Evaluating Amazon's Logistics & Supply Chain in Austrian Market

This report analyzes Amazon's logistics and supply chain management strategies within the Austrian market. It details the evolution of a customer performance measurement system designed to align with Amazon's core business functions and objectives. The report outlines the research process, including data collection from Amazon's website, social media, and interviews, to understand their operational procedures and strategic goals. It discusses the development of a balanced scorecard to assess Amazon's performance from a customer perspective, highlighting the use of lead and lag indicators. The report also reflects on the iterative design process, addressing shortcomings in initial drafts and emphasizing the importance of causal relationships and strategic alignment with Amazon's mission to be the 'earth's most customer-centric company.' The final draft focuses on long-term growth and includes comprehensive measures and data sources for a better assessment of Amazon's progress towards its objectives.

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LOGISTICS AND SUPPLY CHAIN MANAGEMENT IN THE AUSTRIAN MARKET
(Name)
Name of the Professor
Name of the Institution
Location of the Institution

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As we gained more understanding of the primary business functions of the company and
its objectives, we designed a system with which we could measure the performance of the
customers. The design that we developed was further supplemented by our increase in
knowledge on all the areas that indicate the success of a company.
Understanding Amazon was the first step that we took in developing the design. We
researched on the operational procedures, the strategic plans and the goals of the Amazon
Company both in the short and the long term. The main sources of this data were social media
platforms such as their Facebook and Instagram pages as well as reviewing interviews with
managers that have been published online. We ensured that all the group members were
conversant all the information about Amazon before we proceeded to develop a comprehensive
scorecard that included all the key areas in the assessment.
The second step was identifying the customers’ perspectives. This assessment was a just
a preliminary and it was carried out using the scorecard that we had developed in step one. Using
the customer feedback we checked if Amazon’s performance from the customers’ perspectives.
Amazon targets to be the World’s most centric company, for instance, but the second step
involved using customers’ assessment in approving or disapproving Amazon’s performance. The
performance of the customers was maximized using lead and lag indicators that we developed.
This indicator helped to identify the similarities in customers’ feedbacks.
Draft 1
Each group member drafted their own scorecard on customer perspectives leading to a lot
of differences in the scorecards. We had excluded the casual relationship in all our drafts which
is a critical feature in customer-centric balanced scorecards (Kaplan & Norton 1992). We,

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therefore, developed the causal relationship using the information that we had developed in the
first stage and formulated a strategy map for Amazon. (The map is labeled Figure 2). There was
a considerable change from our first and our second draft.
Draft 2
We realized more of the instantiation into the mechanisms of the PMS after conducting
more research on BSC.
The following were indicated by our research:
 In order to achieve a single, strategic business value, all the areas of the customers’’
perspectives need to be interlinked with other sections of the project.
 We needed a new strategy map in order to illustrate the casual relationships among all the
areas of concern.
We then conducted an analysis that revealed that our initial design lacked key elements
rendering the initial PMS ineffective. Consequently, we modified the primary designs by
establishing the Amazon’s strategic value in order to boost the returns for the company. This was
based on Amazon’s mission statement: “to become earth’s most centric company” (Amazon.
2015). We facilitated a causal relationship with customer perspectives by developing a
hierarchical system in order to link up all the sections of our design. Identifying the areas that
were core to Amazon’s strategic objective and finally reviewed the objectives to determine if
they provided suitable indicators and set achievable targets within realistic time periods (David
& Kitchen, 2015). We concluded by developing a new strategy map that complemented the
structure in all the aspects identified in the revised scorecard in the final draft.
Final Draft

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The latest plan outlined in the draft too could not enable Amazon to achieve its target outlined in
the mission statement “TO become earth’s most centric company”. The final draft was therefore
aimed at boosting the company’s long-term growth. This led to exclusion of all former measures
of performance that were easily quantifiable. The draft also lacked necessary details and this
prompted us to develop the columns of “Initiatives” and “Sources of data”. This draft had a
comprehensive scope that covered all the areas in customers’ perspectives that enable us to
develop a better assessment of the Amazon’s Company current state in relation to achieving its
stated objectives.

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