[kstrauser]

One thing that Amazon absolutely mastered was fast logistics. Sears thrived in a time where TV ads would sell things with an asterisk saying “allow 4-6 weeks for delivery”. They had 100+ years to bring their timelines down, yet Sears Prime with free rush delivery wasn’t a thing. I don’t know what it would have taken to revamp their supply lines to make that possible. And neither, I suspect, did they.

[DANmode]

A VP willing to risk their bonus.

[phil21]

You mean a board willing to risk everything and operate at a loss for a decade or more.

I doubt such a board would have lasted more than a few years at best.

Not to mention trying to change 100 plus years of technical and organizational debt while in-flight.

I don’t think Amazon could have come to be outside of the tech sector plus be a greenfield play. I could be wrong, but HN and techie folks in general seem to underestimate how hard it is to change existing organizations. It’s rarely a technical problem.