This case study entitled "Amazon.com (in 2013): Will Amazon Kindle Another Fire?" focuses on the CEO of Amazon.com, Jeff Bezos and his strategy for the company for the years to come.
Frank T. Rothaermel; Seth Taylor; Marne L. Arthaud-Day
Harvard Business Review (MH0022-PDF-ENG)
January 03, 2014
Case questions answered:
- Bezos once said: “Amazon may break even or even lose money on the sale of its devices.” The company expects to recoup the money later through the sale of products, with a further boost from its annual Prime membership fee. Explain how this strategy shows Bezos as a systematic and intuitive thinker.
- It seems like everyone is streaming these days, and there are a growing number of providers. Amazon is a player in the digital entertainment market but hasn’t taken a clear lead. Determine, based on the strengths of the company, what decisions should be made to ensure that Amazon jumps ahead and becomes the “No. 1” source for digital content streams.
- Compare the latest initiatives coming out of Amazon with those of the actual or potential competition.
- Conclude whether or not Bezos is making the right decisions as he guides the firm through today’s many business and management challenges.
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Amazon.com (in 2013): Will Amazon Kindle Another Fire? Case Answers
Amazon.com Case: Keeping the Fire Hot
1. Bezos once said: “Amazon may break even or even lose money on the sale of its devices.” The company expects to recoup the money later through the sale of products, with a further boost from its annual Prime membership fee. Explain how this strategy shows Bezos as a systematic and intuitive thinker.
There are various signs that indicate that Jeff Bezos, CEO of Amazon.com, is a systematic and intuitive thinker. Bezos believed that the company has a place for both intuitive and systematic decision-making within the management.
Bezos indicates signs of intuitive thinking in his creative and innovative thinking. He continuously comes up with new products and services that have the potential to compete with other competitors in the market.
Systematic thinking is the capability of solving problems by first analyzing the problem before making a conclusion, thinking things through, and making excellent decisions.
First of all, Bezos shows his intuitive ability when he plans to have drones to fly Amazon.com deliveries to the customers. This is an indication that he is an intuitive thinker. He is creative, imaginative, and innovative and gets outside the box to set high bars for other competitors in the industry.
He also indicated his most intuitive approach to thinking by creating the Kindle Fire. In 2011, he created the Kindle Fire, and in 2013, he came up with the current Kindle Fire HD.
The Kindle Fire brand has given most competitors in the market a great level of competition. It rivals brands such as Google, Apple, Samsung, Nook, Barnes and Noble, and several other e-reading devices and apps.
He carefully plans and chooses products that he wants to create next and finds ways of improving on the currently existing products, e.g., creating a new Kindle based on the original Kindle idea or adding some new features to the existing Kindle Fire.
The fact that Bezos can think of improving the existing products makes him a systematic thinker. We can take the example of the Kindle Fire, where he employed his intuitive ability to create the Kindle systematically by doing research on their target market and competitors for the Kindle brand to enable it to become successful.
It actually takes a rational and analytical thinking mind and process to make the Kindle Fire sell more books as compared to paperbacks. The incidents show that Bezos is not afraid of failure, and he applies his flexibility, creativity, and aggressiveness when making essential decisions.
2. It seems like everyone is streaming these days, and there are a growing number of providers. Amazon is a player in the digital entertainment market but hasn’t taken a clear lead. Determine, based on the strengths of the company, what decisions should be made to ensure that Amazon jumps ahead and becomes the “No. 1” source for digital content streams.
With the new versions of Amazon Kindle Fire, Prime Instant Video, and the movie content that are streamed online, it is not easy to move to the top spot. Even though Amazon has made great strides with the leadership of Bezos to be where they are today, I believe that they still need to do much more to become the top source for digital content streams.
First of all, there are various cloud computing services that Amazon.com can focus on. Amazon can be considered as the…
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