Managing Technology-Based Projects: Tools, Techniques, People and Business Processes

Chapter 2

Contemporary Project Management: Concepts and Principles

AMAZON

“Amazonians are leaning into the future, with radical and transformational innovations . . . that has become second nature at Amazon, and the pace is even accelerating in many forms . . . with Amazon Web Services, Fulfillment by Amazon, and Kindle Direct Publishing, with AWS, FBA, and KDP, we are creating powerful self-service platforms . . .” explains Jeffrey Bezos, founder and CEO of Amazon.com, at the 2013 annual shareholder meeting. The world's largest online retailer with annual revenues of over $50 billion started with an offline bookstore in 1994. Emerging from the dot-com bubble as one of the few winners, Amazon steadily morphed into a technology company—much like Microsoft and Walmart. The company also produces consumer electronics, most notably the Amazon Kindle e-book reader and the Kindle Fire tablet computer, and is a major provider of cloud computing services.

“What gets us up in the morning and keeps us here late at night is technology,” says Jeff Bezos. “Advanced technology is everything.” However, the vehicle for transforming this technology into marketable products and services is project management. Amazon plans, organizes and executes hundreds of projects each year, ranging from product developments to data warehousing and business acquisitions, all under pressure for faster, leaner and ...