Adaptability not only results in pricing power but also the ability to create new markets. Amazon (NASDAQ:AMZN) provides a prime example. Looking back at Amazon’s humble beginnings in 1994, clearly one of the reasons the company became the world’s largest bookseller was that Amazon created entirely new markets. The Kindle E-reader was not only a product innovation but also a business model innovation. Printing and shipping costs suddenly disappeared, combining improved convenience for consumers with higher profits for Amazon. Company founder Jeff Bezos and his team then proved they would not be satisfied to sit on their laurels by parlaying their expertise in cloud computing, gained from running their retail business, to an Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) business for third parties. Thus, was born Amazon Web Services (AWS), which reached $10 billionin sales even faster than Amazon’s retail business and which one day might surpass the retail segment in size.7
From David Global Fund Semi-Annual Review 2016.
