Case Study: Analyzing Amazon's Organizational Changes and Growth

This case study examines the significant organizational changes Amazon has undergone since its inception as an online bookstore. It details Amazon's expansion into various sectors, including e-commerce, cloud computing, digital streaming, and manufacturing, highlighting the factors that triggered these changes, such as technological advancements, changing consumer demands, and competitive pressures. The study analyzes the strategies Amazon employed to manage these changes, emphasizing its focus on long-term goals, customer satisfaction, and building a strong company culture. It also explores the resource implications of not adapting to change, change management models, stakeholder involvement, and strategies for overcoming resistance to change. The case study concludes with recommendations for Amazon's continued success in a dynamic business environment.

Running head: AMAZON CHANGES
AMAZON CHANGES
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Executive Summary
The report aims to discuss the largest e-commerce company Amazons growth in this
competitive world of business. The changes in the organization has effectively changed the
way the business over internet used to take place in the previous years. The company operates
in more or less every countries of the world and exploited internet service at its best. Amazon
has undergone several changes starting from the product differentiation, change in the
policies, and expansion of the business in different national culture and developing new
process to support automation process. It has started operating in different to the industries
like IT, online retailing, video and film industry and finally in the manufacturing industry
also.
This paper has detailed the operations of the company elaborately and the background of
changes. It will examine the change that the company has undergone to gain so much
popularity among the customers in the international market. It will also discuss the strategies
developed by the organization to manage the changes, and how these strategies have resulted
in the company’s success. The paper will also evaluate the resource implications for not
responding to the changes. The paper has discussed two change management models in
amazon that analyse the strategic intervention techniques of change management. It has
discussed the process of involving stakeholders in the planning of change and evaluate the
systems used to involve the stakeholders in the change management process. The
implications of resistance to mentioned change is detailed in this study and it has devised
some strategies to overcome resistance.

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Table of Contents
Executive Summary...................................................................................................................1
Introduction of the organization and the background of the change:.........................................3
The type of organizational change/changes Amazon went through..........................................4
Factors that triggered the changes:.............................................................................................4
Strategies developed by the organization to manage the changes:............................................6
Resource implications for not responding to the changes:.........................................................9
Planning and managing change................................................................................................10
Determination of the change models....................................................................................10
Determination of the strategic intervention techniques.......................................................12
Involving stakeholders in the change plan...............................................................................13
Devising change management strategy................................................................................13
Evaluation of the systems of stakeholder involvement............................................................14
Implications of resistance to change........................................................................................15
Recommendations....................................................................................................................17
Conclusion................................................................................................................................17
References:...............................................................................................................................18

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Introduction of the organization and the background of the change:
Amazon is the largest online retailer of the world and a pioneer in the online retail
industry. This company started operating as an online bookstore from where the customers
could get books they ordered. Now Amazon has is identified as an American multinational
technology company which focuses on the e-commerce, digital streaming, could computing
and artificial intelligence. Amazon is now considered as one of the largest technology
companies like Apple, Google and Facebook that are dominating and regulating the business
of the world directly (Nadkarni 2017). Amazon is famous for its disruptive actions of well-
established industries through its mass scale technological innovation. This company has
become the largest e-commerce marketplace of the world as well as artificial intelligence
assistant provider and the cloud computing platform in terms of capitalisation and revenue.
This is also the largest internet company in the world by revenue.
The company was established in 1995 at Seattle of Washington as most of the
technical talent was located there (Aboutamazon.com 2019). At that point of time, the
company used to sell only books online and had a limited customer base within US. In 1997,
the organizations went public and started to sell music and videos. From 1998, the company
started to expand itself in the markets of Germany and Uniter kingdom. In these markets the
company started to acquire online sellers of books. From the next year it started to sell
consumer electronics, video games, home improvement items, games, software and toys. In
2002, the company started Amazon Web Services providing data on the internet traffic
patterns, web site popularity and other types of statistics for the developers and marketers. In
2006, Amazon developed its AWS portfolio to rent the computer processing power and
simple storage services. Now the company has entered the whole food market and automated
inventory management systems. Now amazon does not only act as retailer but produces

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products and services like Appstore, Fire Tablets, Fire TV, Kindle store, Amazon studios,
Amazon Echo and Alexa and Amazon prime.
The type of organizational changes Amazon went through
Amazon has undergone several changes starting from the product offering to the
industries where it had been operating for long. Initially, the company had started with the
offering books but now has touched every industry of the business world starting from the
food, film, IT and retail. Amazon has went through strategic changes that included the
expansion of the company in the retail, IT and manufacturing sectors. It has also followed
the process of change in the corporation policies, product differentiation, product
differentiation, and change in the location through acquisition or joint venture (Nadkarni
2017).The success of this company’s venture spurred because if the external changes of the
markets in the 2000s. The company has rightly captured the emotion and expectations of the
customers and catered these needs as efficiently as possible. As mentioned before, the change
in the product offering has led the company to expand its business in the different types of
industries and for this the economic, technological and social changes around the world are
hold responsible. After 2000s, there is an economic and technological boom in the business
industries and more companies as well as individual customers started to find solutions of any
problem by using internet.
Factors that triggered the changes:
Many factors led Amazon to bring these organizational changes and led the company
to respect diversity in terms of products and services. It was clear to Amazon that it can sell
anything that can be found online. Hence the company expanded worldwide and started to
operate around the world through a combination of their localised portals well as globalised
delivery as well as logistics platforms. The organizational changes in the company is mainly

