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Behemoth, Amazon Rising: Power and Seduction in the Age of Amazon
Amazon is the most extraordinary business story of our time. In 25 years, it’s become a $280 billion multi-sector giant, and within 5 years, Amazon may be the biggest company in America. Behemoth, Amazon Rising explains how Amazon built five interlocking rings logistics, Amazon Prime, the Amazon Marketplace, everyday low pricing, and constant innovation. The rings work together to create a moat too deep to scale around Amazon's retail empire.
But Amazon is not just any company. It’s brilliant, agile, cold, efficient, amoral, incredibly innovative, secretive, scary, seductive. It’s entirely customer-obsessed — which is great for customers, but not necessarily for producers. And there is no end to Amazon's ambitions, as it marches into logistics, cloud services, publishing, groceries and much more.
That relentless growth will test us profoundly. Behemoth describes those challenges and shows how to handle them — if we are smart, committed, and prepared to match Amazon's long-term perspective with an equally bold vision of our own.
Gaster’s dissection of Amazon’s rise and domination is full of surprises and strategic insights. Anyone in business needs to understand how Amazon pivoted from survival tactics to competitive advantage to monopolistic power within two decades.
- Seth Goldman, co-founder of Honest Tea and Chair of Beyond Meat
BEHEMOTH, AMAZON RISING provides incredible insights into the secrets of Amazon’s success, the threat it poses to every industry it touches, and the risks to Amazon itself.
- Vivek Wadwha, Distinguished Fellow, Harvard Law School, Labor and Worklife
Behemoth is a must-read. Each chapter fills your bucket with meaningful takeaways and insights to help you and your team think in new and inventive ways about business, the customer, and society. Gaster simplifies the essence of innovation and execution, giving the reader the wonderful feeling of excitement to invent and build the next big idea.
- Neil Ackerman, Head of Advanced Technologies, Middle East and Africa, Johnson and Johnson
Fucking brilliant! Nailed it.
- Mike Shatzkin Founder & CEO of The Idea Logical Company
Behemoth is the story of the e-commerce giant’s growth and dominance. It is an intriguing take on what’s driven Amazon to becoming one of the most successful and talked-about companies ever!
- Dean Maciuba, Managing Partner, Last Mile Experts North America
This riveting book explains clears how the new corporate giants emerged, the damage they can wreak through their damage, but also a clear road map about how they can be harnessed to serve the needs of society, rather than vice versa. Behemoth It is a must-read on the most compelling challenges confronting society and how to deal with them.
- David Audretch, Distinguished professor, School of Public and Environmental Affairs at Indiana University
No doubt we are entering the age of Amazon. It’s Amazon's 21st century version of manifest Destiny, and Gaster digs deep to show how we are all willingly along for the ride.
- Amy Millman, President, Springboard Enterprises
A must read analysis that outlines how Amazon’s innovations, such as Prime, have led to its dominance and why that will likely not only continue but expand as e-commerce accelerates. It is a thoughtful, carefully researched analysis of an amazing and sometimes threatening American behemoth.
- Charles Wessner, Georgetown University
Amazon is central to the 21st century economy. Robin Gaster’s fascinating and comprehensive examination substantially advances our understanding.
- John Zysman, Emeritus Professor of Political Science, UC Berkeley
But Amazon is not just any company. It’s brilliant, agile, cold, efficient, amoral, incredibly innovative, secretive, scary, seductive. It’s entirely customer-obsessed — which is great for customers, but not necessarily for producers. And there is no end to Amazon's ambitions, as it marches into logistics, cloud services, publishing, groceries and much more.
That relentless growth will test us profoundly. Behemoth describes those challenges and shows how to handle them — if we are smart, committed, and prepared to match Amazon's long-term perspective with an equally bold vision of our own.
Gaster’s dissection of Amazon’s rise and domination is full of surprises and strategic insights. Anyone in business needs to understand how Amazon pivoted from survival tactics to competitive advantage to monopolistic power within two decades.
- Seth Goldman, co-founder of Honest Tea and Chair of Beyond Meat
BEHEMOTH, AMAZON RISING provides incredible insights into the secrets of Amazon’s success, the threat it poses to every industry it touches, and the risks to Amazon itself.
- Vivek Wadwha, Distinguished Fellow, Harvard Law School, Labor and Worklife
Behemoth is a must-read. Each chapter fills your bucket with meaningful takeaways and insights to help you and your team think in new and inventive ways about business, the customer, and society. Gaster simplifies the essence of innovation and execution, giving the reader the wonderful feeling of excitement to invent and build the next big idea.
- Neil Ackerman, Head of Advanced Technologies, Middle East and Africa, Johnson and Johnson
Fucking brilliant! Nailed it.
- Mike Shatzkin Founder & CEO of The Idea Logical Company
Behemoth is the story of the e-commerce giant’s growth and dominance. It is an intriguing take on what’s driven Amazon to becoming one of the most successful and talked-about companies ever!
