BPP MSc Management: Business Report on Amazon Organization

This report provides a comprehensive analysis of Amazon, covering its organizational structure, corporate objectives, and business model. It includes an evaluation using PESTLE, SWOT, and Porter's Five Forces analyses, examining environmental factors, strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats. The report also recommends information systems for Amazon and discusses potential implementation challenges. The chosen organization is Amazon, and the report integrates the view of IT infrastructure and Knowledge Management Information System. The report is structured into sections that cover an overview of the organization, corporate objectives, structure, business model, and evaluation of the organization. The report concludes with a recommendation of information systems and a discussion of implementation challenges. The report is a submission for a BPP University MSc Management program.

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BPP Coursework Cover Sheet
Please use the table below as your cover sheet for the 1st page of the submission. The sheet
should be before the cover/title page of your submission.
Programme MSc Management with Streams
Module name
Knowledge Management and Information Systems
Schedule Term II
Student Reference Number (SRN) BP0230541
Report/Assignment Title Business Report
Date of Submission
(Please attach the confirmation of any
extension received)
25/08/2020
Declaration of Original Work:
I hereby declare that I have read and understood BPP’s regulations on plagiarism and that this is
my original work, researched, undertaken, completed and submitted in accordance with the
requirements of BPP Business School.
The word count, excluding contents table, bibliography and appendices, is 3400
words.
Student Reference Number: BP0230541 Date: 25/08/2020
By submitting this coursework, you agree to all rules and regulations of BPP regarding
assessments and awards for programmes. Please note, submission is your declaration
you are fit to sit.
BPP University reserves the right to use all submitted work for educational purposes and may
request that work be published for a wider audience.
BPP School of Business and Technology

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Table of Contents
Contents Page Number
1. Introduction 3
2. Organization Review 3
3. Evaluation 7
4. Recommendation of Information System 13
5. Challenges 18
References 19

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1. Introduction
This report is about the organization which I have chosen. This report is also
integrating the view of IT infrastructure and Knowledge Management Information System.
Section 2 includes the overview of the selected organization, corporate objectives, corporate
structure and the business model. Section 3 involves PESTLE analysis, SWOT analysis,
Porter’s five force analysis. Section 4 explains the recommendation of information system
about the chosen organization. Section 5 point out the challenges while implementation of
the chosen organization.
2. Organization Review
1. Chosen Organization:
The name of the Organization which I have Chosen is AMAZON.
2. Overview of the Organization:
Amazon is an American company. Amazon headquarters is placed in Seattle,
Washington. Amazon.com is a huge internet based organization. The businesses includes
in amazon are selling books, movies, housing things, music, electronic items, toys etc., It
also act as a broker between other retailers and the millions of customers. Amazon web
services business involving of data storage renting and computing sources it’s also called
as “cloud computing” over the internet. Amazon’s e-book services are the major disruptive
force in book publishing market (Mark, 2020).
Amazon official website shows as “Amazon’s products and services are
Amazon.com, Amazon Web Services, Prime Video, Amazon Music, Fire Tablets, Fire TV,
Echo and Alexa and Kindle E-readers and books”.
3. Corporate Objectives
Amazon Staff States about the amazon objectives as:
Amazon’s four important principles are customer obsession rather than competitor

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focus, passion for invention, commitment to operational excellence, and long-term
thinking.
The main objective of amazon which is quoted in the official website of amazon as
“We aim to be Earth’s most customer centric company. Our mission is to continually raise
the bar of the customer experience by using the internet and technology to help consumers
find, discover and buy anything, and empower businesses and content creators to
maximize their success”.
This mission is important for United Kingdom because of the empowerment of
digital for consumers and organization improves living standards for public up and down
the country and drives the competitiveness of economy and their productivity in the global
economy.
4. Corporate Structure
Amazon Corporate structure has: Senior management team which includes Three
CEO’s and Three Senior vice presidents for different business reports aspects directly to
the Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos (John D, 2020). The corporate Structure is depicted below:

