Creative Enterprise: Innovation and Sustainability at Amazon

This report explores the critical role of fostering a sustainable creative and innovative strategy for organizations to maintain a competitive advantage in today's dynamic market. It highlights the importance of sustainability, driven by the UN's environmental, economic, and social development pillars, and emphasizes how creativity and innovation are essential for addressing environmental challenges and achieving business success. The report analyzes the management and leadership skills necessary to cultivate an organizational culture of innovation and enterprise, including innovative thinking, consumer-centricity, calculated risk-taking, and collaboration. Using Amazon as a case study, the report illustrates how the company's sustainable practices, customer-friendly policies, and investments in sustainable technologies contribute to its undisputed leadership in online retailing. The analysis underscores the need for organizations to integrate sustainability into their innovative strategies to not only achieve competitive advantage but also to contribute positively to the environment and society. The report concludes with recommendations for harnessing problems and promoting sustainable growth through innovation and creativity.

Creative
enterprise
and
innovation
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Contents
1 INTRODUCTION........................................................................................................................3
2 MAIN BODY................................................................................................................................3
2.1 What and why’ organisations should foster a sustainable creative and innovative strategy
to sustain competitive advantage............................................................................................3
2.2 Management and leadership skills required to drive organizational culture of innovation
and enterprise..........................................................................................................................5
2.3 Account of findings of Amazon.......................................................................................7
3 CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATION..........................................................................10
3.1 Conclusion......................................................................................................................10
3.2 Recommendation............................................................................................................10
REFERENCES..............................................................................................................................12
Online...................................................................................................................................12
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1 INTRODUCTION
In the current age building corporate culture based on creativity and innovation is
essential for ensuring continuous growth of the company (Munoz-Pascual and Galende, 2020).
This is evidenced by the fact that currently the most successful business firms Amazon has
gained industry leadership because of innovation and creativity. This report is based on Amazon
and describes the ways and reason for fostering sustainable creative and innovative stagy to
sustain competitive advantage. The leadership skills which help develop organizational culture of
innovation and creativity is provided in this report. Besides this, information about the company
outlining key points from the interview with the entrepreneur along with critical areas which
impacted creative enterprise and innovation are included. Suitable recommendation which
propose solution for harnessing problems will be discussed.
2 MAIN BODY
2.1 What and why’ organisations should foster a sustainable creative and innovative strategy to
sustain competitive advantage
Sustainability is found to be very important for the organization as it helps to grow up
business in an effective way. Basically, sustainability refers to meeting the needs of consumers
without harming the natural resources. It is important to note that organisation should understand
their responsibilities as sustainability comes in their responsibility and provides a positive impact
on society and the environment (Abdelaal, 2019). Three important pillars of sustainability are set
by United Nations are environmental, economic and social development. It is identified that
every day the competition is increasing in the market and every organisation wants to succeed.
This can be possible only when they have innovation in their business. Now organisations are
completing their business in sustainability. It is found that every organisation is doing great and
produces innovative goods and services which helps to attract consumers. Now it becomes very
difficult for an organisation to compete in the environment. So sustainable creative and
innovative strategies are found to be very important in order to sustain competitive advantage in
the market. Creativity is very important for employees as it helps to grow the business with
better solutions to problems. It is found in the environment that nature is getting harmed because
of industrialists. Sweet becomes a responsibility for each organisation to do something for the
environment in order to run a sustainable life. This can be possible only when organisations are
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able to respond sustainably and that's why they need to be creative and innovative in
sustainability. It is very clear that every organisation wants to be successful in the market.
Currently, it is identified that sustainability is becoming a trend in the organisation and that's
why it becomes a factor for achieving success and gaining a competitive edge in the market.
When the strategies are sustainable creative and innovative then they are able to sustain a
competitive edge.
Every organisation knows that innovation and creativeness are the two important factors
for the success in the growth of any organisation. Companies are running and gaining a
competitive advantage in the market only with the help of their creativeness and innovation
culture. This is the main reason that they need to make a sustainable innovative strategy so that
they can run their business in an effective way (Abbas and et.al., 2020). In innovation and
creativeness, sustainability becomes necessary because organisational activities are continuously
harming the natural environment. It is very important for each and every person to do something
in order to combat the challenges of the environment as it gets polluted every day. The company
needs to understand that sustainability should be present in their innovative and creative strategy
as then only they have actually become successful in the market.
