Description: Amazon’s (AMZN) earnings this past week are a sign of how corporate strategy has shifted. Amazon does things differently, but only as differently as Apple. What is their secret?
Source: forbes.com
Date: April 29, 2012
Like Apple, its platform is closely linked to a device (in this case the Kindle), and is tied into a system that does good digital rights management. For writers the platform is by no means seamless. There are plenty of glitches along the way to getting a book perfectly published on Amazon. But writers are tolerant of that. Amazon is an enabling platform, just like Apple’s App Store. It enables writers and booksellers. It enables people who want to sell to Amazon’s community.
And today’s business platforms enable business. They don’t just sell at you or lock customers in. They enable entrepreneurship, reputation development, and personal and professional growth, and they do it at extraordinary scale. In short, as well as providing a new way to scale business they bring value to all parties – and that is the real meaning of shared value, a term that is still badly misunderstood. Read Rest of Story
Questions for discussion:
1. What is Amazon’s business platform?
2. What are Amazon’s leadership values?
Faisal Alhelaibah
In the case of Amazon the platform consists of the rules and facilities that organize and manage the commerce engine, its reviewer database and community. They sell books online by enabling writers and booksellers. It enables people who want to sell to Amazon’s community.
“The whole point of the platform is to tear business away from the outdated idea of core competency”. That means leadership is shared by the seller, purchaser and writter.
Chance Engel
Amazons business platform is arguably the most integral part of their system. It is the power to the companies success as the platform is responsible for organizing and managing all of the information and resources that the company uses and needs in order to operate successfully. This includes “the commerce engine, its reviewer database and community, the apps community, the Amazon marketplace, the vendors who sell through Amazon, digital rights management, and the writing community that self-publishes to Amazon, as well as its reluctant publishing partners, as well, of course, as its Cloud capability”. All of these things are operating and managed through the business platform and together they have created alot of success for Amazon. Needless to say, without the platform that Amazon has formed over the years that is operating today, the company would likely not be considered in the same category as a powerhouse such as Apple.
Mr. White
Amazon’s business platform is built on a number of moving components, including its commerce engine, its application community, the Amazon marketplace, the wholesalers and sellers whose transactions are facilitated by Amazon, its cloud computing capacity, and digital rights management.
Amazons capital gains had increased by 55% in 2011, which “defied gravity”, according to Forbes. This success was largely associated with Amazons leading product, the Kindle; a mobile book reading device, that enables customers to upload books from the internet, rather than buy a hard copy in a store.
Amazon’s platform is successful because it facilitates and enables commerce extraordinarily well. Furthermore, is offers a value proposition to customers which will be tremendously difficult for competitors to match.
Jeff Bezos founded Amazon in 1994, after he quit a well-paid position at a New York City hedge fund upon recognizing major business opportunities associated with the rapid development of the internet. Jeff personifies Amazon’s leadership values, in his ability to capitalize on new opportunities, which are being presented as business commerce continues to evolve.
Traditional business theory tells us that a company will be most successful by focusing on one segment of the market, and having one core competency; trying to be too many things to too many people is a recipe for failure. However, things may be changing, as evidenced by companies like Amazon and Apple, who have been extraordinarily successful by focusing on a number of core competencies, rather than just one.
Le Liu
What is the new platform?
Amazon’s old platform is associated with lock in. However, the new platform seems more successful. It consists of the rules and facilities that organize and manage the commerce engine, its reviewer database and community, the apps community, the Amazon marketplace, the vendors who sell through Amazon, digital rights management, and the writing community that self-publishes to Amazon, as well as its reluctant publishing partners, as well, of course, as its Cloud capability. The new platform also ties into a system that does good digital rights management and therefore enables writer to sell through Amazon. Moreover, the new platform also enables the business. It enables entrepreneurship, reputation development, and personal and professional growth, and they do it at extraordinary scale. In short, the new platform powers amazon by providing a new way to scale business and they also bring value to all parties.
What are the Amazon’s leadership values?
Retaining and growing the respect of his peers around the world is one of Amazon’s core assets into the future. Without it Amazon will not grow. Thus, Amazon‘s leadership value is that the new leader should have the ability to attract and retain very talented, imaginative resources.
Wes Friebel
The business platform that amazon has chosen consists of five integral components. First the new business platform, which consists of the rules and facilities that organize and manage the commerce engine, reviewer database and community, the apps community, vendors who sell through Amazon, digital rights management, and the writing community that publishes to Amazon, as well as its Cloud capability. The second component is the ecosystem, in which thousands of companies rely on Amazon’s making the right calls. Amazons leadership values requires that they can attract and retain talented and imaginative resources. Universal connectors allow for low cost contractual agreements so business can begin as soon as possible.
The introduction of cloud computing has allowed for instant infrastructure growth.
Amazon’s leadership values consist of having strategic options management, which is the ability to take opportunities when markets are fluctuating.
