Not quite a generation ago, a 30-something started a new type of company his friends raved about and sceptics sniped at. “We’re going to be unprofitable for a long time. And that’s our strategy,” he said in 1997 to Inc. magazine, two years after opening for business.

Today, Amazon.com, started by Jeff Bezos, looms over the shops and malls of the retail industry globally, enticing customers into online buying, often after these people have looked over items in brick-and-mortar stores first. This ‘Amazon effect’ devastates some retailers. An empty chair may have a lot to do with all of this. Every now and again, Bezos insists on leaving an open chair at a meeting table for ‘the customer, the most important person in the room’, reports Forbes Asia.