Amazon e-Strategy: A Strategic Assessment of Amazon.com
Amazon's remarkable ascent as one of the top online global retailers can be attributed to the foresight they had in creating a comprehensive distributed order management, Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP), Supply Chain Management (SCM) and e-commerce series of systems. The many other e-commerce sites that rose quickly with massive infusions of venture capital just as quick exited the market, flaming out due to a lack of system and process scalability, lack of understanding of customer dynamics, and a complete loss of focus on scalable business models. All of these factors are what caused competitors to Amazon to exit the e-commerce market either through acquisition, merger or complete exist from the market.
When starting Amazon, Jeff Bezos invested heavily in the distributed order management, ERP, SCM and e-commerce integration points to book distributors initially, and then expanded into a broader product mix. This allowed the enterprise to quickly scale as volumes increased during the first five years of the company's existence. Having creating this reliable, scalable and secure platform, Mr. Bezos and the Amazon founders concentrated on creating an analytics layer throughout their architecture that could quantify customer, distributor, dealer and even competitor activity on the site (Amazon Investor Relations, 2012). This reliance on analytics also gave Amazon executives and technical staff the insight they needed to launch quickly into entirely new product categories, get the complex and often confusing task of localization right, and also create a highly popular and profitable Amazon Web Services (AWS) cloud computing platform and hosting platform for Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) applications (Mitchell, 2012).
From a technology standpoint the performance of Amazon today can be directly attributed to the insightful decisions made in 1994 and 1995 when the company founders prioritized the development of enterprise-wide platforms and a strong focus on analytics over spending all their time on the front-end website and its façade (Lindic, Bavdaz, Kovacic, 2012). As Jeff Bezos would later remark in interviews, by investing to create a truly world-class enterprise back-end system first, his company was freed up to fast track the actual user interface of the e-commerce sites globally at a pace that left comp[editors far behind in terms of functionality and product breadth (Amazon Investor Relations, 2012). Mr. Bezos chose in 2007 to also institute a culture of metrics that also capitalized on the nearly two decades of investment in their infrastructure (Amazon Investor Relations, 2012). Combining the global e-commerce, enterprise-tested infrastructure and the most robust set of analytics that any e-commerce provider had, Amazon was ready to begin expanding their product strategies, start offering greater options in their Amazon Web Services initiative which today is expected to be a $1B by 2015, even by conservative forecasts (Amazon Investor Relations, 2012) and also invest heavily in their state-of-the-art recommendation engine technology that seeks out products and services customers may be interested in and present them during shop[ping sessions in real-time (Sun, 2012). It's important to appreciate just how vast of an e-commerce infrastructure Amazon has in completing this analysis of their e-strategy. They have greater agility, flexibility and capability to execute than any other online retailer globally today. How they choose to use these technologies to attract new customers and keep existing ones loyal, a point the case study makes in greater detail, is predicated on the ability to get the most value from this infrastructure while still staying focused on delivering a world-class customer experience in each transaction. Based on the analysis undertaken for this case analysis, it is abundantly clear that Jeff Bezos and the executive management team are passionate about keeping the company as customer-focused as possible, including the continual selective use of technology to accentuate and strengthen the user experience online and off (Murphy, Narkiewicz, 2010). With these foundational aspects of Amazon defined, the seven areas of focus in this analysis are next presented.
The overarching objective of this analysis is to understand the value of e-strategies in organizations, with Amazon being the organization of interest in the analysis. Specifically concentrating on the benefits of having an e-strategy at Amazon, defining how e-strategies contribute to Amazon's broader accomplishments, and an analysis of how Amazon aligns their e-strategy to the overarching organizational strategy as well., The analysis continues with an analysis of the key business factors that are the catalysts of the e-strategy at Amazon, followed by a suggested strategic plan for ensuring e-strategy initiatives at the company continue to lead to profitable growth. The final section of this analysis provides an assessment of the technical infrastructure needed to accomplish the proposed strategic plan.
As Amazon has continually evolved its position as a global force in online retailing, its command of supply chains globally has also evolved very quickly. In the latest rankings of the highest-performing supply chains completed by Gartner, a leading research consultancy, Amazon has ranking within the top twenty five for five years running (Amazon Investor Relations, 2012). What this signals is that Amazon has progressed from relying on enterprise-wide infrastructure to compete and is now on the growth trajectory of making supply chain processes their competitive advantage.
Self-Assessment Benefits for Leaders and Leadership Growth
People are influenced by leaders. Leaders cannot affect people without understanding why people behave the way they do. Successful and effective leaders are, therefore, learners of human behavior. Good leader not only try to understand the personalities and psychology of their subordinates but they also consistently evaluate and assess themselves in order to be productive (Clawson 2001). Till date, no studies have produced a clear profile of an ideal leader; his authoritative styles, distinctive characteristics or personality traits. This makes it crystal clear that authentic leaders know who they are. They don't imitate or become replicas of others. On the other hand, they "demonstrate a passion for their purpose, practice their values consistently, and lead with their hearts as well as their heads" (George, Sims, McLean & Mayer 2007).
Prisons as a Correctional Facility: Types and Social Role
Throughout the years, prisons have become a major component of the criminal justice system since they act as institutions that help in punishment of convicted criminals and deterrent for crime prevention. This article examines these facilities as part of the justice system and how they function in accomplishing their purpose. The analysis includes an exploration of the various types of prisons such as jails, federal, state, maximum security, medium security, minimum security, supermax, and closed security prisons. The role and function of prisons in promoting social change in the modern society has also been discussed.
Export Business Plan for Moldovan Cellular Phones
The plan has been written in order to guide our mobile phone export business. Cell phones in Moldova are rapidly overtaking land phones as many cellular phones now provide Internet access and cell phone computers. SMS, MMS and broadband are becoming standard features on cell phones. Nonetheless, mobile phones are expensive in Moldova and not everyone can afford them. Furthermore, although Moldova has made great lines in improving their technology in the telecommunications area, there is still line for improvement. Cellphones need to be upgrade to a 4G level. At the moment they are ranked at 2G and 3G. Moldovan Cellular Phones can find their niche by exporting refurbished cheap mobile phones to Moldova, introducing cheap policies and incentives, and providing Moldavians with quality mobile phones at competitive prices. The potential for success is huge.
Astronomy Fundamentals: Orbits, Stars, and Cosmology
This document contains an astronomy test and all answers to this text, with detailed and extensive information provided as a means of supporting these answers and arriving at the various conclusions. A wide variety of topics in astronomy are covered, from planetary issues to astronomical measurements and telescope knowledge and more.
Qualities of a Good Educational Leader: Teachers, Students, Parents
This paper focuses on the qualities necessary in an educational leader. It focuses on interviews with a total of nine people: three teachers, three students, and three parents. Each of these people was asked to describe the ideal qualities in an educational leader. There was very little overlap in their responses, suggesting that an educational leader must be flexible in order to respond to diverse needs.