Enhancing Business Performance: Elements of Creativity at Amazon

This report analyzes the critical role of creativity and innovation in business, focusing on the strategies employed by Amazon.com, Inc. It explores how Amazon leverages creative problem-solving, innovative pricing, and customer-centric approaches to maintain its competitive edge in the e-commerce market. The report delves into various aspects of Amazon's business, including its response to market competition, the importance of customer feedback, and the implementation of lean innovation management. It also discusses potential challenges and opportunities for Amazon, such as the need to address customer website usability issues and the importance of generating new product ideas. Furthermore, the report highlights the significance of emotional and other barriers to innovation and suggests techniques like mind mapping and SCAMPER to stimulate creativity within the organization, ultimately aiming to provide insights into how Amazon can continue to enhance its business performance through innovative strategies and practices.

Running head: ELEMENTS OF CREATIVITY
ELEMENTS OF CREATIVITY
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author Note

1ELEMENTS OF CREATIVITY
Creativity and innovation are key factors in a business that have a huge role in
developing and shaping a business. There has been a demand for creative and efficient
problem solving skills in organizations as organizations are a dynamic place that is constantly
evolving and new problems are rising thus creative insights are needed to find effective and
suitable solutions. Creativity and innovation go hand in hand as innovative ideas are a result
of creative thinking (AliTaha, Sirkova and Ferencova 2016). Creativity helps thinking and
generating ideas from a new perspective that helps an organization solve problems and issues
in a better manner. Big organizations are focusing on creative and innovative ideas that pave
way for the success of a company (Amabile and Pratt 2016). This paper is going to shed a
light on the new forms of creativity ideas that are going to be beneficial for the company
Amazon.com, Inc.
Amazon.com, Inc is an American multinational technology company. The company is
the largest e-commerce company. The company was founded in the year 1994 in Bellevue,
Washington by Jeff Bezos who is currently the CEO of the company. The headquarters of the
company is situated in Seattle, Washington, United States of America. Amazon.com, Inc is
the largest internet company in terms of generating revenues in the world (CNBC 2019).
Amazon.com, Inc. is has implemented many creative ideas that has helped the
company to gain a competitive advantage in the market that has resulted in the success of the
company by becoming the largest e-commerce company in the world. Many ideas have been
implemented that has helped the company cater to the target audience for their primary goal
that is customer satisfaction. The strategies taken by the company has been continuously
evolving with time and the change in society that has allowed the company or the
organization to experiment in other countries and adjacent areas. Initially the website sold
books and now the website sells everything that a customer needs from electronics to
groceries (Kristensen et al. 2017). The company has always made proper research and has
introduced products that have a huge demand in the market in their website for sale. The
innovative pricing scheme has attracted the target audience in order to make a purchase from
the site rather than any other medium. However, Amazon is not only the only e-commerce
site available and known to people. There are many other websites that are growing and
emerging and is giving a tough competition to Amazon. However, Amazon has not taken any
such measures to curb the competition in the market and needs to come up with creative and
innovative ideas that will help the company to retain their position in the market. The
company is a multinational company that has established themselves in other countries and