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Corporate Structure of Amazon
Source: Business Research Methodology
Amazon Corporate Structure has three important key features. They are
Hierarchical Corporate Structure: It is developed because of the vast business
size. Because of their revenue employs which has more than sixty thousand and seven
hundred people around the world, amazon become the biggest internet retailer in the
globe (John D, 2020).
Business Flexibility: If the organization is vast then that organization would not
follow the hierarchical corporate structure. But Amazon maintain that hierarchical
structure. Amazon is highly flexible to adapt continuous changes in the external
marketplace (John D, 2020).
Management Stability: Many largest internet company’s turnover is very little
among their power players. Amazon does not because of the stability in the management

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(John D, 2020).
4. Outline the Business Model
Amazon Model is an e-commerce one, but nowadays they are making business mol
portfolio and revenue streams by using their investments and diversification. Amazon
business model is initially based on e-commerce, but now it has changed to entertainment,
music, cloud computing, delivering meals etc., (Gary Fox, 2019) the business model of
Amazon is depicted below:
Amazon Business Model
Source: Gary Fox
Under Amazon Business Model, It has the following Streams:
Revenue Streams: Amazon Marketplace, Amazon Books, Amazon Music and
Videos, Amazon Gaming, Amazon Web Service, Amazon Fire Products, Amazon Prime,
Amazon Tickets, Amazon Patents. Amazon Advertising (Gary Fox, 2019).
Financial Streams: Online Stores, Physical Stores, Third-Party seller services,
Subscription services, AWS, etc., (Gary Fox, 2019).

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3. Evaluation
1. Impact of Environmental Factors:
PESTLE analysis of amazon discussing the macroeconomic environment factors
which are affects its profits and growth.
How Political Factors affect Amazon
The organization has to face political and government activities which affect
amazon’s success. First impact is Political stability. Political stability can affect amazon’s
business. Political stability of some developed countries gave opportunity to amazon for
expanding their business in their region. Stable political governments can create threats
for the organization. The European Union is investigating amazon’s retailer’s data who
sells on Amazon Marketplace (Farooq, 2019).
Another factor is Government regulation for e-commerce businesses. In India,
Amazon and Flipkart was stopped by the Government they have equity stakes (Farooq,
2019).
Other factor is cybercrime. Every e-tailing business has to fight with cybercrime.
These political issues are affect Amazon business (Farooq, 2019).
How Economic Factors affect Amazon
If the economic conditions are positive then amazon will grow faster in those areas.
Customers buy goods from retailers in any economic condition and some retail business
growing stable even in the worst economic conditions (Farooq, 2019).
Customer’s disposal income is the main opportunity for Amazon which means,
customer will buy products of their choice. Example for Customer’s disposal income
companies are Amazon, Walmart and eBay (Farooq, 2019).
Another factor affect Amazon business is Economic recession. Chinese economy is
getting slower nowadays and it is considered as a threat for amazon business expansion
(Farooq, 2019).

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Other factor which gives great opportunity to amazon is Flourishing retail industry
that is more competition for amazon. Walmart is the main competition for amazon
(Farooq, 2019).
How Social Factors affect Amazon
Social trending can affect the amazon performance both negatively and positively.
Because of the behaviors such as allow people stay at home and amazon delivery system
will do that jobs like streaming movies, foods and groceries, people are getting lazier.
Staying at home and eating junk food affect the people health (Farooq, 2019).
Positive impact is current generations are very interested in online shopping.
Because of the easy internet access and mobile devices, online shopping ratio is increased.
Amazon online shopping facility is very helpful for senior citizens who cannot able to walk
(Farooq, 2019).
According to SurveyMonkey/Recode Poll, amazon create positive impact when
comparing with other companies like Google, Apple, Facebook or Microsoft (Farooq,
2019).
How Technological Factors affect Amazon
Amazon’s main factor is Technology. Because of the technology, amazon become
the most profitable organization across the world. Amazon’s main technology is cloud
computing which uses amazon web service (Farooq, 2019).
For delivery purpose, amazon main usage is technology. Now amazon prime air the
trending delivery system (Farooq, 2019).
Cybercrime is a threat to amazon. Amazon website stores confidential information
like customer’s credit and debit card details. Several clients complained that they were
hacked and lost their monthly sales. So, Cybercrime is a real threat to amazon (Farooq,
2019).

