Strategic Direction Of Amazon Com example essay topic

Question #1: What is the strategic direction of Amazon. com? What is Amazon. com's mission statement? Amazon's mission statement is as follows: "Our vision is to be earth's most customer centric company; to build a place where people can come to find and discover anything they might want to buy online". (Amazon. com, web.) Question #2: Amazon. com's Core Competencies are: a.) Amazon possesses a wealth of experienced programmers and developers who are helping to lead the company to financial profit. b.) With a leader such as Jeff Bez os at the helm, the company has been able to survive through hard times and today this day become a huge success. Great leaders inspire people to greatness. c.) Email support by Amazon is a huge success that has rolled over to repeat business and overall a positive feel from the internet giant. Question #3: Amazon. com relies heavily on the wide spread use of the internet and internet connections is every home.

With the popularity of faster internet connections business are finding more people are looking online as opposed to merely going to a local retail store. For a backbone operation Amazon has utilized a very robust and stable Sun platform running a UNIX / LINUX operating system. Amazon has migrated all of their web servers over to the newer LINUX OS, while leaving its Data Center on the older UNIX platform. With this they configuration they will provide an uptime acceptable to both management within Amazon and its end users. (Louisville. edu, Cases, November 16, 1996...

) (Computer World, August 4th, 2002.) Question #4: Amazon's webpage makes one feel as though they have just walked into the largest retail store in the world. They do this by providing exciting links to "hot items" and sales directly from their home page. I feel this is a very positive and direct reflection of their mission statement, to provide and environment where a person can find anything they want, buy it, and then have it shipped directly to them. (Amazon. com Homepage, .) Question #5: With technology every advancing in our world, technology will always be changing and usually for the better of a specific reason. Security and the sense of privacy are two huge areas where recent regulations have forced technology to step and provide a solution for all. I feel that in the future with wireless options abounding that the ability to buy a product while on the go and instantly is going to spike like never before.

The ability to see a product while on the go and then utilize a device to get on the web and buy that product is going to be a venue not yet wide spread. This will also force a more competitive environment for all retailers since they will have to compete with the easily accessible internet stores. This is where Amazon will be able to forge ahead and shine like the star it is. Question #6: We all learn from the past and Amazon is no different. Back in April of 2003, the internet giant was charged of exploiting children's personal information.

According to the 1998 Children's Online Privacy Protection Act they were not protecting children from online predators by limiting personal information a Web site could collect from children. Due to changes such as this Amazon must always be ahead of the game and taking the extra step to protect it and the millions of people that utilize its services. Unless situations like the above are quickly and appropriately handled then business could become very bad very rapidly. I personally feel that the collection of items I purchase and at what price I buy them at is a little much. When they are collecting data the price should not be a factor. I do like the idea of them taking the time to analyze the items I have purchased and then offer different items of my personal interest.

This not only makes one feel as though they are getting a personal assistant but it also allows Amazon to introduce new items very quickly to the people that are most likely to buy it. Question #7: (Amazon. com SWOT Analysis Strengths: Ability to offer hard to find items rather easily and "doorstep" delivery. Weaknesses: The inability to get a "feel" of the book before purchase and the fear of using a credit card over the internet. Opportunities: A huge customer database allows for better analysis and planning of future upgrades and offers to customers. Being ahead of the game and having proprietary software makes competition harder to exist. Threats: Superstores and their popularity are stealing some of the thunder associated with Amazon. com.

Being the first to successfully do something of this magnitude provides both larger and smaller companies to mimic their "rights" and avoid their "wrongs", thus providing a quicker profit. Unfortunately there is no replacement for holding a book in your hands and feeling it for yourself before buying it. Also, being able to thumb through a book before taking it to the register for purchase is extremely valuable. To compensate this being able to virtually view thumb through a book is a direction they may want to peruse.

Credit card fear is only going to be satisfied once the general populace understand and accepts this type of transaction. While utilizing their strengths in the past keeping up this work is vital to its survival. To stay ahead of the pack and continuing to innovate newer and betters ways of providing a product to the consumer is critical. Making the delivery options wider and cheaper is the next step for Amazon. com.

Bibliography

About Amazon. com. Amazon. com. web. Computer World, August 4th, 2002.