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due to the increase its competitive leverage from the global market. This is the reason why
the company has exploited technology as much as possible and reaped its benefit of the
economies of scale by leveraging the synergy between the internal resources and external
drivers (Demirkan, Spohrer and Welser 2016).
In detailing the factors why amazon had had changed its strategies and business
model from the online bookstore to the e-commerce, digital streaming and cloud computing,
the reasons are to be analysed. Firstly, the company changed the way that the companies used
to sell books but initiated changes in using internet for selling books online. This change was
triggered with the idea that the company had recorded large worldwide demand for literature,
huge number of titles available in print and low unit price of the books (Finer et al. 2015).
Secondly, the company undergo changes in entering the e-commerce market because the
customers worldwide wanted an online platform from where they can buy every important
things they need for their household or personal utility. This is the reason why the company
started to buy products from the manufacturers and then sold to the buyers having a small
margin of profit. It has brought a new wave of innovation in the aspect of product delivery.
Thirdly, amazon decided to enter the manufacturing operation because the process of buying
products from the manufacturers and selling those to the customers was not yielding much
profit in balancing the company’s investment. This is due to the fact the company started to
manufacture Fire Tablets, Fire TV, Amazon Echo and Alexa so that the profit margin
increases. This is fruitful for the company because by manufacturing the products themselves,
the company has increased market reach as this type of product was rare and innovating in
the market in one hand. On the other hand the customers were interested in buying these
products because it had the reputation of the brand (Finer et al. 2015).
Fourthly, the increase of business ventures through internet has driven Amazon to
develop strategies for web services. It was supported by the innovative services like cloud

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computing and promoted e-commerce. The need for the large business to maintain internal
system and gaining extra leverage from the international communication system have given
Amazon to invest and strategies for the web services. Fifthly, this company has also entered
the entertainment industry through TV, movies and Prime Video streaming. The tendency of
the generation to watch movies and other videos online in their mobile has driven this need
for strategy. As amazon had been selling DVDs in their retail business now have started to
stream, rent and sell the digital companies of video online. It is effective as it has grabbed the
attention of the customers of different markets already and all of them have Amazon App in
their mobile. Now they can avail this video services without entering in other apps. The
company has joined Netflix, YouTube and other gains to product its movies and TV series.
Finally, the service like Amazon Go paved the way for new type of grocery stores. The need
of the customers to have a brick and mortar facility in the buying process has driven Amazon
to strategize this service.
Strategies developed by the organization to manage the changes:
Amazon’s strategies for success are completely related to its constant changing
mentality and incorporating new business ideas to enter new industries. This changing
capability with changing needs of the markets in all over the world has offered huge success
to the strategies of Amazon. In order to manage the strategic changes, the company has
followed some very important strategies which include:
1. Focussing on the long term goals:
Amazon always focuses on the long term goals and sustainable growth so that the strategies it
initiates give best results for a long period of time. The strategies that the company
implements are all capable to adapt with the changes in the organization both internally as
well as externally. Amazon strategizes for the ultimate good of the customers so that this can

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lead to popularity among the customer and they understand the company is working for their
welfare according to their best interests (Oleg and Girault 2018). This type of culture among
the international companies is are and gives extra leverage to the company to operate in the
competitive market.
2. Strategies on the things which do not change
The company has always focussed on the markets where the competition level is low as well
as found things which are not produced at large scale. The strategies are based on the things
which have consistency. The transitory things like determining the competitors, available
technologies and the sudden trends are constantly changing therefore if the company
strategizes on such things, then they have to change their stratifies more often.
3. Building strong values and company culture
Amazon in order to incorporating changes and maintains those has strategized a very
important organisational culture that has values and innovation incorporated within it (Zhu
and Liu 2018). The company culture is built around its customer obsession, ownership of the
company’ growth, expect innovation from the teams, having good instinct and business
judgement, hiring the best talents, insisting on the highest standards, thinking differently,
earning trust, challenging respectfully and risk taking capabilities (Pangarkar 2015).
4. Focusing on the customer satisfaction
Jeff Bezos has adopted the approach to have customer satisfaction at its best and narrow any
possibility of risk of unsatisfied customers. To strive for the best customer satisfaction is
striving for perfection. To the company knowing the customers is to satisfy the customer. The
company’s customer service desk tries to solve any type of issues within few minutes and
acknowledge the flaw immediately (Forbes.com2019). The communication with the
customers is of high slandered and worthy that other company can learn from this. The three

