当代最伟大的12位企业家

4. 杰夫•贝索斯

公司名称：亚马逊

市值：840亿美元

销售额：481亿美元

员工人数：56,200

建议：定期进行短期静修

    置老板的建议于不顾，放弃了纽约的工作，杰夫•贝索斯驱车横跨整个美国来到西雅图，看重的是这个城市众多的软件开发人才。1994年，他推出了亚马逊，但这家电子商务公司直到六年多后才实现首个季度盈利。

    当年他不着急，如今更不急于为提高利润而牺牲建设“一家重要而持久的公司”。多年来，贝索斯一直没有理会华尔街要求其“注重公司利润，而不是营收增长和客户服务”的呼声。

    领导一家备受关注的高成长公司可能千头万绪。最大的一个问题是：何时主动出击，不再消极被动。贝索斯每个季度末都会离开一段时间来解决这个问题。他的独处效果不错，带来了一些新的设想和产品，包括亚马逊面向第三方销售商的运营中心。正如他自己所说：“我把自己关起来。没有来自办公室的干扰。没有电话铃声。就是这一点点独处，然后我发现自己变得更有创造力了。在这两、三天内，我确实会花很多时间上网，只是看看科技爱好者们和黑客们在做些什么。哪些东西处于行业前沿？

    然后，48岁的贝索斯会写下2-3页的备忘录，有时给自己，有时给管理团队。“我发现等这个过程结束时，我并不是很肯定自己创造出了什么，因为它的起点在这里，终点却跳到另一件事。这就像和一堆聪明人聊天。有人说，‘哦，这行不通，因为你忘了x、y和z。’然后，你退后一步，意识到的确如此，然后再进行调整和拓展。”

4. Jeff Bezos

Company: Amazon

Market Value: $84.0 billion

Sales: $48.1 billion

Employees: 56,200

Advice: Take regular mini-retreats.

    After ignoring his boss' advice and quitting his job in New York, Jeff Bezos drove across the country to Seattle, drawn by the city's large population of software developers. Once he launched Amazon in 1994, it took the e-commerce company more than six years to report its first quarterly profit.

    He was in no hurry then and he is in no hurry now to boost profits at the expense of building "an important and lasting company." Bezos has long resisted entreaties from an often frustrated Wall Street to manage his company for profit instead of revenue growth and customer service.

    Leading a closely watched, high-growth company can be frenetic. One of the biggest problems: finding the time to be pro-active rather than reactive. But Bezos, at the end of each quarter, solves this by just going away. His solo retreats have been put to good effect, resulting in several new ideas and products, including Amazon's fulfillment center for third-party sellers. As he has explained it, "I just lock myself up. There are no distractions from the office. No phones ringing. It's just because with a little bit of isolation I find I start to get more creative. I do spend a lot of time web surfing during those two or three days and just looking at what hobbyists and hackers are doing. What are the sorts of things that are on the cutting edge?"

    Bezos, 48, will then write up two- or three-page memos, sometimes to himself, other times to his executive team. "What I find is, by the time that process is done, I'm never really sure if I invented something or not, because it starts here and ends up there. That's what you want if you have a bunch of smart people. Somebody says, `Well, that will never work because you forgot x, y, and z.' And then you step back and recognize that's true and then it morphs and builds."