How Does Amazon.com Use Their Digital Channels to Achieve Success - Case Study Example

Student’s name] [Course code+name] [Professor’s name] [University name] [Date of submission] How does Amazon.com use their digital channels to achieve success? Management is the process of gathering, analysing, planning, organising and planning of an organization to achieve organization objectives (Chaffey and White 2011). Amazon.com is managing their digital channels well hence they have been successful. Management have evolved several stages up to date. Between the years 1771-1858, Robert Owen proposed major legislative reforms which could improve the employees working conditions; between the year 1792-1871 Charles Babbage championed for the concept of division of labour and specialization in management; Andrew Ure in the year 1778-1857 argued that management should be a separate discipline which was also supported by Charles Dupin. A late entrance in the debate was Henry R Towne between the years 1844-1924, he supported the arguments of Charles and Andrew of studying management as a separate discipline and further emphasises on the good business skills in running and managing business (Jones and George 2010). Amazon.com have resorted to use the last management thought by Charles Dupin in achieving its objectives in digital book selling activities where the customer behaviour are being studying and managed separately from other disciplines. Effective management comprises of some basic elements which includes; good time management skills, proper analytical skills, communications skills and leadership skills (Bass, 1990). The managers must have planning skills in order to plans for organization activities and both inter and intrapersonal skills. Amazon.com are well organized with good organization structure which as enable them to achieve their objectives (Bass, 1990). Amazon.com started its operation in July 1995 with a sole aim and mission “to use the Internet to offer products that inform, educate and inspire its customers.” By the year 1999, Amazon.com was being ranked as one of the largest online based company in selling of books and music DVD and CD’s. The Amazon.com website was one of the most visited website all over the world with over 4.7 millions books and DVD’s being sold online. Other services like computer games, video tapes and audio books were also on sale. It owned the largest share of online books which were being sold and was operating in over 160 countries world wide (clouse and Spergueon, 1995) Management theories can be classified into four major approaches which can be used by any company. First is classical approach which comprises of scientific management, bureaucratic management and administrative management. Second is the Behavioural approach to management which comprises of Hawthorne studies, Maslow need hierarchy and theory X and theory Y. the third approach is quantitative management approach which uses management science, operation management and management information system management approaches. Lastly is the modern approach of management, this comprises of system theory of management, contingency theory and emerging approaches in management (Jones and George 2010). Amazon.com has combined the above management approaches in order to achieve their objectives and targets. In classical approach, Amazon.com is using administrative theory of management approach in delivery to their customer. Administrative theory majorly focuses on the principle that managers could use to internally coordinate the activities of the organization. This theory was majorly championed by Henry Fayol between the years 1841-1925 (Jones and George 2010). The organisation of the Amazon.com actually symbolizes the use of this theory concerning its structure of management, the communication channels and reporting channel. The company is headed by the president who the most senior, followed by five directors then chief finance officer followed by chief technical officer up to the officers in lower ladder. These depict the use of administrative approach of management. The fourteen principle of Fayol is well captured in the management structure of Amazon.com, these includes; (Jones and George 2010). i. Division of work ii. Authority and responsibility iii. Discipline iv. Unity of command v. Unity of direction vi. Subordination of the individual interest vii. Centralization of work viii. Scalar chain ix. Order x. Equity xi. Team spirit xii. Stability xiii. Good remuneration and xiv. Initiative. This kind of arrangement has greatly help Amazon to excel in their area of operation and achieving the objective of the company as there is clear work separation and division of labour couples with team spirit and good remuneration The second approach is the behavioural management approach; here the management majorly focuses on the individual attitude and group processes in reorganizing the organizational change. The theory of scientific management speaks of a scientific way of orientation, selection and training processes of the employees (Jones and George 2010). This has been well embraced by the company in recruiting and developing of their employees. Training is important to ensure Amazon.com can run a highly respected and responsive customer service program. The founder president is always advocating for the continuous development of employees using the anthem of “people with bandwidth.” The president usually describes the term bandwidth as hard working people, smart and passionate about their work. As many potential investors are struggling to buy Amazon.com, what the company lacks is not huge capital base but smart people who are able to drive the objectives of the company and meet customer satisfaction and this can only be achieved through continuous training of the company employees (Georgetown et al, 2011). This statement from the founding president Mr. Boaz affirms strongly the position and emphasis which the company is putting on the training on the employees a position strongly advocated by Taylor in his scientific management theory and principle. In his part, the customer service manager of Amazon.com describes the training process as crucial and is represented at different levels and a way of quick respond on the customer needs on an ongoing basis. Both mentoring, on the job training and classrooms are used to improve the skills of the employees (Jones and George 2010). The customer relationship manger also in his statement gives a hint that this has enabled them to achieve much of their objectives. Within the standard training curriculum, Amazon.com’s customer service representatives also receive special training in how to correspond with international customers Brooks, 1999) The theory of modern management