...Assignment #4: Capstone Project BUS 599, Fall Quarter Abstract and brief summary In a competitive market, a company needs to formulate policies and strategies to maintain above average profitability. Corporate management must create strategies and capitalize on evolving competitive markets (Lindgrin, 2012). Both the companies Yahoo and Amazon are constantly implementing such strategies to maintain a reputation that stays ahead of the market trends, information system and globalization. This study will evaluate the success of both companies’ corporate-level strategies in terms of horizontal integration, vertical integration, strategic outsourcing and diversification, and will determine the type of strategy that contributed most effectively to the creation of a successful and profitable multibusiness model. Additionally, this paper will recommend an appropriate new strategy for each company that may maximize profitability and improved competitiveness in the industry. Yahoo!, Inc. Competitive analysis To better understand Yahoo’s internal and external opportunities and threats, in order to better estimate Yahoo’s ability to capture value, our starting point would be a quick analysis of operating and financial performance of Yahoo comparing to its peers in the industry during the last four years. We already...
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...Analysis………………………..P.11 Introduction Surviving the dot com boom was a significant accomplishment for Amazon, which helped them claim the title of being the one stop shopping retailer for all. Amazon was introduced to the public in 1995 from Seattle Washington. Some people may remember Amazon as an online bookstore. Over the years, they evolved into the most popular internet retailer in the world and Amazon quickly became the growing trend among consumers, because they are convenient, have a speedy service, low prices and quality. Using third party sources, Amazon has diversified their portfolios and continues to offer consumers new products (LexisNexis, Academic). Reinventing their strategy to adapt to consumers’ growing needs and the source of must have items; Amazon will continue to survive the world of internet retail. Background Information Amazon is the pioneer of online retailing. It started out as an online bookstore, offering a limited amount of selections. They expanded their selections into other products in the late 1990’s, and soon were providing the world the biggest selections of books, CDs, videos, DVDs, electronics, toys, tools, home furnishings, house wares, apparel, and kitchen gadgets. By utilizing third party agreements, Amazon also sells products from other well-known retailers such as, Toys-R-us, Virgin Wines, Expedia, and Circuit City. One of...
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...Introduction Amazon.Com is a leading online retailer company, offering for sale different items such as books, music, DVDs, videos, toys, electronics, software, video games and home improvement products serving almost 22.5 million customers over 150 different countries. This company was founded in July 1995 by Jeff Bezos in the state of Washington USA. Jeff Bezos now 37 years old, received his BS in Electrical Engineering and Computer Science from Princeton University. His professional career started at Bankers Trust Company in 1988, where he became Vice President in February 1990. At the end of the same year he moved to D.E. Shaw & Co. a Wall Street investment firm, becoming Senior Vice President in 1992. In those early years for the Internet retail business, Mr. Bezos noticed an important opportunity on the online commerce. He made a list of possible products that could be sold on line, including books, magazines, music, among others and finally he decided to start selling books. The main reasons of his choice were because there are more books to sell than music titles and also because the book publishing industry is more accessible than the music industry, mainly controlled by half a dozen of big record companies. With a dream in hand he quitted his job in June 1994 and moved to the West, choosing Seattle as starting point because its proximity to a major book distributor, Ingram’s Warehouse in Oregon. This is how the company that took its name from the river with the...
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...Cubao, Quezon City Prepared By: Feniquito, Emilyn C. Gonzales, Ornelly C. IE41FB1 Presented to: ENGR. MANUEL Q. SANTOS October 6, 2011 I. INTRODUCTION CORPORATE PROFILE Amazon.com Inc. (AMZN) is a leading global Internet company and one of the most trafficked Internet retail destinations worldwide. Amazon is one of the first companies to sell products deep into the long tail by housing them all in numerous warehouses and distributing products from many partner companies. Amazon directly sells, or acts as a platform for the sale of a broad range of products. These include books, music, videos, and consumer electronics, clothing and household products. The majority of Amazon’s sales are products sold by Amazon, with the remaining amount from third-party sellers. Amazon was founded in 1994 and is headquartered in Seattle, Washington. It has direct international operations in the United States, Canada, France, Germany, Japan, and the United Kingdom. Since 2004, Amazon has begun to rapidly expand its web services arsenal. Products such as Amazon EC2 (Elastic Compute Cloud) and Amazon S3 (Simple Storage System), Amazon Route 53 have been large successes. Some of Amazon’s recent acquisitions include Shopbop (2006), Abebooks (2008), Zappos (2009), LOVEFiLM (2011). As of Q1 2011, Amazon has approximately 137 million active customers worldwide. It was also reported that there are 2 million merchants selling on Amazon equalling a third of...
