Amazon unaufhaltsam

Many love it, quite a few hate it: Amazon. Hardly any company is as controversial as Jeff Bezos's. When we hear about Amazon on TV, it's mostly because of the poor working conditions and the pressure it puts on other companies. On the other hand, Amazon is always the first name that comes up when people talk about bold entrepreneurship, innovation and disruption. So which is it?

That's exactly what I had hoped to find out in the book "Amazon unaufhaltsam" by the American journalist Brad Stone. What can I say? The image of a ruthless company and businessman, Jeff Bezos, has stuck – if anything, the book reinforced it. As excited as I am about the technical approach, I'm just as shaken by some of the accounts from former employees.

The book was really heavy going, and at times it was a real slog to work through this tome – one reason why this review didn't come out on time. With this book, Brad Stone has published the follow-up to his first volume, "Der Allesverkäufer".

In this review, you'll find out why the book is really only for hardcore Amazon enthusiasts and why I now see Jeff Bezos through somewhat different eyes.

At its core, the book is about how Amazon, from the company's perspective, went about developing innovative products such as the Kindle, Alexa, Amazon Go, Amazon Air, Amazon Fresh, AWS and so on. We learn a great deal (of a personal nature) about the backstories of some executives and how they experienced their journey at Amazon and in the projects. In many places that went too deep for me, which showed in the book being really heavy going at times. The content of the more than 500 pages could easily have been cut by 200 pages and would still have said what matters most.

We learn a lot about how Jeff Bezos, as an apparent figurehead, seems to hover above everything and how strongly he himself steers and influences the company's fortunes.

If I had to describe the problem the book deals with, I would say: How ruthless do you have to be in the business world to be more successful than everyone else?

I would really only recommend the book to those who absolutely want to learn more about the company and the leaders behind it – above all about Jeff Bezos. We learn a lot about how Amazon ventured into new lines of business, but unfortunately too little about how they solved problems with new products or new markets. I had hoped to learn more about Amazon's methods (other than that you have to be ruthless), but was disappointed in that respect.

So if you're a fan, a critic or simply interested in Amazon and Jeff Bezos, this book is for you.

Well, what can I say...the title actually sums it up pretty well. Amazon seems to be unstoppable. They go about it with a ruthlessness that is second to none. On the one hand, I'm impressed by the drive and commitment with which Jeff Bezos keeps pushing the company into new territory, but on the other hand I'm also shocked by how little people seem to mean to him.

I find it exciting that the author focused on the story behind the product developments at Amazon, but I'm also disappointed that the book answers so little of the "how". I would have liked more here, so that I could take even more away for my own day-to-day work.

I'm in a dilemma: I love Amazon's service. But I hate the data hoarding, the ruthlessness and the way people treat each other. After reading the book, I'd prefer to avoid Amazon's services, but I'm probably like so many others: out of sheer convenience, you keep using Amazon after all....