Amazon Company Overview

The online giant was incorporated on May 28, 1996. The headquarters of this American-based cloud computing and, electronic commerce corporation are situated in Seattle, Washington. Initially, Amazon was primarily an online bookstore but has since diversified into other product and service market. Today Amazon offers a wide array of merchandise and content including: food; jewelry; software; toys; video games, furniture; electronics, and apparel (Krishnamurthy, 2005). According to Reuters (2018), the operations of Amazon are categorized into three key segments including: International, North America and, Amazon Web Services (AWS). Fundamentally, Amazon was among the first companies that exploited proliferation of the internet in the 1990s. According to Krishnamurthy (2005), Jeff Bezos the founder of Amazon resigned from a lucrative job as vice president of a leading firm on Wall Street in the year 1994 and, dedicated his time towards the development of a business plan that would later facilitate inception of Amazon.

During the development phase, Bezos evaluated different product options that could potentially be sold via the internet and settled on books; he recognized the high demand for literature across the globe and, availability of huge number of titles in print available. Bezos strategically situated the headquarters of Amazon in Seattle, Washington because it would ensure proximity to large centers for distribution of books that are located in Oregon. In addition, the state has significantly large percentage of high tech workers. which especially helped to increase its online presence through an aggressive internet marketing campaign among the formers users. By the year 1997, Amazon’s customer base had reached one million and continued to grow aggressively; it was the first online retailer to reach this threshold.

By the year 2000 Amazon had launched an aggressive diversification plan coupled with expansion into new product markets including: toys, apparel, online videos and music, hardware and electronics. The explosive expansion and growth towards the end of the 1990’s and early 2000’s was not without challenges. An article published by Business insider states that… “Amazon suffered extreme growing pains in the late 90s and early 2000s. According to Jovanov and Fotov (2014), there is a strong connection between an organization mission statements and its profitability. Vision According to Chaffey (2018), the corporate vision of Amazon is…. “To be Earth’s most customer-centric company, where customers can find and discover anything they might want to buy online. ” The operations and strategies of Amazon have been in line with its vision.

Fundamentally, the online giant has been committed towards ensuring high customer satisfaction. To create a highly competent and motivated workforce that can be able will help it to successfully implement its mission and vision by offering highly competitive compensation packages and flexible work policy tailored to meet the needs of its employees. According Amazon. com (2017), Amazon has recently created a ‘parental leave policy’ that enables its workforce to balance work and family commitments with ease. The company also increased its wage to $15 for its employees in the United States effective from November of this year (Amazon. com, 2018). Company Locations (National and International) Amazon has operations across the world. Essentially, the online retailers’ business strategy has enabled it to venture into different markets in the United States and internationally with ease.

Hartmans (2018) posits that within the first month of operation Amazon had consumers in all the 50 states across the United States and, 45 countries in different parts of the globe. Notably, the online retailer ships its products around the world and offers services that are accessible to consumers’ in different parts of the globe. The operations of Amazon are categorized into three key segments including: International, North America and, Amazon Web Services. Amazon’s AWS offers an array of services targeting government agencies, enterprises, academic institutions and start-ups in different parts of the globe. Company Leadership and Leadership Style An organization’s leadership and leadership style plays a fundamental role in influencing its competitiveness in an industry. Jeff Bezos has been at the center of Amazon’s leadership since its inception in the year 1994.

Bezos has entrenched a customer centered leadership style which is in line with the organization’s vision. In doing so, Bezos has enabled the online retail corporation to grow into the leading corporation in the industry in both the United States and around the globe. Amazon leadership sets significantly high targets for its employees. Notably, in the year 1999, Amazon had 500 employees whose sole role was responding to emails; they were expected to respond to 12 emails every minute and if their response rate declined below seven they would automatically be fired (Blazek, 2017). An article published by Forbes categorizes Jeff Bezos leadership into four including: the pragmatist; idealist; steward and, diplomat (Murphy, 2015). As a pragmatist, Bezos has created a leadership culture in Amazon that continually sets high targets for the organization and, its employees.

Pragmatists are usually focused on achievement of achievement of set organizational goals irrespective of means that are necessary for achievement of those goals. References Amazon. com (2017). The super-efficient heat source hidden below Amazon's Seattle headquarters. Retrieved from https://blog. aboutamazon. smartinsights. com/digital-marketing-strategy/online-business-revenue-models/amazon-case-study/ Columbus, L. 5 Acquisitions That Will Fuel Amazon's Next Growth Phase. Retrieved from https://www. forbes. Amazon. com - A Comprehensive Case History. Retrieved from https://www. researchgate. net/publication/228319552_Amazoncom_-_A_Comprehensive_Case_History Murphy, M. O Rosenbaum, S. Amazon’s M&A Strategy Evolves. Retrieved from https://www. huffingtonpost. com/entry/amazons-ma-strategy-evolves_us_59cd2a38e4b08c75a3fa436c Sucesssstory. sec. gov/Archives/edgar/data/1018724/000101872418000005/amzn-20171231x10k. htm#s613E41AD3F34560394F5D7B9A616DD32 Winter, S.