Wait a second!
More handpicked essays just for you.
More handpicked essays just for you.
Amazon competitive advantage strategy
Character traits of entrepreneurs
Influencing others through leadership
Don’t take our word for it - see why 10 million students trust us with their essay needs.
Recommended: Amazon competitive advantage strategy
Introduction
This final paper discusses a business leader who has developed incredible traits in the area of leadership. The leader in this particular business has shown time after time that his leadership skills have proven anything short of success. Amazon.com is the leading e-commerce companies out there in the worldwide market today. Amazon was established and founded by savvy business man Jeff Bezos in ’95. One of his achievements was in obtaining an honor degree, Bachelor of Science in Engineering in electrical engineering and computer science from Princeton University in 1986. Successively graduating from Princeton Jeff, had various occupations such as with Wall Street, International Trade a company called Fitel and last but not least, Banker Trust where he became the vice president due to his remarkable computer and Finance skills. Furthermore Amazon.com, was set in motion when Jeff decided to drive cross country from New York City to Seattle Washington, it was during this road trip that Jeff Bezos, put his business plan together for Amazon.com online bookstore. Bezos attended the Student Science Training Program at the University of In 82’; Bezos won an award given by the Miami Harold called the Silver Knight Award, an award that recognizes students for their good grades and being able to apply their skills that are unique to help local schools and communities. Bezos views on leadership in business w...
... middle of paper ...
...plays courage and confidence in his vision and ideas. Jeff Bezos ability to always make sure his company current
JEFF BEZOS 5
As well as his fascinating ability to change industries is what paves the way for Amazon to have future success.
JEFF BEZOS 6
References
(2010) American Academy of Achievement. Retrieved from http://www.achievement.org/autodoc/page/bez0bio-1 Lagesse, D. (2008). America’s Best Leaders: Jeff Bezos, Amazon.com. Retrieved from http://www.usnews.com/news/bestleaders/articles/2008/11/19/americas-best-leaders-jeff-bezos-amazoncom-ceo
Tadjer, R. (1996) “Redefining Inventory” – With 1.1 Million Books for Sale, Amazon.com is
Virtually Unbeatable”. CommunicationsWeek
The most obvious technological advance that helped Amazon, and the one that launched the company, was the internet (Parnell, 2014). Jeff Bezos knew that he wanted to open an online business and decided to start with a bookstore due to low pricing and an existing worldwide demand (”Amazon.com, Inc. History”, n.d.). After deciding on a model, he chose Seattle as a home for his business due to its proximity to high tech workers and a large book distributor. The website opened with a database of more than one million titles, whereas many competitors only stocked 2,000, and the orders went directly to wholesalers. Amazon quickly expanded their database to 1.5 million books and started offering deep discounts which attracted many new customers.
Heroes and leaders have long had a popular following in literature and in our own imaginations. From Odysseus in ancient Grecian times to May Parker in Spider-man Two, who states, “We need a hero, courageous sacrificing people, setting examples for all of us. I believe there’s a hero in all of us, that keeps us honest, gives us strength, makes us noble” (Raimi, 2004). Organizations need heroes, too. We call them organizational leaders. The study of organizational leadership, then, is really the study of what makes a person a successful hero. Or, what processes, constructs, traits, and dynamics embody the image of a successful leader.
Bezos believes in the value of customer satisfaction and this is the Amazon.com main objective. A huge number of measurable goals are used to track the rate of how Amazon performs and wishes to perform. Not surprisingly, an astonishing eighty percent of those goals are related to the satisfaction of the customer. Bezos primarily concern is improving the performance of the organization and customer service. Personnel issues are given secondary importance and attention. As Stone has emphasized (2013), Kim Rachmeler , who worked for Amazon.com for more than a decade, affirm that “This is not somebody who takes pleasure at tearing someone a new a--hole. He is not that kind of person. Jeff doesn’t tolerate
Leadership at times can be a complex topic to delve into and may appear to be a simple and graspable concept for a certain few. Leadership skills are not simply acquired through position, seniority, pay scale, or the amount of titles an individual holds but is a characteristic acquired or is an innate trait for the fortunate few who possess it. Leadership can be misconstrued with management; a manager “manages” the daily operations of a company’s work while a leader envisions, influences, and empowers the individuals around them.
Looking at Bezos’s business model from an entrepreneurial standpoint is very interesting. He decided to take a very unique approach to business and in doing so he took some big risks to get where he is today. For a company like Amazon that is constantly pushing the boundaries and moving into new territory one could do a SWAT analysis for nearly every year they have been in business and it would look drastically different. For now I want to retrospectively focus on the initial plan that Bezos laid out and strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats that came with it.
For our business profile project, we focused on Amazon. Amazon.com Inc. was founded by Jeff Bezos in 1994. Amazon was first started in Bezos ' garage and has turned into a billion dollar operation over the course of 22 years (Smith). Amazon is currently headquartered in Seattle, Washington and has branch locations all over the world. Amazon is most known for their kindle, fast shipping, and selling various products (Smith). With Amazon being such a large corporation professionalism, academics, character, and engagement are crucial parts of the success of the company.
