Assignment on Business Strategies used by Amazon

Amazon is described as the largest grossing online-based retail store, none other named comes first rather than Amazon. This company is an American-based electronic and retail business that was founded by Jeff Bezos in 1994 but in 1995 it was launched online. An organization needs resources and sources of funding to operate their business activities. In a business organization, there are physical resources, technological resources, financial resources, and human resources. Those are the main resources that are needed in terms of conducting organizational operations.  

Unit 2 Business Resources 14
Student Name:
Student Id:
1

Contents
Introduction................................................................................................................................3
P1 Recitation the staffing certification used in Amazon............................................................4
P2 Recitation the employability, personal skills for a marketing manager’s role.....................6
P3 Unfolding the physical and technological resources of Amazon..........................................7
P4 Labelling internal and external finance of sourcing in Amazon...........................................8
P5 Understanding the insides of an income statement and balance sheet of Amazon...............9
P6 Demonstrating the use of budgets in Amazon....................................................................10
P7 Demonstrating the financial state of Amazon.....................................................................11
Conclusion................................................................................................................................13
References................................................................................................................................14
2

Introduction
An organization needs resources and sources of funding to operate their business activities. In
a business organization, there are physical resources, technological resources, financial
resources, and human resources. Those are the main resources that are needed in terms of
conducting organizational operations. In an organization, human resource is the most talked
content and this content needs more attraction as human resource management plays an
important role in the organizational context.
3

P1 Recitation the staffing certification used in Amazon.
Company profile
In terms of describing the largest grossing online-based retail store, none other named comes
first rather than Amazon. This company is an American based electronic and retail business
that was founded by Jeff Bezos in 1994 but in 1995 it was launched online (Robot Check,
2020).
Figure 01: Amazon logo (Vasoyan, Selyukh, Vasoyan, and Vasoyan, 2020).
At first, Amazon sold books to its customers but gradually it started selling other products to
its customers. At that time it the largest online book store in the world. Headquarter of
Amazon is in Seattle. In 2015, Amazon beat Walmart another retail business through market
capitalization.
Employment types in Amazon:
Employment can be described as many types and many ways but in any organization, the
concept of employment is quite the same. Many organization pays its employees as the
hourly basis on the other hand many organization pays them on a daily or monthly basis.
Again, many organizations like- Amazon, Microsoft hire employees on contractual or work
type basis. In Amazon, employees are three types and those are provided:
Permanent or fixed employment
There is a slit difference in permanent employment and in fixed employment. Fixed
employment is when an employee is hired some for a fixed amount of time period or for a
fixed assigned task. In terms of permanent employment employees who work for four years
4

in any organization, they became permanent employees (Bach and Edwards, 2013). Fixed
employment is mainly needed for a special task and for a specific time period and they are
paid according to the task and employee position. For a specific role like- marketing manager
fixed employment is meant to be.
Part-time employment
In the Amazon warehouse, there are different employment like- part-time employment. Part-
time employment contracts on an hourly basis. In his way, employees are paid according to
the hours they work (Varma and Budhwar, 2014). In the Amazon warehouse, part-time
employment is more than other types of employment. By using part-time employment many
people get the chance of employment and there are laws and contracts done before hiring
part-time employment to treat employees equally.
Casual or seasonal employment
Another type of employment is casual employment and it is more like working as a worker.
In Amazon, this type of contract between organization and employee is called causal work.
The causal worker is paid less than other types of employment (Bach and Edwards, 2013).
They are also can be called seasonal workers. Seasonal employment is done to fulfill seasonal
employment needs.
Hiring and Recruiting process in Amazon:
Recruitment occurs when the organization needs manpower to fusil the organization's
demand and seek specialist persons to fulfill the customer's demand effectively. The
recruitment process of Amazon is quite intense and there are various rounds according to the
post. In Amazon for rec recruiting a marketing manager organization mainly goes with-
written test, online assessment process, on and off job assessment, training process, and HR
interview (Hersey, Blanchard and Johnson, 2017). A marketing manager needs to know the
factors and forces which influence Amazon's marketing functions. A marketing manager
needs to know how to promote, communicate, and analyses marketing performance for
Amazon. A marketing manager’s job details provided:
Details of the job position:
Title: Marketing manager of Amazon. Inc.
Summary:
5

