Application of Change Management and Innovation

Introduction

Amazon.com is a wide internet-based enterprise that focuses on the sale of toy’s, music, books, electronics, houseware and many other products either as the intermediary between retailers and the enterprise’s vast population of customers, or directly. Amazon was founded by Jeff Bezos and was launched on 16, July 1994 as a website selling books only. However, Jeff Bezos had a vision for the company’s expansion and its domination in the world of ecommerce. Currently, the enterprise has become the world’s leading online retailer and a well-known cloud service provider. Their headquarters are based in Seattle, Washington and has many branches and service provider’s all around the globe. Amazon style of leadership has been categorised as pragmatist where leaders are practical, competitive, and driven. Pragmatic leaders are characterised by their tendency to set high standards for themselves and their teammates. This business report focuses on the organization’s clear change strategy outline and a multimedia presentation for the leadership of the enterprise.

Mission and goals

Amazon.com has a mission statement which has always revolved around its primary focus which is the online Amazon.com customer. Since the beginning Amazon has had a clearly outlined mission which is” to continually raise the bar of the customer’s experience by using the internet and technology to help customers find, discover and purchase anything, and empower businesses and content creators to maximise their success (Van Dijck et al, 2018).”

Amazon’s goals include:

Passion for invention, customer obsession rather than competitor focus and commitment to operational excellence and long-term thinking (Shamout et al, 2016).

 

Internal and external stakeholders

The prime stakeholders of amazon.com include: the board of directors, investors, employees, customers, suppliers and strategic partners and the community (Shamout et al, 2016).

 

Current leadership, policies and procedures

Amazon’s leadership is hierarchical headed by three senior CEOs and three senior vice presidents who are responsible for important aspects of the enterprise(collin,2017). This senior team reports directly to the founder Jeff Bezos. Notably, amazon organizational structure has three key features including the hierarchical  corporate structure which has developed due to the increasingly growing size of the business, flexibility of the business which allows it to adapt to the inevitable changes in the external market and stability in the topmost management which is one of the most vital feature in amazon(Shamout et al, 2016).

Moreover, products sold on Amazon must fulfil the organizations policies, rules and regulations.

Some of the general policies include: conditions of use, communication guidelines, Amazon seller code of conduct, supply chain standards, standards for brands selling in the Amazon store, referral fees reimbursement policy, monitor your account health and customer product reviews policies (Rivet et al,2017).

In order to make a purchase via Amazon one must create an account whose creation is free, once you identify a product you proceed to add it to the shopping cart followed by filling billing and shipping information, you should the select your desired shipping option then complete the order.

Fundamental problems in Amazon

Like many other organizations and businesses Amazon has been faced by a number of problems some of which include:

Firstly, unreasonably high standards and expectations where when the bar has been set extremely high these standards become tiring resulting to bitterness and unexploited potential in employees.

Secondly, overly forthright leadership where leaders are overprepared to go out on a limb for their believes. For instance, Jeff Bezos has a set of guidelines referred to as The Articles of Faith which encourages employees to outsmart themselves (Tou Y et al, 2019), outperform their workmates and even go to an extent as to sabotage their careers. This has resulted to an unhealthy competition amongst co-workers.

Change

Based on the above problems change is necessary for Amazon in order to meet its goals and mission because if employees who are largely responsible for the smooth running of the organization are not comfortable in their working environment means they wont be in a position to deliver quality services to their customers who according to the mission statement are the main body of the organization.

SWOT analysis

This analysis reveals how Amazon utilised its competitive advantages to become the main online retailer. It points out all vital strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats facing the company.

Some of the strengths include:

A strong brand name which gives a strong and positive image in the market, brand valuation where Amazon has been ranked position 3 with a value of $125 billion as cited in (Van Dijck et al, 2018), many customers due to the ability of presenting inexpensive goods to their customers, differentiation and innovation where the company has constant improvements when it comes to service providence for example drone deliverance, cost leadership where the company is able to minimise costs incurred in maintenance through online service delivery, minimum pay rise where amazon is amongst the first organizations to increase its minimum hourly pay to$15 per hour and act local and go global strategy which has benefited Amazon the most by partnering  with local suppliers hence the ability to compete with local e-commerce rivals (Kirchner, S. et al, 2019).