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...Amazon.com Description of Organization, all subsidiaries and/or business units Amazon.com is a global company that has many subsidiaries around the world. Amazon employs over 88,000 people on all seven continents. It is one of the leading e-commerce companies found on the internet selling items from appliances, books, electronics, wine and everything in between. Whatever the consumer is looking for can most likely be found at Amazon.com (Amazon, 2013a) Amazon made its start by selling books to consumers that loved to read but very soon realized that if they offered more products it would appeal to more people and increase customer base along with profits. “Today more than two million small businesses, world-class retail brands and individual sellers increase their sales and reach new customers by leveraging the power of the Amazon.com e-commerce platform (Amazon, 2013a).” One of the subsidiaries that Amazon has developed is its e-reader, The Kindle. Amazon was the first company to bring the e-reader into existence and drove other companies to develop similar products, such as the Nook by Barnes and Noble and other less popular e-readers. Amazon changed the way consumers read books, magazines, newspapers, and even watched movies and television all on one device (Amazon, 2013a). Another subsidiary is Amazon Cloud, which is a way for consumers to store books, movies, television shows, and even music in one place without having to take up the storage on one’s personal...
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...Amazon.com Tax Avoidance Business Strategy, How they did it, And how 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...
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...two successful businesses. Borders Books and Amazon.com are two companies that both sold books but used different methods in operating their businesses. Even though they both were successful businesses, both companies had different leadership styles, visions and goals. Out of the two businesses, only one remain successful and present today. In this paper, I will show how both businesses started, how the leaders differ in leadership styles and techniques, and how Amazon continues to be a great success today. Description of the Businesses I will describe each business and how each business started. I will also describe three main challenges each company faced while establishing or running the business. Amazon.com was founded in 1994 by Jeff Bezos as an online bookstore. As CEO he has built it into the largest retailer on the web, selling everything from groceries to electronics and shoes. Jeff Bezos was working in a quantitive analysis group at an investment firm, when he saw an opportunity to sell books on the internet. In 1994 he went on a cross-country drive from New York to Seattle to start Amazon. He typed his business plan as he went. And he picked up $300,000 dollars from his parents in Fort Worth, Texas. He set up his business in his garage and began selling books via the internet. His business became worth $4.4 billion according to Forbes' latest billionaire rankings in 2009. Since the start of Amazon.com, Jeff Bezos came very close to failure. The...
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...abandoned his studies in Physics and got a degree on Computer science and Electrical engineering (Sherman, 2001). After his studies, Jeff Bezos started working for Bankers Trust, and at the age of 26 he became the youngest Vice President of the company (Byers, 2006). When he noticed in 1994 that internet usage was increasing by 2300% a year (Hämäläinen & Saarinen, 2007), he started planning his next step, which was Amazon.com. Amazon made his appearance in 1995 with 3 micro stations in Bezos’ garage (Robinson, 2009) and its activity was to sell books. Today Amazon.com is one of the most preferable internet retail platform, where customers can find DVD’s, CD’s, MP3 downloads, books and toys. According to Economist (2000), Amazon.com is the most visited internet retail platform in USA and one of the top 3 in Germany, UK, France and Japan. The impact of Amazon.com Amazon.com is today the largest electronic retail worldwide (Anon., 2012). According to J. Bezos (Wired Magazine, December, 2011), Amazon is a cultural pioneer which lives to disrupt even its own business. It is recognized by 55% of conscious population, and it is part of today’s Western culture (Spector, 2002). The company spends almost 40% of its income on brand building (Margolis, 1999), and that is why Amazon.com is a trustable and a well-known brand name (Economist, 2000, Marketing, 1999). 70,000 people work today for Amazon, and the company turnover is 48 billion a...
