Introduction
Amazon is currently the largest retail company in the world, continually increasing its scope of influence globally. It has innovated the methods of e-commerce, being one of the pioneers in online sales and data analysis of customers’ decisions. Jeff Bezos – the founder of Amazon – has played a pivotal role in the organizational development and implementation of imperialistic tactics to expand. In this sense, it is impossible to separate Amazon and Jeff Bezos in the discussion of the company’s history and future objectives. The current paper investigates the leadership of Jeff Bezos and its impact on Amazon, claiming that although Amazon is the largest retailer in the world, it is not “too large” and might expand further.
Leadership of Jeff Bezos
First, it is essential to discuss the leadership style and personal traits of Jeff Bezos to understand the ambitions of Amazon and its potential objectives. As FRONTLINE (2020) shows in the documentary, Jeff Bezos had long-term plans for Amazon even during the design phase before the implementation of e-commerce. When Amazon or Relentless was still a minor book retailer, Jeff Bezos had already planned a future where Amazon could sell anything that customers might need. There were several critical concepts in Bezos’ early management – expansion, obsessiveness over customers, and data analysis (FRONTLINE PBC, 2020). These factors reflected Bezos’ leadership – he was passionate about data, experimentation, and innovation, trying to discover new ways to satisfy the customers’ needs.
With time, this approach revealed the disadvantages of the business model, particularly in exchanging customers’ needs for a safe and healthy working environment. Expansion and ambitions became more evident in Bezos’ leadership, as Amazon started to expand its influence into healthcare, groceries, and space (FRONTLINE PBC, 2020). Franklin Foer described Bezos in 2020 as “A guy who has become a titan,” but Bezos’ clearly designated his ambitions more than twenty years ago (FRONTLINE PBC, 2020, 1:34:01). It is safe to assume that the current development of Amazon has been planned during the initial stages and thoroughly executed since 1995. Ultimately, Jeff Bezos has always positioned himself as a pioneer with unrivaled ambitions, and these traits have shaped Amazon as a retail company.
Management Impact on Amazon
Consequently, it is crucial to examine the exact consequences of Bezos’ management on Amazon. Arguably, the two most notable factors derived from Bezos’ personal traits are innovation and focus on customers. In the earlier days of Amazon, data analysis and the development of the internet enabled future success. As Amazon Chief Scientist Andreas Weigend noted, “If you have data, ultimately you win” (FRONTLINE PBC, 2020, 4:33). This idea is obvious in modern commerce, but it was a pivotal breakthrough in the 1990s that allowed Amazon to achieve a competitive position in the market.
Bezos’ management style and personal traits enabled this approach having a substantial impact on the company. “Customer ecstasy” is another motto of Amazon that implies an emphasis on convenience and a large variety of choices for customers (FRONTLINE PBC, 2020, 11:48). Jeff Bezos ensured this policy during the earlier stages of Amazon, and it persisted throughout the whole history of the company. There are several drawbacks to this approach, but it has been vastly effective for the development of Amazon. Having examined the core principles of the company and the personal traits of Bezos, it is evident that Bezos and Amazon are inseparable concepts.
Is Amazon Too Large?
The question whether Amazon is becoming “too large” is a complicated issue, primarily due to ethical issues. As interviews by FRONTLINE (2020) show, employee safety violations, the extermination of small businesses, and other associated developments remain relevant consequences of Amazon’s expansion. For people who empathize with organizational culture and the well-being of smaller enterprises, Amazon has definitely become too large of an organization. For more materialistic people, Amazon’s pseudo-monopoly remains a convenient instrument that promotes price stability, confidence in deliveries, and the highest quality of services.
The current paper argues that although it is an ambiguous issue, Amazon is not “too large” since it continues to improve the quality of its services and still enables competition in the market. The recent reports in 2022 demonstrate that despite the claims of world domination, Amazon is far from these ambitions, and other retail giants prove to be relevant competitors (Olive, 2022). There are various opinions on whether Amazon can fail as a retail company due to its size, but experts generally agree that it might be a hindrance but not a critical challenge (Whitley, 2022). Hence, the current paper inclines to agree that there are many ethical and practical drawbacks to Amazon’s expansion, but it is not “too large” to either fail or reduce the quality of provided services.
Conclusion
Jeff Bezos is the central figure in the discussion of Amazon and its organizational development. As the analysis has shown, his leadership and management styles were pivotal in the earlier expansion and set the course for later domination. Nevertheless, Amazon is unlikely to become “too large” to drastically fail in the market or reduce the quality of services. The tendency for e-commerce domination has significantly damaged the profits of smaller enterprises, but there is still relatively healthy competition among retail giants. Ultimately, the current paper has shown that Bezos played a vital role in the development of Amazon, and his personal traits shaped the history of the company.
References
FRONTLINE PBS. (2020). Amazon empire: The rise and reign of Jeff Bezos (full documentary) | FRONTLINE [Video]. YouTube. Web.
Olive, D. (2022). Amazon has a problem. It’s too big. Toronto Star. Web.
Whitley, J. (2022). Amazon is becoming too big to fail: That should scare Washington. The Washington Times. Web.