There is an old military hospital that rests on a hill in Seattle, WA. It may look dull on the outside, but what is on the inside are some of the most brilliant software developers from all over the world. It is the headquarters of Amazon.com. A software engineer at Amazon gave me a tour of the place and one of the most elegant views I’ve seen from the headquarters is the Seattle skyline. If I remember correctly, this view is from a side window outside of the Amazon conference room that Bill Gates sometimes uses for press meetings.
There is also a UPS office on the bottom floor of the Amazon headquarters that exemplifies Amazon’s need for a strong supply chain converging with technology. This brings me to an article that I read today in The New York Times that I found very interesting. Amazon.com distribution centers will now support items sent by independent sellers. Now if you buy items on eBay or Google Checkout, your package may show up on Amazon’s renown smiley-faced boxes.
“Think of as it Amazon 2.0. Though the company’s primary business appears to be booming — it announced a 32 percent increase in revenue this week, which sent its stock soaring 40 percent in the last two days — revenues will inevitably flatten as the company matures. If it wants to keep treating investors to torrid growth, the company needs to develop other ways to make money,” wrote Brad Stone, an author of The New York Times.