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How Environmental Factors affect Amazon
Amazon has some pressure from investors and other stockholders for revealing
some information relevant to environmental impact. Recently, amazon committed that
they will reveal some relevant information about environmental impact later this year
(Farooq, 2019).
Another factor that affect amazon is reducing organizational emissions. Online
shopping requires less energy than going to the stores and buy the groceries (Farooq,
2019).
Amazon also committed for their half of its shipment will free by 2030. Amazon
have 100 million members for two days delivery. Because of that If customers wish to
receive goods in one or two days, then the carbon emissions will automatically increase.
This is the real environmental impact (Farooq, 2019).
How Legal Factors affect Amazon
Amazon business should follow different laws and regulations. Few legal factors
such as anti-trust laws, discrimination rules, consumer protection rules and data
protection regulations are affecting amazon business (Farooq, 2019).
Counterfeit product rules are important and it’s also demand from the consumers.
But amazon already has anti-counterfeit policy (Farooq, 2019).
There are some Consumer Privacy Acts should be followed. Amazon should require
to inform the customers about what type of data they are collecting and how they share
and use the data (Farooq, 2019).
Another legal factor is EU GDPR that is General Data Protection Regulations. It
affects amazon but not only amazon those companies who collect the customer name,
email address and bank information. The European Union is launched this investigation.
This is considered as a big threat to amazon (Farooq, 2019).

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1. SWOT Analysis of Amazon
Amazon’s Strengths
Maggy S.G wrote about amazon strengths on Business Strategy Hub
Brand Name
Amazon has a successful brand image and strong position in the market because
of its e-commerce as global.
Brand Value
In 2019, Interbrand released a Global Brand Ranking. In that list, After Apple
and Google, Amazon placed at third and its brand value is 125 Billion Dollar.
Customer Oriented Brand
Amazon is necessary for huge number of customers for their daily needs at low
prices. Because of that Amazon is a customer oriented brand.
Innovations
Amazon often creating innovative ideas to their products and their offerings.
For example now they introduce ambitious drone delivery service and Aura Smart
Sleep System.
Go Global and Act Local Strategy
Because of its Go Global and Act Local Strategy, Amazon has more benefits.
Amazon develop their partnership with local supply chain organization. The local
supply companies understand the local needs and they providing services based on
their county culture.
Amazon’s Weaknesses
Maggy S.G wrote about amazon weaknesses on Business Strategy Hub,
Easily Imitable Business
Nowadays, online retail business is normal. Therefore, imitating Amazon’s
business model is easy. Because of this imitation, some companies giving amazon a

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difficult times which includes Barnes and Noble, Oyster, Netflix, eBay, etc.,
Loses in Some areas
In some areas like India, Amazon has faced losses. Because of its free shipping
to customers, that expose the risk of loses in some markets.
Product Failures
Fire Phone’s launch and Kindle fire devices are the biggest flop for amazon in
the US.
Controversy of Tax Avoidance
Amazon avoiding taxes in Japan, UK and US which leads to the negative impact
on Amazon.
Limited Street Side Business
Amazon has very limited physical stores. It makes sometimes difficult to attract
people buy things which is not sellable on online stores.
Amazon’s Opportunities
Maggy S.G wrote about amazon opportunities on Business Strategy Hub,
Amazon can gain the opportunity to expanding their business in developing
areas
By expanding their physical stores, it can improve their business into
another level.
Amazon can improve their technological measures and organizational
policies. Because of this, counterfeit sales can be reduced.
By introducing Self driving technology, it can improve their delivery
network.
Amazon promises to make positive impact on environment. By that vision,
Amazon plan to implement 10,000 electric rickshaws for delivery in India by 2025.

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Amazon’s Threats
Maggy S.G wrote about amazon threats on Business Strategy Hub
Controversies
Some controversies damage the Amazon’s brand image. People critically reacted
for Amazon selling the book which is names as “The Pedophile’s Guide to Love and
Pleasure: a Child-Lover’s Code of Conduct”.
Government Rules
Some regulations of Governments is the big threaten to Amazon’s business in some
particular countries like Cuba, Iran, North Korea, Sudan and Syria.
Increasing Cybercrime
By increasing cybercrime, Amazon’s network security system can be affected.
Tough Competition
Aggressive competition among Amazon, Walmart and eBay in the future. For now,
in video streaming services, Apple Tv+, Netflix, and Disney+ are the competition for
Amazon. In Logistics, FexEx is the main competition for Amazon. In Self Driving
Technology, Tesla, Uber, Ford giving tough competition to Amazon (Maggy, 2020).
3. Five Forces Analysis of Amazon
The intensities of external factors which are affecting amazon business is discussed
below:
Competitive Rivalry
(Strong Force)
Firms Aggressiveness is High
Substitutes availability is high
Low switching costs
Strong
Strong
Strong
Bargaining power of buyer
or customers
(Strong Force)
Information quality is High
Low switching costs
Substitutes availability is high
Strong
Strong
Strong
Bargaining power of Suppliers population is small Strong

