Did you know that Jeff Bezos has an industry-adjusted shareholder return of 12,266% as Amazon's CEO? HBR credits Bezos as the second best-performing CEO in the world. Who's first? You guessed it, Mr. Steve Jobs.
In this January 2013 HBR blog post, author Justin Fox makes his claim as to how Bezos and Amazon have "trained" Wall Street. As discussed this week, Amazon maintains a long-term perspective, similar to that of a 21-year old's Roth IRA portfolio. Fox claims, "...when you combine Amazon's success with its resolute unwillingness to take financial markets too seriously, the result is an amazing thing to see." He continues, "...it [Amazon] has trained its shareholders to believe that everything will work out in the end."
Amazon has done what corporations and individuals aim to do; establish a set of standards for themselves, convey those standards to all involved, and not waiver from said standards. Amazon's stock performance and growth must be linked to this philosophy and through which they've been able to "train their investors" to quote Fox.
Bezos has definitely had this "Long term" focus for a while. Amazons 2012 annual report starts with a letter from Bezos written in 2013, followed immediately by the letter he wrote to shareholders in 1997. In this early statement to shareholders, Bezos is clearly trying to shape how Wall St. views and reacts to his company. He wrote, "We will continue to make investment decisions in light of long-term market leadership considerations rather than short-term profitability considerations or short-term Wall Street reactions." I am sure other companies have written similar statements and failed, but Bezos has been true to this vision and Wall St. has gone along for the ride.
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