What does Jeff Bezos’ new ownership stake in English Premier League powerhouse Liverpool FC mean for the storied soccer club?
I was invited by Dan Clubbe of the Liverpool fan site The Redmen TV to talk about the Amazon founder’s recent investment, Bezos’ first real foray into sports ownership.
Across the 45-minute discussion, I shared thoughts about Bezos’ transformation from the nerdy, khaki-wearing entrepreneur of his early career to the higher-profile “Buff Bezos” of the past decade.
On the surface, it appears as if Bezos will, for now, take an arm’s-length approach to Liverpool. He’s investing through a consortium, 1892 Holdings, that owns about a 38% interest in the team and an option to buy it outright.
One point I made: Bezos leads a very busy life. The sci-fi nerd’s true passion is his space company, Blue Origin, and he is also spending considerable time as the co-CEO at newly formed AI startup Prometheus. And with a new wife (Lauren Sanchez Bezos, who seems to be the true sports fan between them) there may not be enough hours in the day for the Miami resident to worry much about the inner workings at Anfield.
But Bezos does bring enormous capital and business acumen to the team.
To better understand what this might mean for Liverpool, I suggested Clubbe and his mighty team of reporters take a closer look at Amazon’s famous Leadership Principles.
Some of the most relevant Leadership Principles include “Ownership,” which asks leaders to think long term and not trade lasting value for a quick result; “Customer Obsession,” which means starting with what the customer wants and working backward; and “Insist on the Highest Standards,” setting the bar higher than most people think reasonable.
That said, the Amazon principle of “Frugality” doesn’t really play well these days on the world soccer stage.
We talked about the changing nature of global soccer, driven by big personalities and big money, and the balancing act it takes to build a soccer club while respecting the community of fans. I noted how this tightrope was a hard one for Bezos to walk in terms of his relationship to Amazon’s hometown of Seattle, something that might give Liverpool fans pause.
Watch highlights from the discussion above, and subscribe to The Redmen TV for our full discussion. Listen to a much shorter analysis on last week’s GeekWire podcast.
