Reinventing E-Commerce: Amazon's Bet on Unmanned Vehicle Delivery, Spanish Version SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
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Case Study Description of Reinventing E-Commerce: Amazon's Bet on Unmanned Vehicle Delivery, Spanish Version
In a December 1, 2013, interview on American television program 60 Minutes, Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos announced that Amazon would soon change the future of online shopping by enabling customers to receive items within thirty minutes of ordering. This delivery service, Bezos said, would be powered by unmanned autonomous drones and could be offered as soon as 2015. The market reaction was instantaneous and positive. Still, Amazon needed some answers before it could launch autonomous delivery services: Were customers ready to embrace and pay for this type of delivery service? Would regulators allow it? Should Amazon make or buy its drones? Would it be too risky for Amazon to wait to launch this service? If it decided to go ahead, how should it launch, and to whom?
Swot Analysis of "Reinventing E-Commerce: Amazon's Bet on Unmanned Vehicle Delivery, Spanish Version" written by Russell Walker, Rafique Jiwani includes – strengths weakness that are internal strategic factors of the organization, and opportunities and threats that Amazon Unmanned facing as an external strategic factors. Some of the topics covered in Reinventing E-Commerce: Amazon's Bet on Unmanned Vehicle Delivery, Spanish Version case study are - Strategic Management Strategies, Innovation, IT, Operations management, Productivity, Risk management and Strategy & Execution.
Some of the macro environment factors that can be used to understand the Reinventing E-Commerce: Amazon's Bet on Unmanned Vehicle Delivery, Spanish Version casestudy better are - – increasing inequality as vast percentage of new income is going to the top 1%, geopolitical disruptions, increasing energy prices, talent flight as more people leaving formal jobs, wage bills are increasing, customer relationship management is fast transforming because of increasing concerns over data privacy, increasing government debt because of Covid-19 spendings,
there is backlash against globalization, increasing commodity prices, etc
Introduction to SWOT Analysis of Reinventing E-Commerce: Amazon's Bet on Unmanned Vehicle Delivery, Spanish Version
SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University , we believe that protagonist in Reinventing E-Commerce: Amazon's Bet on Unmanned Vehicle Delivery, Spanish Version case study can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the Amazon Unmanned, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which Amazon Unmanned operates in.
According to Harvard Business Review, 75% of the managers use SWOT analysis for various purposes such as – evaluating current scenario, strategic planning, new venture feasibility, personal growth goals, new market entry, Go To market strategies, portfolio management and strategic trade-off assessment, organizational restructuring, etc.
SWOT Objectives / Importance of SWOT Analysis and SWOT Matrix
SWOT analysis of Reinventing E-Commerce: Amazon's Bet on Unmanned Vehicle Delivery, Spanish Version can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning using facts provided in Reinventing E-Commerce: Amazon's Bet on Unmanned Vehicle Delivery, Spanish Version case study
2. Improving business portfolio management of Amazon Unmanned
3. Assessing feasibility of the new initiative in Strategy & Execution field.
4. Making a Strategy & Execution topic specific business decision
5. Set goals for the organization
6. Organizational restructuring of Amazon Unmanned
Strengths Reinventing E-Commerce: Amazon's Bet on Unmanned Vehicle Delivery, Spanish Version | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The strengths of Amazon Unmanned in Reinventing E-Commerce: Amazon's Bet on Unmanned Vehicle Delivery, Spanish Version Harvard Business Review case study are -
Innovation driven organization
– Amazon Unmanned is one of the most innovative firm in sector. Manager in Reinventing E-Commerce: Amazon's Bet on Unmanned Vehicle Delivery, Spanish Version Harvard Business Review case study can use Clayton Christensen Disruptive Innovation strategies to further increase the scale of innovtions in the organization.
Operational resilience
– The operational resilience strategy in the Reinventing E-Commerce: Amazon's Bet on Unmanned Vehicle Delivery, Spanish Version Harvard Business Review case study comprises – understanding the underlying the factors in the industry, building diversified operations across different geographies so that disruption in one part of the world doesn’t impact the overall performance of the firm, and integrating the various business operations and processes through its digital transformation drive.
