Comprehensive Analysis of Amazon's Leadership and Business Environment

This report provides a comprehensive analysis of Amazon's business environment, focusing on its internal and external factors, including suppliers, management, government activities, employees, and customer requirements. It begins with an introduction to the importance of leadership and its impact on organizational success, particularly in the context of Amazon, a leading e-commerce company. The report then delves into a SWOT and PESTLE analysis of Amazon, examining its strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats, as well as political, economic, social, technological, legal, and environmental factors. The impact of PESTLE elements on Amazon's opportunities is critically analyzed, alongside the influence of its strengths, weaknesses, and threats. The report also explores various leadership styles, including authoritarian, democratic, transactional, and transformational leadership, with a specific focus on the transformational leadership style employed by Amazon. Finally, it offers recommendations on the most appropriate leadership style for Amazon's continued growth and success.

Context of business

INTRODUCTION
Business environment is mainly a collection of internal and external factors that is
owners, suppliers, management, activities by government, employees, customer requirement and
so on. Leadership and business environment both are the significant aspects for an organisation
as it consist of tools as well as techniques for systematic and smooth functioning of activities and
operations. In addition to this, it undertakes different leadership style that is adopt by business
entity in order to attain objective within the set time period (Torres and Sidorova, 2019)
(Rissanen, 2020). Leadership is vital as it help in motivating, influencing and guiding staff
members so that there is increase in performance of organisation. In the present report, Amazon
is taken into consideration. It is one of the biggest E-commerce organisation that is headquarter
in USA and offer wide range of services globally. The report will cover SWOT and PESTLE
analysis of respective organisation. In addition to this, there is compare and contrast of various
leadership styles. Moreover, the responsibility, obligation and response within social and ethical
responsibilities in context to respective organisation is describe. In the last, reflection is given on
the basis of learning and experience gained during the project.
MAIN BODY
SWOT and PESTEL analysis of Amazon.
SWOT Analysis
It is defined as a framework which is adopt by company in order to analyse its strength
and weaknesses that help in making effective strategies for declining weaknesses and threats in
order to achieve competitive advantage. The SWOT analysis of Amazon is mentioned below:
Strength Weaknesses
 One of the major strength of Amazon is
its wide range of offerings at one
platform which help in capturing large
market share and attain higher
profitability.
 Amazon offers free shipping of its
online booking products that decline
the profit margin.
 Consideration of diversification
strategy by putting focus on retail store

 The respective company make use of
differentiation pricing strategy that help
in attaining competitive advantage at
marketplace.
of books is not effective for Amazon as
due to this it lose its strategic
advantage.
Opportunities Threats
 Amazon can expand its business
operations by entering into new
segments and market that enhance its
profitability.
 In addition to this, Amazon undertake
its own brand name of the offerings as
it help in attracting large number of
customer which increase its customer
base and revenue level in an
appropriate manner.
 One of the threat associated with
Amazon is most of the consumer did
not prefer online shopping due to
security issues which decline its sales
and profitability level (Koç, 2018).
 The company face tough competition
with its rivals that decline its
productivity as well as revenue level.
PESTLE Analysis
It is defined as a framework of macro environmental factors used in environmental
scanning component of strategic management. In addition to this, it assist business entity know
about the factors that has influence on business operations and performance as well. PESTLE
analysis of respective organisation is given below: Political: It is consider as one of the important aspect that consist of political stability, tax
policies, norms & standards as well. In relation to Amazon, the political condition of
USA is quite good as well as stable because of which Amazon did not face any problems
in execution of activities and operations & also follow government rules and policies in
order to expand business operations in other countries. Economical: It consist of various factors that is inflation rate, interest rate and many
more. It is analysed that the economic conditions of US is good in context to business
development due to which Amazon is able to gain growth at marketplace (Janiesch and
Kuhlenkamp, 2019). In addition to this, the respective organisation prominently manage

and undertake its demand and supply by undertaking economic factors in a proper
manner. Social: It consist of aspects that is belief, culture, value and opinions towards the
offerings of an organisation. With reference to Amazon, it focuses on the preferences and
taste of customer that is change because of market trends. This help company to enhance
its productivity as well as profitability. Technological: Technology is changing rapidly and impact on the choice of customers as
they prefer to buy those products that is new and innovative at marketplace. Amazon
make use of new technology as it is an E-commerce company that provide its product as
well as services online. It help company to attract large number of customer and increase
its profitability and market performance. Legal: It consist of laws that is Labour law, equality law and other employment
legislations. In context to Amazon, it ensure that all the laws is followed by them as it
help in smooth execution of activities and operations as well (Tuan, 2019). In addition
to this, it help in maintaining the brand image of organisation at marketplace.
 Environmental: It is associated with the element that is environmental friendly, pollution
and many more. It is determined that company decline the use of carbon footprint and
also it is an online platform that make less use of paper. This shows the company is
concerned towards the environment. Moreover, Amazon to undertake biodegradable and
recycling products which improves the sustainability and image of organisation.
o Critically analyse impact of PESTEL elements on the opportunities of
organisation impact of strength weaknesses and threats of the organisation on
their opportunities
 Various factors of PESTEL affect the overall performance and output of the
organisation and recognition of such factors for strategy formulation is necessary. Some
of these elements which affect opportunities and threats are provided below:
 Political factors describe the various legislatures and laws imposed by the government
agencies of the region in which the organisation functions. The subsidies and incentives
provided by the government agencies gives the organisation an opportunity to grow by
financial help from the government (Corallo, Lazoi and Lezzi, 2020). The political

