MG408
The Graduate Challenge
CW1: Business Report
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Introduction
The report discusses how the following four core business functions, Marketing, Finance, Operations and Human Resources within Amazon. The key to continued growth and playing a number one role in the market requires global e-commerce and technology giant Amazon to mesh these business functions together with much finesse. This report therefore also outlines how these functions interlink and underpin Amazon's successful performance.
Core Business Functions
Marketing
Marketing at Amazon is based on customer-oriented approaches, such as adopting data-driven ways for personalized recommendations, running global campaigns, and promoting services like Amazon Prime. Digital marketing at Amazon means targeted advertising reaching a wide audience, improving the level of customer engagement, and enhancing the brand's loyalty quotient (Wan, 2023). Marketing activities involving Prime Day will show how much leeway Amazon has in creating demand in various markets and contribute directly to generating revenue (Denga et al., 2022).
Finance
Amazon's finance function is very vital in managing investments, controlling risks, and offering sustainable growth. The reinvestment of such returns into technology and infrastructure, such as the increase of AWS and top-line logistics systems, will further aid Amazon in staying ahead in the competitive markets (Andreolli-Versbach and Gans, 2024). In turn, the finance function will help decision-making with data insights to make sure that Amazon can fund such growth opportunities while keeping operations productive enough.
Operations
Amazon's operations function is characterized by a combination of efficiency and scale that utilizes advanced logistics networks and automated fulfilment centres (Allgor, Cezik and Chen, 2023). It's the operations function that keeps those millions of customer orders processed, packed, and delivered rapidly, but same-day and next-day shipping are further giving Amazon a competitive advantage. AWS operations support all customers around the world by managing huge data and computing power, gaining further optimization of Amazon as the technology leader (Yu et al., 2022).
Human Resources
Amazon Human Resources invests in attracting, developing, and retaining top talent across all levels of the business. This ensures that the company has a high-performance culture deeply embedded in its leadership principles (Adigwe, 2024). Be it warehouse workers or tech geeks, the role of HR recruiting, training, and engaging employees becomes important in sustaining the operation excellence that meets the demanding nature of Amazon (UKEssays, 2018).
Interconnectedness and Collaboration
Core business functions at Amazon are not isolated but interrelated in meeting their objectives according to marketing demands through promotions like Prime Day, where operations participate by scaling logistics to meet orders by customers (Mattes, 2022). Finance ensures that available capital can be used to build out the infrastructure necessary for increased sales and operations (Antonopoulos, 2023). Human Resources plays an important role in hiring and managing staff to handle the operational demands of peak sales seasons. This cross-functional collaboration ensures that Amazon has the best customer service, with innovations and continuous improvement (Amazon, 2024).
Conclusion
In the end, the main business areas of marketing, finance, operations, and human resources at Amazon interactively work to ensure the company's enduring success. Their combined efforts of efficiency, growth, and customer satisfaction essentially depict the need for a cohesive approach to maintaining Amazon's competitive advantage globally.
References
Adigwe, C.S. (2024) ‘Transformational Leadership: A Comparative Exploration of the Leadership Prowess of Jeff Bezos and Steve Jobs’, Asian Journal of Economics, Business and Accounting, 24(3), pp.68-89. http://asian.go4sending.com/id/eprint/1980/1/Adigwe2432024AJEBA112753.pdf
Allgor, R., Cezik, T. and Chen, D., 2023. An algorithm for robotic picking in Amazon fulfilment centres enables humans and robots to work together effectively. INFORMS Journal on Applied Analytics, 53(4), pp.266-282. https://pubsonline.informs.org/doi/pdf/10.1287/inte.2022.1143
Amazon 2024, Human Resources, amazon. jobs, viewed 8 October 2024, https://www.amazon.jobs/en/business_categories/humanresources.
Andreoli-Versbach, P. and Gans, J. (2024) ‘Interplay between Amazon store and logistics’, European Competition Journal, pp.1-38. https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/pdf/10.1080/17441056.2024.2312494
Antonopoulos, D. (2023) ‘Financial performance and strategy for Microsoft and Amazon during Covid-19 pandemic’, University of Macadonia, pp.1-82. https://dspace.lib.uom.gr/bitstream/2159/28420/1/AntonopoulosDimitriosMsc2022.pdf
Denga, E.M., Vajjhala, N.R. and Rakshit, S. (2022) ‘The role of digital marketing in achieving sustainable competitive advantage’, Digital Transformation and Internationalization Strategies in Organizations, pp.44-60. https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Narasimha-Vajjhala/publication/357490346_The_Role_of_Digital_Marketing_in_Achieving_Sustainable_Competitive_Advantage/links/65a38e90bc30165e6e37a82b/The-Role-of-Digital-Marketing-in-Achieving-Sustainable-Competitive-Advantage.pdf
Mattes, T. (2022) ‘Algorithmic Price Administration: How Amazon Hijacks the Price System’, Berkeley Tech. LJ, 37, p.1489. https://btlj.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/10/0008-37-4-Mattes.pdf
UKEssays. (2018) Strategic Human Resources Management (SHRM) at Amazon. [online]. Available from: https://www.ukessays.com/essays/human-resources/strategic-human-resources-management-shrm-at-amazon.php?vref=1 [Accessed 8 October 2024].
Wan, Y. (2023) ‘Investigating the impact and effectiveness of digital marketing on brand awareness, sales and customer engagement’, Advances in Economics, Business and Management Research, 51(1). https://pdfs.semanticscholar.org/0eb2/3ac9a213159dc0c9c8593b9e9b05fe99f0f6.pdf
Yu, W., Hassan, A. and Adhikariparajuli, M. (2022) ‘How did Amazon achieve CSR and some Sustainable Develop-2 ment Goals (SDGs)-climate change, circular economy, water 3 resources and employee rights during COVID-19?’, 4. https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Abeer-Hassan-3/publication/362738192_How_Did_Amazon_Achieve_CSR_and_Some_Sustainable_Development_Goals_SDGs-Climate_Change_Circular_Economy_Water_Resources_and_Employee_Rights_during_COVID-19/links/641ad4c2315dfb4cce9f8ca9/How-Did-Amazon-Achieve-CSR-and-Some-Sustainable-Development-Goals-SDGs-Climate-Change-Circular-Economy-Water-Resources-and-Employee-Rights-during-COVID-19.pdf