Highly skilled collaborators
– Amazon Unmanned has highly efficient outsourcing and offshoring strategy. It has resulted in greater operational flexibility and bringing down the costs in highly price sensitive segment. Secondly the value chain collaborators of the firm in Reinventing E-Commerce: Amazon's Bet on Unmanned Vehicle Delivery, Spanish Version HBR case study have helped the firm to develop new products and bring them quickly to the marketplace.
Analytics focus
– Amazon Unmanned is putting a lot of focus on utilizing the power of analytics in business decision making. This has put it among the leading players in the industry. The technology infrastructure suggested by Russell Walker, Rafique Jiwani can also help it to harness the power of analytics for – marketing optimization, demand forecasting, customer relationship management, inventory management, information sharing across the value chain etc.
Effective Research and Development (R&D)
– Amazon Unmanned has innovation driven culture where significant part of the revenues are spent on the research and development activities. This has resulted in, as mentioned in case study Reinventing E-Commerce: Amazon's Bet on Unmanned Vehicle Delivery, Spanish Version - staying ahead in the industry in terms of – new product launches, superior customer experience, highly competitive pricing strategies, and great returns to the shareholders.
Learning organization
- Amazon Unmanned is a learning organization. It has inculcated three key characters of learning organization in its processes and operations – exploration, creativity, and expansiveness. The work place at Amazon Unmanned is open place that encourages instructiveness, ideation, open minded discussions, and creativity. Employees and leaders in Reinventing E-Commerce: Amazon's Bet on Unmanned Vehicle Delivery, Spanish Version Harvard Business Review case study emphasize – knowledge, initiative, and innovation.
Training and development
– Amazon Unmanned has one of the best training and development program in the industry. The effectiveness of the training programs can be measured in Reinventing E-Commerce: Amazon's Bet on Unmanned Vehicle Delivery, Spanish Version Harvard Business Review case study by analyzing – employees retention, in-house promotion, loyalty, new venture initiation, lack of conflict, and high level of both employees and customer engagement.
Ability to lead change in Strategy & Execution field
– Amazon Unmanned is one of the leading players in its industry. Over the years it has not only transformed the business landscape in its segment but also across the whole industry. The ability to lead change has enabled Amazon Unmanned in – penetrating new markets, reaching out to new customers, and providing different value propositions to different customers in the international markets.
High switching costs
– The high switching costs that Amazon Unmanned has built up over years in its products and services combo offer has resulted in high retention of customers, lower marketing costs, and greater ability of the firm to focus on its customers.
Low bargaining power of suppliers
– Suppliers of Amazon Unmanned in the sector have low bargaining power. Reinventing E-Commerce: Amazon's Bet on Unmanned Vehicle Delivery, Spanish Version has further diversified its suppliers portfolio by building a robust supply chain across various countries. This helps Amazon Unmanned to manage not only supply disruptions but also source products at highly competitive prices.
Ability to recruit top talent
– Amazon Unmanned is one of the leading recruiters in the industry. Managers in the Reinventing E-Commerce: Amazon's Bet on Unmanned Vehicle Delivery, Spanish Version are in a position to attract the best talent available. The firm has a robust talent identification program that helps in identifying the brightest.
Superior customer experience
– The customer experience strategy of Amazon Unmanned in the segment is based on four key concepts – personalization, simplification of complex needs, prompt response, and continuous engagement.
Weaknesses Reinventing E-Commerce: Amazon's Bet on Unmanned Vehicle Delivery, Spanish Version | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The weaknesses of Reinventing E-Commerce: Amazon's Bet on Unmanned Vehicle Delivery, Spanish Version are -
Compensation and incentives
– The revenue per employee as mentioned in the HBR case study Reinventing E-Commerce: Amazon's Bet on Unmanned Vehicle Delivery, Spanish Version, is just above the industry average. Amazon Unmanned needs to redesign the compensation structure and incentives to increase the revenue per employees. Some of the steps that it can take are – hiring more specialists on project basis, etc.
High bargaining power of channel partners
– Because of the regulatory requirements, Russell Walker, Rafique Jiwani suggests that, Amazon Unmanned is facing high bargaining power of the channel partners. So far it has not able to streamline the operations to reduce the bargaining power of the value chain partners in the industry.
High dependence on existing supply chain
– The disruption in the global supply chains because of the Covid-19 pandemic and blockage of the Suez Canal illustrated the fragile nature of Amazon Unmanned supply chain. Even after few cautionary changes mentioned in the HBR case study - Reinventing E-Commerce: Amazon's Bet on Unmanned Vehicle Delivery, Spanish Version, it is still heavily dependent upon the existing supply chain. The existing supply chain though brings in cost efficiencies but it has left Amazon Unmanned vulnerable to further global disruptions in South East Asia.
