SpectatorBytes

For quite some time, I have been really impressed with Amazon’s CEO Jeff Bezos. I believe Jeff has proven to be a true industry visionary. This came today after reading about Kindle sales (see Amazon gains after CFO remarks). I am not sure whether or not the Kindle will is a hit and will become a revolutionary device. However, the Kindle is another proof of Amazon’s continuous effort to develop and launch innovative products and services.

Amazon was one of the first, large internet consumer companies to invest in building a Web services platform around its business. In 2002/03, when “walled-gardens” were still in fashion among the portals, Amazon began create and offer a series of Web services for third-party Web retailers. I think this foresight to develop an open platform has paid off handsomely for Amazon. Today, Amazon is not simply the largest online retailer but also the leading commerce platform on the Web.

More recently, Amazon began to launch a set of infrastructure Web services targeted at all Web players not just e-tailers. These services include computing, storage, database solutions (see Solutions Catalog for a complete list). As others have highlighted, the number of startups increasingly using these services seems to be growing rapidly. Initial figures released by Amazon at a recent conference suggest these services are scaling nicely. This is clearly an effort that will take many years to fully develop and reach its full potential. But, when all is said and done, Amazon will be positioned as a major infrastructure player across the entire Web — pretty amazing.

In an environment of hypercompetition and rapid technology innovation, it is this type of visionary-driven initiatives that can continue to create long-term value for a company, and allow it to remain competitive. This is why I think a visionary CEO is more important than ever to ensure long-term business success in digital media.

Launching this type of cutting-edge business initiatives is hard to do for large companies. Their need to deliver results makes them less flexible. This is why executing on this type of initiatives requires a CEO with vision and commitment to drive them through their organizations. Senior operating senior executives have a hard time becoming strong advocates for this type of cutting-edge initiatives. The long-term nature of these ideas makes it a pretty risky for their careers. These bets require CEO-level support.

Needless to say, successful digital media businesses, like any other type of business, needs to deliver on their near-term financial results. However, they need to balance that with investing for the long-term. In digital media, product and business innovation are a “must” to ensure long-term survival and continuous growth.

Companies with CEO leadership that has a clear vision of how the industry, consumers, and technologies will evolve in the future will be ok. Those that lack this type of leadership will likely stumble.