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suppliers
(Moderate Force)
Forward integration is
Moderate
Suppliers size is moderate
Moderate
Moderate
Threat of substitutes
(Strong Force)
Low switching costs
Substitutes availability is high
Substitutes cost is low
Strong
Strong
Strong
Threat of new entry
(Weak Force)
Switching costs are low
Brand development cost is
High
Economies of scale is high
Strong
Weak
Weak
4. Recommendation of Information System
a. 1. Supporting Information System of Amazon
The amazon Software is used for attract customers and Amazon has some Strong
fundamentals of Information System which is shown in the below diagram:
Basic Fundamental through Information System of Amazon
Shopping and Tracking Order
In online shopping of Amazon, customer can purchase any number of
products as their wish and they can save their products in the website for future purchase and
trading
Customers can visit the history which is they have been searched and
purchased and they can track the purchased order (Prashant et al, 2018).
Operation
and
Process
Support
Decision
Making
Strategies
of
Competitiv
e
Advantage

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Shipping Address of the products
If the customer wish to buy a product for them only, their address is already
saved in the website. If the customer wish to send the product to another person, they can change
or add a different address of the person (Prashant et al, 2018).
Payment process offer
The customer can make the payment in online which is using by Debit card
or Credit Card or Cash on Delivery. During the payment process customer needs to fills their
information which is then stored into the Information System for further usage. Further usage
includes the process of providing tracking number which customer can monitor the purchased
order. Based on the Information System, the website will show the advertisement of similar
products which is customer has purchased (Prashant et al, 2018).
2. Operations for Competitive Edge
Competitive Edge is evaluated by leadership of market share which is
based on the following three sources:
Giving Customers more bang for the buck
When customer purchase the products, they must compared with other
suppliers based on some factors. For Amazon customers, the factors are price, fast delivery and
reliable service which is also called as Customer Purchase Criteria (CPC). Because of the CPC,
Customers choose Amazon than its competitor Suppliers (Cohan, P., 2018).
Harnessing capabilities to win at scale
When an organization has millions of customers, they should do certain
things for customers. For Amazon, those capabilities are Broad selection of products and service
offerings, efficient supply chain operations to fulfill orders and Excellent customer service(Cohan,
P., 2018).

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Sustaining Competitive Superiority
Very rare companies can stay as competitors try to copy the strategies of
others and making their business as successful. Amazon try this for their online book selling and
Amazon Web Service. Still Amazon is the leading one (Cohan, P., 2018).
3. Recommendation of Information System to Amazon
Implementing Artificial Intelligence
Using of Artificial Intelligence, Amazon can lead furthermore towards the
future views and amazon can more sensibly handle their customer. The AI can extending amazon
lifetime. Using of AI, amazon can upgrade their information system which is helpful for analyzing
their problems in easier way. Because of the changes, information system can flexibly analyze the
customer taste and preferences (Prashant et al, 2018).
Customer relationship in Amazon
Now the Amazon has no problem with their customer. But Amazon can
upgrade their Information System of the customers in a innovative manner. Because, their
competitors like flipkart, snap deal, eBay etc., they try to maintain their customer relationship in
the similar way. That is the issue the Amazon facing currently. So Amazon should upgrade their
information system with the innovative ideas through the software. It leads to better market and
gain more attention from the customer (Prashant et al, 2018).
Discard the gap between the marketing and sales
Currently, Amazon facing some gap between marketing and sales activity,
therefore Amazon should focus on the sales area. They do marketing for some specific segments,
but when the sales activity enters, Amazon unable to sell the products to the specific segments
which is targeted in the marketing. So the customer feels like marketing is like manipulating.
Therefore, Amazon should focus on the gap between marketing and sales activity (Prashant et al,
2018).