Mlls, D. Q. (2005). Leadership How to Lead, How to Live. Boston: Harvad Business School Press.
Jeff Bezo’s began Amazon in his garage in July 1995 with three Sun workstations setting on wooden doors for tables and extension cords running from everywhere (Academy of Achievement, 2010). Right from the beginning he was a visionary leaving his well paying job as a senior vice president with D. E. Shaw to begin Amazon.com (Academy of Achievement, 2010). Being the visionary that he is he saw an opportunity prompted by the huge growth rate of internet use in a single year and ran with it never looking back. Jeff realized that the internet had “no real commerce to speak of” so he began researching possible businesses (Academy of Achievement, 2010). “After reviewing 20 mail order businesses and deciding which could be conducted more efficiently over the internet than by traditional means he decided on books” (Academy of Achievement, 2010). He thought books were perfect because attempting to send huge catalogs for all the available books would be expensive and cumbersome, but an online resource database that was easy to navigate would provide customers with easy access and a single point from which to shop. “In 30 days, with no press, Amazon had sold books in all 50 states and 45 foreign countries, obviously by the success of Amazon he was right (Academy of Achievement, 2010). In a case study written by Javad Kargar called “Amazon.com in 2003” he stated that “Amazon's online store was a big hit, with about $5 million in the first year of operations” (2004). This huge success so quickly would have confirmed for Jeff that his idea was viable and drove him to continue to strive for more. Jeff Bezo’s charismatic-visionary leadership is the key to his and Amazon’s success.
Launched by Jeff Bezos, the Amazon.com website started in 1995 and is today considered as one of the most prominent retail website on the internet with a record turnover of US$ 14.87 billion in 2007. Jeff Bezos’s intention was to create an internet based company with the most dedicated product portfolio on the internet where customers could find anything they might want. Amazon’s success is based on technology, services and products (Jens et al., 2003).
There is a contrast between the leadership styles of Jeff Bezos of Amazon and Mark Zuckerberg at Facebook reading the two articles. Both companies are successful and achieved their victories in different ways. In the “4 Former Amazon Employees on What It’s Like Working for Jeff Bezos”, describes Bezos leveraging technology to make employees aware of potential issues with an email (Upadhyaya, 2013). While Zuckerberg in “Take It or Leave It: Zuckerberg’s Approach to Advising Instagram After Acquisition” employed a more hands-off approaching allowing the leaders at Instagram to lead using their judgment (Carr, 2013). The obvious answer to their communications and leadership approaches could relate to generational and educational differences.
For everyone in the business world, Mark Zuckerberg is a well-known name to them. He is an undeniably young, successful businessman. However, Zuckerberg is also a very successful leader in his own company as well as in the world. His impact from creating Facebook is more than just impressive. Zuckerberg created the social media website where people get connected virtually and led the company to incredible success. Zuckerberg’s leadership style can be seen with inspirational motivation, intellectual stimulation, and idealized influence. With all the aforementioned components, Mark Zuckerberg is a great example of transformational leadership.
Warren Buffett, the CEO of Berkshire Hathaway, which owns many different companies, is one of the most successful business leaders of our time. According to Howard (2014), he is the second richest American, coming in at a net worth of over $70 billion. Besides his personal net worth, Berkshire Hathaway is the fifth-most valuable public company in the United States at $350 billion (Howard, 2014). While he is clearly a very wise investor, Warren Buffett is also a successful leader. As stated by Spindler (2010), leadership is a crucial part of any successful business, and good leadership is what Mr. Buffett portrays. The analysis given in this paper will show Warren Buffett’s values and leadership qualities, his leadership style, as well as looking into his influence he has on his followers.
Jeffrey Bezos, the founder and current CEO of Amazon.com, initially started the company as an online bookstore in 1994. Within several months, Amazon spread its operation to all 50 states and abroad. Presently, customers from over 45 countries buy at Amazon. Over a short period of time, the company expanded sales to electronics, video games, software, CDs, DVDs, MP3 downloads, food, furniture, apparel, jewelry, and toys. Today, the company even produces its own products such as the Kindle series. Also, Amazon.com is one of the major providers of cloud computing services. Currently, the company is the largest global online retailer responsible for 20% of online retail market share.
He and his wife, MacKenzie, drove to Seattle to be close to a book wholesaler called Ingram. MacKenzie drove the car while Jeff typed the business plan for the company. Jeff had already spent several months planning Amazon.com while he was at D.E. Shaw. He had traveled multiple times to California to meet with Shel Kaphan, a programmer who was the first employee at Amazon.com, and other programmers.
This paper describes about my leadership strengths and areas for growth/future study. It also included how these qualities are used in my daily work routine, self-assessment results and a brief explanation on Individual style in leadership.