Jeff Bezos Essay Example for Free

Jeff Bezos Essay Jeff Bezos is an American entrepreneur who was very influential in the growth of e-commerce. He is the chief executive and founder of Amazon.com, Inc., a company that began as an online merchant of books before it expanded to a wide variety of products. Amazon.com is the largest retailer on the internet and the model for internet sales. According to Drexler (2007), Bezos began his early career in house school. He developed the Dream institute which promoted creative thinking among the young students. He graduated in 1986 from Princeton University with two degrees, computer science and electrical engineering. In 1990, he joined D.E Shaw Co. where he became the vice president. In 1994, he quit the company and opened a virtual bookstore in Seattle, Washington. He worked from his garage for a while as he developed the software for his site which he named Amazon.com. The greatest challenge for the company came in 1995, when Bezos needed money to launch his company. He needed $1 million to keep the company running for at least 2 years. It was very challenging because he needed the whole $1 million at once. According to him, this was a time when the company could have collapsed even before it got started. It was difficult for investors to fund his idea because they were skeptical about the potential of the internet. Ultimately, he managed to raise the whole amount from about 20 angel investors. Another challenge was convincing people to buy products via the internet when they could make a special order from retailers and get the product at their door step. In addition, every retailer streamed online (Drexler, 2007). Because of the competition, the companys market capital dropped from $32.1 billion to $8.9 billion in six years. Some people even called it Amazon.org because it seemed like a non-profit company. Bezos is eager to maintain the success of his business for many years. Kendrick Vershinina (2010) assert that he created an excellent brand that strives on adapting to the evolving business environment and constant growth. He believes that if customers get a great experience from a retailer, they will definitely tell others about it. Therefore, the word of mouth is a great marketing tool. He has been described by many as a laughable and goofy individual, a personality that is carried to the work environment. He keeps the employees happy but ensures that they accomplish  the companys goals. However, his word is always final. As much as everyone is allowed to be innovative, the final decision comes from Bezos. This kind of leadership limits what the executives can do but that is the culture at Amazon. One of the former employees alleged that Amazon.com is to some extend run as a sole proprietorship (Kendrick Vershinina, 2010). The culture of Amazon promotes openness among all employees. The top management, including Bezos, supports this culture and every other employee adheres to it. It has allowed everyone to share any innovations and different ideas that would make the company better. Because of the advance, a customer can use his previous payment information to buy other products, through the one-click ordering technology. Bezos management style is customer-centric (Marques, 2007). The company understands that it is all about providing what the customer wants. According to Daft Marcic (2010), Bezos management style also ensures that the leaders keep their egos in check. The needs of the company come before the managements whims. Nonetheless, he also ensures that the management works together to improve the brand and leadership style. Weekly management meetings are held for four hours. The executives are expected to make presentations regarding new products, pricing strategies, technologies, or cost-control measures in the company. He then asks questions to his satisfaction. Therefore he is very strict and precise on what should be done. He asks for every possible form of evidence or data on the problem being tackled. As a leader, he is also persevering and hardworking. Despite all the struggles he went through to begin his company. He persevered and worked hard to remain competitive. In fact, he argues that most investors give up too quickly. If he had given up, he would not have managed to raise $1million to launch his company. Moreover, he believes that ownership matters when building a good company (Marques, 2007). The owner of a company thinks long-term unlike an employee who thinks in terms of his salary. Therefore, the owner is able to plead passionately to ensure that his ideas and projects succeed. His hiring bar is raised higher. When hiring, he looks for people he can admire and learn from. Therefore, he looks for the best employees and does not compromise on the right skills and quality of work. However, Bezos asserts that Amazon is not always keen on what will happen in the next quarter. The company is willing to invest in an employee and wait to reap the benefits in future. Furthermore, he only spends money on the issues that matter. For the companys headquarters in 1990s was located on Seattles skid row. Even when the company was worth about $500 million, the company was still located in the same building. Bezos believes in spending money on things that matter (Daft Marcic, 2010). Nonetheless, there is the Just Do It award that is given to employees who come up with positive innovations for the company (Thompson, 2011). It encourages employees to be creative. He also encourages innovation by hosting monthly lectures from renowned scientists. The lectures are aimed to spark new ideas in the employees that could revolutionize the company. However, he also decides whether or not an employee can pursue a new idea. The company also has special days where employees can come to work with their children. There is a special room where children can play games as their parents work. He uses the top-to-bottom management style. In some instances, he personally manages a project to make sure that it is done to his specifications. He believes that every manager or leader has to spend some time in the trenches. Therefore, it is his responsibility to oversee activities in the company, ones in a while. In fact, every year he spends a week at each of the companys warehouses checking on how things are run and looking for better ways to improve the company and make more profit. Ideally the working environment at Amazon is dominated by Bezos (Thompson, 2011). According to Goethals et al. (2004), the partnership strategy at Amazon has also been very successful. The company partnered with various companies like Drugstore.com, Pets.com, Kozmo.com and living.com among others by buying an equity stake in the companies to share their prosperity. Additionally, it  charged them placement fees on the site to promote the sites. Therefore partnerships have helped the company to make more profits and attract more customers. Bezos has greatly impacted the business world because of his wisdom and innovation. He was intelligent enough to quiet a good paying job to start his own from scratch. Although he began with selling books, he now dominates the internet with his company, Amazon.com. He also revolutionized shopping. Currently, every item, from a toothbrush to a car can be bought online because of his innovations. He is also known for contributing towards politics. For instance, in 2008, he contributed towards $100,000 to the Democrats to ensure that the income tax initiative in Washington was defeated. Anders, G. (2012, April 4). Jeff Bezos reveals his no. 1 leadership secret. _Forbes._ Retrieved June 16, 2013, from http://www.forbes.com/forbes/2012/0423/ceo-compensation-12-amazon-technology-jeff-bezos-gets-it.html Lyons, D. (2009, Dec 20). The customer is always right. _Newsweek Magazine_. Retrieved June 16, 2013, from http://www.thedailybeast.com/newsweek/2009/12/20/the-customer-is-always-right.html Northouse, P. G. (2013). _Leadership: Theory and practice._ (6 ed.). Thousand Oaks, California: Sage Publishing. The Worlds Billionaires. (2013). Retrieved June 16, 2013, from http://www.forbes.com/profile/jeff-bezos/