- Dean Maciuba, Managing Partner, Last Mile Experts North America
This riveting book explains clears how the new corporate giants emerged, the damage they can wreak through their damage, but also a clear road map about how they can be harnessed to serve the needs of society, rather than vice versa. Behemoth It is a must-read on the most compelling challenges confronting society and how to deal with them.
- David Audretch, Distinguished professor, School of Public and Environmental Affairs at Indiana University
No doubt we are entering the age of Amazon. It’s Amazon's 21st century version of manifest Destiny, and Gaster digs deep to show how we are all willingly along for the ride.
- Amy Millman, President, Springboard Enterprises
A must read analysis that outlines how Amazon’s innovations, such as Prime, have led to its dominance and why that will likely not only continue but expand as e-commerce accelerates. It is a thoughtful, carefully researched analysis of an amazing and sometimes threatening American behemoth.
- Charles Wessner, Georgetown University
Amazon is central to the 21st century economy. Robin Gaster’s fascinating and comprehensive examination substantially advances our understanding.
- John Zysman, Emeritus Professor of Political Science, UC Berkeley
382 pages, Paperback
Published March 1, 2021
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Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews
May 15, 2021
The debate about whether the government should use antitrust law to significantly change or even break up Amazon is usually driven by a series of anecdotes rather than hard data. Behemoth offers a clear description of how Amazon operates. In the process it also suggests a middle ground between giving Amazon a pass for problematic behavior and breaking it up.
The first part of the book looks at the keys to Amazon’s past success and its strengths going forward. From its beginning selling books out of a garage, Amazon has pioneered a number of revolutionary services that have improved your life and mine. These include an efficient ecommerce platform, Amazon Prime (which offers buyers numerous incentives to stay on Amazon), Amazon Marketplace (which gives third party companies access to millions of potential customers), a world-class logistics operation, and Amazon Web Services. Amazon Rising explains the history of each of these innovations and the ways in which they advantage Amazon as a competitor.
A company that continually stressed customer service and innovation could normally expect great public acclaim, and Amazon gets lots of that. But Behemoth also points out the downside of relentlessly focusing on lower costs. Amazon has been widely criticized for mistreating workers, arbitrarily harming Marketplace vendors, shifting income to low-tax jurisdictions, and allowing counterfeit products to be sold on its platform. The book’s analysis of these issues makes two important points. The first is that harsher antitrust laws are likely to be ineffective and even counterproductive. The second is that the root problem with many of the complaints about Amazon is a lack of data. We really don’t know what Amazon pays its workers, how many quit each year, how much it makes on Marketplace, the number of disputes with third-party sellers and their resolution, etc. Gaster argues that utility regulation may be a better model. Although government regulators should not set prices or determine products, they can require large amounts of data that Amazon already has. Where these data show clear abuses, regulators can impose targeted solutions.
Behemoth is well-written and moves quickly. Although the author admits that the lack of data makes it difficult to know what is really happening in Amazon, his estimates seem well founded. The result is a much more detailed description than readers are likely to find elsewhere.
The first part of the book looks at the keys to Amazon’s past success and its strengths going forward. From its beginning selling books out of a garage, Amazon has pioneered a number of revolutionary services that have improved your life and mine. These include an efficient ecommerce platform, Amazon Prime (which offers buyers numerous incentives to stay on Amazon), Amazon Marketplace (which gives third party companies access to millions of potential customers), a world-class logistics operation, and Amazon Web Services. Amazon Rising explains the history of each of these innovations and the ways in which they advantage Amazon as a competitor.
A company that continually stressed customer service and innovation could normally expect great public acclaim, and Amazon gets lots of that. But Behemoth also points out the downside of relentlessly focusing on lower costs. Amazon has been widely criticized for mistreating workers, arbitrarily harming Marketplace vendors, shifting income to low-tax jurisdictions, and allowing counterfeit products to be sold on its platform. The book’s analysis of these issues makes two important points. The first is that harsher antitrust laws are likely to be ineffective and even counterproductive. The second is that the root problem with many of the complaints about Amazon is a lack of data. We really don’t know what Amazon pays its workers, how many quit each year, how much it makes on Marketplace, the number of disputes with third-party sellers and their resolution, etc. Gaster argues that utility regulation may be a better model. Although government regulators should not set prices or determine products, they can require large amounts of data that Amazon already has. Where these data show clear abuses, regulators can impose targeted solutions.
Behemoth is well-written and moves quickly. Although the author admits that the lack of data makes it difficult to know what is really happening in Amazon, his estimates seem well founded. The result is a much more detailed description than readers are likely to find elsewhere.
