AMAZON
THE SUCCESS OF THE BIGGEST ON-LINE RETAILER
Amazon.com is the largest on-line retailer in the world. It sells a very wide range of products from books, music, and videos to software, screwdrivers, and sofas. Because Amazon.com is very successful others would like to get a piece of its market pie. In order to have become successful in this competitive environment, the founder, Jeff Bezos, must certainly be an extraordinary entrepreneur. To understand his success, one should analyze his managerial skills, the many different functions he performs in his position as the CEO of Amazon, and the importance of effective communication.
Jeff Bezos has impressive managerial skills. After noticing the benefits of the Internet, the virtual world, he convinced his employees to be a part of the team. Then he convinced his customers that Amazon is the best, and by making constant changes, Bezos makes Amazon continue to be the best. This is why his customers are very loyal and happy with what they get from Amazon.
Jeff Bezos emphasizes an action-oriented management style at Amazon. Bezos makes speedy decisions and wants everyone in the company to do the same. Even though he wants his employees to make fast decisions, he doesn’t want them to make careless mistakes and have no plan (or mission, goal). He is always in action, making quick decisions, and moving forward. He is very dedicated, and has an endless desire to improve Amazon.
Even from the beginning Bezos knew what he wanted, and he stuck with his mission and made the right moves. Bezos took a very different path than traditional book selling in physical bookstores and he developed on-line stores. He wanted to be the biggest in the market and worked very hard to make that happen. Bezos has been consistent with his strategies such as not changing his on-line commerce idea.
In addition to that, Bezos realized that by opening the company to the international markets, revenue could be increased. In order to serve global customers, the company opened customer service centers to serve over 150 countries. As a result Amazon does 24% of sales overseas.
Bezos knows that a skilled work force is vital for the success of a business, so he pays extra attention during the hiring and training process of his managers and employees. He believes that in order to keep growing they need skilled people at Amazon. Especially for top management, he gets personally involved in the hiring process.
According to Bezos, start-up companies especially should build a strong management team and make sure that they have the chance to think creatively. They need to think about how to improve things and come up with new features for customers. One example of this creative thinking is the option for a customer to create a personalized store. By answering some questions designed to gather information about a person’s interests, the customer provides this information to Amazon. Then, the virtual store is automatically created so that only products [next page]