Amazon.com: Get Big Fast [Bargain Price] [Paperback]

Robert Spector (Author)

Product Details

• Paperback: 304 pages
• Publisher: Harper Paperbacks (January 22, 2002)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0066620422
• ASIN: B002RAR2XY
• Product Dimensions: 7.8 x 5.3 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 9.6 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 3.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (17 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #3,400,266 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Robert Spector is recognized worldwide as the ultimate authority on The Nordstrom Way to Customer Service Excellence. His best-selling business classic The Nordstrom Way: The Inside Story of America's #1 Customer Service Company is the first and only up-close and personal look at how this company became the national standard of customer service. BusinessWeek said it "bubbles with customer service insights."

In March 2012, there will be a completely new edition of the book: The Nordstrom Way to Customer Service Excellence: How to Become the Nordstrom of Your Industry. Advance copies can be purchased today.

Robert has been involved in customer service since the age of 13, when he first went to work in his mother and father's butcher shop in the farmers' market in Perth Amboy, New Jersey. Working alongside his parents, he learned firsthand what it takes to take care of customers--and to keep them loyal. Those lessons inspired his latest book, The Mom & Pop Store, which features interviews with successful independent retailers from all over the world. Robert believes that the elements of world-class customer service are the same, whether they come from Spector's Meat Market, Nordstrom, or Amazon.com, the subject of his international bestseller Amazon.com: Get Big Fast.

Robert has been published in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, and USA Today, among others. When he is not speaking, training and consulting internationally about customer service, he lives in Seattle.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars THE RISE OF A CORPORATE AND CULTURAL E-COMMERCE LEVIATHAN..., July 24, 2005

By 

Lawyeraau (Balmoral Castle) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (COMMUNITY FORUM 04)    (TOP 100 REVIEWER)    (HALL OF FAME REVIEWER)   

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This review is from: Amazon.com: Get Big Fast (Paperback)

This is an unauthorized account of an e-commerce leviathan's rise from obscurity. So, if one is looking for a detailed business module or a blue print of its technology, look elsewhere, as this is not the book for you. What this book offers is a very interesting, well-organized narrative on the early, heady days of Amazon.com. when it was just an upstart internet bookseller looking to make its mark big time, as well as a look at its founder, Jeff Bezos, painting a flattering and intriguing portrait of this now multi-billionaire.

For its founder, Jeff Bezos, it was not, however, just about the money. If that were the case, he would never have left his seven figure Wall Street job. For him, it was about the opportunity to be on the ground floor of a business that would change the retailing community forever. Jeff Bezos, a true visionary, chose to take that challenge, and in doing so, he would forever change the dot.com world and the retailing community. The author, a business reporter for various publications, delineates just how it was that Jeff Bezos did so.

This book offers up an interesting summary on how Jeff Bezos was able to take the online community by storm and upset the status quo. The author provides a biographical narrative on who Jeff Bezos is. It is grounded in the context of where he grew up, his schooling, as well as his early interests. It segues from his Ivy League educational underpinnings to his foray into the upper echelons of Wall Street, deriving the experience that he needed in order to take on the risky proposition of starting up his own dot.com company. It is clearly the story of a visionary and decision maker with heart.

The book succinctly details the rise of Amazon.com as an e-commerce force with which to be reckoned. It tracks its growth and change from an upstart, fledging, by- the-seat-of-its-pants-company to one that is now a staple of the popular lexicon. It superficially explores the philosophy of Jeff Bezos in terms of having his business "get big fast" and the technological, financial, and logistical hurdles that the business needed to overcome in order to do so. The author also keys in on the ability of Jeff Bezos to think out of the box, when so many business pundits said that what he sought to do could not be done.

The overall texture of this book is enhanced by Information provided by those with some insider knowledge, such as those who knew Jeff Bezos, those who worked with him in those early halcyon days, rival "brick and mortar" executives, business analysts, and financiers, among others. This book, which is a look at a visionary and his company, details how that visionary was able to transform his company into a veritable cultural phenomenon unto itself. Those who are devotees of Amazon will find this well-written book heady stuff, indeed, as it makes for absorbing reading.

8 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars A recitation of history, with no analysis, August 2, 2003

By 

Tom Jordahl "tomjordahl" (Arlington, MA United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Amazon.com: Get Big Fast (Paperback)

While many who are reading this review are probably interested in the website story, this book is probably not the one to read. The author did not have access to Jeff Bezos and many other key players when writing this book, and the lack of first hand information shows.

It reads like a detailed, outsiders view of the history of the company. This happened, then that happened, then the site did this other thing. There is very little discussion of *why* these events and actions were important. And most importantly, very little context as to how the site changed the face of internet commerce.

This book is certainly not the definitive work on [site], which is still to be written. A better (and funnier) look at the internals of Amazon can be found in "21 Dog years - Doing time at Amazon.com".

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Good book, needs updating again, September 27, 2005

By 

J. Martens (Portland, Oregon) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Amazon.com: Get Big Fast (Paperback)

This book does a great job at telling the Amazon.com story. Nice to hear that an entrepreneur actually planned their business and didn't just get lucky.

Now that we've hit 2005, it would be great to get another update (the current final chapter is a bit of an update from couple of years ago). What is the story behind their profit? Stock? The door desks?

Overall....a good, quick read.