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...Business Diversification Thomas Wilson Dr. Browder Coates Contemporary Business 29 January 2012 Amazon.com was founded in 1994 and the site went online in 1995. Since then it is the leading online book selling retailer in the USA. In 1997 it diversified from solely a bookstore into selling music, video, downloads, general electronics, apparel, furniture, food, and toys. In addition, Amazon has established separate websites in Canada, the United Kingdom, Germany, France, Italy, Japan, and China. It also provides international shipping to certain countries for some of its products. The growth and diversification is part of the strategic planning of Amazon.com which aims to provide a “one stop shop” for their customers. Amazon.com established that there are three areas that are of great significance to the customers: selection, convenience and price. Nothing epitomizes this better than their landmark e-book product Kindle which has by far the biggest available electronic library; instant downloads globally and it is considerably cheaper than traditional products. There are two strong values that are practiced by Amazon.com; these are customer satisfaction and operational efficiency. These two values complement Amazon.com’s operational strategies in achieving and maintaining an effective competitive advantage and encouraging employee and corporate performance. While the diversification of the Amazon brand has merit, I would suggest that globalization is a more...
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...University E-Commerce for Small Business Introduction Amazon is E-commerce Company, Amazon got its start as an online bookstore, but as the industry evolved so did Amazon. Amazon has become one of the largest online retailers now selling a variety of products including electronics, DVDs, CDs, video games, clothing, and general merchandise in the world. Today Amazon.com is the largest Internet-based company in the United States. Founded by Jeff Bezos in 1994 was the release of the first online bookstore, Amazon.com Inc. revolutionized the industry. Amazon’s initial entry into the book industry was a bold and strategic move competing with traditional Brick and Mortar stores such as Barnes & Noble Inc. and Borders Group Inc. When Amazon.com began moving from just books into a larger variety of products like CDs, video games, electronics it did not take long for them to be in completion with the larger more dominant players in their perspective markets. Amazon is a prime example of a company that started of small and became a dominant force due to smart investments and a strong business model. When it comes to the online market, which many would consider the future, Amazon has left a considerable amount of its competitors in the dust as it pertains to sales and it continues to grow and evolve, Company Evaluation Type of Company Before Amazon.com sold its first book in July of 1995 the world had already begun to reject bookstores, this was made obvious by the decline...
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...Choosing a sustainable business strategy is not an easy choice but there are companies who have done it and continue to do so. One such company is Amazon.com who first opened their virtual doors in 1994 and “emerged from the dot-com bubble one of the few winners and continued to blaze a trail of impressive growth (from about $4 billion in 2002 to nearly $20 billion in 2008),” (Johnson, 2010.) Companies like Amazon.com survive and thrive because of sound business decisions based upon sound business models. Their business model is based in strong management strategy. In this paper we will explore alternative Generic strategies, value disciplines, and grand strategies for Amazon.com based upon past performance focused on continued success. Generic Strategies “A long-term, or grand strategy must be based on a core idea about how the firm can best compete in the market place. The popular term for this core idea is generic strategy, from a scheme developed by Michael Porter,” (Pearce & Robinson, 2011). Porter believed that the generic strategy should be directly tied to the company’s performance in the marketplace in this way a firm could leverage its strengths and become stronger. Porter suggests that companies will subscribe to one or more of three types of generic strategies: Low-Cost Leadership, Differentiation, and Focus. Amazon.com has enjoyed the success of a focus strategy in the past. This strategy “concentrates on a narrow segment and within that segment attempts to achieve...
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...scholars and experts over the past decade that there will be a steady migration from a brick and mortar retailing model to internet/online shopping stores (Levy & Weitz 2001; Chiang and Dholakia, 2003) (Solorzano, 2011; Ferguson, 2011). With this trend, many traditional retailers have developed their own online stores. There were also the “pure plays”, companies that are mainly start-up e-commerce businesses, which are competing alongside traditional retailers in the marketplace. According to the Internet World Stats 2011, there are currently over two billion Internet users daily at the growth of 480 percent in the past 10 years. This has certainly led to tougher competition for many internet retailers that want to stay competitive and profitable. These businesses want to differentiate themselves, become visible, and stand out above their competitors – gain a competitive advantage. According to Forrester, CIOs have a vital role to play in developing business strategy and framing business technology strategy. Through this approach, IT is viewed as a business enabler for value creation and with this thinking they believe it has a great opportunity to influence business agenda through technology innovation. Even though the effect of a high IT investment on the business’s performance has not been proved (Bharadwaj, 2000), these businesses, both the online-only stores and the “bricks and clicks”, are heavily investing in information technology (IT) infrastructures to conduct digital...