Skills based hiring
– The stress on hiring functional specialists at Amazon Unmanned has created an environment where the organization is dominated by functional specialists rather than management generalist. This has resulted into product oriented approach rather than marketing oriented approach or consumers oriented approach.
Capital Spending Reduction
– Even during the low interest decade, Amazon Unmanned has not been able to do capital spending to the tune of the competition. This has resulted into fewer innovations and company facing stiff competition from both existing competitors and new entrants who are disrupting the industry using digital technology.
Aligning sales with marketing
– It come across in the case study Reinventing E-Commerce: Amazon's Bet on Unmanned Vehicle Delivery, Spanish Version that the firm needs to have more collaboration between its sales team and marketing team. Sales professionals in the industry have deep experience in developing customer relationships. Marketing department in the case Reinventing E-Commerce: Amazon's Bet on Unmanned Vehicle Delivery, Spanish Version can leverage the sales team experience to cultivate customer relationships as Amazon Unmanned is planning to shift buying processes online.
High operating costs
– Compare to the competitors, firm in the HBR case study Reinventing E-Commerce: Amazon's Bet on Unmanned Vehicle Delivery, Spanish Version has high operating costs in the. This can be harder to sustain given the new emerging competition from nimble players who are using technology to attract Amazon Unmanned 's lucrative customers.
No frontier risks strategy
– After analyzing the HBR case study Reinventing E-Commerce: Amazon's Bet on Unmanned Vehicle Delivery, Spanish Version, it seems that company is thinking about the frontier risks that can impact Strategy & Execution strategy. But it has very little resources allocation to manage the risks emerging from events such as natural disasters, climate change, melting of permafrost, tacking the rise of artificial intelligence, opportunities and threats emerging from commercialization of space etc.
Lack of clear differentiation of Amazon Unmanned products
– To increase the profitability and margins on the products, Amazon Unmanned needs to provide more differentiated products than what it is currently offering in the marketplace.
Low market penetration in new markets
– Outside its home market of Amazon Unmanned, firm in the HBR case study Reinventing E-Commerce: Amazon's Bet on Unmanned Vehicle Delivery, Spanish Version needs to spend more promotional, marketing, and advertising efforts to penetrate international markets.
Products dominated business model
– Even though Amazon Unmanned has some of the most successful products in the industry, this business model has made each new product launch extremely critical for continuous financial growth of the organization. firm in the HBR case study - Reinventing E-Commerce: Amazon's Bet on Unmanned Vehicle Delivery, Spanish Version should strive to include more intangible value offerings along with its core products and services.
Opportunities Reinventing E-Commerce: Amazon's Bet on Unmanned Vehicle Delivery, Spanish Version | External Strategic Factors
What are Opportunities in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The opportunities highlighted in the Harvard Business Review case study Reinventing E-Commerce: Amazon's Bet on Unmanned Vehicle Delivery, Spanish Version are -
Creating value in data economy
– The success of analytics program of Amazon Unmanned has opened avenues for new revenue streams for the organization in the industry. This can help Amazon Unmanned to build a more holistic ecosystem as suggested in the Reinventing E-Commerce: Amazon's Bet on Unmanned Vehicle Delivery, Spanish Version case study. Amazon Unmanned can build new products and services such as - data insight services, data privacy related products, data based consulting services, etc.
Loyalty marketing
– Amazon Unmanned has focused on building a highly responsive customer relationship management platform. This platform is built on in-house data and driven by analytics and artificial intelligence. The customer analytics can help the organization to fine tune its loyalty marketing efforts, increase the wallet share of the organization, reduce wastage on mainstream advertising spending, build better pricing strategies using personalization, etc.
Low interest rates
– Even though inflation is raising its head in most developed economies, Amazon Unmanned can still utilize the low interest rates to borrow money for capital investment. Secondly it can also use the increase of government spending in infrastructure projects to get new business.
