...1. What does it means to have the mission, “the earth most customer-centric company”? How well is Amazon achieving this mission? The concept of customer-centric and its benefits has been discussed for more than 50 years. Drucker (1954) wrote in his book, The Practise of Management, that “it is the customer who determines what a business is, what it produces, and whether it will prosper.” Levitt (1960) proposed that firms should not focus on selling but rather on fulfilling customer needs. Gavan ( 2012) further elaborate that customer centricity doesn’t mean doing everything customers want. It means focusing on what they value most, in line with overall business strategy and brand promise. For example, the most important thing for a budget airline customer is price. While passengers might like extra leg room, they don’t want it at the expense of low airfares. Danish (2006) summarised the characteristic of an organisation with customer-centric as below:- Basic Philosophy | Serve customers; all decisions start with the customer and opportunities for advantage | Business Relationship | Relationship Oriented | Product Positioning | Serve customers; all decisions start with the customer and opportunities for advantage | Organizational Structure | Customer segment centers, customer relationship managers, customer segment sales team | Organizational Focus | Externally focused, customer relationship development, profitability through customer loyalty; employees are customer...
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...Introduction Amazon is a powerhouse business that has grown to an outrageous size very quickly. In just twenty years, Amazon.com has revolutionized the Internet world by banishing geography, and allowing everyone with an Internet connection and a computer to browse a limitless universe of goods all in the comfort of their homes. Our team has evaluated and analyzed this company, and in doing so, have gone through theoretical fluctuations in its financial statements. For example, what would happen if Amazon experienced an increase in long-term debt of ten percent? Well, long-term debt consists of loans and financial obligations lasting more than one year. While a portion of long-term liabilities must be paid within the year, it would stand to reason that there is much more going on inside the company than an increase in long-term debt. Where did this increase come from? How has it benefited the company and its shareholders? Bonds are one of the most common types of long-term debt, and they are used to accomplish numerous objectives. The most common reason being is to bring in immediate income. This capital can go to any financial need such as; research expenses, advertising, license and permit fees, and to the purchasing of supplies and equipment. There are many good reasons why a company would incur long-term debt, but too much debt could obviously cause problems. One area of long-term debts that we observed is the analysis of the debt to equity ratio. The following includes...
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...Amazon vs. Barnes and Nobles vs. Borders Allison Foster Instructor Steven Brown BUS 508 – Business Enterprise April 30, 2011 Week Four Originally named “Cadavera”, Amazon was founded by Jeff Bezos in 1994. The purpose of this company was to provide the largest online bookstore ranging from compact discs, books to electronics and apparel. Amazon made it’s own individual mark in 1994 when the owner created a business plan that had no predicted profit for the first four years. According to (wikipedia.com), by the year 2001 Amazon turned a five million dollar profit. The Pros and Cons of the Amazon Business Today Amazon has grown more than just the worlds largest bookstore. Amazon created many different entities such as; Amazon Marketplace, Amazon Fresh Market, Amazon MP3, Amazon Payments, Amazon Prime, Amazon Kindle, and Amapedi. Amazon.com is also eco friendly by promoting the Go Green campaign. This company partners with American Red Cross and raise funds for national and environmental disasters such as Hurricane Katrina, Hati Earthquakes, and 9/11. Although Amazon.com has grown to be successful, the company still endures advantages and disadvantages of diversification of business and specialization. Advantages of Amazon.com are the business to consumer relationships, vast amount of diverse product selections, low cost of merchandise, convenience, personalization, and free delivery . Over the years, Amazon has dominated the e-business and internet...