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...5 Online Retailing Market Overview 5 Online Shopping for Jewellery 7 Profile of General Online Shoppers 8 Site Profile of Top 3 Online Shopping sites 10 1. Amazon UK - www.amazon.co.uk (ranked no. 8 in Alexa in UK) 10 2. Argos - www.argos.co.uk (ranked no. 41 in Alexa in UK) 17 3. Littlewoods - www.littlewoods.com (ranked no. 498 in Alexa in UK) 27 USA 32 Online Retailing Market Overview 32 Online Shopping for Jewellery 33 Profile of General Online Shoppers 33 Site Profile of Top 3 Online Shopping sites 35 1. Amazon US – www.amazon.com (ranked no. 5 in Alexa ) 35 2. WalMart - www.walmart.com (ranked no. 41 in Alexa) 39 3. KOHLS - http://www.kohls.com/ (ranked no. 207 in Alexa in UK) 44 Germany 48 Online Retailing Market Overview 48 Online Shopping for Jewellery 50 Profile of General Online Shoppers 50 Site Profile of Top 3 Online Shopping sites 52 1. Amazon Germany – www.amazon.de (ranked no. 6 in Alexa) 52 2. Otto Germany - www.otto.de (ranked no. 79 in Alexa) 53 3. Idealo - http://www.idealo.de/ (ranked no. 37 in Alexa) 54 France 56 Online Retailing Market Overview 56 Online Shopping for Jewellery 56 Profile of General Online Shoppers 56 Site Profile of Top 3 Online Shopping sites 56 Netherlands 59 Online Retailing Market Overview 59 Online Shopping for Jewellery 59 Profile of General Online Shoppers 59 Site Profile of Top 3 Online Shopping...
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...Competitive Strategy Best Buy Best Buy Group D9 THEME: How Best Buy has maintained and enhanced its Competitive Advantage over the years by constantly seeking a favorable competitive position in the Consumer Electronics retailing industry 1 Table of Contents Contents Objective of the report Executive Summary Part I – Early beginnings & Hyper-growth Part II – Initiating Change at Best Buy -- Recognizing the need for change -- First attempt at change (formulating the Standard Operating Platform) -- Head-Heart-Hands approach to change management (Overcoming Cognitive Inertia) -- Institutionalizing the Change Management Process (Overcoming Action Inertia) -- Impact of the SOP on the Best Buy's operations Part III - Revisiting the Drawing Board -- Building new skill sets -- Formulating Customer Centricity (deploying a new game strategy) -- Implementing Customer Centricity (reconfiguring the value chain) -- Reaping the gains from Customer Centricity Part IV – Staving off Competition: Click & Mortar model -- Industry going through a phase of Intermediating Change -- Where does Best Buy go from here? -- Experimenting may payoff but need to commit References used Page no 2 3 4-5 5-9 5 6 6-7 7-8 8-9 9-12 9-10 10-11 11 12 13-14 13 13 13-14 15 1 Objective of Report Best Buy Co., Inc has been a leading player in the Electronics & Appliances retailing industry for several years now. It has withstood several cycles of churn in the Industry; seen many of its competitors...
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...browse a myriad selection of book titles in the shortest amount of time. In 1995 he started the website Amazon.com which was primarily an online book store at the time. “During the first 30 days of business, Amazon .com fulfilled orders for customers in 50 states and 45 countries- all shipped from his Seattle-area garage” (Overview, n.d.). In Two years later in 1997 Amazon went on to become public being listed on NASDAQ under the trade symbol of AMZN. Since then Amazon has expanded its consumer base by adding multiple products, features, and upgrades. The company now employs over 43,200 employees worldwide and is considered a world-class e-commerce platform. Borders bookstore was founded in 1971 by two brothers by the name of Tom and Louis Borders while they were attending college at the University of Michigan. Borders bookstore was once a leading retailer of books and educational items with stores located throughout the United States, Australia, and Puerto Rico. In 1984 Kmart acquired a company by the name of Waldenbooks and in 1992 Kmart acquired Borders only to merge the two in hopes of generating greater sales (Borders Book Store, 2011). In 1997 Borders launched its first international store in Singapore that was 32,000 square feet making it the largest bookstore in the country. In 1998 things quickly began to change for the worst after being one of the country’s leading bookstores. Several stores began to close due to competition and Borders failing to change their business...
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