Amazon Strategy Case Study
Key Learning Outcomes
By the end of the case, students should be able to:
- Understand the broad macro-environment of Amazon and the online retailing industry in terms of political, economic, social, technological, environmental and legal factors (PESTEL/PEST/STEEPLE).
- Use our swot analysis example to gain an overall understanding of Amazon's strengths and weaknesses and strategic options arising from the opportunities and threats that have been identified from the Pestle analysis example on it's business environment.
- To apply strategy business models and frameworks such as Pestle/Pest/Steeple, Swot etc to real company cases.
Analyse the internal and external environment of Amazon UK in 2017 using SWOT & PESTLE.
- See also, Pestle Analysis for Amazon 2018
1.0 INTRODUCTION
The objective of any business organisation is not only to make as much profit as it can, but also for as long as it can. As such, no business organisation is intended to be ad hoc; all are intended to operate as a going concern. To this end, strategies, tactics, and practices are adopted by business organisations to ensure their survival, continuity and longevity, which can only be achieved if a business organisation is profitable.
Be that as it may, the survival, continuity, and longevity of an organisation are not fiat accompli, but consequences of forces and dynamics both within and without the organisation. The forces and dynamics can make or break the organisation, and must be constantly and vigilantly monitored, and the organisation’s strategies, tactics and practices, modified accordingly to ensure its survival, continuity and longevity.
Overtime, approaches and tools have been devised to assist organisational strategists and managers in monitoring forces and dynamics that may potentially be existential threats to their organisations, and to design strategies to surmount them. SWOT, which is an acronym for Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, Threats; and PESTLE, an acronym for Political, Economic, Social, Technological, Legal, and Environmental [forces]—are two of the frameworks that allow strategists and planners to monitor the forces and dynamics that may make or break the survival, continuity and longevity of an organisation.
Using PESTLE, and SWOT, the report will do a pestle analysis of Amazon UK examine how Amazon Inc. UK can take advantage of its core strengths in digital innovation, and seize on opportunities in the current global market created by a competitive retailing environment as well as faltering rivals to benefit.