The best example of sustainable creative and innovative strategy is Amazon. It is a
organisation which fit in this scenario (How Did Amazon Build Its ‘Sustainable Competitive
Advantage’? -Business Strategy and The Key Success Factors, 2018). It is found that Amazon is
currently becoming an undisputed leader in online retailing worldwide because of their
sustainable creative and innovative strategy. They already know that sustainable competitive
advantage is very important for them and it can be possible only when they position their brand
in consumers' minds. That means they want to enter into the mind of consumers. They did very
well as they become a leader in the existing product in-service category and the first entrant in
any new product. For that purpose, they find a niche market, in which they start the journey from
small and particularly focused on a need and work. According to the company, they focused on
smaller segments becomes easier for them to meet and focus on the needs and wants of
customers. It is found that a sustainable innovation strategy is all about bringing together all
three important aspects of innovation. Sustainable innovation is strategy has three important
characteristics in which one of them is contributing to sustainable well-being, it is inclusive and
systematic. For that purpose, Amazon performed hundreds of activities so that they can ensure
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their unique value proposition to customers. They had adopted a customer-friendly 30 days
return policy which becomes an important strategy that provides a sustainable competitive
advantage in the market. It is found that in their 30-day return policy, it involves easy to return.
Every organisation knows that innovation in creating this is important but they need to
focus on sustainability in innovation in craze than only they are able to achieve the competitive
advantage in the market. There are many organisations that run they are businesses very well in
the market but they are not gaining a competitive advantage because of making sustainability in
their innovation and creativeness (Delmas and Pekovic, 2018). It is necessary for companies to
understand that they need to innovate their product but it should not harm the environment. This
is very well done by Amazon. Amazon started their online business but apart from this, they are
doing many sustainable activities so that they cannot harm the nature and environment.
It is identified that in June 2020, Amazon launched a climate pledge fund in order to
invest in sustainable companies and Technology so that they can help to protect the planet. Their
success is dependent on their sustainable creative and innovative strategy. For that purpose, it is
identified that Amazon is focusing on the long-term and this is the main reason that they follow a
cost leadership strategy in which all the products and services are sold at competitive prices and
also offer free shipping and convenience to the consumers (Lv and et.al., 2018). These are the
types of sustainable innovative and creative strategies because the company is able to sell more
and more products which result in high returns but at the same time, they also focus on the
customers as they provide affordable products and services prices to the customers. It becomes
some main reason for their competitive advantage which keeps them competitive in the market.
2.2 Management and leadership skills required to drive organizational culture of innovation and
enterprise.
For the purpose of gaining a competitive edge in the market, it is important for an
organisation to understand that a sustainable innovative and creative strategy is possible only
when the organisation have a culture of innovation and enterprise (Awan, Sroufe and
Kraslawski, 2019). It requires effective management and leadership skills in order to drive the
organisational culture of innovation. For the purpose of making the culture of the organisation
innovative, it becomes necessary to use management and leadership skills. Leaders and managers
are playing a very important role in the success of the growth of a company as they are also the
person who is responsible for encouraging innovation in the company. Both leaders and
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managers need to focus on their skills so that they can effectively encourage their innovative
culture in an organisation. Leaders are the person who focuses on customers and understands
them. After that, they are trying to monitor customer interaction and retention for encouraging
innovation. Managers and leaders are playing a very important role in making the culture of an
organisation innovative. But for that purpose, they need to require the skills. Some important
skills of are mentioned below that helps in the organisation to become innovative:
Innovative thinking
It is identified that innovative leadership needs to involve innovative thinking capabilities
than only they are able to connect all the dots for the purpose of innovation (10 Things Effective
Leaders Do to Encourage Innovation, 2021). Making a culture of innovation in the organisation,
it is found that innovative thinking in leaders is very important then only they are able to
convince employees towards innovation.
Consumer-centric
This leadership skills focuses on ensuring that each consumer gain satisfaction from the
products and services offered by the company. Consumer centric leadership also plays an
important role in driving innovation and creativity at the company because it helps the firm focus
on and your experience and fulfilment. Businesses are able to understand the individual
consumer requirements and problems faced by the consumers which propels innovation at the
company (Song, 2021). One of the primary reasons Amazon has been able to gain success across
international markets and expand in different industries is that the company is consumer centric.
Consumer satisfaction is at the top of priority of Amazon, which helps the company improve
services and products so that consumers gain the best experience. the creativity, an innovation
driven back consumer centric leadership at Amazon, helps the company games are stable
competitive advantage over business opponents.
