100 Cutting Edge Leaders In Marketing, Media and Tech

Presenting the 100 innovative leaders changing the game in media, marketing and technology.

- David Gianatasio

1 JEFF BEZOS CEO, chairman, president, founder, Amazon Revenue: $177.9 billion

Can Bezos cure America’s healthcare blues?

No stranger to bold initiatives, Amazon’s founder and chief executive began writing a prescription in January, joining Berkshire Hathaway’s Warren Buffett and JPMorgan Chase’s Jamie Dimon in a venture designed to lower costs for consumers. Though details about the project have been scarce, Bezos made two key moves last month: naming surgeon and Harvard professor Dr. Atul Gawande to lead the initiative, and acquiring online pharmacy PillPack, which operates in 50 states.

“Like everything Amazon touches, it will make filling prescriptions more convenient for customers,” says Thomas Ordahl, chief strategy officer at brand consultancy Landor. “It already has the capabilities to ensure fast and speedy service. Given its size, it could possibly even be able to use its negotiating power to provide customers with lower prescription drug prices— especially on generic medications.”

Though he adds this caveat: “Healthcare is a much more regulated and complex industry [than retail], so to completely transform the current healthcare system could be out of reach even for Amazon.”

Fair enough. But transforming complex, seemingly inflexible systems is what Bezos has been all about since founding Amazon in 1994 and remaking the way billions of people buy and sell stuff every day.