environment of the united state is business friendly and the current government of the US
has introduced policies which reduce financial burden on local businesses, this is an
opportunity to the organisation.
 Economical factor consists of overall economic environment of the organisation, the
recent economic policies which aim to reduce tax rates on large cooperation and aim to
aid organisations which aim to invest in space technology provide the organisation an
opportunity to reduce costs on various products and gain advantage amid the threat of
global pandemic.
 Social factors such as changes in lifestyles, cultural trends are being monitored by the
respective organisation by conducting profound and precise market research and
collecting data on consumers through various sources. This data helps the organisation
modify their policies, enhance their range of products which eliminate the weakness of
low diversification of products.
 Technological elements have a huge impact on the respective organisation and help the
organisation gain competitive advantage through effective marketing techniques which
target individual consumers with specific advertisements and increases the profitability of
the organisation (Jnior, Oliveira and Yanaze, 2019). The latest technology which helps
the organisation reduce fuel wastage on delivery of products and reduce expenditure on
fuel, this reduces the costs of their products and removes the threat of aggressive prices of
their products.
 Several environmental elements are considered by the respective organisation as the
company has introduced various programs with the aim of reducing their carbon emission
and decreasing material wastage on product manufacture. This practice has helped the
company dodge the threat of global increase in environment friendly stance of consumers
and governments and provided the company an opportunity to market towards consumer
with environment friendly buying preferences (Andone and Frydenberg, 2019).
 Legal elements of the PESTEL tool such as labour laws affect smooth working of
Amazon, the recent decision of the organisation to start development and growth
programmes for their employees and the firm's views on keeping their workplace free
from discrimination has helped the organisation reduce the threat of lawsuits against the
company for not flowing labour laws or HRM legislation.

 Therefore the prominent strength of organisation is their technological advancements
which not only give the organisation competitive edge but also help the organisation
eliminate various threats. Along with this various green initiatives introduced by the
organisation has helped the organisation avoid threats from environmental factors such as
strict government actions on environmental violations.
Analyse different leadership styles and remark on leadership style of Amazon
 Effective leadership plays an important role in workforce development and help
the organisation achieve their goals in short amount of time. Organisations adopt
leadership style according to their organisational culture which helps them reach their
goals swiftly and effectively. Various leadership style along with leadership style
followed at the US based e-commerce organisation are provided below:
 Authoritarian leadership style: This leadership style involves giving absolute
power related to leadership responsibilities to single authority. This leadership style does
not include ideas or opinions of other members of the team in the decision making
process and saves time as all the decisions are made by a single authority. This type of
leadership style is centred around enforcing various decisions of the powerful authority
and decreases employee engagement. The employees under this leadership style have
lower satisfaction from their work as they feel their opinions are not equally important to
the organisation (Richner and Olesen, 2018). This leadership style reduces creativity of
the organisation as employees are not allowed to give their opinions.
 Democratic leadership style: This leadership style includes taking advice and
ideas from all members of the organisation and puts equal emphasis on opinions of each
individual member of the organisation regardless of their position in the corporate
hierarchy. This improves employee engagement and enhances employee satisfaction, this
directly reflects on the overall employee output and affects organisational performance.
As the employees fell valued for their opinions and viewpoints they feel motivated to
reach their highest potential.
 Transactional leadership style: This leadership style involves giving employees
appropriate rewards and incentives for their performance. As the employees understand
the incentives of their diligent work, they are motivated to give quality work to the

organisation. This leadership style encourages employees to reach their maximum
potential and enhance their skills continuously in order to reap specified benefits. The
limitations of this leadership style is that it does not help the company produce more
leaders from the workforce and maintains the organisational hierarchy.
 Transformational leadership style: Significant feature of this leadership style is
formation of common vision among the employees regarding their future positions and
organisations objectives in upcoming years (Bligh, Kohles and Yan, 2018). The leader
responsibility in this leadership style includes continuous development of employees to
take responsibilities according changing goals of the organisation and to inspire
employees to work diligently for the company.
Transformational leadership style is used at the multinational company Amazon, the
leadership at the organisation aims to develop employees with complete understanding about
their current and future positions at the organisation and ability to take various responsibilities
with changes in organisational goals and has implemented various policies to include employees
in decision making procedure. This leadership style has given the organisation the power and
ability to grow into richest corporation on the planet and has constructed dedicated workforce for
the organisation. This leadership style has given the company an passionate and talented
community of workers and helped the company overcome various roadblocks and achieve
exponential growth.
Recommendations which leadership style is appropriate for amazon and assist to successfully
grow a business
By analysing the above discussion about the various leadership style, it is analysed that
transformational leadership style is appropriate and feasible for Amazon as it help in managing
all the activities and business operations in an effective manner. Jeff Bezos tends to undertake
factors for effective leadership style that is important for enhancing productivity as well as
profitability of organisation.
Thus, it is suggested that applying autocratic leadership style help business entity to
decline the level of conflicts and attain competitive advantage at marketplace. Along with this,
such style depicts the centralised decision-making for teams within the less time period and also
decline employee conflicts. By the help of democratic leadership style, Amazon will be able to