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...Wal-Mart and Amazon QUESTION 1 Identify the advantages of each company Wal-Mart: 1) Huge amount of stores (over 11,000 stores in 28 countries) 2) International Operations (They operate quite different abroad) 3) Strong Strategy: “We’re doing good, but we can do better” 4) Global network 5) Low prices 6) On and off lines operations 7) Scale of goods (from pin to piano) Amazon: 1) More than 100 mills. Items 2) Well-developed IT 3) Logistic infrastructure 4) Easy to enter (you can buy goods from every part of the world) 5) Delivering 6) Global Reach (Amazon.fr-France, .co.uk-UK, .co.jp-Japan) 7) Flexible prices 8) Strategy (not to let competitors enter the market) QUESTION 2 Identify the cost structures of each company (Cost structures refers to whether they have more fixed costs or variable costs). Wal-Mart demonstrates relatively low cost structure. It has low level of Fixed Cost (FC) and larger variable cost (VC). Because, for each product that Wal-Mart enters, they have to pay for the supply. But as for Amazon, they have opposite situation. It has high level of FC while the VC is lower. QUESTION 3 Which company do you think has the lowest Average Fixed Costs? Why? Which company do you think has the lowest average variable costs? Why? Amazon has the lowest Average Fixed Cost (AFC), because FC consists of renting, amortization (depreciation during their use, industrial use and calculated in cash equivalent), insurance, salaries, operating costs of buildings...
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...it affects me. Introduction: Amazon and Tax Avoidance Part I: Amazon Part II: Taxes in the U.S. Part III: The IRS/Penalty for Tax Avoidance Part IV: Amazon and Tax Avoidance Part V: Amazon in Europe Part VI: Amazon in 2014 Part VII: How does it affect me? Part VIII: Conclusion Introduction: The topic I choose to write about is how Amazon.com website avoided collecting sales taxes in the U.S. for nearly it whole existences. I’m going to introduce amazon and what the company is about and the role they played as more then successful online retailer. Then introduce the topic of taxes and state taxes, sales tax, and the importance collecting and paying taxes, and the benefits the country and its residents get for paying such taxes. The amazon company will then be analyze and in operating structure and design and learn how they avoided paying taxes in their home country and how they brought their operation over seas and did the same. And why this topic and subject matter is and should be severely important for future business owners and managers on business structuring operations. Part I: Amazon Amazon is the largest online retailer as of 2014. And how did they accomplish this? Jeff Bezo is the founder and amazon.com and it all started in his garage in the state Washington. Amazon first started off as an online bookstore and soon began to venture off to selling CD’s, DVD’s, and computer software. I’m currently an Amazon user and I use it from buying everything...
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...Focus and Market: Amazon The first two parts of the book Strategic Thinking made me realize how and why large companies such as Amazon, Google, and IBM are still so successful up until this day. Primarily focusing on Amazon, which was founded in 1995, I actually have noticed the drastic changes in the way the company has been running its business over these past few years in comparison to a decade ago. Amazon’s business structure manages to keep up with the market by constantly introducing technology that meets the needs and improves the lives of shoppers and sellers around the world. The company and its e-commerce business is still continuing to grow and evolve as the world’s e-commerce platform. Based on the information I have learned from the first two parts of the book, Amazon changed the rules of the game by offering more services than just selling a book and dove into new opportunities to keep up with the ever changing market. The greatest take away for me in part I of the book was the idea of “strategic thinking”. I used to think strategic planning was one of the most important elements to have in a business, but strategic thinking is the real prerequisite to success because it places the focus on a long term mindset. Because our economy operates in rapid change, it is crucial for businesses to keep up with it. The book places a big emphasis on what the focus should be while making sure that it is in the right activities. Amazon’s business structure is a great example...
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...keep the Earth’s best talents. Rather than be bound by a set of organizational competencies--which might help an organization duplicate its current successes but can ultimately be self-limiting--at Amazon, we stay focused on customer need and develop the new competencies that we think are needed to adapt to changing needs, that has helped us stay innovative, reaching beyond what we already know” (Cornell University, 2012). Amazon.com’s CEO, Jeff Bezo wanted his employees to be invested in the company, that means being 100% committed to the company and wanting success for everyone, not just themselves. The President of Human Resources, Tony Galbato, along with Bezo has a lot of faith in the company and its employees stating, “We have lots of smart people with lots of positive energy, driven by the need to build and continually improve the customer experience” (Cornell University, 2012). That seems to be the trend with Amazon; taking care of its customers and offering the best possible quality without the additional cost. To promote innovation within the company, Bezo relies on a group of skilled HR professionals to find the right individuals for the job. They focus on finding those who will take pride in their job and will want to continue to improve themselves as well as the company. Galbato affirms, “People grow on the job, through long-term career paths, through formalized leadership and technical skills training, and through informal mentoring.” Bezo has...
