Jeff Bezos started Amazon as an online bookstore, in Seattle, Washington in 1995. From the beginning, however, Bezos claimed that even though Amazon exclusively sold books, it was actually a technology company. Bezos argued that Amazon’s purpose was to simplify e-commerce and not to sell books. In 1997, Amazon became a publicly traded company on the NASDAQ market (Hall, 2017).
Amazon became a near instant success with 1,000,000 customers and $148,000,000 in revenues by the end of 1997. By 1999, Amazon had begun to develop its online marketplace that allowed other websites to sell items through amazon.com. In 1999, Amazon also diversified its offerings further to include electronics, music, toys, games, and a plethora of other items (Hall, 2017). …show more content…
Instead, it has one statement that covers both. Amazon’s mission and vision statement is “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.” (We Pioneer, 2018).
It is the author’s opinion that this is better suited as a vision statement instead of a combined mission and vision. According to Skrabanek (2017), a vision statement should focus on the future of the company whereas the mission statement focuses on the current state of the company. Amazon’s statement is clearly forward thinking and shows what it hopes to achieve, but does not clearly shows why the company is in business. Instead, the statement explains what Amazon aspires to become which is the Earth’s most customer-centric company. The author will evaluate the statement as Amazon’s vision statement in the next section, but first will review what Amazon’s mission statement should …show more content…
1. Customer obsession
2. Ownership
3. Invent and simplify
4. Are right, a lot
5. Hire and develop the best
6. Insist on the highest standards
7. Think big
8. Bias for action
9. Frugality
10. Learn and be curious
11. Earn trust
12. Dive deep
13. Have a backbone; disagree and commit
STRATEGIC MANAGEMENT PROJECT 5
14. Deliver results
It is imperative that companies establish a meaningful set of values that are actionable by all employee as a guiding compass for the company (Cancialosi, 2015). When reviewing Amazon’s core values, two things become apparent to the author: the values are meaningful and clearly support the mission and vision statement; and, the term “leadership principles” shows that Amazon expects each employee to be a leader. The following paragraphs will review in detail.
First, Amazon’s core values clearly supports its mandate to be customer centric with its first value of customer obsession This directly shows its employees that the needs and wants of the customer are at the center of everything Amazon does. The values continue to provide actionable steps to employees on how to be successful and grow the Amazon brand with such direct steps as deliver
Amazon became a near instant success with 1,000,000 customers and $148,000,000 in revenues by the end of 1997. By 1999, Amazon had begun to develop its online marketplace that allowed other websites to sell items through amazon.com. In 1999, Amazon also diversified its offerings further to include electronics, music, toys, games, and a plethora of other items (Hall, 2017). …show more content…
Instead, it has one statement that covers both. Amazon’s mission and vision statement is “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.” (We Pioneer, 2018).
It is the author’s opinion that this is better suited as a vision statement instead of a combined mission and vision. According to Skrabanek (2017), a vision statement should focus on the future of the company whereas the mission statement focuses on the current state of the company. Amazon’s statement is clearly forward thinking and shows what it hopes to achieve, but does not clearly shows why the company is in business. Instead, the statement explains what Amazon aspires to become which is the Earth’s most customer-centric company. The author will evaluate the statement as Amazon’s vision statement in the next section, but first will review what Amazon’s mission statement should …show more content…
1. Customer obsession
2. Ownership
3. Invent and simplify
4. Are right, a lot
5. Hire and develop the best
6. Insist on the highest standards
7. Think big
8. Bias for action
9. Frugality
10. Learn and be curious
11. Earn trust
12. Dive deep
13. Have a backbone; disagree and commit
STRATEGIC MANAGEMENT PROJECT 5
14. Deliver results
It is imperative that companies establish a meaningful set of values that are actionable by all employee as a guiding compass for the company (Cancialosi, 2015). When reviewing Amazon’s core values, two things become apparent to the author: the values are meaningful and clearly support the mission and vision statement; and, the term “leadership principles” shows that Amazon expects each employee to be a leader. The following paragraphs will review in detail.
First, Amazon’s core values clearly supports its mandate to be customer centric with its first value of customer obsession This directly shows its employees that the needs and wants of the customer are at the center of everything Amazon does. The values continue to provide actionable steps to employees on how to be successful and grow the Amazon brand with such direct steps as deliver