Amazon CEO Andy Jassy has landed on the cover of Time as the magazine released its second annual list of the 100 Most Influential Companies in the world on Wednesday.
Jassy is one of three cover stars for the list, with each getting a more in-depth profile or Q&A. The other two are television star and producer Mindy Kaling of Kaling International, and Bang Si-hyuk of HYBE, the South Korean company transforming the music business.
In his interview, Jassy spoke to Time about “what drives him — and Amazon — to keep reaching.”
He touched on such things as how he defines Amazon right now; how he manages such a sprawling tech giant; how he gets speed out of such a big organization; and whether he’s trying to put his own stamp on Amazon after succeeding founder Jeff Bezos as CEO.
“I have an incredible amount of respect for Jeff, but I haven’t thought of this opportunity in the context of following an icon or needing to put a stamp on the CEO role. In the context in which I started in the role, we were in the middle of a global pandemic, and whatever role we thought Amazon played in the world pretty significantly changed, with respect to getting PPE, to getting food, clothing, all sorts of items people needed to be comfortable. We grew two to three times faster than we expected because so many things were shut down. We built a fulfillment-center footprint over the first 25 years of Amazon that we had to double in 24 months. So, you don’t expect to do that and you don’t plan to do that.”
Seattle-based development studio Rec Room, the company behind the self-titled and fast-growing VR application “Rec Room,” also makes the list of companies, under the “pioneers” banner.
Rec Room, a 2022 GeekWire Awards finalist in the Deal of the Year category, raised $145 million in new funding in December, bringing its current valuation to $3.5 billion.
Smart-home device maker Wyze Labs also made the list. The Seattle-area startup has launched more than 30 products, including everything from security cameras to robot vacuums to thermostats. It raised $110 million in July.
Time said 37 million players use the Rec Room’s social virtual reality app “to create and share a huge variety of games and other digital experiences, making it one of the biggest, most varied, and earliest examples of what’s possible in the metaverse.”
To create the list, Time says it solicited nominations across sectors including health care, entertainment, technology, and more from its global network of editors and correspondents, as well as from industry experts. Time editors then evaluated each on key factors, including relevance, impact, innovation, leadership, ambition, and success.
Editor’s note: This story was updated to include Wyze Labs.
