Operations Management and Decision-Making Models

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Operations Management and Decision-Making Models

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Answer 1
In 1997, Amazon made a humble beginning with the selling of books online in USA. However,
the founder of the company, Jeff Bezos was never fulfilled in being merely a book store, and
always dreamt of transforming Amazon into “The Everything Store” (Majed et al., 2018). He
wanted Amazon to have a wide variety of products for the customers to choose from, and
purchase them at affordable prices. This ambition gradually sparkled the innovation of new
products and services. In 2006, the company introduced Amazon Web Services (AWS) that
offers reliable, and low-cost cloud computing services to the individuals, companies, and the
government all over the world.
In 2007, Amazon proved itself to be a technology firm with another biggest development for
readers, called “Kindle”. This e-book app allows readers to put over 1.5 million books at their
fingertips. Bezos was very much inspired by the way Apple used iTunes to grab a large part in
music, and likewise he designed Kindle to do the same with books (Galloway, 2017). Later on,
the company also started to diversify into other product lines from clothing, footwear,
accessories to electronic and personal care appliances.
One of the Amazon’s corporate strategies that resulted in such a rapid growth is their customer-
centric approach. The company had always been putting the customers at first priority over
profits. Jeff knew that only customer satisfaction and their loyalty could make the company able
to achieve great heights in future (Sanders, 2016). The company thus, continued improving the
past accomplishments in order to provide a great shopping experience to the customers. The
outlook that profitability was not Amazon’s primary purpose is a common theme in the

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company’s history. This is one of the main factors that actually transformed the company into
“The Everything Store” that Jeff always wished.
In addition to this, Amazon had been strongly emphasizing on creating a productive work
culture. Jeff always persuade the employees to love their work over other things. He did not
believe in the concept of work-life balance, which formed a passionate and highly committed
workforce for the company. Another secret behind Amazon’s huge success is their highly
efficient, skilled, and innovative supply chain (Garner, 2018). The organization’s constant efforts
to meet customers’ needs on time transformed Amazon into a leading retail company all over the
globe. It forced other market players in the industry to change the way they manage their supply
chain system.
Moreover, a smart combination of IT, multi-tier inventory control, a wide network of
warehouses, and the efficient transportation has strengthened Amazon’s supply chain among all
the key competitors across the globe. Also, the company’s relentless investment of around billion
dollars in the technological and infrastructure development (Melnyk, and Stanton, 2017). As a
result of which, Amazon also became an unbeatable leader in the quick delivery process earlier
than a number of competitors all over the world, with around hundred warehouses in America
alone. Today, Amazon has become “The Everything Store”. There is no surprise if the company
becomes “An Everything Company” in the near future.
Answer 2
In today’s 21st era, globalization of world trade has become increasingly prominent as companies
are seeking to grow by expanding their operations overseas. Amazon is among one of the leading
USA based technology and retailing company that has successfully expanded its business in

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different countries. Globalization of world trade has provided them an effective access to the
new markets, customers, resources, skills, and capital which are useful for smooth operations
(Peng, 2016). Amazon has become more efficient and streamlined by extending their geographic
area of business operations significantly.
In the light of globalized trade, the basic operations of Amazon have improved as the company
has set up offices in various countries to manage daily activities including distribution and
logistics, warehousing, and research & development. For managing these aspects of operations,
Amazon utilizes human resources in each county, along with the investment in resources for
establishing coordination among distant locations (Gong, 2015). Moreover, the company’s value
chain aspects of operations have become easier and cheaper due to globalization. It has also
lowered the cost of information and transactions for the company with the great incentive to the
process expanding international markets.
There has been observed a direct and positive relationship between Amazon’s operational
management and their performance. The company has gained economies of scale, and has
performed better than domestic competitors in terms of reduced costs, enhanced sales, and
improved market position (Grant et al., 2017). There has been greater impact on Amazon’s
supply chain operations due to availability of vast knowledge, and resources across their
international operations.
In addition to this, Amazon has developed better position to benefit from world trade as they can
have gained global reach and have removed the risks of failure with the years passed. Amazon
being a huge multinational firm, involve buying and selling of goods and services at a very large
scale, which has actually resulted in lower prices and operational cost savings to significant level