has also been widely used by the Amazon.com; the management information management system is the core of the Amazon Company. Management information system majorly focuses on designing and implementing computer based information system for use in the business (Rainer et al, 2010) Amazon.com has created website which is user friendly and the users use the website to both select and to purchase products. Using the site, the customers are specifically able to access the sites in searching of titles, read, and post reviews, brows and also to register for personalized services within the site. The management information system has enables the Amazon.com to do their trading with a lot of ease and able to reach many customers. Customers are able to make credit card purchase and also make order online. Most orders are shipped to customers directly from Amazon.com’s warehouses, usually within 24 to 72 hours. If a customer needs to return a product, complimentary return postage is provided to the customer online and this as really make the Amazon.com excel in their business Modern management approaches as also help Amazon.com to succeed in expanding meeting and satisfying its customer needs (Georgetown et al, 2011) . One of the most important players in the success within shortest period is the founding president Mr. Boaz. He had a sound management background both in finance, fund management and computer science. When the founding president decided to use the management information system theory in provide potential customers with rare services which customers could not get in most common traditional retailers shops. The internet platform services were great and provided the customers with wide range of opportunities in product selection (Rainer et al, 2010) The Amazon.com business model creates one of the most suitable models which meet customer needs hence satisfaction. The model uses some of the most lucrative management theories which ensure customer’s needs are met at their comfort. Online shopping created through information system enables customers either from home or office (Georgetown et al, 2011) The company has also created decision enabling information which is well programmed hence easy to follow up and make amendments to. Discounted prices have also boosted their trading as most customers could easily afford the product. Easy to purchase, wider selection area and speed of the services are some of the factors which have contributed to the success of the Amazon.com. Sound logistic process is one of the most crucial concepts and model which the company as embrace in ensuring that they succeed. Continuous maintaining processes and improving the operation efficiencies within the departments is a key determinant of the Amazon.com. The company ability to offer to its customers a wide range of selection, reliability, low prices, and high delivery speed is directly connected to sound management system and logistic system (Georgetown et al, 2011). The good management characteristics of Amazon include Reliability Transparency Speed Honesty and Accountability The Amazon.com uses the regional interface advertisement in most of its international business activities. One of the management cornerstones of the Amazone.com on the approach to international markets is through leveraging most of its existing routines and systems which it uses to serve all its customers regardless of their location where they are. The use of regional interface normally allows the company to serves their customers using their local languages. The use of routine and computer based standardized algorithms provided the customers with the same automated personalized services on the international customers. The principle here is that the management uses culture and languages as a concept in meeting their potential customers; they plan and execute their plans when they want to reach their customers. Good leadership couples with effective team players make the Amazon.com to succeed in their plans. Amazon.com uses global merchant agreements with other Internet-based companies to promote the company internationally which has proved beneficial in the success of the company (Robbins, eta al 2010) One key to the quality of service is a high degree of responsiveness from Amazon.com customer service department. Responsiveness is one of the leadership qualities which are highly embraced by the Amazon leadership to ensure its success. Some other management qualities championed for by Amazon includes; i. Planning ii. Staffing iii. Leading iv. Organizing v. Technology and vi. Controlling The modern management approach of putting the customer interest first and the interest of the employees follow and profit last as been widely used in improving the services at Amazon.com Company. The social corporate responsibilities have highly help in marketing the product of the company. The company usually tracks complain by customers through continuous internal management reports. The routine complains received from customers are used as feed back to make improvement on quality of the services being offered and to fast track improvement in service delivery. Other important departments within the organization includes software development of the website, product development department and marketing department which are very useful in ensuring high standard of service delivery and quality improvement. The use of digital technology has couples with new management methodology approaches have help amozon.com to reach highest number of customers in most of the parts in the world. The management has embraced management information system in both decision marking and in providing services to the customers hence they have managed to achieve their objective on digital platform (Georgetown et al 2011) Reference Bass, B.M. 1990 “Handbook of leadership: A Survey of Theory and Research”, Free Press, NewYork, NY Brooks, I. 1999 “Organizational Behaviour: Individuals, Groups and Organization”, Prentice Hall, 3rd Edition, Essex, UK Chaffey, D. and White, G, 2011 Business Information Management: Improving Performance Using Information Systems (2nd Edition). Financial Times Press. Clouse W & Spurgeon K, 1995 “Corporate Analysis of humor, Psychology: A Journal of Human Behavior”, Cambridge, Massachusetts Georgetown MBA candidates Sarah Knight, Harry Kobrak, and Paul Lewis, 2011 Harvard Business Review journal Jones, G. and George, J, 2010 Essentials of Contemporary Management (4th Edition). McGraw-Hill Higher Education Rainer, R., Turban, E., Potter, R., Cegielski, C. 2010 Introduction to Information Systems: Enabling and Transforming Business (3rd Edition), Wiley Robbins, S. De Cenzo, D. and Coulter, M. 2010, Fundamentals of Management (7th Edition). MyManagementLab Pack. . Read More