Amazon’s Drive for Innovation and Adoption of New Technologies
Amazon.com Inc. is an American multibillion dollar and multinational organization and is the largest e-commerce brand in the world. Amazon is a trillion dollar company and is easily one of the most advanced and forward thinking organization in existence. Apart from its e-commerce segment, Amazon also focuses on various other sectors like Amazon Web Services, Amazon Azure, Amazon Cloud, Amazon Prime, Prime Gaming, Prime Videos, Prime Music and so on. Amazon is a thriving organization and is by the the most valuable organization ni the e-commerce segment and is right next to Apple in valuation. This paper will focus on the change management in Amazon. Changes within organizations are inevitable in nature and it has currently become imperative for the organization to identify and innovate its strategies in order to succeed and stay relevant in the business market. Technological innovation drives better chances of enhancements which might also help in unleashing the new ideas and concepts prevailing in the business market (Aversa et al. 2021). However, this requires changing of the rules in relation to the technological innovation adapted. As a result, organizations require to make an approach towards better technological management and enhancement that would proactively identify the policies that inspire better change and innovation throughout the firm (Guo 2021).
For Amazon, technical innovation is critical in anticipating market shifts, staying ahead of the competition, and seizing opportunities (Adeniran and Obembe, 2020). Because of the simplicity with which Amazon can test new concepts and ideas, technology-driven innovations and ideas are reshaping innovation at the core of the organisation. Amazon is capable of meeting the market’s and organization’s technical demands, striving to build better and higher-quality knowledge in order to remain successful and effective in the business and keep the required business position.
Amazon’s increased investment in technology and development enables the company to engage and actively participate in a variety of technological elements as well as sponsor technological breakthroughs throughout the world. This enables the company to be creative, technologically savvy, and open to new ideas and practises within the company’s framework. Amazon is able to uncover possible flaws early on and improve its goods and services on the fly, such as the launch of Amazon Prime or the rise of Amazon AWS, by putting experimentation at the heart of innovation and testing alternative ideas and concepts. Amazon may also reduce costs by implementing technology driven tactics and concepts that allow the company to possibly generate more money. As a result, Amazon can turn its ideas into goods, services, and even new business models through experimentation and change management (Aversa et al. 2021). Amazon has recently implemented a few technology-driven tactics for effective and enhanced company performance, including computer simulation and rapid prototyping.
Every year, Amazon improves its services and products through its Customer Launch and Support Program, which takes a unique and successful approach to long-term, sustainable, and creative business solutions. The company is always changing its business strategies and implementing new ones in order to differentiate itself and achieve better business success.
Experimentation and Change Management in Amazon
Amazon head innovation with a global framework of several principles also known as the Amazon’s leadership principles. The prime task of this framework is to balance innovation, activity within the process development and help the business evolve. Mobile internet, automation of knowledge work, internet of things, cloud computing, advanced robotics, near autonomous and autonomous vehicles (such as delivery drones) are a few sources of direct competitive edge for Amazon that also checks the organization in managing its flowing innovation and technology successfully. These new technologies have also created and developed several strategic opportunities for Amazon in the short and long run, like its AWS business or the success and continued development of its Prime Services.
SWOT analysis
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Strengths a. Amazon’s prime strategic thrust is on cost leadership, differentiation, and focus helps the organization in formulating a better course of actions thereby deriving value from the business environment b. Amazon’s ability to leverage information technology and use it in e-commerce as a scalable platform ensuring a competitive edge. |
Weaknesses a. The single minded focus strategy of Amazon limits the expansion plans in the evolving and emerging markets b. Amazon operates in zero margin business sometimes |
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Opportunities a. Creation of a better portfolio of products and being a forwarding site for all third party groups of Amazon. b. Amazon’s expansion of global footprint ad opening are sites in the emerging nations |
Threats a. Amazon recently experienced technological theft and hacking b. Aggressive pricing strategies leading to lawsuits and more rivals in the retail industry for Amazon. |
The manner in which the organization has leveraged innovation and technology acts as a source of competitive edge for the firm and brings repeated advantages of the economies of scale as well (Culpepper and Thelen 2020). This also allows Amazon to leverage its strategies and synergies between the internal organizational resources and external drivers making the business model robust and inimitable. Like for example Amazon’s AWS services are virtually irreplaceable and almost every organization is dependent on its web services to operate. This creates a realistic monopoly for Amazon in Web Services.