A marketing manager needs to identify the influencing factors of the marketing performance
of Amazon. A marketing manager is associated with Amazon's marketing department and
operates the marketing activities of the organization.
Qualifications of a marketing manager:
- A specific degree mostly Bachelor's degree in marketing.
- 3 years' experience in a related field.
Marketing manager roles and responsibilities:
- Operate marketing initiatives.
- Do market research and analysis.
- Plan marketing strategies.
- Conduct promotional strategies.
- Report the overall result of the marketing department to senior executives.
Employee contract:
- Employee contract is done to eliminate any conflict between the organization and
employees.
- It provides consistent knowledge about the job.
- It also provided assurance of the job.
- It helps to provide job description.
P2 Recitation the employability, personal skills for a marketing manager’s role.
For a specific job to describe in terms of Amazon is the marketing manager of Amazon. A
marketing manager is responsible for all kinds of promotional, communicational, and allover
marketing activities in Amazon. Lastly, Amazon has been hiring many marketing managers
to manage their marketing activities in Amazon. The marketing manager provided
information, analyses factors that influence the organizational performance, and does market
research. Some key employability and personal skills are described below:
Employability skills of a marketing manager
Employability skills can be referred to as soft skills which employees need in terms of
performing in their workplace. At Amazon, employability skills are much needed.
Employable skills can be considered as- communicating with other employees in the
department, organizing team members, conducting staff meetings, problem-solving, and
6

planning strategies of the organization like- Amazon (Hersey, Blanchard and Johnson, 2017).
As a marketing manager in Amazon proper knowledge of marketing and implementing them
in real case scenarios is needed.
Personal skills of a marketing manager:
Interpersonal or personal skills are one of the important skills that are needed in any business
organization like- Amazon to perform day to daily tasks in the organization. A marketing
manager needs personal skills for example- motivational factors, adaptably, communicational
skills, quick learning skills, and other skills to perform in the organization (Varma and
Budhwar, 2014). The marketing manager needs personal skills to perform and achieve their
goals.
Both employability and interpersonal skills are necessary to perform and to achieve the
objectives of the business organization like- Amazon. A marketing manager needs to handle
marketing activities of their organization so both those skills and knowledge can help to
achieve those criteria.
P3 Unfolding the physical and technological resources of Amazon.
Resources are an important factor to get the organizational goals and objectives. Every
organization wants to maximize its profit and increase the wealth of the organization.
Organizational resources help to achieve the organizational goals and objectives of an
organization like- Amazon. Both physical and technological resources are important for the
organization to operate their day to day activities.
Physical resources
Physical resources are those tangible resources that can be seen, touched, and felt. In any
organization like- Amazon physical resources are the common resources which organization
use on a daily basis. The most common physical resource of Amazon is its warehouse. As the
warehouse it used and it can be the most common physical resource of the organization. The
buildings, facilities, warehouses are the example of physical resources of amazon (Holmqvist
and Spicer, 2013). On the other hand retail stores are also considered as physical resources.
Apart from that, the products are also the physical resources of Amazon. Other than those
resources the desks, computers are also physical resources of the organization.
Technological resources
7

