Amazon's Sales and Profits Soar, Analysts and Experts Credit CEO Jeff Bezos

U.S. Retail Industry Leaders Ask "What Would Bezos Do?" To Turn Around Retailers

Blockbuster's Shrinking Market Share - What Would Bezos Do?

If Jeff Bezos was leading the world's largest movie rental chain, I imagine he would be asking questions that have either not been uttered or not been seriously discussed in the Blockbuster boardroom before. One of those questions would probably be, "How can we make the home entertainment experience better for the customer?" This question is light years away from the standard discussions that happen regularly in America's boardrooms around the question "How can we make our business more profitable?"

Bezos demonstrated the difference between those two questions back in 2005, when he vowed that one million customers would receive the latest Harry Potter book on the same day that the book was released in brick and mortar stores, even though Amazon would lose money to ensure that happened. Asking the question, "What can we do for our fanatic Harry Potter customers?" yielded a strategy that would never have been born out of the question, "How are we going to boost quarterly profits?"

In contrast, when Blockbuster's leaders failed to ask or answer the question, "How can we make the movie rental experience better for the customer?" two other companies asked - and answered - that question for them. Consequently, Blockbuster is now caught in a perpetual game of catch up with upstarts Netflix and Redbox, and 960 store closings indicate that it's a game Blockbuster may not be able to win.

Asking questions about profits without an appropriate amount of consideration for the source of those profits (those pesky customers) will eventually have consequences. Blockbuster is buried underneath its consequences while Amazon is riding high on top of theirs. "What Would Bezos Do" to turn Blockbuster around? Likely he would start asking different questions that would create different and more positive consequences.

Chrysler's Bankrupt Brand - What Would Bezos Do?

If Amazon had gained a controlling interest of Chrysler when it was in Chapter 11, and Jeff Bezos had became responsible for resuscitating the company after its near-death experience, I imagine that the first thing he would do is apologize to its customers and to the world for the countless bad choices that led the company to its own demise.

Bezos recently issued a public apology himself after Amazon infuriated its customers and damaged its reputation by removing two George Orwell books from Kindle devices, even though the customers with those books in their library had paid for them. On July 23, 2009 Jeff Bezos publicly apologized in an earnings teleconference and said that removing the books was "stupid, thoughtless, and painfully out of line with our principles." The company backed up its apology with a guarantee to replace the books, or issue a refund worth three times the price that users had paid for the books originally.

So, if Bezos was now running Chrysler, he would be doing so with the belief that it is difficult or impossible to regain credibility, trust, or any hope for rebuilding a loyal customer base without first making amends for the wrongs of the past. After Chrysler secured the top spot on the Forbes "Cars That Lose Value Fastest" list this year, I can't imagine that any external force would be able to restrain Bezos from publicly declaring that the production and sale of the Sebring line of vehicles was "stupid, thoughtless, and painfully out of line with our principles." (Or at least painfully out of line with the principles that any self-respecting 84 year-old American corporation should have.)

I also imagine that the Bezos-led Chrysler would back up that apology with some sort of compensation that would prove to consumers that "building a new car company," is more than an empty promise on a slick advertising campaign. Because Bezos knows that no matter how much any retailer would like to just forget about its past service failures, its customers won't.

So, "What Would Bezos Do" to bring value back to the bankrupt Chrysler brand? Likely he would first define some principles, and then hold employees at all levels accountable for doing their jobs using those principles. Likely that one strategy would be repeated for as many years as it would take to convince customers that the company had grown a conscience and deserved to be trusted once again.

eBay's Lost Dominance - What Would Bezos Do?

There's probably no retail company more envious... read more...