While evaluating the current strategy of Amazon, it could be observed that the generic corporate strategy of Amazon is concentric diversification that allows the organization to leverage on its technological capabilities for organizational success (Guo 2021). In addition to this, the strategies of Amazon are highly driven by the sources of competitive advantages. Hence, Amazon makes use of technologies such as Big Data analytics to map the behavior of the consumer and create a better position in the business environment. Thus, the future of Amazon looks bright as it continues to aim at the core competencies and expand its global value chain maintaining market leadership.
The current business model of Amazon is based on three different value propositions namely, value, quality and service, that incorporate fast delivery, low price, and a wide or comprehensive range of products. Amazon employs over six business models, including the horizontal, vertical, and direct models, which are generally employed by third-party sellers to generate money for the company. (Peprah et al. 2022). These are Retail arbitrage, online arbitrage, wholesale, probate label, drop shipping, and handmade (Amazon 2022). These actors include budget, experience, flexibility, and time. However, business model innovations are imperative for Amazon in order to keep a better pace with the ever changing business market and changing preferences of the customers (Wu and Gereffi 2018). Hence, it is imperative for Amazon to find a new channel to the customer through new technologies by eradicating the conventional retail distribution channel and establish direct association with suppliers. This new business model will drive more value to the organization and accelerate the times of transaction. Thus, Amazon could now understand the quality as well as nature of the employees required for maintaining successful position in the business environment.
SWOT Analysis of Amazon
The technological platform of Amazon is helpful in keeping a significant focus by launching and growing technological initiatives of the organization thereby creating a sustainable competitive edge over other players (Arnett, Goldfinch and Chinta 2018). Amazon Web Services (AWS) is one such technology platform used by Amazon that incorporates a mixture of Infrastructure as a service (IaaS), packaged software as a service (SaaS) and Platform as a service (PaaS). This technological platform of Amazon allow and offers the organization with specific tools such as database storage, content delivery services and compute power allowing better handling of the retail services and operations (Bryndin 2020). This technology platform allow the organization to use cloud computing models such as pay as you go which in turn helps in providing better scales to the users with compute, storage and throughput as required (Conaway et al. 2018). The technology platform, of Amazon includes variety of other services such as hybrid cloud, development tools, data management, infrastructure management, security, governance, monitoring, big data management and others. This allows Amazon to set and manage policies for a variety of various technological platforms, including its AWS services and cloud-based business solutions. Amazon’s method enables the company to deal with and overcome challenges, as well as relieve pressure caused by the current business climate and successfully provide commercial services to third parties.
Amazon has the ability and opportunity to improve and enhance technology measures, as well as associated organisational practises and policies, in order to reduce counterfeit sales. As a result, Amazon may launch into integrating new technologies like visual search or click-and-collect, as well as mixed reality shopping, and design organisational policies to allow for more effective and data-driven management through automation. (Jin and Shin 2020). Self driving technology is another latest technology that Amazon could implement in order to exploit the increasing demand and enhance its delivery network (Andreoni, Chang and Labrunie 2021). However, while implementing any strategies or new technology, it is imperative for Amazon to consider the rules and regulation set by the operating government as this could prevent several lawsuit and develop a clear image of the brand in the emerging markets. This is a high strategic threat that Amazon require to consider.
Conclusion
As a result of the foregoing discussion, it can be stated that Amazon faces a limited number of strategic risks that must be addressed through appropriate channels and strategic efforts. The paper focuses on the business components and relevant aspects of Amazon to set down a deep inquiry into the same in order to discover and answer the new difficulties and business problems linked to technology and innovation. The study also covers Amazon’s many strategic possibilities and dangers, as well as its technology platform. This document presents evidence and proof-based work that is necessary to comprehend the operations of one of the world’s greatest corporations.
References
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