Information and other devices that are used to communicate and helps to operate
organizations day to day activities are considered as technological resources. Amazon is
doing business online so its main technological resource is its website. The domain name of
the organization is also its technological resources. The software's to operate the
organization, licenses, and copyrights all of those things can be categories as technological
resources. Business organizations need technological help to operate the business nowadays.
P4 Labelling internal and external finance of sourcing in Amazon.
In terms of sourcing capital, there are many ways to source capital form others. Every
organization needs sourcing their capital but no everywhere they can source finances. To
operate the business and to expand the business into other regions every business
organization needs sourcing. Here, the following describes the two types of sourcing that are
used in the organization:
Internal sources
Internal sources are one of the ways to do the sourcing for the organization. The organization
like- Amazon can source its organizational capital from internal sources. To finance capital
many business organizations can do their financing from their own business. Doing sourcing
form the own business is one of the easy ways to do financing (Holmqvist and Spicer, 2013).
There are ways to do internal sourcing like- retaining income, extra sale on their own
products, cost-cutting, selling stocks to other organizations. Those are the ways by which
organization can do their sourcing. Some advantage and disadvantage are provided below:
Advantages:
 Internal sources help to do plan the organization.
 It helps to get full control over a company like- Amazon.
 Internal sources decrease the cost of the creditors.
Disadvantages:
 Internal sources reduce help on taxes.
 To implement a budget it has a negative impression.
 For the projects, it is more time-consuming.
External sources:
8

To get capital and borrow money from a third party organization goes with external sources.
By external sources, the organization uses that capital to operate the business organization its
activities. In the external sources, there are mainly three types of external sources that can
help any organization to increase and collect its capital.
o Short term finance sources: cash credit, short term bank loans, etc.
o Medium-term finance sources: leasing, loan, debenture.
o Long term finance sources: long term bank loans, shares, and so on.
Advantages:
 It helps to borrow capital easily.
 It increases the growth rate.
 Provided different solutions to capitalization.
Disadvantages:
 It increases the debt and costs of the creditor.
 Reduces the benefit of credit rating.
P5 Understanding the insides of an income statement and balance sheet of Amazon.
The income statement provided information about the revenue and operating income along
with the net income of the organization. By the following figure, it shows that the revenue
increased in 2020 than the previous year 2019 (Melville, 2019). In 2019, net income was
$11.59 billion but in 2020 it reduced and become $20.93 billion.
Figure 02: Amazon’s income statement (Inc, 2020).
The balance sheet of Sainsbury:
9

Figure 03: Balance sheet of Amazon (Inc, 2020).
The statement shows that the assets decreased and the liabilities of the organization
decreased. In 2019, the total asset was $225.25 billion but in 2020 the assets decreased to
$221.24. The liabilities also decrease like- in 2019, it was 4163.19 billion but in 2020, it
reduced to $155.97 billion.
Ratio Analysis of Amazon
Figure 04: Ratio analysis of Amazon (Inc, 2020).
Ratio analysis provides information about the business and the business operations are
identified by the ratio analysis. For Amazon, their quick ratio is 0.84. On the other hand, the
current ratio is 1.08, debt/ equity ratio is 0.98.
P6 Demonstrating the use of budgets in Amazon.
For an organization like- Amazon budget plays an important role and organizations prepare
budgets to understand in what sector they need to invest and in what sector they will reduce
10

costs. It helps to identify and understand the cost factors and income factors of the
organizations. Proper budgeting helps to reduce costs and allocate proper funding for their
future expenses (Melville, 2019). There are four types of budget tools but for Amazon, there
are only two kinds of budget methods can be considered and that is provided below:
Activity-based budgeting tool
This type of budget method can be considered as a top-down budgeting method. In this
activity-based budgeting, the method organization sets input or target that needs to be
fulfilled by the organization. In terms of example- Amazon sets a $200 billion sales revenue
target for the organization (Paramasivan and Subramanian, 2009). To accomplish this target
company will need to identify and understand the factors which need to achieve this goal.
Value proposition budget method
In value proposition budget organizations consider that the budget value needs to be added to
the operations of the organization. It helps to reduce unnecessary costs and reduces expenses
which are not necessary to do this budgeting method (Paramasivan and Subramanian, 2009).
Amazon makes sure that their organization put value before conducting any activities for
their organization.
P7 Demonstrating the financial state of Amazon.
Slide 1
Note:
11

