Amazon – The largest internet company in the world

Amazon – The largest internet company in the world

Amazon – The largest internet company in the world

By J. Bhattacharjee (2020)

Since the conception of Amazon in 1994, the company has expanded its operations worldwide and has become one of the most profitable companies around the globe. The company operates in different sectors including cloud computing, e-commerce, artificial intelligence and digital streaming. According to Abboud (2019), in 2019 Amazon became the most valuable brand in the world, ahead of giants such as Apple, Google, Microsoft, Visa, Facebook, Alibaba, Tencent, McDonald’s and AT&T. Amazon has concentrated on invention, dedication towards operational excellence, customer focus and long-term thinking to achieve this unprecedented success (Aboutamazon, 2020).

One key factor behind this success is Amazon’s e-commerce innovations, used to target new consumers around the world. 1-click shopping, two-day delivery, Prime, Alexa and Amazon Echo are some of the main examples of how Amazon has been able to offer unique products and services and simplify the lives of its millions of consumers. Martinich (2014) states that dedication towards operational excellence has pushed Amazon to disrupt industries by investing in companies from different sectors and developing strategies to retain and acquire consumers as part of its long-term thinking. This in turn has proliferated the revenue of the company exponentially. Amazon has seen its annual net revenue skyrocket from 24.51 billion USD in 2009 to 280.52 billion USD in 2019 (Statista, 2019).

Operationally, Amazon’s fulfilment centres are an important part of their success. These warehouses fulfil the role of distribution centres along with storing a wide range of products. However, these centres are not normal warehouses; they contain modifications such as: scanning machines, robotics and computer systems to track and deliver millions of items each day (Aboutamazon, 2020). According to Aboutamazon (2020), there are over 175 fulfilment centres across the globe and the majority of these centres are located in Europe and North America. Apart from these centres, Amazon also has sortation centres, speciality centres and receive centres around the globe. The size of these centres are close to 600,000 square feet and aid the smooth flow of its supply chain.

In recent years, the digitisation of manufacturing has changed the way goods are produced (Marr, 2018). The amalgamation of the internet of systems, internet of things and cyber-physical systems has allowed warehousing facilities and distribution centres to mitigate overall cost. Amazon has been extremely effective at implementing the digitisation of manufacturing. Along with other e-commerce giants, Amazon has developed robots to move and organise stock, irrespective of the shape and size of the product (Deloitte, 2020).

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Amazon: The world’s largest retailer

 By A. Watson (2020)

Hello, I’m going to be talking to you today about the world’s largest retailer. I’m sure most of you have bought at least one product from this company. Can you guess who it is?  Yes, that’s right. It’s Amazon. I shall start this lecture by giving you a brief overview of Amazon, and this will be followed by looking at recruitment and employee benefits. And as there have been a number of criticisms regarding the treatment of employees, I shall look at this next. How Amazon has responded to these criticisms will be my final point. So, let’s start with the overview.

Amazon was established in 1994 and since then it has expanded its operations in different sectors such as artificial intelligence, cloud computing, e-commerce, grocery stores, consumer electronics and digital streaming. The company was founded by Jeff Bezos, who is the current CEO, and under his guidance, the company, according to Statista, has seen a linear growth with revenues surpassing 280 billion USD in 2019. Apart from the different sectors just mentioned, this giant also offers a wide spectrum of products such as Amazon Fire, Alexa, Kindle and Echo. The company has made its presence felt all across the globe and in this process it has employed more than 750,000 people.

According to Aboutamazon (2020), the four fundamental principles of the company are innovation, customer obsession, long-term thinking and operational excellence. These four principles have guided Amazon to totally reshape the e-commerce business and its warehouses. I think it would be fair to say that Amazon’s success truly lies in its warehouses. These are also known as ‘fulfilment centres’ and are not only used for storing products but also act as distribution centres. As these centres are equipped with computer systems, robotics and scanning machines, they have resulted in high-speed operations and significant reduction in overall costs. More than 175 such centres have been built around the globe to facilitate the streamline flow of products to the consumer.

Ok so let’s now move on to recruitment & employee benefits. Amazon has been known for creating plenty of job opportunities and offering a range of benefits to its employees. 25,000 jobs have been created in the UK alone paying a minimum wage of £9.50 per hour and £10.50 per hour in London. Benefits include private medical insurance, life assurance, income protection, paid breaks and a company pension plan. This multinational giant also has a ‘Career Choice Program’ for the employees who have been part of this company for a year, and this program supports the employees in their tuition fees for courses that are in high demand. Since the introduction of this program four years ago, in excess of 16,000 employees from 10 different countries have completed degrees in nursing, radiology, visual communications, game design and IT programming. Although Amazon provides attractive working opportunities and benefits, it has been often criticised for unsafe working conditions, and I shall now look at these…

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