Patience Re-kindled

At a technology industry conference in 1994, Nathan Myhrvold, then Microsoft chief technology officer, was heard to say, “Very few documents are read by millions of people. Millions of documents – notes to yourself, your spouse, your friends – are read by only a few people. There’s an entire space in the middle, though, that will be the basis of a new information economy.”  Myrvold believed that space would be serviced by the Microsoft Network.  More likely it will be filled by Amazon’s Kindle.

Jeff Bezos founded Amazon, the publishing and on-line retailing giant, in that same year and has been working for the last six  perfecting Kindle, the company’s small portable e-book reader.  Unit sales are supposed to be around the 500,000 mark, though no-one knows for sure.  Jeff is playing the numbers close to his chest, some say because they are falling way below expectation.  Citibank estimated sales of 500,000 Kindles in 2008, rising to over a million units by 2009 with revenues in excess of $1.2 billion by 2010.

My guess is ‘no way’.  Why do a say that?  Because I don’t want one.  Or at least I didn’t until last week.

Jeff Bezos told Daniel Lyons of Newsweek the three reasons why Amazon was so successful:

1. “We start with the customer and we work backward. We learn whatever skills we need to service the customer. We build whatever technology we need to service the customer.”
2. “We are inventors, so you won’t see us focusing on “me too” areas. We like to go down unexplored alleys and see what’s at the end. Sometimes they’re dead ends. Sometimes they open up into broad avenues and we find something really exciting.”
3. “We’re willing to be long-term-oriented, which I think is one of the rarest characteristics. If you look at the corporate world, a genuine focus on the long term is not that common. But a lot of the most important things we’ve done have taken a long time.”

 

There is genius in these words. This approach revolutionized retail and now publishing.  I think he has revolutionized marketing, also.

Firstly, like every good marketer, Jeff starts with the customer – but nowhere does he say he gives them ‘what they want’  He isn’t necessarily even anticipating what they want. The problem with the marketing process in the 21^st century is customers cannot begin to articulate what they want – other than the same as before delivered faster, simpler, cheaper etc.  There are no new wants under the sun.  They remain the same – inspire me, help me travel, keep me warm, keep me safe, entertain me – the trick is to find a new way to do that.

Secondly, Jeff is not afraid to experiment.  He knows not everything works – particularly if you are creating new.  You may be ahead of your time and hence his third point – you have to be patient. 

Van Gogh created some of the most innovative, well-loved and reassuringly expensive paintings of the 20^th century but managed to sell only one in his lifetime – and that to his brother.  If you are going to be innovative and creative you have to be patient and wait for your customer to catch up.

Corporate patience is a rare item.  Most senior CEOs work for three years, cutting costs, raising the share price and exiting with their seven-figure bonus.  As a creator, one has to look long-term, beyond the horizons of the City Analysts.  Jeff has always managed to achieve this magic.  It took Amazon seven years to post its first profit on revenue of $1.2bn in the final quarter of 2001.  The profit was a penny a share.  He has persuaded his shareholders that patience is a virtue and that one day the customer will get it.

Certainly, I never wanted Kindle.  I like to hold a dead tree.  It is traditional and tactile.  I can drop it in the bath or the pool. I want coloured illustrations that leap off the page.  I want interaction, highlighting, annotating, and adding notes to the margin. 

I don’t want to re-purchase my entire library (which I did with my music collection – twice) and I don’t want to carry another mains adapter in my bag.  But guess what?.  Jeff’s patience has worn me down.  I have been through my denial phase (it will never catch on), my anger (at him sounding the death knell of the printed page), my bargaining stage(I might buy when it goes colour) and slowly heading towards acceptance.  The clincher was Jeff’s notion of service and a chance meeting at Gatwick Airport with a lady executive from New York.  Like me she is a dead-tree-book lover) but she converted  me.  Here is what she said:

‘The Kindle is a godsend if you travel. Scores of books at a fraction of the weight – and you can put anything you want on it.

‘It looks great and feels great.  The build quality and interface is great.

‘You can obtain almost any book at almost any time – within seconds.

‘It is more robust than you think and can, apparently, handle the humid jungles of Mexico, the snow in Canada and the desert of Arizona, no problem.

‘The bookmarking and highlighting systems are vastly improved.

‘The dictionary is now in-line and the illustrations almost legible – greyscale still, but legible’

She even gave me the downside:

‘It is not great for research or for study

‘It felt fragile.  One day, I know I’ll be holding a dead Kindle in my hand, screaming ‘Speak to me!  Speak to me!’  (All PC users know what she means).

‘Sometimes the net connection does not work.

‘Sometimes I forget the battery can go dead.  No charger?  No book.

All great to know but the reason it works well for me and offers terrific service?  Because,  I had forgotten my glasses and though I could not read the menu in front of me, I could read her Kindle at the next table.  You can make the print bigger!?!?!?  Deal done.  Jeff, you son of a gun, you waited until my eyesight gave out.  Nice one.

With patience, Amazon has created another revolution that I can watch happen and read all about it, with or without my glasses.

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