2ELEMENTS OF CREATIVITY
has presented themselves in a localized way in order to resonate with the target audience of
those countries and has helped developing countries their economy.
Amazon.com, Inc. is a company that has taken many creative measures that has been
fruitful for the company. However, there are many other creative measures that the company
can take that can add as an advantage for the company. The country being a multinational
company should market and provide services to the customers as per the demand and in a
country. There are certain measures that the company should consider like environment and
political factors while doing business. There have been many new websites emerging that has
been coming up and has been garnering appreciation in the market. Amazon does not pay
heed to small companies that are growing rather has their main focus on the big companies in
the market. It is necessary for the company to consider small companies as a threat in the
market. Eminent American scholar Clayton Christen has introduced the disruptive theory that
states that the small companies and organizations have the potential to disrupt the market of
big companies by introducing new and beneficial offerings that may appeal and attract the
customers and the existing customers of big companies and many small companies have
become successful as big companies did not consider the small enterprises as competition
(Christensen, Raynor and McDonald 2015).
Big companies like Amazon should research and keep a track on all the potential
threats big or small to retain the business of the company. The company can try the lean
innovation management that is basically a theory that usually start ups implement and try.
However, it can be beneficial and fruitful for big companies as well. The lean innovation
management is a theory that states that managers and other employees of the company should
and can be provided with a budget to do experiments and see whether the products introduced
in the market are well received and if they provide any benefits to the organization rather than
creating ideas for the long term goals of the organizations (Michaelis and Markham 2017).
Amazon needs to generate new creative and innovative ideas for the better service. Amazon
needs to make their website better that will help the customers to access the website in an
easier and faster ways. Creative ideas need to be put in order to make better the website more
attractive. Amazon should introduce more merchandizes that are innovative and creative that
will help in the growth of the company. Amazon needs to implement design thinking that will
help the company become more solution focused rather than being complex problem focused
that will help in benefitting the future (Kleinsmann, Valkenburg and Sluijs 2017).

3ELEMENTS OF CREATIVITY
Amazon.com, Inc has garnered positive reputation for the products and services that
they have been providing to the customers that has resulted in the success of the company.
However, there are many factors that have become a hindrance that affects the growth of the
company. After reviewing the feedbacks received by customers online it can be seen that
many customers had difficulties and has faced inconvenience while using the website for
ordering products. This has led to make creative and innovative changes in the website that
will help the customers who find it difficult to access and use the website will find it easier.
According to feedbacks people feel that the website should have many more options that will
help the customers to choose the correct products like introduce more filter options and filter
fake reviews. Feedbacks are important as it helps the company to understand how the market
perceives the company and assess customer satisfaction that helps companies to make
effective changes to cater to the needs of the customers (Zafar and Anam 2018). According to
feedbacks Amazon has received positive reviews that has helped the company gain a
competitive advantage as well. Many feedbacks of the customers suggest that the products or
the merchandises introduced by Amazon are very good and they would like the company to
introduce other products that have a demand in the society like electronic gadgets like Echo.
Thus feedback helps companies to understand the needs and the expectations of the
customers from the company.
The company Amazon.com, Inc. may choose the alternative initiatives that may be
helpful for the company in order to develop and grow more in the market. There may be
some hindrance while implementing the changes in the company. Not understanding the
customer needs can be one of the problems that can be a potential block for the creativity
initiatives. The company needs to understand the needs of the customer in order to make
strategic changes in the operations that will help serve the customers in a better manner. The
primary goal of any business is to satisfy the goals of the customers. Not being able to assess
the needs and the requirements of the customers can be detrimental for the company.
Creativity paves way innovation in a company. Customers want Amazon to come up
with new innovative products of their own after being highly satisfied and happy by the
product Echo by Amazon. There are many aspects that can become potential blocks to the
creative initiatives that the organization might take. Not everyone can come up with creative
ideas instantly. It takes time to come up with creative ideas and solutions. People or
employees may not always be on the same mental state and this is one of the biggest reasons
that may lead to no innovative ideas for manufacturing a product for the customers that can

4ELEMENTS OF CREATIVITY
result in the lack of innovation in a company. Emotional barrier is one of the aspects that
results in lack of innovation. If the emotional state of a person is not right then it becomes
difficult for the person to think critically and come up with innovative ideas that will affect
the organization.
To implement and make the creative decisions the company needs to stimulate the
creative techniques. The employees of the company needs mind mapping that will help to
enhance the creativity that the organization is about to take. It is important for the company to
take note of each and every idea that is generated by the employees. It is important for
generating as much as idea possible and leave the selection process for later in order to
choose from the generated ideas and then later have the selection process so that the best
innovative and creative idea can be chosen for the company that will help Amazon to create
and manufacture the best product that will cater to the needs of the organization (Beel et al.
2015). The other technique that will help the company in taking and implementing the
creative decision will be is to scamper. This technique may be used to make creative changes
to the website of Amazon. The first step will be to substitute certain materials and
components that means to change certain aspects of the website that the people find difficult
in accessing or using. The website will have to combine with new products to attract the
target audience (OZYAPRAK 2016). To make changes in the functioning of the website it
needs to make certain changes like adding extra options for filtering and other aspects that
will make it easier for the customers to use. The website needs to remove some factors that
are unnecessary and are complicated. These creative techniques will help the customers to
access the website easily without any difficulties.
Amazon.com, Inc has been using creative and innovative methods to develop and help
the company grow in the market. The company has been using architectural, incremental and
radical innovative methods that have helped the company gain a competitive advantage in the
market. This has been proven to be beneficial for the organization however with the changing
societies and the mindset of the people there needs to be other creative and innovative
methods that are required for the company to make effective and efficient changes in the
operations of the company to help the company retain its position in the market.
The company can implement other innovations that may enhance the operations and
the productivity of the company Amazon.com, Inc. According to me if I would have got the
opportunity to make certain innovative changes in the company it would have been service

