Long ago, I worked at a magazine that put the chief executives of America’s five best-managed companies on its cover each December. Wall Street analysts eagerly awaited our annual feature, but not for the intended reason. Very often, a corporate boss who basked in our praise soon found short sellers on his trail.
Based on that experience, business journalist Brian Dumaine’s “Bezonomics” should have the people at Amazon.com Inc. worried. As its unfortunate title suggests, Mr. Dumaine’s book is a paean to Jeff Bezos, Amazon’s CEO. “Bezos is one in a billion—a leader who stands apart from other business titans because he figured out how to use his high IQ, combative style, and boundless energy to build a culture at Amazon that really does care about the customer,” Mr. Dumaine proclaims three pages in. After interviewing many Amazon executives, the author came away convinced that “rather than focusing on the competition, Amazonians spend their every working moment trying to make their customers’ lives better.” You’ve got the gist.