Biblical Figures and Ideals in Shakespeares Richard II Essay -- Richa

Biblical Figures and Ideals in William Shakespeare's Richard II William Shakespeare's Richard II tells the story of one monarch's fall from the throne and the ascension of another, Henry Bullingbrook, later to become Henry IV. There is no battle fought between the factions, nor does the process take long. The play is not action-packed, nor does it keep readers in any form of suspense, but rather is comprised of a series of quietly dignified ruminations on the nature of majesty. Thus, the drama lies not in the historical facts, but in the effects of the situation on the major characters and the parallels drawn by Shakespeare to other tales. The outrage felt by Richard and his fellow royalists is not due from a modern sense of personal loss, but from the much more important sense of loss of order, which came most predominately from the strictly Catholic sensibilities of the time. In Richard's time kings were believed to be divinely appointed and "not all the water in the rough rude sea can wash the balm off from an anointed king" (III.iii, 54-5). T his disparity between the perceived will of God and the way in which the events unfold creates trouble in the minds of the characters and the audience. Shakespeare makes it clear that this is not just a simple switch of power, rather a series of events whose meanings and effects penetrate far deeper than the mere surface of the story. Although not as advanced in its stagecraft as many of Shakespeare's other plays, the intricate web of metaphor and poetry in Richard II makes it perhaps the most meaningful and intense of the historical plays. Richard is not the sniveling villain a lesser playwright might have made him, but a philosopher and a poet whose ideas of majesty have been c... ...49-50), desiring to repent his sin toward Richard in Jerusalem. The historical reality of this story is merely that a bad king was replaced by a better one. However, Richard II is not merely a play about a few men long dead; it is about betrayal, dignity, sacrifice, and redemption. Seen through Shakespeare's eyes, the story is not even only about the characters contained in it, but about biblical figures and ideals that enrich the play, allowing this drama to speak to its readers no matter their location in time and space and enticing all to say, of Richard, as of Christ of Shakespeare: the King is dead, long live the King. Work Cited Shakespeare, W. "The Tragedy of King Richard the Second." The Complete Classic Shakespeare. Toronto: Harcourt Brace Johanovich, Publishers, 1997 The Holy Bible, New International Version. Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1992.