Rod white quills
amazon has allowed everybody the opportunity to access any kind of book for sale or to be published. books used to take so long and had to be promoted on many different levels for them to even be considered by the public for consumtion. now with this new form of getting books to the public books are more easily accessable and therefore will make reading books better. you will know longer need to carry around a bunch of books on certain subjects,because with the click of your mouse or just looking it up on your phone you will be able to read what you want any where you want. Amazon has caught onto the information highway and id riding it to a huge profit, writers are finding very easy to this form of promotiom for there books and regardlees of a few errors when the books are put out on this form they are being fixed and still selling. I truly believe that this will be the way we will all eventually be reading books in the future so there profit will only continue to grow and the quality will only get better and soon books will become irrelavant.
Yue Pan
Perhaps in the information age, technologies are becoming fundamental, not
only for supporting day to day activates within many companies and
organizations, but also for playing a growing role in the competitive
strategy of more and more companies. As the example of Amazon, the
commerce engine, database, and application community consists the new
platform, with the integration of part of their entire system. It seems
very successful to implement and admin all kinds of E- document and
information.
I personally believe through these advantages of the business platform it
will bring a great deal of potential success opportunity for Amazon in the
future. On the other hand, it seems Amazon and Apple are using the
different way of strategy to achieve their business goal. However, the
high technologies and advanced management system may the common approach
for both companies to approach their accomplishment.
In addition , the new platform can allow the ‘space ‘ of the company to
increases the marketing growth and reputation as well. With the creative
and advanced technologies , Amazon can maintain its advantages to
becoming more successful to leading the E-commerce’s of the online book
market.
Ali Almasoud
Amazon is a great example of electronic commerce.it does has a strong sustainable competitive advantage that makes it unique and superior to the competitors. It is a trustful web site most people trust. in my opinion, it is know easier to by online from Amazon as it is provide a well establishes data-bias of reviews that makes us more “pre-satisfied” when purchasing a product. It is becoming even more convenient when buying books, you no longer have to wait for the book to be delivered, instead, you can just get an electronic version of the book your’e purchasing. apps , market place,sellers, digital right management,and writing communities are all excellent factors that make the whole organization successful. Leadership in Amazon has been well established by taking all possible advantages and go”beyond normal business practices which make it successful. Here is a great sentence I am really admired of “The whole point of the platform is to tear business away from the outdated idea of core competency – the straight jacket of old management theory.
Andrew D.
The amazon business platform in my opinion is basically accessibility. Allowing anyone the ability to publish and sell a book, or “enabling” as Mr. Shaughnessy puts it, all writers have equal opportunity to sell to a large, large number of people. They must build a reputation and ensure the quality of their work themselves, all while not being a liability to amazon as they would be to a traditional publisher.
Amazon’s strong leadership are the ability to continue to innovate (very important in todays world), and to seek out and find talented people who will work for you. Establishing a large following and doing something unique and valuable will allow you to attract many followers, investors and employees who believe in you and what you are working towards.
Xuan Wang
The business platform of Amazon is closely linked to a device (in this case the Kindle), and is tied into a system that does good digital rights management. The business platform of Amazon is success because it contains both power of Amazon and Apple’s success. There are plenty of glitches along the way to getting a book perfectly published on Amazon. But writers are tolerant of that. Amazon is an enabling platform, just like Apple’s App Store. It enables writers and booksellers. It enables people who want to sell to Amazon’s community. The new platform dosen’t just sells at you or lock customers in. They enable entrepreneurship, reputation development, and personal and professional growth, and they do it at extraordinary scale.
The leadership values of Amazon have been reflected by the new platform. The whole point of the platform is to tear business away from the outdated idea of core competency-the straight jacket of old management theory. Platforms allow companies to develop complex options portfolios because the ecosystem is full of businesses that can jump quickly into new opportunity. It is also highly visible and can attract new recourses when the owner makes adjacency moves into new markets. That also highlights an important facet of the new leader- the ability to attract and retain very talented, imaginative resource
Misbah Dar
Amazon’s business platform is to jump into the new market and keep up to date with the consumer’s needs and wants. It does that by pairing up with Apple’s Kindle to provide the best of the best. Amazon has changed the way people purchase books online and would like to give readers more options to access these resources in a simpler and easier way. This is a great way to attract more customers and keep the old ones active. Bringing in change can keep the business moving forward and a business is defined in a different term. Listening and providing to the customers exactly what they are looking for brings value into the business compared to just selling, selling, and selling things. Amazon’s success has been linked to the moving economy. Taking all the factors into consideration and making entrepreneurship a personal and professional growth. If Amazon had followed the basic management rules of business then it wouldn’t have been able to go further and be able to associate itself with one of the best such as Apple. Changing the way people do business is getting better day by day. Keeping different business platforms compared to other businesses is allowing Amazon to grow and succeed like it is.
jf.andrus
Understanding the market that you are involved in is essential in maintaining a competitive advantage. Apple and Amazon are prime examples of providing a unique service to its consumers, utilizing a special type of information sharing and properly securing its products (and therefore revenues) from its entreprenurs and allowing for a more convenient creating, sharing and profiting from its quality of products. I’m going to end it there, this isn’t an essay.