Weaknesses

Government regulations in some critical countries such as those facing war (Watanabe et al,2019) , Amazon has been reported to have exploitative labour, increased cybercrime, increased competition especially from upcoming online retail companies, imitation where businesses take up the same business procedure which is almost similar to that of Amazon, fake products from suppliers which put the company at risk of losing customers, fake reviews which lower the demand of the product in question.

Recommendations

Amazon needs to maximise their strengths while minimising their weaknesses, create more opportunities and face their threats for progress. Below are several recommendations

improve network security so as to protect the rights of consumers, embracing new technology measures in order to address the issue of counterfeit and developing new partnerships in order to extend the market reach.

strategy 

 

It is clear that Amazon needs to improve on the employee’s body because this is critical for the day to day running of the organization and also for future purposes. To achieve this the enterprise can praise and appreciate the efforts of employees, stressing on the need for life-work balance because overworking can lead to body shutdown hence low productivity. Employees need to be prioritized because they are in direct contact with consumers in service providence hence, they need to be comfortable. happy workers will contribute directly to positive results and possibly a reduction in the negative reviews mentioned earlier.

Steps to prepare the organization for change

Encouraging workers to exploit their full potential rather than setting relatively high standards which some won’t be able to meet.

Motivating the employees to prioritize on their wellbeing through gyms and proper diet.

Regulating working hours to minimise on overworking.

Resources

A gym easily accessible to employees taking probably five months to acquire all necessary equipment and to put up one where an already existing space does not exist.

Therapists for workers where employees have someone to talk to if need be where the timeline can be two months for applications and interviews to ensure the best personnel are hired.

Hospitals in case of any emergencies and medical cover for workers so they feel secure and confident because their neds are taken care of with a timeline of a year for construction (if needs be) acquisition of equipment and working personnel for the hospital.

Success metrics

Increment in the number of consumers for products hence realisation of more profits.

 More profits can directly result in increment in Amazons value and maybe a higher rank with time.

 

The above changes can be sustained simply through discipline of the relevant authorities ensuring that the mentioned facilities are properly maintained and that their running is smooth.

Challenges that may be experienced

A longer timeline compared to the one proposed above for the implementation of the changes.

Employees may take a longer timeline to adjust to the new changes similar to the organization.

An extra amount of funds not accounted for in the organisation’s budget and channelled to the changes may be a challenge if there were no funds set aside for such.

Plans to counteract the challenges

A longer timeline for the challenges.

Creating awareness to the employees on the importance of the adjustments.

Devising plans to acquire the funds to cater for the changes such as borrowing.

4. The above information can be communicated through internal memos to everyone involved or usage of emails.

Slides

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

References

 

Tou, Y., Watanabe, C., Moriya, K., Naveed, N., Vurpillat, V., & Neittaanmäki, P. (2019). The transformation of R&D into neo open innovation-a new concept in R&D endeavor triggered by amazon. Technology in Society, 58, 101141.

Watanabe, C., & Tou, Y. (2019). Transformative direction of R&D–lessons from Amazon's endeavor. Technovation, 88, e102081.

Tou, Y., Watanabe, C., Moriya, K., Vurpillat, V., & Neittaanmäki, P. (2019). A new concept of R&D in neo open innovation: transformation of R&D triggered by Amazon. International Journal of Managing Information Technology, 11(1).

https://doi.org/10.1186/s40991-017-0021-0

 

Van Dijck, J., Poell, T., & De Waal, M. (2018). The platform society: Public values in a connective world. Oxford University Press.

Kirchner, S., & Schüßler, E. (2019). The organization of digital marketplaces: Unmasking the role of Internet platforms in the sharing economy. Organization outside organization, 131-154.

Shamout, M. D., & Emeagwali, O. L. (2016). Examining the impact of electronic supply chain management processes on customer satisfaction: A literature review. Business and Economic Horizons (BEH), 12(1232-2017-2395), 141-163.

Rivet, D. J. (2017). Amazon's Superior Innovation: A Study of Amazon's corporate structure, CEO, and reasons behind why it has become the most innovative company in today's market.

Colin, N. (11). Notes on Amazon. The Family Papers# 010, 18 Jan. 2016.

Galloway, S. (2017). The Hidden DNA of Amazon, Apple, Facebook, and Google.