Changes in consumer behavior post Covid-19
– Consumer behavior has changed in the Strategy & Execution industry because of Covid-19 restrictions. Some of this behavior will stay once things get back to normal. Amazon Unmanned can take advantage of these changes in consumer behavior to build a far more efficient business model. For example consumer regular ordering of products can reduce both last mile delivery costs and market penetration costs. Amazon Unmanned can further use this consumer data to build better customer loyalty, provide better products and service collection, and improve the value proposition in inflationary times.
Remote work and new talent hiring opportunities
– The widespread usage of remote working technologies during Covid-19 has opened opportunities for Amazon Unmanned to expand its talent hiring zone. According to McKinsey Global Institute, 20% of the high end workforce in fields such as finance, information technology, can continously work from remote local post Covid-19. This presents a really great opportunity for Amazon Unmanned to hire the very best people irrespective of their geographical location.
Buying journey improvements
– Amazon Unmanned can improve the customer journey of consumers in the industry by using analytics and artificial intelligence. Reinventing E-Commerce: Amazon's Bet on Unmanned Vehicle Delivery, Spanish Version suggest that firm can provide automated chats to help consumers solve their own problems, provide online suggestions to get maximum out of the products and services, and help consumers to build a community where they can interact with each other to develop new features and uses.
Manufacturing automation
– Amazon Unmanned can use the latest technology developments to improve its manufacturing and designing process in Strategy & Execution segment. It can use CAD and 3D printing to build a quick prototype and pilot testing products. It can leverage automation using machine learning and artificial intelligence to do faster production at lowers costs, and it can leverage the growth in satellite and tracking technologies to improve inventory management, transportation, and shipping.
Building a culture of innovation
– managers at Amazon Unmanned can make experimentation a productive activity and build a culture of innovation using approaches such as – mining transaction data, A/B testing of websites and selling platforms, engaging potential customers over various needs, and building on small ideas in the Strategy & Execution segment.
Finding new ways to collaborate
– Covid-19 has not only transformed business models of companies in Strategy & Execution industry, but it has also influenced the consumer preferences. Amazon Unmanned can tie-up with other value chain partners to explore new opportunities regarding meeting customer demands and building a rewarding and engaging relationship.
Developing new processes and practices
– Amazon Unmanned can develop new processes and procedures in Strategy & Execution industry using technology such as automation using artificial intelligence, real time transportation and products tracking, 3D modeling for concept development and new products pilot testing etc.
Reforming the budgeting process
- By establishing new metrics that will be used to evaluate both existing and potential projects Amazon Unmanned can not only reduce the costs of the project but also help it in integrating the projects with other processes within the organization.
Redefining models of collaboration and team work
– As explained in the weaknesses section, Amazon Unmanned is facing challenges because of the dominance of functional experts in the organization. Reinventing E-Commerce: Amazon's Bet on Unmanned Vehicle Delivery, Spanish Version case study suggests that firm can utilize new technology to build more coordinated teams and streamline operations and communications using tools such as CAD, Zoom, etc.
Better consumer reach
– The expansion of the 5G network will help Amazon Unmanned to increase its market reach. Amazon Unmanned will be able to reach out to new customers. Secondly 5G will also provide technology framework to build new tools and products that can help more immersive consumer experience and faster consumer journey.
Threats Reinventing E-Commerce: Amazon's Bet on Unmanned Vehicle Delivery, Spanish Version External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The threats mentioned in the HBR case study Reinventing E-Commerce: Amazon's Bet on Unmanned Vehicle Delivery, Spanish Version are -
Shortening product life cycle
– it is one of the major threat that Amazon Unmanned is facing in Strategy & Execution sector. It can lead to higher research and development costs, higher marketing expenses, lower customer loyalty, etc.
Instability in the European markets
– European Union markets are facing three big challenges post Covid – expanded balance sheets, Brexit related business disruption, and aggressive Russia looking to distract the existing security mechanism. Amazon Unmanned will face different problems in different parts of Europe. For example it will face inflationary pressures in UK, France, and Germany, balance sheet expansion and demand challenges in Southern European countries, and geopolitical instability in the Eastern Europe.
Backlash against dominant players
– US Congress and other legislative arms of the government are getting tough on big business especially technology companies. The digital arm of Amazon Unmanned business can come under increasing regulations regarding data privacy, data security, etc.
Trade war between China and United States
– The trade war between two of the biggest economies can hugely impact the opportunities for Amazon Unmanned in the Strategy & Execution industry. The Strategy & Execution industry is already at various protected from local competition in China, with the rise of trade war the protection levels may go up. This presents a clear threat of current business model in Chinese market.