Risk Taking
Calculated risk taking is important for attaining success in leadership and management
fields. Effectively, sticking acquires confidence as well as start rejecting to identify possible risks
and take action to implement prevent negative impact of these risks on projects and
entrepreneurial endeavours. Risk taking is an essential feature of entrepreneurship, as it involves
venturing into areas filled with uncertainties and taking action to minimise negative impact of
uncertainties on the company. This taking promotes innovation and creativity in a company
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because it helps the firm challenge current conventions and move out of the box in order to offer
consumers better solutions to various problems. In context of Amazon, risk-taking ability have
helped the company move into different industries and become an early investor in digital fields.
The company has been able to reach the global success because of the sticking abilities which
enabled the company to handle risk associated with entering in E commerce industry at such an
early stage. In context of Amazon risk taking a calculate risk taking capabilities of Amazon have
helped the company gain competitive advantage and disrupt old industries.
Collaboration
Collaboration is an important management and leadership skills because it helps
managers and leaders connect and communicate. with different employees and external parties to
ensure swift functioning of the company (Bryar and Carr, 2021). In context of building a creative
and innovative organisational environment, collaboration is essential because it connects
employees and improves knowledge management of the company so there the company is able
to exploit its technological and intellectual resources for creating innovative products, services
and processes. Amazon has been able to continuously improve on its products and services
through innovation by creating a collaborative environment at the company. Amazon utilises
digital communication technologies to ensure that each department of the firm communicates
effectively and facilitates organisational right collaboration. Smooth collaboration at an
international firms such as Amazon supports the company in delivering innovative products and
services as consumers are able to utilise their ideas to develop innovation. Amazon has been able
to prepare sustained competitive advantage to innovation as the company collaborates with
internal and external stakeholders to perform beyond consumer expectations.
2.3 Account of findings of Amazon
Resilience can help understand the innovative environment at Amazon, which helped the
company become the biggest corporation in the world. The founder of Amazon, Jeff Bezos, has
stated that the company suffered through several failures in order to reach success. This can be
attributed to the skilled workforce constructed by Amazon, who are all dedicated to word of in
consumers exceptional experience and delivering quality results in an innovative manner. In
addition to this, one of the key features of innovative and creative environment at Amazon is
enabling high judgement failure at the company (Garcia, 2021). This characteristic of company
culture at Amazon focuses on changing and challenging conventions in order to facilitate
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innovation.
The founder of the company, Jeff Bezos, has stated that selecting people who tend to be
dis advised by the current ways and experienced daily life, noticing things which can be
improved to innovation and fixing them are an important part of creating innovative culture in an
enterprise. The high judgement failure organisational culture at Amazon focuses on trying new
ideas and repeating upon failure, so that innovative ideas can be identified and implemented in a
practical manner by the company (Akter and et. al. 2021). It can be understood that The key to
innovation and creativity at Amazon is cultural Inclination towards innovation, along with
experimentation. The focus of experimentation is to continue forming new ideas despite failure,
in order to generate an effective idea which can solve problems for the company.
Another interesting characteristic of Amazon which has helped the company bring
innovation and creativity at the company, is that the form has not appointed a chief innovative
officer. Most large corporations appoint a chief innovative officer whose job is to supervise
innovative activities at the company and ensure that continuous innovation occurring at the
company. This is because measures do not want the leaders at Amazon to delegate responsibility
of innovation to a single individual. It is important to employ individuals at leadership position
who have creative track records and are able to support innovative activities at the company from
the bottom tier.
The outlook of Amazon towards innovation and creativity is that it is a combination of
stubbornness and flexibility as it enables people to create a vision of the future which is new and
valuable. It also encourages people to be relentless towards implementing their vision and using
flexibility to attain vision in a timely manner. The decentralised working culture at Amazon also
supports the company in achieving innovative working environment. Radical decentralisation at
Amazon facilitates employees to come up with new products. Most employees at the company
are given innovation challenge on one of the Amazons, most famous to pizza team which
includes a team small enough that it can be fed with two pizzas (Berg and Knights, 2021). Each
team has its own software developer and business people who are tasked with designing and
developing innovative ideas which can help the company attain overall business goals.
Amazon has prioritised innovation and creativity at every aspect of the company. Regret
minimization framework, which is idea of Jeff Bezos, is another example of how Amazon has
created any innovative culture at the company. This idea focuses on looking back at life and
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thinking, but how would this decision be evaluated at the age of 80. This screen work helps
individuals understand if the innovative decisions they are making will lead to regret at older life
or not and improves their confidence regarding challenging current conventions and facilitating
invention. In this way, the company is likely to exploit each and every opportunity which
renovation and innovation at the company with confidence in support from leaders.
