MBA 300 Saint Leo University Jeff Bezos and Amazon Company Case Study

 Description of the Final Project Paper

• This is a major project and you will want to begin working on it early in the course. You are to read the Amazon as an Employer article, and to research other sources of insight into how Amazon is led and managed. 
• The Final Paper will assess these aspects of Amazon:

Situation Analysis (utilize the tools we covered, e.g. SWOT, RBV, etc.)

Leadership

Organization

Critical Thinking/Decision Making

Business Rhythm

Resources & Capabilities

• Alignment of the Organization
• Change Management
• Metrics and Tracking
• You will be using the Google Project Oxygen information to compare and contrast to Amazon in terms of management approach.
• Feel free to also use other resources provided in this course as well as others you may find. Use these resources to really think about the role of a leader in an organization and how he or she might best carry out that role.
• IMPORTANT: You are to incorporate learning from course material and other credible research. You are required to cite your 
• sources.
• NOTE: Amazon recently announced changes in Leadership. In your research, look for any news about the impact of that. In the final paper, speculate on what changes the new CEO should make.
• Note: Just before stepping down, Bezos wrote a letter to shareholders about Amazon needing to do a better job taking care of employees. Include your thoughts about that in your report.

The Final Project Content:

Cover Sheet 

Use the standard format for cover sheets, listing the name of the project and your team members.

Executive Summary  

You will give an overall summary of your analysis of Bezos and the Amazon management and leadership style, 

Remember, this is an executive summary, so you don’t need to go into a lot of details, but enough to give the reader a sense of the scope of your written report.

Main Body of the Report Should Include Analysis of the Following:

Leadership: 

Organization design: How is the company organized and how effective or ineffective is the current organizational structure? Is Amazon an ambidextrous company? Consider the company as a whole.

Critical Thinking/Decision Making: How are decisions made? What guides their processes? What’s unique about the Amazon approach?

Situation Analysis – Using multiple tools from the course, what is the current situation that Amazon is in? Think about SWOT, Porter, RBV, PEST and any other tools we have used.

Resources and Capabilities: What resources do they have? What does that allow them to do? How are allocation decisions made? Is Amazon’s current trajectory sustainable?

Business rhythm: Based on your research, how well do you think Amazon adheres to a set rhythm in operating the business? How formal or informal is it and how effective?

Alignment and performance: How well do you think Amazon is aligned to deliver on its mission? How do they achieve that alignment? What was the link between operational results with the strategy of the company? As a start, you may want to do some research (both financial and operational) to see how well the results reflect on the strategic intent.

Metrics and Tracking: How does the company measure its successes and how effective have these been? How do they measure success?

Change management: How effectively has Bezos managed change? Support your conclusions from evidence gathered.

Based on Google’s eight factors and your research, assess Jeff Bezos’ leadership style.How has this style influenced the culture and therefore performance? 

What SCARF threats or rewards do you believe Bezos has raised as a result of his leadership style and how might they be expanded if a reward or mitigated if a threat?

What about Google’s Project Oxygen? How do they compare? What are the good and bad elements of each?

Do you think Bezos is an ambidextrous leader?

Summary 

Based on the forgoing analysis, conclude the report with your thoughts on Jeff Bezo’s management and leadership effectiveness and specifically why. What knowledge, skills, and does your team believe are necessary for leadership success? 

Also, what might you expect the new CEO to do? Make change? What kind?