To analyses, the financial state of the business organization Amazon ratio analysis can help.
Ratio analysis can be differentiated by profitability ratio, efficiency ratio, and liquidity ratio.
The ratio analysis of Amazon is provided below:
Profitability ratio
Profitability ratio analyses the profit margin along with the net profit of the business
organization (Satryo, 2018). The profitability ratio shows that the profit margin decreased in
2019. In 2018 the net margin was 4.33% and in 2019 it is 4.13%.
Slide 2
Note:
Figure 05: Profitability ratio (Growth, Profitability, and Financial Ratios for Amazon.com Inc
(AMZN) from Morningstar.com, 2020).
Slide 3
12

Note:
Liquidity ratio:
In the liquidity ratio, some of their ratios increased and some of the ratios decreased. For
example-the current ratio decreased in 2019 compared to 2018. The quick ratio increase like-
in 2018 it was 0.84 and in 2019, it increased to 0.86.
Slide 4:
13

Figure 06: Liquidity ratio (Growth, Profitability, and Financial Ratios for Amazon.com Inc
(AMZN) from Morningstar.com, 2020).
Slide 5
Note:
Efficiency ratio:
In efficiency ratio, the sales and inventory are indicated. Here, the sales outstanding increased
compared to 2018 to 2019. In 2018, the inventory turnover was 35.01 but in 2019, it reduced
to 33.41 which is good for the organization (Satryo, 2018).
Slide 6
14

Note:
Figure 07: Efficiency ratio (Growth, Profitability, and Financial Ratios for Amazon.com Inc
(AMZN) from Morningstar.com, 2020).
15

Conclusion
This particular report emphasis on human resource management along with resources and
sourcing of the organization. In this report, we talked about the largest online business named
Amazon. To operate the business efficiently and effectively organization needs both internal
and external supports. Internal and external sources can be done to operate day to day
activities. Also, this report consists of a specific job description with the recruitment process.
Every job demands some skills and responsibilities like- a marketing manager's roles and
responsibilities.
16

References
Amazon.com. 2020. Robot Check. [online] Available at: <https://www.amazon.com/>
[Accessed 11 July 2020].
Bach, S., and Edwards, M., 2013. Managing Human Resources. Hoboken, New Jersey:
Wiley.
Financials.morningstar.com. 2020. Growth, Profitability, And Financial Ratios For
Amazon.Com Inc (AMZN) From Morningstar.Com. [online] Available at:
<https://financials.morningstar.com/ratios/r.html?t=AMZN> [Accessed 11 July 2020].
Hersey, P., Blanchard, K., and Johnson, D., 2017. Management Of Organizational Behavior.
New Delhi: Pearson India Education Services.
Holmqvist, M. and Spicer, A., 2013. Managing 'Human Resources' By Exploiting And
Exploring People's Potentials. Bingley, U.K.: Emerald.
Inc, A., 2020. Amazon.Com Inc (AMZN) Financials | Morningstar. [online]
Morningstar.com. Available at:
<https://www.morningstar.com/stocks/xnas/amzn/financials> [Accessed 11 July 2020].
Melville, A., 2019. International Financial Reporting. Harlow: Pearson.
Paramasivan, C. and Subramanian, T., 2009. Financial Management. New Delhi: New Age
International (P) Ltd., Publishers.
Satryo, C., 2018. Free Trade Intervention: Political-Economic Intervention on Global
Business Environment. Asia Pacific Management and Business Application, 007(01),
pp.31-44.
Varma, A. and Budhwar, P., 2014. Managing Human Resources In Asia-Pacific. New York:
Routledge.
Vasoyan, A., Selyukh, A., Vasoyan, A. and Vasoyan, A., 2020. Tech Giant Amazon Opens
Location In Santa Barbara. [online] Kclu.org. Available at: <https://www.kclu.org/post/tech-
giant-amazon-opens-location-santa-barbara#stream/0> [Accessed 11 July 2020].
17