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...was optimistic for this brand new business model. People still enjoy the physical store, and skeptical on online shopping. However, with more than a decade efforts, Amazon was named the world’s top brand ahead of common names like Coca-Cola, Microsoft, and so on. Amazon and its online business model had creased more than $34 billion revenue, and equally 80 million people visit Amazon.com every month. In order to achieve greater success, Amazon need to overcome the challengeable external environment, strengthen organization structure, fulfill the product line, and leverage its brand strategy. CURRENT MISSION, GOAL, AND STRATEGY The current mission statement for the Amazon.com is “to be the Earth’s most customer-centric company, where customers can find and discover anything they might want to buy online, and endeavor to offer customers the lowest prices.” Amazon added 13 new fulfillment centers in 2010 and another 15 new center in the 2011 and company is planning to launch cloud technology in 2011 which allowed customers to store and access music. The company believed that in the nearly future this technology could bring the internal strength and competitive advantage for Amazon.com. INTERNAL ANALYSIS: See attached IFEM Amazon.com internally with an IFEM score of 3.25 FINANCE: Amazon is on strong financial position now; online sales reached $9.91 billion in the 2nd quarter of 2011, nearly 51 percent increase compared with last year. According to...
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...has a vivid effect towards the competitive existing incumbent firms. This kind of innovation is a hybrid of both technological and market innovations which make old technologies obsolete. It is a technology based on new- value structure which provide value experience for new low-end customers in a highly competitive market which later spreads to the incumbent market as well. By utilizing this kind of innovation, the already existing markets will be forced to modify their strategies to suit the new innovation and hence will result in those companies having to undergo a lot more changes to both try and crush the old technology with a more advanced one as well as to try and adapt this technology in their business successfully. Let us take the example of Cloud Computing which uses a network of remote servers hosted on the Internet to store, manage, and process data, and which does not require a local server or a personal computer that is currently being used. The initial entrant to disrupt the local server trend was Amazon through their Amazon Web Services. In 2006, Amazon Web Services (AWS) started to offer IT infrastructure services to businesses in the form of web services - now commonly known as cloud computing. Amazon is the company responsible for the innovation...
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...Amazon & Rackspace Changes to Market Strategies I. The Star Model The main reason The Star Model was chosen was because I am able to utilize both facets of this change model: aligned and misaligned. I feel that this is very critical to point out because this effects how one company can be so successful while the other one struggle to stay competitive in the market place. In utilizing the star model, we will take an in-depth look at each of the roles that make up this versatile model: strategy, structure, processes and lateral capability, reward systems and people practices. A. As shown above, a figure taken from “Managing Organizational Change,” Strategy is featured as the basis of this model. Meaning that nothing else is able to exist without having a firm and conclusive strategy to lead the organization. This means that leadership must have the vision and direction to lead their organization to have the competitive advantage in their perspective industry. In the case of Amazon, it was clear from the beginning that their vision and direction was to utilize the internet for online sales. Although their scope might have not been defined, having such a enormous portfolio, they are able to expand at will and touch into untapped or vulnerable market offering them a clear competitive advantage. In the case of Rackspace, upper management decided to specialize in a particular market utilizing the “cloud” as their platform...
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...Comparing Two Similar Companies Business 302 Strayer University August 12, 2011 Abstract In comparing, Amazon.com and Borders Books, two of the most prominent sources of literature within the industry at one time offering a great selection of reading material for students and avaricious readers. For 40 years Borders Books served the public with establishing 659 stores at the height of their success but after years of debt the struggling company could not withstand the changing times and competitive market. Meanwhile, Amazon survived the worst of the struggling economy and competitive market at its peak during hardship. Amazon a fortune 500 company with many other diversified items to greater serves the public and its loyal customers. In times of adversity and economy failure Amazon found ways to adapt to the changing conditions of the market, contemporaneously Borders went on a downward spiral and never recovered. Introduction The history of Amazon and Borders Books goes back to times of great success at the height of competition in online shopping. Realizing the popularity of online shopping Amazon started changing with the time, which was the differences between them and Borders because paperbacks were becoming obsolete just like everything else within society after the Internet. Amazon one of the first big companies to sell books over the Internet in 1994 quickly diversified with numerous other items (Schneider, 2011). Borders management did not...
