Jeff Bezos Leadership Skills

According to an interview carried out by Bloomberg Business Week (2004), Jeff Bezos mentioned that “A brand for a company is like a reputation for a person. An individual earns reputation through trying to do difficult things effortlessly.” Amazon’s CEO is famous for his distinctive and innovative manner of approach and his business culture as one of the biggest leaders over the universe currently.

According to Kantor and Streitfeld (2015), Amazon corporate culture forces the workers to surpass the conventional constraints and traditions to establish not only authentic perceptions but also solutions. As the leading online retailer, the organization carries on to discover the fresh and innovative talent. The CEO of Amazon follows a management based on values where the management appears to force employees to act in a particular and unusual way (Skeet, 2015). Nonetheless, for Amazon to sustain a capable workforce, it must strengthen its institutional philosophy to structure the advancement of human resources for long-term rivalry benefits (Kantor & Streitfeld, 2015). Many professionals drew the attention regarding the challenges that Amazon is experiencing now.

The company is recognized for its organizational culture that drives workers to take risks and seek fresh and innovative ideas. The traditional occurrence is accountable for the organization’s capability to search fresh and innovative chances to employ data-intensive procedures to issue productive online retail service. Amazon’s prosperity is scaled against the possible and not the probable and unreliable aspects as it holds that ‘it is our duty and responsibility to make bold belts, and we get our strength from designing on behalf of consumers.’

Amazon’s traditional attributes have the benefit of endorsing invention. For instance, confidence and uniqueness support fresh and innovations perceptions to enhance e-commerce industry. Another benefit relates to focus on enhancing customer satisfaction. Nonetheless, one of the greatest shortcomings relates to the company’s tradition of inflicting excessive pressure on human resource, particularly in taking a confident and unique non-tradition style in executing their duties and responsibilities (Skeet, 2015). Despite the benefit gained from the employees’ exemplary performance, the adverse effects on their physical and social well-being are unwarranted.

For the shortcomings and chances influencing from invention and transformation, different from Google, Microsoft, and Apple, Amazon is not preoccupied with a strictly formulated environment of interlocking applications and services. The CEO instead prefers platforms that each serves its consumers in the finest and quickest possible manners. Although Amazon may appear to be having an excellent image to the customers, employees have a different story to tell. Employees are pushed to deliver beyond their limits, and this may be harmful to the welfare in some instances. With the limitation on the number of people allowed to talk to the press, such information can rarely be known. Kantor and Streitfeld (2015) mentioned how people who had suffered miscarriages or diagnosed with terminal diseases were not given time to recover. Whereas people may like the idea of being pushed to exceed their limits, Bezo’s strategies might be extreme and harmful.

Amazon’s CEO wants to behave with the urgency of the startup it once was. For him to respond immediately, he tracks an assortment of direction for “high-velocity decision making” he stated out in his yearly letter to investors. He encourages his workers to trace them, and they contain safe codes for any competitive company. The CEO states that the employees should not wait for all the information before acting upon that matter. Many judgments should be formulated with only around 70% of the data an employee requires; if the worker waits for 90% of the information, and then inevitably he or she is moving too slowly (Skeet, 2015). Evidently, a well-managed organization can change for the better when market factors evolve. Bezos stated that if one is good at correcting mistakes, the company may not suffer much or incur preventable losses.

Bezos applies the expression “disagree and commit,” which he uses when he acknowledges an agreement is not possible, but he believes in the verdict of the other panelists. It signifies that while the CEO disagrees with the judgment, he is committed to a prosperous result. It is much quicker options than the group having to persuade him to alter his thoughts. In a bigger and difficult organization such as Amazon, different groups will have diverse aims that no extent of argument will settle. The disputes require the input of more senior executives because one person can make costly decisions (Kantor & Streitfeld, 2015). Moreover, this type of decision-making is slow and de-energizing but good if an employee escalates the issues when still manageable. Disputes are bound to emerge as the company expands and differentiates to cloud hosting to movie production and smart machines. Despite the sharp-elbowed tradition, Jeff does not want his decision-making process to be hampered. Through publishing the rule and regulations, Jeff is prioritizing the company’s needs.

The company’s leading strengths include consumer-centric setting and the effectual delivery of services. Amazon’s robust CRM has established customer centric procedures to document information on consumer’s purchase trend carefully. It allows them to issue personal items, interlinked items or groups them as a distribution, based upon selections showcased through transactions or items visited. Moreover, Amazon asserts that 55% of their consumers are returning customers, which helps in reducing the company’s expenses on advertising. For the productive delivery service, with its strategic collaborators and due to its fulfillment stations, the company has formed a severe and planned allocation network with a goal to make the goods accessible even at remote areas (Boss, 2017). It also has costless delivery charges in specific locations.

The company’s significant weaknesses are tax avoidance challenge – Amazon has attracted unconstructive publicity on consideration of Tax Avoidance in nations such as the United Kingdom and the United States. Moreover, the company introduced the fire phone in the United States, which was an extreme failure. Kindle Fire did not do well as vibrantly as Kindle. Therefore, numerous failures may scar in the company’s deep pockets. Conventional communication and acquisitions are some opportunities that the company can enjoy. Amazon can introduce its interior trademarks in diverse products groups (Boss, 2017). They can also diversify their distribution; it will assist them to make profits in the competitive e-commerce industry. By acquiring smaller e-commerce organizations, it can reduce the extent of rivalry and can employ the unique capability of the other institution.
The company’s major intimidation is the domestic rivalry. For instance, Flipkart and eBay are taking away the most significant share of the industry while India has Snap-Deal. At the same time, many local investors can scoop some portion of the industry share thus making it difficult for a big investor like Amazon to make profits. For this intimidation, Amazon uses a Glocal strategy. By applying the plan of “Go global and act local,” the company is flexible to battle the local e-commerce organizations through gripping and by creating/collaborating with supply chain institution. The trademark also focuses on domestic preference (Boss, 2017). For instance, the company is presently applying the “Aur Dikhao” initiative to motivate consumers to search more of their merchandise in India (Raghunathan, 2015). The other intimidation is low entrant blockade of the business. Low entrant blockades affect the company because more players signify intense rivalry, price disputes, decreasing margins, and the possibility of losing shareholders. It can be handled through leadership. With diversification, the company has formed several strategic alliances with other institutions to provide better consumer services.