motivate its employees and enhance their confidence level properly. This style allow employees
to participate in the decision-making procedure which make them feel valued and important at
workplace and also bring creativity and innovation in the organisation.
The organisation can also opt for transactional leadership style in context of enhancing
the employee performance by giving them rewards and appreciation. It is an effective style in
order to motivate employees that depicts the attainment of objectives within set time period.
Examine organisations ethical social and moral obligations
Amazon is a multinational corporation which provides online retail and streaming
services to their consumers and has invested in operations related to artificial intelligence and
interstellar explorations (Choy-Brown and Delany Cole, 2020). The organisation has
implemented various policies and practices with the aim of accomplishing their social and ethical
duties towards the society and their investors. Several of these programmes and initiatives are
discussed below:
Helping and supporting local communities: The organisation has introduced
programmes which aim to develop coding skills in female students to improve women
participation in computer coding field. This main objective of this initiative is to provide quality
educational content to students who wish to learn coding skills from any location of the world
and provide students from financially backward areas an opportunity to expand their knowledge
about coding skills and procedures. The organisation has also introduced skill development
programmes in India which will provide young citizens an opportunity to learn skills related to
inventory management across fulfilment centres in the country and help them develop skills to
expand their career opportunities in this pandemic affected economy. The organisation ha also
provided financial aid to various delivery partners after recent increase of workload due to the
global pandemic, along with this the organisation is also giving them technological help in the
form of application that provide them swift and safe delivery routes. The organisation has
implemented a program which aims to donate used technological appliance to various low
income schools and empower students from economically backward areas with latest technology
so that they get education with the help of current technology.
Lowering polluting agents: the organisation has implemented various policies and
exercises to lower the amount of polluting agents such as carbon. The new headquarters of the

organisation will be powered from renewable energy and the corporation aims to use renewable
sources of energy to conduct their daily functions in three decades. The organisation has bought
electric powered vehicles to lower carbon commissions from their company transports. The
organisation is continuously investing in identifying and using environment safe distribution
channels for their global export. The firm has introduced plans to lower packaging material to the
minimal amount and is currently delivering products with no extra packaging in some locations.
The establishment has given financial aid to various NGOs which work in reforestation sector
and has invested heavily on funding R&D programmes which aim to make daily use products
that use less power and lower energy usage of consumers.
Workplace diversity: Amazon has implemented policies in which aim to increase gender
diversity in the company. This includes policies which take strict action against any report of
misconduct or discrimination against any employee and building safe working environment for
employees from marginalised communities (Schneider, 2020). The organisation has introduced
set of activities and exercises which increase women participation in decision making process
and has developed practices which increase cultural and emotional sensitivity of employees so as
to maintain a healthy and positive working environment for all employees regardless of their
gender.
Reflection
After conducting the study on Amazon, It is learnt by me that it is one of the renowned and
biggest E-commerce platform that offers wide range of products as well as services that capture
large market share. In addition to this, the CEO of Amazon that is Jeff Bezos make use of
effective leadership style in order to motivate employee, to enhance their productivity and to
retain them for longer time. There are various challenges and issues faced by organisation at the
time of expanding its operations and moving towards making use of business model. Opening
the business as a retail online bank store, Jeff Bezos face issues and many challenges and to deal
with this the company make use of prominent steps due to which it is now gaining high growth
and success at marketplace. It is analysed by me that using of democratic leadership style at
workplace allow an organisation to motivate its employees and enhance their productivity level
due to which objectives are attained on time period.

Apart from this, the respective organisation make use of various aspects involving artificial
intelligence, cloud computing and so on. Moreover, the company ensure that all the legal
responsibilities ad factors is followed by them as it assist them to execute activities without any
delays and interruption of external factors. With the help of this research, I am able to enhance
my research skills and decision-making skills that will help me in future to attain opportunities.
In the last, I learnt about the factors that is required in order to develop a report and gain in
formation about it that is helpful in my study career.
CONCLUSION
From the above discussion, it has been concluded that it is important for an organisation to
analyse the factors that impact on the business operations and performance as well. SWOT
analysis allow an organisation to know about the strength and weaknesses that can be improved
by developing effective strategies. There are various leadership styles such as democratic
leadership style, autocratic and transactional style. It is significant for the company to make use
of appropriate leadership style so that the performance and productivity is maintained.
Furthermore, it is significant to follow all the ethical and social responsibilities for an
organisation as it help in raising the brand image and systematic execution of activities as well.

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