May 27, 2021
Amazon is an enigma and Dr. Robin Gaster does an extraordinary job of shining light on what has made it so successful. Well researched from a wide range of secondary sources given Amazon’s proclivity for opacity, Gaster spreads the thousands of puzzle pieces on the table and then methodically puts them together. And while not all pieces fit perfectly, given Amazon’s secrecy and lack of public disclosure, it’s a remarkable feat. No doubt some of Gaster’s conclusions may be slightly off the mark, but directionally I suspect he’s revealed and exposed much more than Amazon would like. This is a no holds barred account of what makes Amazon tick – the good, bad and the ugly. Whether you are an Amazon fan or hater, the results the company has achieved and continues to achieve are truly remarkable. Behemoth, Amazon Rising is a must read for anyone interested in learning how one of the most transformational and controversial businesses of our times operates, thinks and acts.
April 3, 2021
A fascinating, well-researched and compelling read: half 21st century cautionary tale of privacy data plundering and a modern, tech-driven sweatshop; half mesmerizing embrace of the inevitable future marketplace, the Everything Store. Makes a strong case for trimming the sails of a swashbuckling pirate of the Cyber Sea.
April 2, 2021
Great book! Relevant. Easy to read. Fantastic breakdown of all Amazon business segments. Should be read by anyone in business today. Excellent analysis of IT and what it takes to be nimble as a company regardless of size.
May 27, 2021
Well-researched data that boggles the mind. An intriguing read for anyone who wants to understand how Amazon thrives. Gaster is a compelling storyteller who's hard to put down even if he throws so many numbers at you. Businesses who seek to compete or copy Amazon will learn a lot.
July 13, 2023
Political scientist Robin Gaster provides a comprehensive history and critique of Amazon's development. It focuses less on personalities and more on economic analysis, which makes it unique and valuable. It also has chapters on labor issues and Amazon's innovation, which are also written about in other books (I especially like Brad Stone's The Everything Store.)
As Gaster notes, Amazon’s fingers are now in every part of the retail ecosystem, including Web services, marketing, warehousing, shipping, and fulfilment. Is this a bad thing? Not always. With Amazon’s help, companies can focus on what they do best: serving their customers with products and services. After initial resistance, most companies learn to live with Amazon. Indeed, retailers and small and medium sized businesses (SMBs) have generally gone from an attitude of beating back Amazon to hopefully, learning the best ways to utilize and win with Amazon’s services.
As a company that often exploits its merchants’ data and self-deals, however, Amazon’s long-term threat to the public interest looms large. Gaster colorfully calls Amazon a “vampire,” noting that it is “agile, immortal, brilliant, efficient, superhumanly strong and intelligent, undeniably seductive.” Yet, he notes, it is “also heartless, deeply amoral, selfish exploitative and cold. That’s all on display at Amazon, where the cult of customer obsession provides sufficient moral justification – for anything.”
The book’s main thesis is that Amazon feeds off all its parts to cross-subsidize its operations and continually outpace the competition. While Amazon has many positive attributes -- i.e. enabling SMBs -- Gaster ultimately believes, as do new Biden Administration appointees Tim Wu and Lina Khan, that information age leaders like Amazon operate in a new type of monopoly environment and that it is time for the rules that govern them to change.
“Amazon is ruthless, relentless and increasingly dominant,” says Gaster. “We worry about its culture of secrecy, its untrammeled power within its increasingly dominant retail platform, its sheer scale and its expansion into new sectors.”
As Gaster notes, Amazon’s fingers are now in every part of the retail ecosystem, including Web services, marketing, warehousing, shipping, and fulfilment. Is this a bad thing? Not always. With Amazon’s help, companies can focus on what they do best: serving their customers with products and services. After initial resistance, most companies learn to live with Amazon. Indeed, retailers and small and medium sized businesses (SMBs) have generally gone from an attitude of beating back Amazon to hopefully, learning the best ways to utilize and win with Amazon’s services.
As a company that often exploits its merchants’ data and self-deals, however, Amazon’s long-term threat to the public interest looms large. Gaster colorfully calls Amazon a “vampire,” noting that it is “agile, immortal, brilliant, efficient, superhumanly strong and intelligent, undeniably seductive.” Yet, he notes, it is “also heartless, deeply amoral, selfish exploitative and cold. That’s all on display at Amazon, where the cult of customer obsession provides sufficient moral justification – for anything.”
The book’s main thesis is that Amazon feeds off all its parts to cross-subsidize its operations and continually outpace the competition. While Amazon has many positive attributes -- i.e. enabling SMBs -- Gaster ultimately believes, as do new Biden Administration appointees Tim Wu and Lina Khan, that information age leaders like Amazon operate in a new type of monopoly environment and that it is time for the rules that govern them to change.
“Amazon is ruthless, relentless and increasingly dominant,” says Gaster. “We worry about its culture of secrecy, its untrammeled power within its increasingly dominant retail platform, its sheer scale and its expansion into new sectors.”
Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews