Summary: It's easy to take for granted how unconventional Jeff Bezos is, but his approach to Amazon's business is worth a closer look. We do a close read of the 2017 shareholder letter he published this April to see if we can better understand the company as a business and as an investment. This also is a prequel for our miniseries on Amazon to come this November. As might be expected, there's a lot to discuss. Topics covered: 3:00 – Setting the scene – Amazon’s 4-part shareholder letter 5:00 – The intro and the key performance indicators – the unique focus of Amazon’s letter 10:00 – The letter as sign of Bezos’s triumph, and as the changing context of the Amazon story 14:00 – Customer divinity and Amazon’s high standards – investment edge? 20:30 – The meta narrative and the six steps ahead thesis 24:00 – Tackling the quality vs. value narrative again and trying to translate this into the investment case 32:15 – The perfect handstand bit and the value of handstand philosophy 40:30 – Picking apart the 6-page memo process 47:30 - Amazon’s recent milestones, and there are many of ‘em – the all-binding importance of revenue 57:45 – Riding the Treasure Truck 1:01:45 – Singing Internationale about Amazon’s human resources policies, and the Bezosian meta-narrative 1:07:45 – What does all this tell us about Amazon as an investment? 1:11:30 – 2017 vs. 1997 letter
