Management Questions and Answers on Amazon

This article provides management questions and answers on Amazon. It covers the company's departments, levels of management, and challenges faced by managers. It also discusses the factors contributing to Amazon's success and the skills relevant to sales managers. The article explains the importance of efficiency and effectiveness in the organization and how Amazon utilizes its resources. It concludes by exploring problem-solving in business organizations through Amazon's example.

Running Head: Management
Amazon
Management
Management Questions

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Table of Content
Answer 1.....................................................................................................................................2
B).............................................................................................................................................4
Answer 2.....................................................................................................................................4
B).............................................................................................................................................5
Answer 3.....................................................................................................................................5
Answer 4.....................................................................................................................................6
Answer 5.....................................................................................................................................7
Answer 6.....................................................................................................................................8
Answer 7.....................................................................................................................................8
Peer Review..............................................................................................................................10
References................................................................................................................................12

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Answer 1
Name of the company-Amazon
Age of the company- 1994-2018 (24 Years)
Products of the company- Largest online marketplace for buyers and sellers (Consumer
goods, electronics, home products, lifestyle products etc.)
Location- Online marketplace with global headquarters at Seattle (Hassan, Shakthi &
Sasikala, 2017)
Size-Large sized firm (operations in more than 100 countries) (Chou, 2016)
Any particular facts of interest-Company is testing drones to deliver product to its
customer, this is done to expedite the delivery services. Also the company has recently
opened up its new office, by the name SPHERE; it encompasses plants from all the countries
round the globe.
Amazon has departments pertaining to its products and services. The departments
therefore of Amazon are:
 Advertising
 Amazon ALexa
 Amazon books
 Amazon customer service
 Amazon Devices
 Amazon Go
 Amazon Pop up
 Amazon web services
 Business & Corporate development
 Digital entertainment
 E-commerce foundation
 Finance and accounting

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 Fulfilment & Operations
 Global corporate team (HR, Legal & PR)
 Kindle content
 Prime video
 Retail
 Seller services
 Subsidiaries
 Transportation and logistics
 University recruiting
 Technology
 R&D
The levels of management are lower level, middle level and the senior level. All the
employees are segmented in these levels.
Managers have very important role to play in business organization, certain ways in which
managers display some of the below mentioned behaviour are:
 Brevity-Brevity is the art of communicating to the team the work and directions to
proceed in the work. Managers practice brevity in the organization by being highly
specific in their communication and communicating the deliverables concisely in the
very first time(Leonard & Trusty, 2015)
 Variety- Managers display variety in the organization by giving variety of tasks to the
team member, this works for the team as it leads them out of boredom and helps to
acquire diverse skill sets.
 Fragmentation- Managers display fragmentation in the organization by breaking
down the tasks for the team members to make it easy for them. He ensures high
fragmentation in the division of work among the team members.
 Life on a speed dial- Managers at Amazon are consistently under pressure and
involved in multitasking in all their business activities. They are involved with the
team, their peers, senior, management, creating reports for the management and so
on. Thus it can be said that life of managers is on a speed dial(Daft & Marcic,2016)

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Amazon works in the marketplace which is highly dynamic and keeps changing by every
hour. Some of the challenges faced by the managers are:
 Changing customer taste and preferences
 Facing challenges on the sellers end
 Changing policies in the online space
 Conflict handling amongst the team
 Challenge of managing change management(Khanna & Sampat,2015)
Planning, leading, organizing and controlling are the important functions the management
in the course of organizational journey (Robert, 2017)
Planning- This is done to make the organization run smoothly, business process and
functions are defined to ensure the smooth business functioning of the organization
Leading- The entire organization has to be led by example towards the fulfilment of the
business goals and objectives.
Organizing- This is the function where different department are to be created and hiring of
the right candidates for the job.
Controlling- This is the process of controlling the business activities and ensuring that the
teams are not deviating from the set goals or the intended target (Sandhu, 2017)
B) Factors contributing to the success of the company
 Building effective and responsive interpersonal relationship amongst the team, this
ensures high productivity and a sense of cohesion among the team. It contributes
strongly towards team building which leads to positive synergies in the organization
 Management at Amazon practice clear communication amongst the team member,
they do their best in openly communicating any changes in the company and believe
in having openness in communication.
 They understand the financial results of the company and then create effective
strategies in sync with the financial results.

