Case Analysis of “Amazon Empire: The Rise and Reign of Jeff Bezos”

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Case Analysis of “Amazon Empire: The Rise and Reign of Jeff Bezos”

The documentary, “Amazon Empire: The Rise and Reign of Jeff Bezos” is directed by

James Jacoby. The documentary investigates how Bezos transformed Amazon from an online

bookseller into a tri-dollar business. It explores how Jeff Bezos built a business empire that had

no precedent in American capitalism. The business aimed to deliver endless products, technology

innovations, and entertainment services to customers by just clicking a button. On the other

hand, the documentary also investigates the darker side of Amazon’s rapid growth. The

documentary demonstrates that Jeff Bezos the CEO of Amazon has managed to turn Amazon

from a tiny company that was run out in a garage to become a huge business empire.

The documentary “Amazon Empire: The Rise and Reign of Jeff Bezos”, has

demonstrated how Jeff Bezos charismatic leadership has helped Amazon to become the largest

internet retailer in the world. Bezos established Amazon.com in 1994 as an online bookstore but

it has now diversified in selling food, jewelry, furniture, and electronics among many other

goods. The success of Amazon is attributed to the effective strategic leadership that Bezos has

offered to the company.

From the documentary, “Amazon Empire: The Rise and Reign of Jeff Bezos”, it is evident

that Jeff Bezos is a typical example of how top leaders in an organization should demonstrate

effective strategic leadership. According to Mckinsey's 7s model, strategic leaders are supposed

to demonstrate the following essential abilities. These abilities include the ability to construct

and develop an organizational vision, the ability to create an organizational structure, and

rationally allocate strategic resources for the organizational vision. Besides, strategic leaders

should have the ability to optimize a strategic path that will help in achieving the company's

vision. The leader should also have the ability to balance the benefits of different groups and
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adapt to the changing condition. He or she is also expected to demonstrate the ability to help the

organization have sustainable development and sustain superior competitive performance.

The documentary demonstrates that Jeff Bezos is a strategic and effective leader with the

ability to create organizational vision. Bezos defined his company’s vision as “To be Earth’s

most customer-centric company, where customers can find and discover anything they might

want to buy online, and endeavors to offer its customers the lowest possible prices”. At the

beginning of its operations, Amazon only sold books but after diversification Bezos did not

change Amazon’s vision statement. Besides, the organizational vision that Bezos has given for

Amazon has demonstrated that they can have a positive effect on Amazon in the long term.

Besides, Bezos created a vision for the company by designing a flexible as well as an effective

organizational structure that helps in achieving the vision and become the world's largest internet

retailer.

The film also shows that Bezos created a strategic path that can cost the organization less

time to achieve its vision. Bezos is a good example of a strategic leader who has managed to

adapt to a large-scale expansion strategy. For instance, Bezos established online retail instead of

physical stores since the online store would provide more choices of products to customers at the

time internet was beginning to become popular. Therefore, Bezos made a correct decision for

Amazon about the strategic path by considering technological and economic factors.

The documentary also demonstrates that Bezos also has the ability to balance the interests

of the stakeholders. Top leaders are supposed to first consider the interests of crucial

stakeholders before making decisions. Bezos demonstrated an ability to maximize the benefits of
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stakeholders and create new opportunities for development for Amazon by choosing to pay close

attention first to customer's benefits.

On sustainable development, Bezos focused on the long term development of Amazon.

Therefore, as a strategic leader, Bezos did not just focus on the current development of Amazon

but took a long-term view on the development of the company. Besides, Bezos has demonstrated

his ability to design sustainable development for Amazon. The documentary also demonstrates

how Amazon has applied the concept of customer orientation as part of its marketing strategy.

For instance, Amazon serves customer needs mostly through the online innovator. In its

operations, Amazon utilizes a patented Relational Database Management System. Besides,

Amazon the concept of customer orientation is prevalent i9n Amazon. For instance, the company

delineates customers as an individual and not as a group with similar needs.

In conclusion, the documentary “Amazon Empire: The Rise and Reign of Jeff Bezos”

demonstrates that Jeff Bezos as the CEO of Amazon is an effective strategic leader who has

helped the company to succeed in online retail. His unique strategic leadership has helped

Amazon to create an appropriate organization vision and construct a reasonable organizational

structure. He also helped the company to succeed by optimizing strategic path, balancing

stakeholder’s interests, and achieving sustainable development.

Reference

“Amazon Empire: The Rise and Reign of Jeff Bezos” https://www.youtube.com/watch?