Answer 1
Based on the videos and some more research on Amazon, if I have to look at the future ten years from now, I see that on the strategy and operations side Amazon has presence in ecommerce and physical store retail, has minimal human work force in the warehouses, provides the services in tier 2 and tier 3 cities in almost all the growing countries, and caters to a larger customer base with a broad spectrum of product line.
Based on the article published in Forbes by Steve Denning, “ingle-channel retail will disappear, whether it’s pure e-commerce or brick-and-mortar without an online presence” (Denning). Amazon like other ecommerce companies will surely look into this and build a strategy around it.
As we saw in the videos, a major part of the operations is now automated however there is still a lot of human intervention in terms of placing the items in warehouse, picking and choosing the goods, packaging etc. (Bezos). I believe in 10 years from now, most of this will be automated with robots with artificial intelligence replacing all the above human tasks and drones making the deliveries. Apart from this, Amazon will continue to put lot of emphasis on business analytics and will continue to invest to get better ROI and larger market share in comparison to the competitors.
Answer 2
If we closely notice the operations of Amazon starting from getting the orders, inventory management, selection of goods per order, packaging, delivery and payments etc., it is quite evident that as a founder and CEO of Amazon, Jeff Bezos adapted all the four principles of scientific management
First of all, Amazon broke the whole process of buying and selling into individual small steps. Examples can be customer placing an order, seller checking the inventory if the goods are present, procurement of goods, pricing, packaging and many more. Once done, it was implemented by focusing on each step or task as to how Amazon can reduce time and error and increase the output. As a second step, good employees were hired and strategically trained for their responsibilities so that the whole system becomes efficient. Employees are paid very well and are taken good care of to meet the third principle of scientific management. And lastly, it was not just the hard work and responsibility of staff on ground to make sure the system works well however, the management took the responsibility to strategize and then invest into functions like analytics to help the workers to manage the inventory and warehouse storage space so that workers can work efficiently and are not hold responsible for any errors (Bezos).
It has helped Amazon to grow to the largest online seller in the world with the most efficient operations. It is due to this process that customers can now get the goods within a few hours of ordering. It clearly increases the customer base, customer loyalty and in turn growth in revenue and profits (McFadden).
Answer 3
There are three major competitive competencies that are competitive priorities. The first one is best analytics used by Amazon. This is one of the greatest and most important factors in Amazon’s growth. They use analytics to suggest goods to customers based on their buying behavior, to utilize the space at warehouses and stores, reduce the error and time for each unit of work and task, best pricing possible with offers and best inventory management. Amazon has to continue to keep it as a top priority because with the data available today, analytics is the differentiator and a guide to manage continuous growth (Bezos).
Second priority is focus on automation. Be it replacing the old retail process with automated step by step task driven new processes, usage of drones for deliveries, scientific machines for grouping the packets of same area/ location, or using robots for picking the items for every order. With the right and proper investment and usage of technology, Amazon will continue to grow and will be able to achieve customer delight (Bezos).
Last but not the least priority according to me is to diversify the product range. Amazon started with books and gradually added more product lines to their stores. Amazon has been continuing this and as one of the store managers in the videos said that we are going to a stage where you can buy anything you want to buy in this world. Even though this goal is easier said than done, however this is what Amazon is focusing on being their competitive advantage and this will be there priority for times to come (Bezos).
Works Cited
Bezos, Jeff. “Amazon's Jeff Bezos Unveils 'Octocopter' Drone Delivery Plan on 60 Minutes.” Web. Jan. 2014. 60 Minutes Interview.
Bloomberg. “Building Amazon one box at a time.” Web. Jan. 2015. Bloomberg Game changers.
Denning, Steve. “The Future of Amazon, Apple, Facebook and Google.” Web. Apr. 2015. Forbes.
McFadden, Cynthia. “Inside Amazon- Secrets of an online mega-giant.” Web. Nov. 2012. ABC News.