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 Management creates an environment of high job satisfaction at the offices, job
satisfaction works as a motivation factor for the employees and they contribute
more towards the success of the organization
Answer 2
A manager according to Mintzberg theory has three roles to play in the organization, the
roles are of Figurehead, Leader & Liaison.
Role Definition Example
Figurehead Social , ceremonial and legal
responsibilities, people look
up to him as the person of
authority (Mintzberg, 2016)
Team Manager plays the role
by fulfilling all the
responsibly
Liaison Role of liaison is making
internal and external contact
for the growth of business
Managers communicating
with the sellers and the
internal team members
Leader Managing the performance
and responsibilities of
everyone in the team
Jeff Bezos sets out objectives
for the team for
achievement and also leads
by example
Entrepreneur Creating and controlling
changes in the organization
Manager brings innovation in
the business processes
Disturbance handler Helps to mediate in disputes Resolves team conflict and
ensures negotiation
Resource allocator Determine where the
organizational resources are
allocated(Kumar, 2015)
Different resources are
ensured to different
department, budgets form a
part of it.
Negotiator Need to take part in the
negotiation in the team
Manager ensures that the
conflicts are resolved
Spokesperson Managers represent and
speak on behalf of the
Leaders representing the
organization in public forum

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organization or giving interview is an
example of it
Disseminator Communicating useful
information to the team
Managers give information
to the team members on
their business objectives and
goals
Monitor Monitoring the team
performance
Managers tend to control if
their team is deviating from
the desired path.
B) The skills relevant to sales manager in order to excel at his work are:
 Technical- Thorough understand of the technicalities involved in registering the
sellers on the Amazon platform
 Human Skills- The skill involves proper handling and managing the team by inducing
cohesion in the team.
 Conceptual- Thorough understanding of the business processes and using his
concepts to drive productivity at work place.
Answer 3
Efficiency is highly driven in the business organization if all the resources are utilized fully by
the team members. For example Amazon utilizes the technology by building on their cloud
services, using the same to analyse data, big data analytics, using the same for digital
marketing and promoting its products. Efficiency is a high success contributing factor in any
business organization.
Effectiveness is ensured in the organization by making right decision at the right time
yielding in right results. For example, Amazon realized lacunae in the online video space and
thus quickly launched in Amazon prime video services for its customers. The content
platform changed the entire landscape of high people consume high quality content.

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Answer 4
General environmental impact on the organization
Bargaining power of
suppliers
This factor determines if the
suppliers have a strong
bargaining power or weak
Makes a strong
relationships with the
suppliers, rewards them for
ensuring high quality
Bargaining power of
customer
This factors talks about the
switching cost for the
customers.
Keeps on adding new
product lines, being
customer centric in approach
and offering loyalty rewards
for their association
Competitive rivalry of the
firm
This shows the competition
in the marketplace
Amazon ensures that it stays
ahead of the competition by
ensuring fast delivery, new
product lines, pushing the
service envelope.
Threat of new entrant This factor shows the threat
Amazon faces from any new
entrant in the market
The chances of new player in
the market are less due to
high marketing costs,
Amazon keeps its customers
loyal reducing the risk
Threat of substitution This factor explains how
Amazon faces the threat
from the substitutes product
Low switching cost is a big
reason why customers can
opt either to go to different
websites or to a retail store,
Amazon keeps conducting
sales on the portal to ensure
that the customers get the
lowest price.
Specific environmental factors impacting the organization