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principles of customer satisfaction like selection low price and perfect delivery can reduce
customer grievances and create a dependable customer base in any market of the world.
5. Enlarging selection of products and personalised experiences
Amazon focuses on the customer service and waits to see where the opportunities present
to sell their personalised products. In this respect the company strategizes that it put
priority ion the customer then on innovation and being patient for growth. The company
has strategized the actual purchase behaviour of the customers from the time of its
foundation. This is the reason why the company has gained in depth knowledge about the
actual need of the customers along with the markets (Oleg and Girault 2018). This is how
it has developed capability to adapt with any situation either positive or negative. This has
also given the company needed risk taking mentality and they win the challenge every
time. The company strategizes so effectively in the product offering that it is able to cater
the products or services according to the each need. Moreover, the attraction of saving
time through online marketing and competitive prices are also important aspect why the
company is so successful in operating in any type of industry.
6. Speedy services and competitive prices
It is found that the company is much focussed in preventing any type of delay in the
product delivery, web page loading and customer service. This is due to the fact that the
CEO founder of the company Jeff Bezos put pressure on the employees to work
efficiently and fast so that the company can guarantee in the market that the products will
be reaching the customers before they expect (Rossman 2016). In addition to this, the
strategies are effective to maintain the affordability of the products to the consumers.
7. Responding competition

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The company as mentioned has already touched to most of the verities of industry in the
business sector, it has adapted with the tremendous pressure of that particular industry
(Forbes.com 2019). For example, the company has entered the prime video offering but
already reached the popularity of Netflix by offering more features than these competitors
and more options in less expense.
8. Maintaining leadership
Amazon maintains its leadership through creating the diverse product selection. It has
moved from the books and arts to online grocery, TV or film production, cloud
computing and manufacturing selective products (Parnell et al. 2017). It has been known
to be ‘the everything store’ where the customers get odd selection of the products within
reasonable price with speedy delivery facility.
9. Strong marketing abilities
Amazon mainly concentrates on the online marketing but also invest on the offline
marketing also. There are four ways through which the company attracts the customers
online. These are pay per click advertising that include the method of buying space on the
search engine of Google and purchasing PPC ads to direct the customers browsing to the
websites, email marketing, affiliate marketing and online ads. Similarly the company
employs different media like TV and Radio media, promotion through events, free delivery
and online buying experience for its offline marketing.
Resource implications for not responding to the changes:
Not responding to the changes will have number of implications on different resources of
Amazon. One of these implications will be in terms of brand value. This is due to the reason
that if Amazon do not respond to the change, then they will get trailed in the market and

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brand value and identity of them will get diluted. In addition, service quality for the
customers will get reduced if Amazon not respond to the changes. This is due to the fact that
with the change in the expectations and trend of the customers, if Amazon cannot be able to
change their approach, then satisfaction and loyalty level of the customers will be affected.
Hence, negative implications will be on the financial resources of Amazon.
Planning and managing change
Planning and managing of change process involves a few steps that should be
followed in order to have the most effective forms of change management process in place. In
the case of Amazon, it is more important to follow each of these steps due to the reason that
they are operating in a highly competitive industrial situation. In the planning process of
change, the first step is to create the urgency. This is due to the reason that the internal
stakeholders of Amazon should be aware about the need for the change in the business
approach in order to generate the required interests among them. In the next step, the vision
of the change process should be created and communicated to all the involved stakeholders
(Butt, Naaranoja and Savolainen 2016). This will ensure the proper connection between the
involved stakeholders and gain the maximum utility from their sides. Lastly, in terms of
managing the change process, the feedbacks should be gathered from the involved
stakeholders in order to ensure the effective change process. However, it should also be noted
that change management models can be used in following each of the required steps in the
change process.
Determination of the change models
In terms of the organizational situation of Amazon, it is identified that Lewisn’s
model of change management will be one of the most relevant choices. This is due to the
reason that the three steps involved in this change model will ensure implementation of the

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change plan in least complex manner. The first step in the Lewin’s change management
model is the unfreezing process. Thus refers to the process of identifying the change needs in
the organization and areas of improvement (Hussain et al. 2018). In the case of Amazon, this
is being done effectively because in the initial stage, Amazon identified the lack of viability
in online selling of books only. In accordance to this situation, they identified the new market
segments of selling household products also. In addition, Amazon also found the gap in their
manual process of supply chain process and initiated the automated process for higher
effectiveness. In addition, in accordance to the unfreezing process, Amazon also
communicated with the involved stakeholders about the need for the change. This ensured
that even the lower level employees are aware about the change to be implemented. This
should also be noted that in the future change process, the Lewin’s change model will be
relevant because it will ensure the long term effectiveness in terms of planning the future
change processes effectively.
The next step of this model is change implantation, which states about the process of
implementing the change in the workplace. According to this model, the change process in
Amazon is implemented in phase manner, which helped in reduction of the risks. In the
current business scenario, Amazon is facing high level of competition in the global market
and thus they cannot afford to initiate the change in holistic manner. This is also proving the
relevance of the Lewin’s model of change process. The last step of this model is also relevant
for Amazon because this step states about the feedback generation from the involved
stakeholders. This is also important because there are certain issues and challenges to be
faced by the stakeholders in the implementation process of the change. These issues should
be located and proper mitigation steps should be taken.
On the other hand, it should also be noted that apart from the Lewin’s change model,
McKinsey’s 7s model can also be relevant for Amazon as this model takes more intensive