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The value of the stock is one thing. The largest employer in Seattle will have to take many steps to keep his special mojo going.
Now that Amazon has crossed the threshold of a multi-billion dollar market assessment, it faces four serious questions about the duration of its growth boom.
1. The choice and execution of HQ2. It's been a year since Amazon announced that it would build a "full-fledged" head office in Seattle, with a final decision this year. Twenty finalists have eliminated 238 proposals, but the company remains remarkably silent on its deliberations.
The incentives required in exchange for 50,000 well-paying jobs and a $ 5 billion investment (something that Seattle got for free) have been denounced by urban academics. But I doubt that it will have a lot of traction. States and localities are constantly encouraging low-end assets. This is the economic development victory of the decade and beyond.
Still, Amazon must be prepared for a backlash from the losers. If we choose the region of DC, New York or Boston, which I suspect, Amazon will be criticized for ignoring the heart.
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Then comes the hardest part: building, staffing and assigning a mission to QG2.
Seattle's hostility to its largest employer has eased since the shock of the first HQ2 announcement. Does this change the mission of the site, perhaps as an escape capsule from a hostile home? Instead of becoming the head office on hold, does HQ2 support operations, for example, cloud computing?
Building and recruiting talent on this scale will certainly be a huge undertaking. Amazon will work with new partners, not the least politicians who need to show voters that investing in HQ2 was worth it. This could become a distraction of $ 5 billion for the company. How is Amazon going to handle all this?
Seattle should not be quiet. Few companies have two "equal" seats. Will Seattle continue to be the main hub of corporate decision-making and power?
2. Global growth. Our pretty little online bookstore is a giant of e-commerce, cloud computing, artificial intelligence, entertainment, advertising, logistics and technological innovation. It is also evolving rapidly to impose itself as a global company.
For example, Amazon is the No. 2 company in India's e-commerce market, valued at $ 33 billion. Amazon has recently started using Hindi in addition to English to reach more potential customers.
But here and elsewhere, the rise of nationalism and protectionism will present obstacles and challenges for multinational companies. They could also face the consequences of President Donald Trump's personality.
For example, a report has become viral in which Trump mocks the English accent of Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi. A little thing maybe. But as Suhasini Haidar, editor of the Hindu newspaper's foreign affairs editor, told the New York Times, "it is generally accepted that Modi is not sure he can do business with Trump. India has just accepted the idea that Trump will not treat India with the same kind of benevolence as previous presidents. "
Can Amazon reach its global ambitions at a time when globalism is on the decline, especially because of tectonic change in the United States, once the leader of the liberal economic system?
3. The return of Big Tech stick. Facebook and Twitter were in the hot seat before Congress, with Republicans claiming that they are anti-conservatives. Democrats have their own complaints about the role of corporations in the 2016 meddling and propaganda. Trump has repeatedly attacked Google. Progressives see Big Tech as an engine of inequality.
In polarized America today, it is a remarkable consensus (but not always on the same characteristics).
Amazon is not immune either. Trump has made known his disgust for Jeff Bezos. Much of this enmity comes from the Bezos property on the Washington Post, which has made some of the most aggressive reporting in the Trump White House.
But the president's anger could easily spread to Amazon, which could be a mature target for antitrust investigations, fair business practices or work practices, and jeopardize its lucrative contracts with the federal government.
And it's not like Amazon's enemies are disappearing with a blue wave. Far from it, as we have seen in Seattle, where some progressive activists accuse our company of being in search of all social ills. Democrats and other progressives are concerned about Amazon's excessive market power and work practices. Senator Bernie Sanders' attack last month on working conditions in the warehouses sparked a rare rebuttal by the company. Independent Vermont then introduced a "Stop Bezos" bill to tax Amazon for underpaid workers.
How will Amazon navigate this cross-ideological crossfire that will inevitably become a bigger target?
4. Overcome and the risks of expansion. Hugh McColl Jr., who built today's Bank of America in a modest Charlotte institution, said growth was the hardest thing for any business.
Bezos and Amazon, although they are not immune to difficulties (remember the Fire phone?), Have been extremely intelligent in their march towards dominance.
One thing leads to another: e-commerce to the cloud, for example, or taking advantage of Prime – in symbiosis. The company has a great tolerance for failure but succeeds on a large scale. Its acquisitions have been good and they have not been the main driver of growth.
It has the appetite to disrupt everything from groceries to health care. And there is patience at the top.
In an inspired profile, Forbes focuses on Bezos' willingness to think long-term.
Bezos told the magazine, "Friends congratulate me after a quarterly announcement on the results and say:" Good job, good quarter "and I say," Thank you, but this quarter was completed three years ago. a quarter that will arrive in 2021 now.
The article continues:
"It's this mentality that scares businesses in dozens of industries. "I propose ideas. We could sit here with an idea, and I could fill this whiteboard in one hour with 100 ideas, "said Bezos. "If I do not have a brainstorming meeting for a week, I complain in my office, like," Come on, guys, help me here. "Corporate America, take note – innovate or Jeff Bezos will do it for you."
The lesson may also be for American companies to regain their will to build and invest in the long term, but it does not matter. Amazon has a good run and Seattle is mostly better for him (ask the 238 locations that wanted HQ2).
But nothing lasts forever and Amazon is so opaque that its weak points are not easily visible. Once upon a time there was the Pennsylvania Railroad, U.S. Steel, Ford and many more, the best in the business world.
How long will the magic of Amazon last? It's a question that resonates from Seattle to Wall Street.
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