Understanding the Organizational Strategies and Business Model of Amazon
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This report provides an overview of the organizational strategies and business model of Amazon, including its vision, mission, core values, and current strategies. It also offers recommendations for future growth and success.
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Running head: BUSINESS REPORT BUSINESS REPORT Name of the Student Name of the University Author Note
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1BUSINESS REPORT Executive Summary: The purpose of the report is to understand the organizational strategies and business model of Amazon. The paper discussed about the elements like vision, mission, core values and current business strategies of Amazon. The paper highlighted the segmentation strategies, operational plan, marketing strategies and innovative purpose. The strategies of Amazon is based on customer-centric approach with a simple and inventive operational plan. Amazon believes in working backward, shaping and structuring product development plans by understanding customer preferences. The paper presented recommendations such as, focus on service offerings and categorization of b2b and b2c business as well as the investment completely in logistic and warehouse units for merchandise.
2BUSINESS REPORT Table of Contents Introduction................................................................................................................................3 Organization’s strategy:.........................................................................................................3 Vision statement.................................................................................................................3 Mission statement...............................................................................................................4 Core values.........................................................................................................................4 Criteria for accomplishing Amazon strategies:..................................................................5 Current strategies of Amazon:...........................................................................................6 Business Model:.....................................................................................................................7 Recommendations......................................................................................................................9 Conclusion................................................................................................................................10
3BUSINESS REPORT Introduction Asumofinitiativesandactionsadoptedbyorganizationforthepurposeof accomplishing long-term objectives is known as organizational strategy. The planned actions and initiatives comprises the strategic plan of organization. For executing organizational strategies,involvementandcontributionofemployeesfromalllevelsarecrucial. Organizational strategies includes the vision and mission with the strategies regarding establishment, growth and market need attainment.Business model of an organization depicts the purpose of creating, executing, and value proposition in the cultural, social and economic aspects. Business model of organizations includes all functional areas and growing procedures. A business model serves the purpose of reflecting a complete description of the corefunctionsincluding,processes,purpose,offerings,targetaudience,infrastructure, strategies, operational process and strategic infrastructure. The main purpose of the report is to present an overview of the organizational strategies of Amazon and reflecting the functions of organization for sustaining in the market by the depiction of Amazon’s business model. In this paper, the summary of the recommendation will be provided that will determine market opportunities for future of Amazon. The paper will be concluded by summarising the organizational strategies and business practices of organization. Discussion Organization’s strategy: Vision statement- The vision is “to be Earth’s most customer-centric company, where customers can find and discover anything they might want to buy online, and endeavours to offer its customers the lowest possible prices”. The vision of Amazon is concentrated on the values of global reach, wide selection and a strategic customer-centric approach. The vision of accomplishing ‘global reach’ by Amazon
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4BUSINESS REPORT is facilitated for global leadership in e-commerce market (Amazon.com 2019). For Amazon, their target customer is the whole world, as it includes a wide range of offerings for each and everyneed.Amazonadoptsproductdevelopment,marketdevelopmentandmarket penetration strategy for reaching to the goal of global expansion. Customers are considered to be the most important stakeholders for Amazon, which is the reason for their customer- centric approach in the operational process of online platform. The business growth and development of Amazon is accommodated through widening the offerings in each product mix element. Mission statement- The mission is “to serve consumers through online and physical stores and focus on selection, price and convenience’. The corporate mission of Amazon is to ensure attractive services from e-commerce and physical presence for satisfying the demand and needs of customers. The focus of Amazon is directed towards the elements of convenience, price and selection. The ‘low price’ strategy of Amazon is used as the step of building competitive strategy amongst competitors (Bellet al. 2015). Low price of the products in Amazon is facilitated through the initiatives of reducing operational costs. The low cost strategy of Amazon is majorly linked with the value proposition of wide variety of selection. Amazon includes a wide range of brands and suppliersfor responding tovarying needsanddesiresof customers. Thewide range accommodate the options of selecting products based on customer preference, which may be price, quality or specific feature (Welch 2015).The feature of convenience is accommodated through online and offline presence, reaching out to mass population across the globe. Core values The core values of Amazon are Customer Obsession, Bias for Action, Ownership, Invent and Simplify, are right, a lot and think big. The core values of the company also
5BUSINESS REPORT includes hire and develop the best, frugality, insist on highest standards, earn trust of others, deliver results, vocally self-critical, dive deep and have backbone; disagree and commit. The core values and principles are similar. The core value of customer obsession is achieved by the practice of leaders, who worksbackwardsbyfirstconcentratingoncustomer.Amazonbelievesinaddressing customer needs more than competitors’ strategies (Zhu and Liu 2018). The ownership at Amazon is primarily directed towards leaders, who focusses on long-term goal. Another main core values is invent and simplify. The lower prices and customer satisfaction of customers are executed by innovative measures and simplifying the operational process (Stummer, Kundisch and Decker 2018). The core value of hiring and developing the best is achieved by employing exceptional talent with the practice of coaching employees for moulding and developing skills of employees. Amazon always believes in thinking big for targeting mass population. Bias for action is accommodated through the action of accepting calculative risk. The core value of Amazon also includes frugality, which believes in accomplishing more in less resources. The practices of invention, self-sufficiency and resourcefulness leads to the principle of frugality. Criteria for accomplishing Amazon strategies: Knowing customer: Understanding the customers’ need and demand majorly supports the success of Amazon. Amazon studies consumer buying pattern to personalize the account on Amazon. Amazon offers a wide range of products for addressing the potential needs and demand of mass population. Maximizing data: The data collected from the buying or searching pattern of the customers in online platform is utilized strategically for constructing personalized experiences for customer. Behavioural insights are assessed through buying pattern, search analysis and data from customer feedback (Wegmannet al.2018).
