Betting on Things That Never Change
What’s neat about this isn’t what’s changed. It’s what’s stayed the same. The line, “One million titles, consistently low prices” seems like marketing guff. But it helps explain why Amazon has dominated where others have failed. The allure of the Internet in 1995 was betting on change. New paradigms born. Old strategies discarded. Something requiring radically different thinking. Yet Amazon’s focus from day one was as old as it gets. Selection and price. Businesses have pursued the idea for millennia. Jeff Bezos once explained why this was critical: I very frequently get the question: “What’s going to change in the next 10 years?” That’s a very interesting question. I almost never get the question: “What’s not going to change in the next 10 years?” And I submit to you that that second question is actually the more important of the two. You can build a business strategy around the things…