Amazon’s response to COVID-19 will be under a microscope Wednesday morning as the company holds its shareholder meeting virtually for the first time.
Employees and legislators are pressuring Amazon be more transparent about the toll of the disease on its workers, and to take further action to ensure their safety. At the same time, the company is facing questions from shareholders over its spending on COVID-19 initiatives, expected to total $4 billion this quarter alone.
Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos addressed the company’s COVID-19 response extensively in his annual letter, which typically provides the blueprint for his prepared remarks to shareholders.
In the midst of all this, the shift to an online format promises to change the dynamics of the event in multiple ways.
Absent will be the giant “Bezos Bot,” the dancers, and the rest of the spectacle that typically surrounds the meeting on the sidewalks of Seattle’s Fremont neighborhood.
Gone, as well, will be the freewheeling live audience Q&A with Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos, replaced with questions submitted by shareholders.
But for the first time, people around the world will be able to watch the meeting, either live or afterward. Participation in the virtual meeting is reserved for shareholders, but the company says it will make a replay available for viewing by anyone afterward on its investor relations site, along with its answers to submitted questions.
Amazon says in its proxy statement that the virtual meeting is “an important step to enhancing accessibility to our Annual Meeting for all of our shareholders and reducing the carbon footprint of our activities,” in addition to addressing the “evolving public health and safety considerations” from COVID-19.
The availability of the video is actually a big change. With the exception of some hand-selected video snippets last year, the company has traditionally opted not to stream or distribute audio or video from inside the event. Amazon required shareholders and media to refrain from recording or taking pictures as a condition of attending.
This means that many people who follow the company, including many shareholders, have never before gotten a glimpse inside Amazon’s annual meeting.
For the few hundred shareholders who attended each year, the in-person event was a rare opportunity to see and hear Bezos and other Amazon leaders give a detailed business update and field questions.
Amazon’s growth into a global tech giant has also made the meeting an annual destination for groups seeking to hold the company accountable on issues including labor, the environment, artificial intelligence and product safety.
Shareholders have submitted eleven proposals this year, on topics including food waste; law enforcement’s use of Amazon’s technologies for surveillance; and policies and controls on products that promote hatred, violence or bias. Another proposal revives an effort to replace Bezos as board chair and require the director in that position to be independent.
Inside the meeting last year, a group of Amazon employees stood in solidarity to press the company to take more aggressive action to reduce its impact on the environment. Amazon several months later announced its “Climate Pledge,” with Bezos saying the company was “done being in the middle of the herd on this issue.”
The same group, Amazon Employees for Climate Justice, has submitted a proposal this year asking the company’s board to address the issue of environmental racism. Two leaders of the group who spoke out against the company were fired earlier this year “for repeatedly violating internal policies.”
The live audience Q&A tended to be the most revealing part of the in-person event. Responding to shareholders, Bezos has delivered some of his most widely quoted lines of business philosophy, such as the importance of being “willing to be misunderstood for long periods of time.”
The event has also served as an impromptu forum for Amazon customers, such as the frustrated Prime member who asked Bezos to personally accept her product return last year.
We’ll find out soon if the virtual version of the event can rival those moments. Amazon’s 2020 shareholder meeting begins at 9 a.m. Pacific on Wednesday morning. Check back for coverage.