Do Violent Video Games Cause Behavior Problems

Do you want guns, money and cars? That’s what Call of Duty, War and Grand Theft Auto affect the children. Our children grow up with a lot of technology around them. Some people think violent video games cause behavior problems, but I disagree with them. Some children spend a lot of time playing video games and that affects their brains. Also, they do not differentiate between fantasy and reality. Also, they would not mind if they want shooting first one they see after game.According to CNN news the child who spends more than four hours playing violent video games their became a violent person, because their interacts with game. So every thing they do in the game like killing or stealing, they could do it in real. All these action will be a part of the player’s behavior, which means while they are playing, they are developing aggressive behaviors Children learn very fast and act like what they see in video games. Some video games have good side and help children in diffe rent ways.According to ABC news they have not proven the violent video games cause behavior problem essay writer needed. For example what happened in Newtown, Connecticut a few months ago when a boy killed students in school they found he had mantel diseases. On the other hand video games can teach children high- level thinking skills, because if they want win in any game essay writer for hire, they have to got a good plan and made their brainwork. So these games improve thinking skills. Also, video games make children smart. Because, some video games make the player think very fast to solve problems or had strategy.For example, I bought an Ipad for my kids and I downloaded some good games to teach them English and one day I heard my son sang English song. There are a lot of things made violent person like parents and TV. Parents have a big responsibility to their children. Because they have to take care of them and watch them. For example, a 7 years boy shot his sister with his fat her gun last week in Saudi Arabia. That means the boy saw the gun near him, and he used it. We cannot blame the boy, we blame the father, because he did not care and left his gun near the boy.On the other hand TV also can make a violent person. Every one has a TV in his home and we see a lot of films and programs some of them show killing and stealing car, all of these can make violent children. We have to take care of our children. Because there will build our countries in the future and we do not want murder or killer in our society. In my opinion we have to learn parents who protect their children and take care of them, also we have to control the TV by avoid some channels because some of them show violent in their programs, cartoon films and films.

An Age of Reason, An Age of Passion Essay - 1147 Words

An Age of Reason, An Age of Passion The period following the Renaissance focused the human attention toward the beauty of nature. It was man’s turn to be part of the nature and not the other way around. The term picturesque—or â€Å"compared to a picture† as Michael Woods defines it — defines new characteristics of the art from this period. This period, â€Å"An Age of Reason, An Age of Passion,† had a dual nature—rational, responsive to reason, but also anti-rational, responsive to emotion. â€Å"Making one’s way through the intellectual history of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, one must be aware of the shifting meaning of such words as rationalism, naturalism, classicism, romanticism. Like dancers in a reel, they combine and†¦show more content†¦Taste became a â€Å"value above morality† (Stewart et. al., 156). Rococo main themes focused on leisure, love, and fashion. These themes and the â€Å"dramatic verve of Rubens gave way to the lyrical tone of Rubens’ great followers, Jean-Antoine Watteau (1684-1721), Frangois Boucher (1703-1770), and Jean-Honor6 Fragonard (1732-1804), the outstanding masters of three generations of Rococo painting in France† (Stewart et al., 156). When it comes to Fragonard and his paintings, I have to mention that he is one of my favorite painters. Paintings like â€Å"The Swing† (1766), â€Å"A Young Girl Reading† (1776), â€Å"The Study† (1769), â€Å"The Lover Crowned† (1771-73), â€Å"The Meeting† (1771-73) and so many more hold a special magic for me. Every time I look at his paintings, it is like looking at a magic world. It is more like a dream world, or like an old-fashioned story that never loses its charm for a child’s ears. Because of Fragonard’s talent, I can also â€Å"listen† to his magic stories: a stolen kiss, a flirtation giggle, the sound of the wind browsing through a lovely garden with a magic swing. From this period, although not a Rococo artist, we have to mention Jean-Baptiste Chardin (1699-1779). â€Å"While his contemporaries painted their high-style works of the ‘upstairs’ aristocratic life, Chardin painted the ‘downstairs’ † (Stewart et. al., 160): kitchen or pantry copper pots, earthenware jugs, and raw food.Show MoreRelatedEssay on Molieres Tartuffe889 Words   |  4 Pages The Theme of Moliere’s Tartuffe: Reason vs. Passion Jean-Baptitste Poquelin Moliere’s Tartuffe, is undoubtedly a satirical comedy. In Moliere’s description of a satire, he was very direct as to the function and objectives of one are. The function is to correct men’s vices, using satire to ridicule them and expose them to public laughter (Moliere, p.14). 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