BUS 401 Week 1 Assignment – Amazon

Amazon

BUS401

Principles of Finance

Amazon

People from all around the world enjoy the benefits of e-commerce. E-commerce refers to the ability of buying and selling goods using the internet. Many people find this style of shopping convenient, you do not have to leave your home, you can process funds online, and you can have your items shipped to you anywhere in the world. One of the leading companies that helped revolutionize e-commerce is Amazon. Amazon is a company that was created by Jeff Bezos in 1994 out of his parents’ garage in Seattle, Washington. Amazon was first created with the idea of being a virtual bookstore, and in July 1995 sold its first book online. Amazon quickly grew and in 1998 began to sell CD’s and videos. With the boom in the e-commerce business and the growing competition, Jeff Bezos saw a need to diversify. Amazon began to incorporate a wide range of products such electronics, clothing, and hardware. They are now one of the biggest e-commerce companies and have expanded even more by adding online grocery stores, online streaming of movies, T.V. shows, and even creating its own Amazon Studios division.

The mission statement for Amazon is “We strive to offer our customers the lowest possible prices, the best available selection, and the utmost convenience.” Their mission statement holds truth to Amazon’s beliefs in how they value their customers. Amazon’s goals are to include affordable pricing, wide selection, and convenience. This also coincides with Amazon’s vision statement; “to be Earth’s most customer-centric company, where customers can find and discover anything they might want to buy online, and endeavors to offer its customers the lowest possible prices.” Based on Amazon’s mission and vision statements their goal is to have global reach, have a customer-centric approach, and the widest selection of products available. (Gregory, 2019). Their philosophies have help drive Amazon to grow and become a billion-dollar company and leader of the e-commerce world.

Amazon currently operates its business as a limited liability corporation (LLC). Amazon’s current business operations has grown since its days out of Jeff Bezos parent’s garage. In the eyes of Jeff Bezos, financials are not the only thing that molds Amazon’s business model. In a letter to Jeff Bezos shareholders, he explains that he sees only one metric to his operations, “Being on day 1!” (Cuofano, 2019). He believed that being focused on day 2 only declined Amazon’s success. Focusing on day 1 allowed for him to have “customer obsession, a skeptical view of proxies, the eager adoption of external trends, and high-velocity decision making.” (Bezos, 2016). Instead of being competitor focused Jeff Bezo remained customer obsessed and has been since the very beginning. Regarding proxies, Jeff Bezo realized that the larger the company got the bigger proxies became a thing. He felt that having proxies was a disservice to his customers, which goes against his number one focus. External trends are constant, and Jeff Bezo always made sure that he changed with the trends, if you did not change with the trends than you were getting pushed into “day 2” mentality. High-velocity decision making is important for Jeff Bezo and Amazon. He never uses a one-size-fits-all decision and aims to make high-quality, high-velocity decisions in order to avoid slow decision making.

With the growth in the e-commerce industry, Amazon has stayed on top of their game against other competitors. In the beginning of their journey eBay was the only other company giving Amazon any sort of competition. Within the last fifteen years that competition within the e-commerce industry has grown. eBay is still one of Amazon’s biggest competitors but in addition to eBay, they now have companies such as Alibaba a Chinese e-commerce company. Alibaba is a company who handles all their own manufacturing, suppliers, exporters, buyers and wholesalers. In addition to eBay and Alibaba Inc., companies like Walmart, Groupon, Overstock, and Etsy all enable competition within the industry.

Business and Financial condition: not sure how to answer this

General information that explains why the company interesting to you as an analyst

References

2016 Letter to Shareholders. (2019, March 25). Retrieved March 1, 2020, from https://blog.aboutamazon.com/company-news/2016-letter-to-shareholders

Amazon Mission Statement 2020: Amazon Mission & Vision Analysis. (2019, December 7). Retrieved March 1, 2020, from https://mission-statement.com/amazon/

Amazon’s global career site. (n.d.). Retrieved March 1, 2020, from https://www.amazon.jobs/en/working/working-amazon

Cuofano, G. (2019, November 28). How Amazon Makes Money: Amazon Business Model in a Nutshell. Retrieved March 1, 2020, from https://fourweekmba.com/amazon-business-model/

Gregory, L. (2019, February 13). Amazon.com Inc.’s Mission Statement & Vision Statement (An Analysis). Retrieved March 1, 2020, from http://panmore.com/amazon-com-inc-vision-statement-mission-statement-analysis

The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica. (2020, January 9). Jeff Bezos. Retrieved March 1, 2020, from https://www.britannica.com/biography/Jeff-Bezos

Place an Order

Plagiarism Free!

Scroll to Top