It was inevitable. The Apple has finally fallen from the tree. In its place is Amazon, the astonishingly innovative company with sales of $61 billion that continues to bulldoze through industries with acquisitions of consumer-products companies, online sites, e-stores, clothing and accessories, beauty products, and just about everything under the kitchen sink including The Washington Post.

Yes, Jeff Bezos last week announced his purchase of The Washington Post for$250 million for the purpose of ______ insert best guess.

As Fast Company states in its September, 2013 issue, “Amazon has done a lot more than become a stellar retailer. It has reinvented, disrupted, redefined, and renovated the global marketplace.”

Apple built its empire under a force to be reckoned with who is no longer of this plane. It focused on new technologies and really smart devices that spawned mobility for the technology savvy and millennials.

And then we learned last week that it’s a new day, Android has assumed control of the mobile phone market. Another previously secure realm wrested from Apple’s grip.
Back to Amazon. As the powerhouses in mobile cellular technology and tablet duked it out for an ever larger decreasing slice of the pie, Amazon steadily grew its empire as an answer to the every man.

Amazon realized the consumer is in control; the consumer has the power.

Consumer is King.

As you well know, we’re in the post-social media adoption era. Consumers are on board and have built mini-empires of their own on Facebook and blogs. There is mass consumption of content.

What’s more, consumers now have the simple ability to complain, and influence purchases. When the pocketbook is no longer free flowing for the latest novel gadget and gizmo by Apple, then consumers turn to online shopping for the best deals.

How did Amazon do it? Through blood, sweat and tears; through ample quarters of no gains, and by recognizing consumer is king.

13 Social Business Tips For Your Company

Scale these 13 tips from the Amazon playbook to your business:
1. Innovate or die.
2. Insulate against irrelevance.
3. Embrace change.
4. Be creative and be human.
5. Serve your customers everywhere.
6. Become a social business.
7. Engage leadership in social media and earned media.
8. Make your consumer king.
9. Breed loyal followers.
10. Always look into the future; carpe diem.
11. Track, analyze, test, learn, execute; repeat.
12. Be smart and thoughtfully smarter.
13. Build a solid and efficient infrastructure.

Amazon is ripping up retail like the roadrunner, and the big box retailers are shoring up their defenses. The shopping mall as we know it is dead. Get out while you still can.