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Political This factors shows the
influence that political
forces can cause to the
company
By establishing in politically
stable organizations
Economic These factors include the
GDP, economic condition of
the nation, purchasing
power and so on.
Ensuring that the pricing of
products is in sync with the
purchasing power of the
people
Social This factor includes the
lifestyle, culture, behaviour
of the people and the
society.
Ensures by providing
products relevant to the
lifestyle of the people
Technological This factor includes the
impact change in technology
can cause to the business
Ensures by adopting to new
technology
Legal This factor comprises of the
legal functionalities in setting
up and functioning of the
organization
Ensures by complying to all
the compliances
Environmental This factor includes the
impact on the environment
due to the organization
Ensures by doing CSR
activities helping the
environment
Answer 5
Efficiency and effectiveness in the organization is ensured by following the processes and
the set procedures. There are management theories which help in ensuring the efficiency
and effectiveness of the organization
Scientific management theory: This theory is ensured with careful inspection of all the
business activities. Careful measurement and specification of each and every task of
organization ensures effectiveness and efficiency. Amazon has managers who ensure the
same.

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Bureaucratic management theory: Weber propounded the theory in line with the scientific
management theory; he said that an organization should be broken into different
hierarchies for careful monitoring and inspecting of the business activities.
Human Relations Movement: This theory said that humans should be given maximum
attention to and their needs have to be satisfied if the goals of the organization have to be
fulfilled.
Contingency Theory: This theory says that whenever manager takes a decision he should
ensure that he carefully investigates all the possible aspects his decision can cause and thus
take a calculative decision.
Resources have to be utilized fully to ensure effectiveness in the organization, the resources
which Amazon uses are:
Human Resources: One of the most important components of the organization ecosystem,
Human resources has to be utilized fully for maximum productivity with assured
effectiveness.
Capital resources: Amazon is backed by strong venture capitalist and investors, it ensures
that the funds are utilized towards business development and are not wasted in some
useless activities.
Technological Resources: Amazon web services are the biggest cloud services, even bigger
than Google, the company utilizes technology to gather data, store data and provide highly
targeted content to its consumers.
Answer 6
People focussed approach and task focussed approaches are used by the organization for
the delivery of the set objectives.
Task focussed approach: A task focussed approach could be understood in the way that
managers structures the team according to the tasks, he in this approach is not concerned

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with the career development of the employees or their skill set before putting him into a
team
People focussed approach: People focussed approach means that the organization cares
what the people need, provide them with the resources, provide a right environment and
then the employees take over the task of achieving the business objectives.
It has been proven that none of the approaches are wrong and both of them contribute
value to the organization. Amazon though uses people focus approach, as it highly believes
in the theory that if a company takes care of the employees of the organization, the
employees then takes care of the business customers. Amazon provides to its employees an
environment filled with learning and growth, they are motivated and are rewarded for their
goals achievement. Amazon provides an environment of high Job satisfaction and it is one of
the strongest reasons why Amazon is the largest online marketplace in the world.
Answer 7
Problem solving in business organization is really important .One of the problem Amazon
identified in its business and how it tackled it is listed as under
Problem identification Amazon realized that it is losing many
customers owing to slow delivery of
products. Customer was facing long time to
receive the products they ordered for.
Identifying decision criteria The criteria for the decision was:
 Expedite the delivery
 Ensure the level of quality
 Less investment
 USP for the company
Weighing criteria evaluation Amazon came up with many ideas to solve
the problem, some of them were:
 Start Amazon prime services for fast
delivery of products.