5ELEMENTS OF CREATIVITY
innovation that would help the company to make service changes as that is the key aspect of
the company is to provide customers with good service so that they get the products they
ordered properly. Sustainable innovation would be another thing that would help the
company garner appreciation and a positive reputation in the market. Eco-innovative products
would not only help the company as well as the environment that could be a part of the
organizations corporate social responsibility. This aspect is important in the modern day due
to many environmental issues that are cropping up.
Innovative and creative ideas have helped many organizations in order to gain a
competitive advantage in the market and attract customers for profits. Amazon.com, Inc has
acquired the top position in the market because of the innovative and creative ideas that has
been implemented. However, the company needs to make certain changes which align with
the changes in the society. If Amazon considers and implements the innovative and creative
ideas that are put forth in the paper the company will be able to improve the operations of the
company that will pave way for the success of the company and help the company retain the
position the company already enjoys.

6ELEMENTS OF CREATIVITY
Reference
Ali Taha, V., Sirkova, M. and Ferencova, M., 2016. The impact of organizational culture on
creativity and innovation. Polish journal of management studies, 14.
Amabile, T.M. and Pratt, M.G., 2016. The dynamic componential model of creativity and
innovation in organizations: Making progress, making meaning. Research in Organizational
Behavior, 36, pp.157-183.
Beel, J., Langer, S., Kapitsaki, G., Breitinger, C. and Gipp, B., 2015, June. Exploring the
potential of user modeling based on mind maps. In International Conference on User
Modeling, Adaptation, and Personalization (pp. 3-17). Springer, Cham.
Christensen, C.M., Raynor, M.E. and McDonald, R., 2015. What is disruptive
innovation. Harvard Business Review, 93(12), pp.44-53.
CNBC (2019). Amazon is the most valuable public company in the world after passing
Microsoft. [online] CNBC. Available at: https://www.cnbc.com/2019/01/07/amazon-passes-
microsoft-market-value-becomes-largest.html [Accessed 8 May 2019].
Kleinsmann, M., Valkenburg, R. and Sluijs, J., 2017. Capturing the value of design thinking
in different innovation practices. International Journal of Design, 11(2), pp.25-40.
Kristensen, M., Penner, J., Nguyen, A., Moy, J. and Lam, S., 2017. Company Synopsis for:
Amazon. com, Inc.
Michaelis, T.L. and Markham, S.K., 2017. Innovation Training: Making Innovation a Core
Competency A study of large companies shows that, although managers see human capital as
central to innovation success, most aren’t providing innovation training. Research-
Technology Management, 60(2), pp.36-42.
OZYAPRAK, M., 2016. The effectiveness of SCAMPER technique on creative thinking
skills. Journal for the Education of Gifted young scientists, 4(1), pp.31-40.
Zafar, S. and Anam, K., 2018. MODERATING EFFECT OF TECHNOLOGY ON THE
RELATIONSHIP OF COMMUNICATION & FEEDBACK ON EFFECTIVENESS &
EFFICACY OF PERFORMANCE APPRAISAL SYSTEMS. Journal of Strategy and
Performance Management, 6(3), pp.81-86.

7ELEMENTS OF CREATIVITY