Increasing wage structure of Amazon Unmanned
– Post Covid-19 there is a sharp increase in the wages especially in the jobs that require interaction with people. The increasing wages can put downward pressure on the margins of Amazon Unmanned.
Aging population
– As the populations of most advanced economies are aging, it will lead to high social security costs, higher savings among population, and lower demand for goods and services in the economy. The household savings in US, France, UK, Germany, and Japan are growing faster than predicted because of uncertainty caused by pandemic.
High dependence on third party suppliers
– Amazon Unmanned high dependence on third party suppliers can disrupt its processes and delivery mechanism. For example -the current troubles of car makers because of chip shortage is because the chip companies started producing chips for electronic companies rather than car manufacturers.
Capital market disruption
– During the Covid-19, Dow Jones has touched record high. The valuations of a number of companies are way beyond their existing business model potential. This can lead to capital market correction which can put a number of suppliers, collaborators, value chain partners in great financial difficulty. It will directly impact the business of Amazon Unmanned.
Easy access to finance
– Easy access to finance in Strategy & Execution field will also reduce the barriers to entry in the industry, thus putting downward pressure on the prices because of increasing competition. Amazon Unmanned can utilize it by borrowing at lower rates and invest it into research and development, capital expenditure to fortify its core competitive advantage.
New competition
– After the dotcom bust of 2001, financial crisis of 2008-09, the business formation in US economy had declined. But in 2020 alone, there are more than 1.5 million new business applications in United States. This can lead to greater competition for Amazon Unmanned in the Strategy & Execution sector and impact the bottomline of the organization.
Learning curve for new practices
– As the technology based on artificial intelligence and machine learning platform is getting complex, as highlighted in case study Reinventing E-Commerce: Amazon's Bet on Unmanned Vehicle Delivery, Spanish Version, Amazon Unmanned may face longer learning curve for training and development of existing employees. This can open space for more nimble competitors in the field of Strategy & Execution .
Environmental challenges
– Amazon Unmanned needs to have a robust strategy against the disruptions arising from climate change and energy requirements. EU has identified it as key priority area and spending 30% of its 880 billion Euros European post Covid-19 recovery funds on green technology. Amazon Unmanned can take advantage of this fund but it will also bring new competitors in the Strategy & Execution industry.
Stagnating economy with rate increase
– Amazon Unmanned can face lack of demand in the market place because of Fed actions to reduce inflation. This can lead to sluggish growth in the economy, lower demands, lower investments, higher borrowing costs, and consolidation in the field.
Weighted SWOT Analysis of Reinventing E-Commerce: Amazon's Bet on Unmanned Vehicle Delivery, Spanish Version Template, Example
Not all factors mentioned under the Strengths, Weakness, Opportunities, and Threats quadrants in the SWOT Analysis are equal. Managers in the HBR case study Reinventing E-Commerce: Amazon's Bet on Unmanned Vehicle Delivery, Spanish Version needs to zero down on the relative importance of each factor mentioned in the Strengths, Weakness, Opportunities, and Threats quadrants.
We can provide the relative importance to each factor by assigning relative weights. Weighted SWOT analysis process is a three stage process –
First stage for doing weighted SWOT analysis of the case study Reinventing E-Commerce: Amazon's Bet on Unmanned Vehicle Delivery, Spanish Version is to rank the strengths and weaknesses of the organization. This will help you to assess the most important strengths and weaknesses of the firm and which one of the strengths and weaknesses mentioned in the initial lists are marginal and can be left out.
Second stage for conducting weighted SWOT analysis of the Harvard case study Reinventing E-Commerce: Amazon's Bet on Unmanned Vehicle Delivery, Spanish Version is to give probabilities to the external strategic factors thus better understanding the opportunities and threats arising out of macro environment changes and developments.
Third stage of constructing weighted SWOT analysis of Reinventing E-Commerce: Amazon's Bet on Unmanned Vehicle Delivery, Spanish Version is to provide strategic recommendations includes – joining likelihood of external strategic factors such as opportunities and threats to the internal strategic factors – strengths and weaknesses. You should start with external factors as they will provide the direction of the overall industry. Secondly by joining probabilities with internal strategic factors can help the company not only strategic fit but also the most probably strategic trade-off that Amazon Unmanned needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.
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