CNN BUSINESS | Analysis: Bezos leaves behind a company that’s created value but has also triggered a national reckoning

(CNN Business) – In 1997, the year Amazon (AMZN) became a publicly traded company, CEO Jeff Bezos promised investors they would be in for a journey. Amazon would not chase short-term profits, he warned in a letter to shareholders. It would focus “relentlessly” on customers. It would act with urgency but prioritize long-term investments. And it would run a lean culture that minimized costs and cut waste.

A quarter-century later, Bezos’s approach has made Amazon a global behemoth that employs more than a million people and touches almost every aspect of modern life, a fact that’s become even more apparent during the pandemic.

Bezos, the world’s richest person until recently, has gone from selling books out of his garage to running a company that makes consumer electronics, produces award-winning films and TV shows, offers organic groceries and hosts some of the world’s biggest websites. His company’s ambitions include delivering packages to households using flying drones and spreading facial recognition technology to virtually every consumer’s front doorstep.  —read more—