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3 CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATION
3.1 Conclusion
From the above report, it is concluded that supporting innovation and creativity at the committee
is path towards success in the current environment. Innovation and creativity helps the company
reach sustainability and gain a long term competitive advantage over their business rivals. This
improves long survival of the company and supports the company in exploiting market
opportunities, expanding to do industries and increasing leadership position in international
markets. There are various leadership and management skills which support businesses in
attaining innovation and creativity. risks taking skills collaboration skills and consumer centric
thinking are some of the examples which helped leaders and managers will creative innovative
environment in the company. It is important to develop leaders and managers who have this skill
in order to ensure that the company is able to support innovation and challenge current
conventions in order to gain success. Businesses who have gained leadership position at a global
scale have invested in various aspects of the company to build innovation and creativity. This
involves launching new frameworks of thinking and building at workforce which challenges
current conventions and supports innovation.
3.2 Recommendation
 It is recommended that Amazon invests in building AI and digital capabilities in order to
support innovation at the company. This is a justified recommendation, as investment in
artificial intelligence technology can help the company gain assistance towards innovation,
as artificial intelligence can think. of new idea which can support growth of Amazon.
 Amazon has a global distribution channel which includes various suppliers. It is
recommended that Amazon invests in collaborating with suppliers across markets to produce
innovative ideas for distributing and delivering products to the consumer. This is a justified
idea as it can help Amazon build innovative processes for supply chain management and
delivering consumers various products faster, which is one of the unique selling points of
Amazon.
 Address culture at their company so that employees are able to participate more actively in
innovative activities and freely give their ideas to leadership regarding innovative processes,
products and promotional ideas. This is a justified recommendation as it not only involve
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employee participation in innovation, but also provide the company different perspective
Offered by the employees in facilitating innovation at the company.
 The final recommendation for Amazon to build innovative culture is to offer employees
training so that they are able to understand still take digital technologies and use digital
equipment and technologies to build innovative products, services and find unique solutions
for company's problems.
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REFERENCES
Books and Journals
Abbas, J., and et.al., 2020. Sustainable innovation in small medium enterprises: the impact of
knowledge management on organizational innovation through a mediation analysis by
using SEM approach. Sustainability, 12(6), p.2407.
Abdelaal, M.S., 2019. Biophilic campus: An emerging planning approach for a sustainable
innovation-conducive university. Journal of Cleaner Production, 215, pp.1445-1456.
Awan, U., Sroufe, R. and Kraslawski, A., 2019. Creativity enables sustainable development:
Supplier engagement as a boundary condition for the positive effect on green
innovation. Journal of Cleaner Production, 226, pp.172-185.
Delmas, M.A. and Pekovic, S., 2018. Corporate sustainable innovation and employee
behavior. Journal of business ethics, 150(4), pp.1071-1088.
Lv, W.D., and et.al., 2018. Innovation resilience: A new approach for managing uncertainties
concerned with sustainable innovation. Sustainability, 10(10), p.3641.
Munoz-Pascual, L. and Galende, J., 2020. Ambidextrous knowledge and learning capability: The
magic potion for employee creativity and sustainable innovation
performance. Sustainability, 12(10), p.3966.
Song, M., 2021. A Comparative Study on Over-The-Tops, Netflix & Amazon Prime Video:
Based on the Success Factors of Innovation. International journal of advanced smart
convergence, 10(1). pp.62-74.
Bryar, C. and Carr, B., 2021. Working Backwards: Insights, Stories, and Secrets from Inside
Amazon. Pan Macmillan.
Garcia, V., 2021. Examining the Impact of Selling on Amazon on the Revenue growth of MSEs
in the US. International Journal of Contemporary Financial Issues, 1(1). pp.28-38.
Akter and et. al. 2021. Algorithmic bias in data-driven innovation in the age of AI. International
Journal of Information Management, 60. p.102387.
Berg, N. and Knights, M., 2021. Amazon: How the world’s most relentless retailer will continue
to revolutionize commerce. Kogan Page Publishers.
Online
How Did Amazon Build Its ‘Sustainable Competitive Advantage’? -Business Strategy and The
Key Success Factors, 2018. [Online] Available through: <https://shahmm.medium.com/how-did-
amazon-build-its-sustainable-competitive-advantage-88cfee7fe2c8>
10 Things Effective Leaders Do to Encourage Innovation, 2021. [Online] Available through: <
https://www.success.com/10-things-effective-leaders-do-to-encourage-innovation/>
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