The tale of a growing company and an endowed individual (Amazon.com - Get Big Fast - Robert Spector)

Member Name: arjun22

Product:	Amazon.com - Get Big Fast - Robert Spector
Date:	03/08/09 (21 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Narration through examples, Few unravelling story about customer focus

Disadvantages: Too much concentration on the founder at the start , Dragging end,Not enough coverage on strategic p

Amazon.com: Get Big Fast !!!
-------------------------------------
I had a great interest to trace out the inside story of Amazon.com and with this intent desire I picked up this book recently. It is proclaimed to be the best book which describes, in nitty-gritty the history and success of Amazon.com and its founder, Jeff Bezos.

This book starts with interesting note of Jeff Bezos and the way he could set up the entire revolution to upset the status quo. The author provides a biographical narrative on who Jeff Bezos is as the initial chapters try setting up the context for where he grew up, his education, his interests and life style. I findl this to be little too much behindhand.

The middle part of the book does contain few interesting chapters on Amazon's progress to move from an e merchandiser to a leader in its space.
Robert has tried his best to highlight that customer service was the key focus .The way Amazon has evolved to be the poster brand by serving customers effectively is worth praising and Robert has explained it lucidly through examples. The story of associate programs and customer reward schemes are interesting episodes and makes the otherwise dry book interesting.

The attempt of the book to showcase the growth of business- "get big fast" was bit too monotonous for me as through different channels I have read the financial and logistical hurdles that the business faced in its formative years so I found it bit repetitive.

I was disappointed with the organization of the book as I expected key success factors to be elaborated to enable other companies to pick up some best practices to get big faster. I am afraid the book will be rated average if you are looking for all those strategic key areas.

Summary: A middling read for me