24th May 2010 | Books Nav
"You did a good job." --Jeff Bezos, telling Robert Spector what he thought of Amazon.com: Get Big Fast , when both men were speaking at a business conference in Stockholm, Sweden
How did Amazon.com become Amazon.com?
In the late 1990s, the growth of Amazon.com became a symbol of the vast possibilities of Internet commerce.
Back in those days, Amazon.com set the standards for buying, setting, bidding, and trading on the Internet. Amazon.com: Get Big Fast takes readers inside the process, explaining how the company tailored existing technology to suit its needs and developed its own software when off-the-shelf' products wouldn't do.
The book examines the life of Amazon.com's brilliant and charismatic founder, Jeff Bezos. Going beyond the media hype, it describes a man who not only has a grand plan, but the skills and imagination to implement it.
Based on exclusive interviews with investors and former employees who were there at the creation and development of the company, Amazon.com provides readers an invaluable look into how Bezos and his team accomplished what they did. It is really the story behind the story.
This inspirational rags-to-riches tale will spur on even more entrepreneurs to make their virtual millions.
- The Mirror, London
An engrossing study of the company many [e-watchers] will find time spent with Amazon.com extremely rewarding. - Financial Times
I thought that I knew the Amazon story before reading this book. How wrong I was! Robert Spector tells the Amazon story with exceptional acuity and journalistic flair. And he draws lessons that all businesses should heed. This book will be a business history classic.
- Philip Kotler, Professor of International Marketing, J.L. Kellogg Graduate School of Management, Northwestern University
Book-0f-the-month recommendation HBS's E-Commerce & the Marketspace topic area The book of the month is Spector's impressively researched look at the founding and development of the company that took e-tailing mainstream. Detailed down to specific conversations, the book gathers the massive archive of information about Amazon into one highly readable package. - Business Books Review
A valiant and successful attempt by an experienced journalist to present a "state of the state" of Amazon and to show how it got so big so fast. Along the way, he relates the occasional corporate gaffes and hurried amendments to Amazon's business model that were inevitable in such a rapidly growing business.
- Harvard Business School Web site HBS Working Knowledge.
In the field of e-commerce, this is the case study to end all case studies. Robert Spector does a superb job in capturing--and drawing insights from--the story of the e-commerce company that defined the Web retailing category, established benchmarks of on-line service excellence, and continues to take customer obsession to new levels. There are lessons here for anyone who wishes to understand Amazon.com's success to date and its vision for the future. This is a landmark account of one of the great business stories of our time.
- Jeffrey F. Rayport, CEO, Monitor Marketspace Center, and Associate Professor, Harvard Business School
This is the book that everyone doing business in the New Economy must read. Robert Spector puts the spotlight on the how, what and why of Amazon's incredible performance. The result is a much-needed, unbiased picture of this towering phenomenon of the Internet Age. It inspires, informs and mesmerizes the reader from start to finish
- Stan Rapp, author, The New Maximarketing, and Chairman and CEO, McCann Relationship Marketing Worldwide