Open Letter to AWS CEO Andy Jassy: People Aren’t as Dumb as You Think

Dear Andy:

Here at Cloud Wars, we’re big admirers of your company, which is #2 on the Cloud Wars Top 10 behind #1 Microsoft. We’re also fans of you, whom we selected as 2018 CEO of the Year.

But that well-earned respect aside, I want to briefly address a comment you made the other day about the concerns some business leaders have regarding the voracious competitive aspirations of your parent company, Amazon.

Because your “folklore” comment was goofy at best and insulting at worst.

As reported on cnbc.com, you spoke at a Goldman Sachs investors conference earlier this week and were asked about Amazon’s aggressive intentions to enter new industries and compete fiercely for market share. And the cnbc.com article quoted you as saying that it’s “folklore” to believe that Amazon chews up every industry it enters.

Oh, I sure understand why you felt the need to portray Amazon as just another big company that’s gliding along passively and hoping to finish each month with a few more nickels in the cash register than it started with. Because if executives in industries targeted by Amazon see it as a predatory shark, then those executives might not be so likely to do business with your portion of Amazon: AWS. 

After all, why would a business in an industry targeted by Amazon choose to do business with the Amazon subsidiary that supplies the majority of the parent’s profits?

Let me interject here that I think that’s a great approach for Amazon or for any company in any industry—free-market capitalism rewards consumers in countless ways and reveals the true winners in the marketplace. Amazon founder and CEO Jeff Bezos summed it up perfectly with his legendary line: “Your margin is my opportunity.”

So if Amazon can do a better job than the incumbents in retail or pharmaceuticals-distribution or healthcare or banking, then Amazon should go right ahead. 

But don’t behave like a predator while pretending to be a pacifist.

Because businesspeople don’t like being talked down to. They don’t like having their intelligence insulted. And they don’t like being expected to believe that the sun rises in the west just because some big-shot executive says so.

“Your margin is my opportunity.” 

Or was that just “folklore” too?

All the best for much more AWS success in 2020,
Bob

(Be sure to check out the full cnbc.com article: AWS chief says it’s ‘folklore’ that Amazon will destroy competition in any new market it enters.)

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