 "The 'shadow' of a woman at Amazon and the India connection")
Amazon.com Chief Executive Jeff Bezos is, without a doubt, a charismatic character who likes to do things with his special touch — in consultation with the much-talked-about ‘Bezos shadow’, that is.
These ‘shadows’ are Bezos’ close aides who get to sit with him at important meetings and advise him on key issues. In a first for a woman, Bezos has now appointed 15-year Amazon veteran Maria Renz to the “shadow” position, Re/code has reported.
The “shadow” job is officially called the “technical advisor to the CEO”. For years, this has remained a coveted position.
The man holding this job — and they had all been men until Tuesday — had direct, almost unlimited access to Jeff Bezos for as long as two years. He followed Bezos around, travelled with him, sat with him during his meetings, and conferred with him at the end of many workdays.
At Amazon, Renz has been involved in many aspects of Amazon’s retail business, including health & grocery, shoes & jewellery, and deal-a-day site woot.com. For the past two years, she had been serving as CEO of Quidsi, an Amazon acquisition and the parent company of Diapers.com, according to a Business Insider report.
The role of a ‘shadow’ means that Bezos gets to know high-potential executives better than he otherwise might and gets a much-needed source of support and second opinion. These shadows get an extraordinary mentor. Since 2003, when the position became more formalised, a series of Amazon executives have served one- to two-year terms.
The idea came to Bezos from venture capitalist John Doerr, according to Bloomberg Newsweek, after Doerr saw it at Intel.
The Indian ‘shadow’
It’s rare that you talk about a technology-related firm and do not see any involvement of Indians.
Historically, Bezos’ shadows have gone on to run some of the company’s most crucial initiatives after their typical two-year stints.
For example Amit Agarwal is now running Amazon’s India business, in which Bezos has promised to invest $2 billion. An IIT-Kanpur and Stanford University alumnus, and a Mumbaikar, Agarwal is the vice-president and India country head of Amazon. He shadowed Bezos and was his technical advisor from 2007 to 2009. Agarwal, a career Amazonian, had joined the firm in 1999 as part of its technology team.
Another Indian who made it to the coveted shadow league is Dilip Kumar. Kumar has over 17 years of business and technical experience with leadership responsibility. He has a proven track record of leading and delivering mission-critical programmes and innovative products.
His past roles have included global responsibility for Amazon’s pricing strategy, supply chain, and as technical advisor to CEO. He shadowed Bezos from 2011 to 2013, and is now working on a secret project, according to the Re/code report.