6BUSINESS REPORT Obsession with customer service: Customer-centric approach leads Amazon to the path of success and every functional processes in the company. Current strategies of Amazon: Prime as hub of wheel- The strategy of incorporating a segment of Amazon prime was planned based on the initiative of expanding the value proposition, by offering free shipping option. According to report of Jeff Bezos, Amazon prime reached the goal of 100 million prime subscribers in the year 2018. The data depicted one of the greatest establishments in the field of customer loyalty. Currently Amazon Prime offers free shipping on various eligible orders, streaming videos and movies, exclusive deals, reading offerings and free-same day offers on eligible codes. Fuelling small businesses: For the construction of a wide product range, Amazon includes numerous suppliers or businesses. The relationship of Amazon with the small business is complete mutual as the small businesses are suppliers and stakeholders for thecompanyandthesmallbusinessesdependsonAmazonforreachingend consumer. Supply chain operation and home delivery: The whole supply chain process of Amazon is focussed on the objective incorporating convenience. Amazon is handling own shipping processes for around 26 percent orders, as per Wolfe Research (Gavrić, Kirin and Čukanović-Karavidić 2016). Growth strategy- Amazon follows the strategy of product development, market development and market penetration for a wider reach. Amazon have grown in terms ofsalesandreachby160percent,232.88billiondollarsintheyear2018 (Edition.cnn.com 2019). The 160 percent growth was based on the data of 2014, 89 billion dollars. From 2017 to 2018, the revenue growth was around 31 percent. Amazon originally started by selling books, followed by growing through products
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7BUSINESS REPORT from every segment and value (Rossman 2016).However, technology was only used in the selling platform (e-commerce) and in the supply chain process. The company Amazon is dedicated towards increasing the value offerings for building customer experience.ThegrowthstrategyofAmazonincludesincorporatingadvanced technology of Artificial Intelligence in its own product line, Alexa. Amazon have undergone product development, market development and product development by entering into pharmacy industry. Targeting strategy- The target strategy of Amazon is very unique as it targets everyone and anyone from the world with its wide options and low cost strategy. Business Model: Amazon is considered as largest e-commerce business in world. The business model of Amazon is completely based on customer-centric approach and practice of incorporating innovation and simplicity. The business model of Amazon can be explained in phases of development. Amazon is based on the strategy of directly selling to the consumers. The company stores its merchandise and inventory in the warehouses of Amazon, from where a percentage of products are sold through online platform depending on the demand of customer. The buying behaviour of customers is influenced by the wide range of products and varying prices, which presents an option for consumers to select desirable product in accordance with their preferences. In association with the strategy of direct sales, the company offers a platform for numerous businesses (both small and large) for the purpose of selling products directly to the end users (Aversaet al.2015). The company does not charges fee from retailers partners for listing their products but charges an amount after the item is being sold. Amazon charges 0.00 dollars from individual seller for every item sold in Amazon with the additional flexible closing fees from 0.45 dollar to 1.35 dollars. Amazon
8BUSINESS REPORT charges around 6 percent to 25 percent closing fees from the professional sellers (Bocken and Short 2016). The Business model also categorizes its customer group into two segments, regular customers and customers with subscription. The function of customer segmentation in Amazon Prime is incorporated due to the purpose of stimulating customer loyalty. Amazon also offers own brand products like Kindle, e-books, Alexa, accessories and Kindle (Dolata 2017). The operating model of Amazon was completely based on the customer-centric approach. The company have marked a record in sales in the last five years, 232.88 billion dollars in the year 2018. The operating model of Amazon is based on the long-term objective of attracting and retaining customers by continual motivation (Massa, Tucci and Afuah 2017). Amazon have completed around 25 years in business and have firmly maintained its competitive position by establishing fundamental components including, operating model basedoncustomer-centricapproachandvaluepropositionbyexclusiveofferings, experiences and services (Trkman, Budler and Groznik 2015). Amazonhavedividedtheconsumermarketintofourcategories,geographic, demographic, psychographic and behavioural. Amazon targets more than 100 countries, both urban and rural regions. The demographical elements that are targeted by Amazon are people with age group of 13- above, both females and males. The lifecycle stage targeted by Amazon are teenagers, bachelors, newly married couples, full nest I, full nest II, full nest III, empty nest I, empty nest II. The behavioural segments that are targeted by Amazon are hard core values, regular and switchers, the people who finds value on variety, competitive price, and convenience in online shopping, people who are easy going, ambitious and determined. Psychographic elements included in target group are all social classes, aspirer, explorer and struggler.
