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History Of Amozon.com and Border Books
BUS 302 Week 4 Assignment
4/27/2012
Priscilla Elliott
Professor Arend |

History of Amazon and Border Books

Amazon.com began in the 1990’s as one the largest Internet sellers of media in the world today, and has expanded its selections to include clothing, beauty products, house wares, and thousands of other items. Amazon was founded by Jeff Bezos a thirty-two-year-old vice president at New York based D. E in 1994. Shaw. It’s been said that this business was established out of Mr. Bezos garage in Bellevue Washington. A gentleman by the name of Nick Hanauer took a look at Mr. Bezos Plan and decided to invest in it. His first investment totaled forty-thousand dollars. The site started out with a very plain design one would say. I would say due to the unattractiveness to its viewers it started out on shaky ground. Business wasn’t moving in the direction the wanted it too. Therefore there was another investment made in Amazon by a man named Tom Alburg of One hundred thousand dollars. This was done a year later after Amazon had started. This investment made it possible for them to make awesome changes to their current website. Amazon’s hosting capabilities increased and customers began to come from all over the world purchasing books. By 1997 Amazon revenue had generated to over $15 million dollars. That same year they went public and added CD’s and music to the website then later toys, video games and home improvement products. These products became the core of the business along with being able to purchase them online. The web site debuted in July 1995 and quickly became the number one book-related site on the Web. When it comes to business profitability is important to us, but its long-term profitability that’s important, not short-term profitability. This is the goal Mr. Bezos understood and worked towards along with his investors. There was an advantage that Amazon had over other stores which included initial public offering; the company cited important advantages of its online business model over the traditional book retailing industry model: “Physical store-based book retailers must make significant investments in inventory, real estate, and personnel for each retail location. Customers were able to purchase items with their credit cards while they ship them to your homes within the next few days.
The program then displayed information about the selection on a customer's computer screen, and gave the customer the option to order the books with a credit card and have the books shipped in a just a few days. Unlike its large competitors, such as Barnes & Noble and Borders, Amazon.com carried only about 2,000 titles in stock in its Seattle warehouse. Most orders through Amazon.com were placed directly through wholesalers and publishers, so no warehouse was needed. Amazon.com would simply receive the books from the other sources, and then ship them to the customer. At first, the company operated out of Bezos' garage, until it was clear that it was going to be a success, necessitating a move to a Seattle office, which served as the customer support, shipping, and receiving area. It was interesting that, because of the Internet, such a small venture could realize such a broad scope so quickly; within a month of launching the web site, Bezos and Amazon.com had filled orders from all 50 states and 45 other countries. These were just a few of the reasoning for Amazon success. According to Mr. Bezos, 3 reasons for Amazon’s success were focusing on selection, low prices, and reliable, convenient, fast delivery. It's the cumulative effect of having. With these ingredients the business was destined for success. During Amazon’s journey of success it ran into some haters. Barnes and Noble filed a lawsuit on 12 May 1997, alleging that Amazon's claim to be "the world's largest bookstore" was false. Barnes and Noble asserted it isn't a bookstore at all. It's a book broker." The suit was later settled out of court. Amazon continued to call itself "the world's largest bookstore. Wal-Mart also subsequently filed suit on 16 October 1998, alleging that Amazon had stolen trade secrets by hiring former Wal-Mart executives. Although this suit was settled out of court, it caused Amazon to implement internal restrictions and reassignment of the former Wal-Mart executives.
Then we have Borders’ who was also involved in bankruptcy. Bankruptcy also deals a tough blow to the publishing industry. Estimates indicate that Borders accounts for about 8 percent of total book sales in the U.S., down from 15.6 percent in 1996, according to a 2000 report by Daniel Raff, a professor at the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School. Borders accounts for about 14.3 percent of sales at physical bookstores in the U.S., according to a report by IBIS World. This took place 40 years after Borders began business. Borders opened in Ann Arbor, Mich. in 1971 and grew into an international presence, most recently operating about 500 superstores in the U.S. The flagship store has been a downtown retail anchor on East Liberty in the former Jacobson’s department store since 1994. I would like to enlighten you for a moment on the history of Borders. Borders Group Inc. grew out of an independent book store that opened on Ann Arbor's South State Street in 1971. That name and its reputation as a quality book retailer developed into a leading national brand. Borders became one of the city's largest employers and most significant corporate headquarters, as well as a point of pride for the region. When it came down the management team of Border, they weren’t really dependable, responsible, and intelligence enough to make the best decisions for the wellbeing of the company. It looks like there was a major lack in good leadership and motivation for Border according to its success consistency. It seems to me that they did not have a well design global strategy for long term success and global environment. Management for Amazon had what it took to soar and that’s what happened. Amazon managers had definiteness of purpose as one of the success secrets of the world’s most successful business management teams. Another was due to Successful business teams that had adequate knowledge of the business of the company. There was also commitment at the core and last but not least result oriented. As with any informed decision-making process, we move into the complexity decision space with the best toolset and as deep an understanding of the situation as possible. That toolset may include experience, education, relationship networks, knowledge of past successes and historic individual preferences, multiple frames of reference, cognitive insights, wellness (mental, emotional and physical) and knowledge of related external and internal environmental pressures.
In my conclusion; ways a company should build in flexibility to back up its decision-making process so as to adapt to changing market conditions would be:
•Reaffirm & Recommit to the Purpose: Assure that the organization's purpose - including mission and vision - is absolutely clear. Obtain commitment to the purpose at all levels and develop objectives that support its achievement; •Clarify & Commit to the Values: Define the company's DNA and assure that the hiring process includes some type of assessment to assure candidates possess the desired values. It is important to understand that, regardless of how successful an individual appears to be performing - if he or she does not follow the same values as the rest of the organization, damage will occur; •Align Focus on the Customer: In relation to the purpose, assure that everything the organization does is focused on the customer. As Gene Perkins, retired Group Vice President-Flow Products at Emerson Electric Company once said to his management team, "If we're not thinking about the customer first in everything we do, we might as well fold up our tents and go home;"
References:

Green, Lee, "Net Profits," Spirit Magazine, March 1998, pp. 52-54, 126-28.

Haines, Thomas, "Amazon.com Sales Grow While Loss Widens," Seattle Times, January 23, 1998, p. C1.

Hansell, Saul, "Amazon's Risky Christmas," New York Times, November 28, 1999.

Hazleton, Lesley, "Jeff Bezos: How He Built a Billion Dollar Net Worth Before His Company Even Turned A Profit," Success, July 1998, pp. 58-60.