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 Start drone services for quick delivery
of the products.
 Open up a warehouse to store the
inventory.
 Open up its own logistic company to
deliver the products.
 Shipment on the basis of value of the
product, an expensive product to be
delivered earliest.
 Hire employees from the same
regions.
Alternate development All the options were feasible but some of
them were really difficult to implement at
the start. Also they require huge capital
investment. Company also thought that the
option would just cater to one need of the
customer without delivering the entire value
for its customers. Thus it came up with
launch of the Amazon prime services for
lightning fast deliveries.
Alternate analysis The alternate chosen was to launch Amazon
prime services. Customer has to sign up with
Amazon prime services at a very normal
price and provide much benefit to the
consumers. Some of the benefits were:
 Guaranteed 1-2 day delivery of the
product.
 Free sign up for the Amazon prime
video services (In selected market)
 Exclusive deals for the Prime
members
Selecting of appropriate alternative Amazon prime option would bring revenue

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to the business and help the company to get
its lost customers and to attract new
customers
Implementing of alternate chosen Amazon prime services were launched in a
maximum duration of 6 months.
Evaluation of the chosen alternative Amazon prime has pushed the service
envelope and has positioned Amazon as the
most reliable service provider with assured
guarantee of products in the minimum time.
It has also added millions of customers on to
the platform for Amazon increasing the
revenue of the company.
Peer Review
Participation low high
Attends meetings 4 1 2 3 4 5
Is reliable and punctual 4 1 2 3 4 5
Joins in actively/verbally (and critically if needed) 4 1 2 3 4 5
Does his/her share – contributes ideas/opinions 4 1 2 3 4 5
Commitment to team
Is considerate and supportive of others 3 1 2 3 4 5
Works towards team standards and objectives 4 1 2 3 4 5

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Helps sort out problems or to resolve conflict 4 1 2 3 4 5
Communication
Listens to others and gives feedback 3 1 2 3 4 5
Clarifies to ensure others’ understanding 4 1 2 3 4 5
Open to others’ ideas/prepared modify own view 3 1 2 3 4 5
Performance
Keeps on track; meets deadlines for tasks 4 1 2 3 4 5
Is well organised and has a professional approach 4 1 2 3 4 5
Does best and achieves a good quality of work 4 1 2 3 4 5
Contributes toward final report write up 4 1 2 3 4 5
Personal Attitude
Is enthusiastic and maintains motivation 4 1 2 3 4 5
Respects other, is fair and friendly,
Contributes to positive atmosphere 4 1 2 3 4 5
Total: _61__
The above mentioned Peer review rating is categorised into 5 categories, namely;
Participation
Commitment to team
Communication
Performance

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Personal attitude
These are the parameters against which the peers of the group are rated. I have mentioned
the score for my colleague who is involved in the project with me.
 My colleague ranks high on participation, he is regular in meeting, reaches for the
group meeting on time, freely participate among the group member and proactively
contributes his ideas wherever required. He also has this smart way of working, even
at night if he thinks of some idea he drops a message to everyone without caring a
little about the time. Hence, I would say he is extremely participative in his working
style.
 My colleague is has a good commitment towards the team, he is considerate
towards the feeling of others, works towards the standards of team and the
objectives and also helps to sort out the problems of other team members. But I still
feel that there is a lack of commitment to the team, he is more focussed on
achieving his part of the job role and focuses less on the team.
 Communication is one of the strongest contributing factors amongst the team
member for building strong team cohesion. He is proactive in giving feedback to
other, is moderate in understanding others and openness to ideas of others. It can
be mentioned that there are at times when he weights his ideas more than the other
and shows little apathy towards other team members.
 My colleague is an excellent performer, he meets deadlines for tasks, and he is
pretty well organized and has a strict professional approach towards his work. He
pays attention to details and has an outstanding contribution in the completion of
the report. He likes to do an inspection of other’s part as well so that the quality of
the report does not hamper.
 It can be definitely said with utmost certainty that he is extremely enthusiastic with
his work, is always in high spirits and has a strong motivation to keep going in his
work. He ensures that the morale of the team and the members is absolutely high.

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References
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Amazon reviews using naïve bayes on laptop products with MongoDB and R. In IOP

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Conference Series: Materials Science and Engineering (Vol. 263, No. 4, p. 042090).
IOP Publishing.
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