What Jeff Bezos Did on Last Day as Amazon CEO

Jeff Bezos’ last day is July 5. David Ryder/Getty Images

The world’s richest person Jeff Bezos will soon leave his job as Amazon CEO after 27 years at the company’s helm to focus on his other ventures, such as space travel. His last day is July 5. After that, he will be replaced by Andy Jassy, current head of Amazon Web Services.

Bezos will transition to the role of executive chairman of Amazon’s board, meaning that he will still have a say in major company decisions but no longer be involved in day-to-day operations. One of his last acts as CEO is updating Amazon’s “leadership principles,” a list of more than a dozen tenets that guide decision making and define company culture.

On Thursday, Amazon announced two new additions on the existing principles: “Strive to be Earth’s Best Employer” and “Success and Scale Bring Broad Responsibility.”

The first calls on leaders to “work every day to create a safer, more productive, higher performing, more diverse, and more just work environment,” Amazon says on its website. “Leaders ask themselves: Are my fellow employees growing? Are they empowered? Are they ready for what’s next? Leaders have a vision for and commitment to their employees’ personal success, whether that be at Amazon or elsewhere.”

Amazon has often faced criticism on its harsh work environment, especially during the early months of the pandemic when e-commerce demand surged. This new principle in line with what Bezos laid out in his final letter to shareholders earlier this year, in which he acknowledged that Amazon needs to do a better job for employees.

The second new principle, “Success and Scale Bring Broad Responsibility,” calls on Amazon to take more social responsibilities as the world’s largest online retailer and cloud computing company.

“We started in a garage, but we’re not there anymore,” says the company website. “We are big, we impact the world, and we are far from perfect. We must be humble and thoughtful about even the secondary effects of our actions.”

Amazon now has 16 leadership principles, including early ones like customer obsession, ownership, think big and frugality, among others. The last time Amazon updated the list was in 2015 when it added “Learn and Be Curious.”