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...Kunchok Wangmo Amazon Business Model Due date- March 17,2013 Amazon.com, Inc. is a multinational electronic commerce company, initially started off as an online bookstore, but soon diversified, selling DVDs, CDs, MP3 downloads, software, video games, electronics, apparel, furniture, food, toys, and jewelry. An American entrepreneur named Jeffrey Preston Bezos founded it in 1994. It has employees over or around 28,300. It is the global leader in e-commerce. It is mostly known for its wide range of products, and has a worldwide network of fulfillment. Amazon’s mission statement is “to leverage technology and the expertise of our invaluable employees to provide our customers with the best shopping experience on the Internet”. The company’s vision is to be earth’s most customer centric company; to build a place where people can come to find and discover anything they might want to buy online. Because of such mission statement and vision, the company’s values are customer obsession, innovation, bias of action, ownership, high hiring bar and frugality. I have been a amazon user for almost five years and one of the biggest advantage of shopping in amazon, is that they offer low price products everyday and its not just on some specific products, they apply low price on the entire product range. I am aware that Amazon.com Inc. invests in a lot new businesses and new product, like Zappos and imbd, by spending money on brand awareness and getting new customers. So basically Amazon.com Inc...
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...Over the proceeding years CanGo would establish itself as a regional online success story, providing customers with the opportunity to purchase books, music, videos and games in an online environment. As the country became consumed by an economic crisis, CanGo somehow managed to sustain its success by providing customers with affordable options for entertainment. In this way, CanGo was able to capture a mass market of a variety of segmented consumers. Despite CanGo’s initial success, however, the organization is not without its fair share of concerns. The primary issue with CanGo is that it lacks a formal strategic business plan. The company has also failed to clearly define what its short-term goals and long-term goals are and how it plans to go about realizing those goals. The company also has problems with its current organizational structure. Although roles are clearly defined, CanGo often succumbs to a centralized form of decision-making, with Elizabeth Bennett micromanaging to such a degree that the decision-making process almost becomes paralyzed. Poor communication has also proven to be an issue at CanGo, resulting in staff members unclear in terms of goals and...
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...Executive Summary The Manhattan Project Company is a consulting firm that focuses on the comprehensive needs of business organization. We offer a full range of expertise that can assist a company in retaining a competitive advantage against its competitors. We are a staff of five experienced professionals who have successfully helped many organizations plan, create and achieve their objectives. We offer a professional team approach that can bring balance to any organization. The Manhattan Project Company’s consultants specialize in specific areas which include services such as SWOT analysis, sales and marketing, competitive analysis, finance, strategic planning and many others to assist any organization with their needs. We invite business owners and organizations to choose our services and let us show you how we can help you enhance your business. Introduction CanGo’s executive management has contracted with The Manhattan Project Company to provide consulting services in order to understand how to grow its business. We have looked at some areas within the organization and found a few key areas that will assist the company in reaching its goals. SWOT Analysis Strengths: CanGo has turn out to be one of the fastest growing online small business companies. CanGo has different variety of products to offer. They have labeled themselves as “the customer”. By doing this it permits them to keep the question “what do we want” in the front position of the...
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...of customers and partner companies, there is a large user base to support the huge size. Choosing B2C as the platform, Amazon kept a massive user base, and shared it to the third party enterprises. The more high-quality enterprises are attracted, in turn, the more valuable the platform is. It is because it can meet more different needs of users. When Amazon conducted the platform business, it had already had the support of tens of millions of users. It applies to commodities also, Amazon share the developed categories to the third party enterprises. Meanwhile, Amazon actively opens up more new categories with them. It makes Amazon’s platform have sufficient depth and competitiveness in each category. Moreover, Amazon treats its partner companies and itself equally. The goods of the partner companies and its self-operated purchased goods get the same exposure to have the same opportunity to be displayed in the search listing page of the site. In each product (no matter self-operated or associated), both commodity prices and entrance of partner companies information are clearly shown. Resources of homepage and channel pages are also equally shared to associate enterprises. The treatment on different partner companies is non-discriminatory, not depends on the size of their business to provide differentiated services, but depends on their business type and charging. Also, the search ranking, recommended frequency, results of the goods of the partner companies would not be amended. In...
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