Business Extra: Amazon’s Ronaldo Mouchawar on charting growth in a crisis

Can there be winners in a global pandemic? For people, certainly not. But businesses can tell a different story - and Amazon is certainly one.

Host Kelsey Warner is joined this week by Ronaldo Mouchawar, VP of Amazon Mena, to talk about navigating the Covid-19 pandemic amid record demand.

With more customers at home and shopping online, Amazon’s e-commerce sales are booming. Remote work has also boosted use of cloud computing services - which accounted for three-quarters of its operating profit in the first quarter, with AWS holding about a third of global market share, trouncing its nearest competitor, Microsoft.

Its stock price is up 45 per cent year-to-date and some expect this massive upswing will make founder and chief executive Jeff Bezos the world’s first trillionaire.

Amid the pandemic, Mr Bezos took back the reigns to handle day-to-day running of the company. He said, when the company reported first quarter earnings at the end of April, “this crisis is demonstrating the adaptability and durability of Amazon’s business as never before, but it’s also the hardest time we’ve ever faced”.