Word: fasts
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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...sheer number of competitive websites alone will put pressure on Amazon's growth--one reason Bezos is adding categories as fast as he can. During the past year, he's added video games and DVD movies, toys, electronics, software, home-improvement products, auctions and zShops--an online flea market where anyone can sell anything. Bezos says he wants to double his offerings again next year. The company also has minority stakes in other e-commerce companies such as Drugstore.com Pets.com HomeGrocer.com Gear.com and Della.com a wedding and gift registry...
Bezos needed to learn the book business fast. Fate was his handmaiden: the American Booksellers Association's annual convention was set for the very next day in Los Angeles. He flew out and spent the weekend roaming the aisles and taking a crash course in the business. Everything he learned encouraged him. The two big wholesalers for books were Ingram and Baker & Taylor. "So I went to their booths and told them I was thinking of doing this." Books, it turns out, are among the most highly databased items on the planet. The wholesalers even had CD-ROMs listing them...
...company grew and grew and grew. It grew so fast that it surprised him how little he knew. "No plan survives its first encounter with reality," he says. One night, while Bezos was on his knees complaining about how sore he was from packing, he said to a co-worker, "You know what we need? Kneepads!" The employee looked at him like he was an idiot. "What we need," the co-worker said evenly, "is packing tables...
...high expectations pervade a company that's growing so fast that entire meetings revolve around how to phone-screen the countless job supplicants; recently more than 400 people applied for four openings. "I had five interviews with five people on two different days, and this was for a temp job," says an ex-employee. Amazon detractors are easy to find. The company, like any growing society, has developed a caste system that embitters some in the lower orders. "I hated working there," says the ex-employee. "I was totally underutilized. My bosses were bad managers who just happened to sign...
Whitman started imposing discipline fast. She whipped the finances and infrastructure into shape and got the company ready to go public. Within months of her arrival in early 1998, she was leading an eBay team on a road show to win over investors. On Sept. 24, 1998, the initial public offering took place, with shares offered at $18; by the end of the day the price had bounded up more than 160%, to $47. Omidyar, Skoll, Whitman and the rest of the eBay staff were suddenly rich. Back at the office, conga lines snaked through the hallways...