9BUSINESS REPORT The marketing strategies of Amazon includes, wide range of offerings, customer- friendly interface, simpler distribution strategy of selling directly to customers and utilizing extensive customer information for customizing experiences. The product development approach of Amazon is based on the strategy of backward approach. The strategy of ‘working backward’ focussed completely on customers. The step of framing product development strategy is developed through the first phase of understanding customer demand, buying behaviour and searching pattern. All the other operational and marketing process is followed after understanding customers. The innovative practices of Amazon is embedded into the business model of the company. After the establishment of the company, e-commerce company. The innovative journey of Amazon can be witnessed from the growth timeline in Amazon (Garner 2018). The company started from selling books to selling its own products, Kindle, Alexa and accessories. From simply selling books to incorporating Artificial Intelligence, the company have marked a long way (Lichtenthaler 2018). The innovative practices are based on the principle of working backwards and innovation in internal environment by shaping employee involvement based on understanding of customers. Thegrowthstrategyofcompanyinvolves,marketdevelopmentlikeAmazon Pharmacy, product development like Kindle, Alexa and market penetration by offering varying price ranges. Change management in Amazon is completely based on customer-centric approach and co-creating processes with well-trained skilled employees. The implementation plan of Amazon is directly focussed on end users.
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10BUSINESS REPORT Recommendations oOne of the opportunities for Amazon is completely owning warehousing and logistic units for decreasing the operational cost by the strategy of backward integration. oAnother opportunities lies in expanding its service offerings, introduction of self- check-in counter technology can be a revolution in the market. oThe company also has opportunities in B2B segment, by categorizing the product and service offerings Conclusion Therefore, it can be concluded by the paper that organizations should learn from the evolution of Amazon as it is completely based on working from backwards. The development of products, idea and/or idea starts with a comprehensive understanding of the target market. Companies should learn to keep the operational process simple yet inventive for addressing the increasing competition. Amazon has adopted every step of accomplishing the current position from learning from customer data for behavioural insights to incorporating Artificial Intelligenceproducts.However,Amazonshouldrecognizethechangingbusiness environment for opportunities. The opportunities that has been recommended for future are, equal concentration on B2B businesses and service offerings. Amazon should also invest in complete company-owned logistic and warehousing units.
11BUSINESS REPORT References: Amazon.com 2019.Amazon.com: Online Shopping for Electronics, Apparel, Computers, Books, DVDs & more. [Online] Available at:http://amazon.com/ Aversa, P., Haefliger, S., Rossi, A. and Baden-Fuller, C., 2015. From business model to business modelling: Modularity and manipulation. InBusiness models and modelling(pp. 151-185). Emerald Group Publishing Limited. Bell, P.C., 2015. Sustaining an analytics advantage.MIT Sloan Management Review,56(3), p.21. Bocken,N.M.andShort,S.W.,2016.Towardsasufficiency-drivenbusinessmodel: Experiencesand opportunities.Environmental Innovation and Societal Transitions,18, pp.41-61. Dolata, U., 2017.Apple, Amazon, Google, Facebook, Microsoft: Market concentration- competition-innovation strategies(No. 2017-01). Stuttgarter Beiträge zur Organisations-und Innovationsforschung, SOI Discussion Paper. Edition.cnn.com 2019. CNN.How Jeff Bezos changed the world. [Online] Available at: https://edition.cnn.com/2019/08/16/tech/jeff-bezos-amazon/index.html Garner, B.A., 2018. Amazon in the Global Market.Journal of Marketing & Management, 9(2).
12BUSINESS REPORT Gavrić, G., Kirin, S. and Čukanović-Karavidić, M., 2016. Adaptability of companies in the Republic of Serbia: Empirical research.Ekonomika,62(4), pp.115-128. Lichtenthaler, U., 2018. The world’s most innovative companies: a meta-ranking.Journal of Strategy and Management,11(4), pp.497-511. Massa, L., Tucci, C.L. and Afuah, A., 2017. A critical assessment of business model research.Academy of Management Annals,11(1), pp.73-104. Rossman, J., 2016.The Amazon Way on IoT: 10 Principles for Every Leader from the World's Leading Internet of Things Strategies(Vol. 2). Clyde Hill Publishing. Stummer, C., Kundisch, D. and Decker, R., 2018. Platform launch strategies.Business & Information Systems Engineering,60(2), pp.167-173. Trkman, P., Budler, M. and Groznik, A., 2015. A business model approach to supply chain management.Supply Chain Management: An International Journal,20(6), pp.587-602. Wegmann,A.,Ritala,P.,Tapandjieva,G.andGolnam,A.,2018.Coopetitionand ecosystems: The case of Amazon. com. InRoutledge Companion to Coopetition Strategies (pp. 245-257). Routledge. Welch, A., 2015. A cost-benefit analysis of Amazon Prime Air. Zhu, F. and Liu, Q., 2018. Competing with complementors: An empirical look at Amazon. com.Strategic Management Journal,39(10), pp.2618-2642.