition have become its main themes. If e-commerce hits a ceiling in the future, Bezos may be relieved to choose someone who is good at capital operation to take the helm.

Likelihood of succession: ★★★

Summarize

From the above analysis, if the selection is from internal executives, Diego Piacentini, Jeffrey Wilke and Andrew Jassy are more likely than others.

As a winner of Toutiao's Qingyun Plan and Baijiahao's Bai+ Plan, the 2019 Baidu Digital Author of the Year, the Baijiahao's Most Popular Author in the Technology Field, the 2019 Sogou Technology and Culture Author, and the 2021 Baijiahao Quarterly Influential Creator, he has won many awards, including the 2013 Sohu Best Industry Media Person, the 2015 China New Media Entrepreneurship Competition Beijing Third Place, the 2015 Guangmang Experience Award, the 2015 China New Media Entrepreneurship Competition Finals Third Place, and the 2018 Baidu Dynamic Annual Powerful Celebrity.