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b) Amazon IS used to Knowledge capture and sharing
By using Knowledge Management Information System, Amazon easily
connecting with Zillions of people with zigabytes of product information (Marc, R., 2014).
One portal, one interface
Customers are buying everything (foods, electronics, books, clothes, etc.,)
from the Amazon through the same portal. The user experience and the portal both are same. It
increases the familiarity with the website and introduced as a user friendly. If amazon has
different portal for different things like books, foods, clothes, it will be difficult for the customers.
Single portal and single interface has the advantages of easy to use gateway, familiarity with the
website and employees in all forms. (Marc, R., 2014).
Consistent Presentation
From the specification of product to product reviews, the information for
every products are displayed in same way and in same order. The information are composed and
published to the user in a consistent manner (Marc, R., 2014).
Modular Content
Amazon’s every page is easy to read. There is no elaborated books. If any
additional information is needed, they provide the additional details as “click here” link. It is the
good advantage for quick access which reduces the wasting time to scanning elaborate documents
(Marc, R., 2014).
Crowdsourcing
Customer rating and reviews, analysis of what customers previously
bough, what customers bought together and some other features are there. Based on the features,
amazon builds knowledge (Marc, R., 2014).
Easy transaction
The process of different things are the same. For eg, buying product from

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amazon, Product on hold, Need more information about the product. These processes are done in
the same way. Customers become so comfortable with the system (Marc, R., 2014).
Subscriptions
For every day purchases, customers need not to scan the service and
products. The system will remind or if the customer joining the subscription list, then it will
automatically recognize the customer and remind the updates (Marc, R., 2014).
Performance centered
If the customer need to change the order, change the payment method, the
customer want to return the product, these all the things are very easy in amazon. It is the main
thing of knowledge sharing (Marc, R., 2014).
Amazon IS used to Supply Chain Management
According to Abdullah, Amazon’s 2004 huge success is because of “Supply
Chain Management” plays a huge role. Main control of Supply chain activities are Customer
Relationship Management System. Some of the supply chain management system of amazon’s are
given below:
i) Enterprise Resource Management System (ERP System)
According to Abdullah, Oracle is the Enterprise Resource Management
System for Amazon. Oracle is the big database. It holds the customer related information. It helps
the ordering process. The automated ordering processing involves when order is taken, the
nearest distributing center will be automatically find for delivery.
ii) Customer Relationship Management System (CRM System)
According to Abdullah, Because of the use of Customer Relationship
Management system, amazon gain customer satisfaction and trust. To collect the customer
information, Customer Relationship Management system uses the following application:
Customer’s personal information are collected in the db (DataBase). Personal information
includes records of credit card, records of transaction, records of orders, customer profile,

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customer history of purchases etc.,
The order processing system process involves transaction record along with secured
transaction method. It gives instruction to the delivery system for the shipment process.
Amazon web page system collect the customer information by customer feedback,
customer interest, wish list, product reviews etc.,
By using CRM amazon successfully joins customer sales, services and communication.
5. Implementation Challenges
Late Deliveries
Because of deliveries gets late, Amazon’s logistics network has delivered
their own packages more. In 2017, From January to late June, 4.6% of the products were late
delivery. In 2019, the average of percentage is increased as 16.6% which is bad for the
business. If amazon is not able to reverse this, this issue leads to the damages for brand image
and its reputation (Ayoub, A., 2019).
Balancing Investments vs Profits
Consistently Amazon’s new idea which is health care on the news.
Evercore’s DiClemente wrote about amazon as “Amazon is obviously notorious for plowing
earnings back into the business”. The new ideas like healthcare, payments, logistics, etc., these
are trending things about amazon nowadays. Among the investor’s concerns that next
aggressive investment inflection is nearer. Also, introducing new technologies of business can
reap rewards down the road, these investment weigh on amazon’s earnings growth in the
coming year (Annie, G., 2019).
Dealing with more Intense Government
The European Union and France have accelerate to their rules and taxation
of amazon. In United States, Amazon’s HW2 and their tax breaks became a highlighting point
for criticism. Privacy and antitrust concerns are also the main implementation challenges of
amazon (Annie, G., 2019).

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References
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2020].
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