FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact: Robin Gaster
rgaster@nullincumetrics.com 240-4624409
Interview President of Incumetrics and George Washington University Scholar Dr. Robin Gaster on:
Behemoth, Amazon Rising: Power and Seduction in the Age of Amazon
Robin Gaster, PhD is a visiting scholar at George Washington University and the President of Incumetrics, Inc., a data and program evaluation consultancy that serves clients seeking to understand the intersection of technology, innovation, economics, and politics. Clients include think tanks like the National Academies, Brookings, and the Berkeley Roundtable on the International Economy; US government agencies including Navy, SBA, and NIST; foreign governments (Sweden, Finland); big companies like Houghton Mifflin and Deloitte; firms with interests in specific sectors such as education, publishing, and energy; and a host of smaller bespoke projects. He previously worked for the IMF and was a Congressional Fellow in the Office of technology Assessment.
From 2004-2014, Dr. Gaster was lead researcher and principal writer on a 13-volume series of reports published by the National Academies of Science and Engineering on the U.S. government’s premier innovation program for small businesses, as well as for a major report on the Manufacturing Extension Partnership. Those reports have been the gold standard for program assessment, and were the basis for major Congressional adjustments to those programs. Dr. Gaster’s work has been published in Foreign Policy and The Atlantic. He has edited a book on international telecommunications, and testified before Congress.
He graduated from Oxford University with a degree in Politics, Philosophy and Economics, and has also received an MA in Philosophy from the University of Kent, and a PhD from UC Berkeley, where he won a national award for his dissertation. He has taught at UC Berkley, the University of Virginia, American University, and George Mason University and is currently a visiting scholar at the George Washington University Institute for Public Policy.
About Behemoth, Amazon Rising: Power and Seduction in the Age of Amazon
Amazon is the most extraordinary business story of our time. In 25 years, it’s become a $280 billion multi-sector giant, and within 5 years, it may be the biggest company in America. Behemoth, Amazon Rising explains how Amazon built five interlocking defensive moats: logistics, Amazon Prime, the Amazon Marketplace, everyday low pricing, and constant innovation. Together, they let Amazon steamroll the competition.
But Amazon is not just any company. It’s brilliant, agile, cold, efficient, amoral, creative, secretive, incredibly innovative, scary, and seductive. It’s entirely customer-obsessed, which is great for customers but not necessarily for producers. And there is no end to Amazon’s ambitions, as it marches into logistics, cloud services, publishing, groceries, satellites, drones, and much more.
That relentless growth will test us profoundly. Directly, Amazon is becoming more powerful in new sectors every day. Indirectly, its tight focus and relentless ambition are also a model for modern managers and corporations. But there is steep to be price paid, in the massive collateral damage Amazon inflicts on partners, workers, competitors, and communities. Behemoth, Amazon Rising describes the challenges that Amazon presents, and shows how to handle them – if we are smart, committed and prepared to match Amazon’s long-term perspective with an equally bold vision of our own.
Potential topics of Dr. Robin Gaster’s expertise and commentary include:
- Why Amazon is losing money in Internet retail, and what that means for Amazon and its competitors – it’s not what you think
- Amazon’s five defensive moats and how they make Amazon unbeatable.
- Why Amazon is the world’s most innovative big company; and the four keys to the innovation kingdom
- The dangerous power of Amazon unleashed: why transparency and sunlight are the only cure
- Seduction by Amazon: how Amazon addicts its customers
- How Amazon built the best ecommerce delivery system in the U.S., and why competitors can’t match either price or delivery speed
- Why Amazon may leave the retail business altogether in the next ten years
- The future of Amazon – what we can expect in the next 10 years and beyond?
- How Amazon’s customer obsession imposes collateral damage on partners, workers, competitors, and communities
Notable Endorsements for Behemoth, Amazon Rising:
“Dr.Gaster’s dissection of Amazon’s rise and domination is full of surprises and strategic insights. Anyone in business needs to understand how Amazon pivoted from survival tactics to competitive advantage to monopolistic power within two decades.”
– Seth Goldman, co-founder of Honest Tea and Chair of Beyond Meat
“Behemoth, Amazon Rising provides incredible insights into the secrets of Amazon’s success, the threat it poses to every industry it touches, and the risks to Amazon itself.”
– Vivek Wadwha Distinguished Fellow, Harvard Law School
“It’s fucking brilliant! Nailed it.” – Mike Shatzkin, CEO The Idea Logical Company