NAVER LABS Europe seminars are open to the public. This seminar is virtual and requires registration.
Date: 16th February 2021, 10:00 am (GMT +01.00)
Amazon behind the scenes
Speaker: Martin Angioni was Country Manager of Amazon Italy for 4 years, taking the company from the launch of its website ‘amazon.it’ to an annual turnover of one billion euros. His book “Amazon behind the scenes” (Raffaello Cortina Editore 2020) is based on this experience. Martin previously worked in the publishing world where he was CEO of Electa, and in finance as Vice President, JP Morgan New York/London and analyst at Bankgesellschaft Berlin. He loves cycling and authored the book ‘Le 101 ragioni per cui vado in bicicletta’ (“101 Reasons Why I Cycle”) (UTET 2018). He currently lives in Milan where he owns the consultancy company Ampio Raggio.
Abstract: Amazon currently has the world’s largest market capitalization and many wonder about how the company became such an extraordinary success beyond the philosophy of ‘customer first’. Based on his experience as Amazon Country Manager in Italy, Angioni will dive deep into the secrets of the company success. In the first part he explains the origins of the various elements of Amazon corporate culture (eg the 14 well known Leadership Principles) and how these permeate how decisions are taken in everyday life. A second part draws a parallel with Walmart, Amazon’s ‘predecessor’, and how its big ideas and practices seem to have influenced Amazon founder Jeff Bezos. A third part includes taxation and antitrust issues which, given Amazon’s sheer size, number of customers and impact on the broader economy in many countries, will become increasingly part of the public debate. Big data and surveillance capitalism are also part of this final section.
The talk will be highly interactive, making sure to leave the opportunity to the audience to ask questions about the many facets of Amazon.