Introduction
Technology worldwide is advancing rapidly, and businesses are adopting this aspect by ensuring they align their business strategies with their information technology initiatives. They have realized that aligning these strategies with the company’s IT initiatives greatly helps technological development and keeps up to date with current technological trends. Amazon is one of the main companies in the world that utilizes its information technology initiatives in several of its operations, such as providing cloud computing and e-commerce services. This paper aims to provide a detailed analysis of the alignment between business and IT in different business lines within Amazon, a comparison between its product sales and cloud computing divisions, and its way and practices of hiring employees from diverse backgrounds.
Business-IT Alignment at Amazon
Amazon operates two lines of business: retail and Amazon Web service. Amazon’s retail business caters to its customers’ needs individually, while Amazon’s web services provide cloud-based services to organizations and customers (Robischon, 2017). Strategies put forward by Amazon to help align its cloud computing services with services provided by its product sales division line include the creation of well-structured and organized management in both divisions, acquiring up-to-date equipment to help grow their technological infrastructure, and having specific days they sell their products at discounted prices. The well-structured and organized management helps the company have top-down control over cloud computing services, which is delicate regarding its operation platform. Additionally, having days such as black Friday and cyber-Monday where they sell some of their products at a discounted price, enabled the company to generate over 163 billion dollars in 2019. Since this record, the number has continued to increase (Porter, 2008).
Amazon’s retail business line
The information technology strategy applied in this line is intended to ensure that customers have the most seamless experience when shopping at any Amazon store in any part of the world. It ensures that supply chains are running smoothly and efficiently, recommendations for products are made on a personalized level, and deliveries are quick through leveraging the use of modern technology (Milanesi, 2022). Both lines of Amazon’s businesses aim to ensure customer satisfaction, showing us the alignment and correlation between these two divisions. The retail division ensures they meet customer demands and adapt to changes in customer taste and preference for products and services.
Amazon Web Service (AWS) business line
Amazon Web Service currently holds the world’s largest cloud computing platform, offering its clients cloud computing and on-demand storage services. This platform operates on a concept that uses a pricing structure known as pay-as-you-go. The structure is meant to help an organization scale as it develops and grows. It offers a wide range of services accessed through the public internet, thereby enabling organizations and individual customers to save on the time and cost they would have incurred to run to a store (Kellner, 2024). Amazon’s Web Service aligns with Amazon’s business goals of optimizing cost, agility, and scalability. It provides transformative digital opportunities to enterprises through arrays of digital services like databases and data computation.
Synergy across Amazon business lines and the diversity it uses in its hiring practices
The synergy between Amazon Web Service (AWS) and Amazon retail business lines is evident in several ways. One of them is through innovation loops. As Amazon continues to put more effort into innovating the AWS sector of its business, the results of the efforts are then directed to innovating the retail sector, creating a cycle that touches on both sectors (Denning, 2019). Another way we can see the synergy between the two business lines in Amazon is through data analytics. Decisions made regarding optimizing supply chains and improving customer experience are sometimes made regarding data collected from Amazon web service. This aspect also shows how AWS interacts with Amazon’s retail line. The interaction has aimed to bring positive results in both business lines, such as increased revenue collected. The two Amazon businesses also interact through cloud-powered retail businesses, where AWS supplements Amazon’s retail operations through scalability and reliability (Milanesi, 2022).
Diversity Amazon uses in its hiring practices.
Amazon is a global company that has maintained a positive image in the eyes of the public for a long time. The main aspects it applies in its hiring practices are diversity inc, inclusivity, and equity. It recognizes that having a diversified team of employees helps foster an inclusive environment that promotes creativity and innovation (Kellner, 2024). Regarding gender, Amazon has always had representatives from both sexes who represent matters presented by employees of their gender. They also help create opportunities for employees, such as raising the number of female employees at Amazon. Qualifications are important when looking for a job at Amazon, and aspects such as school certificates and driving licenses need to be considered because they will be needed. Any person will be considered regardless of race, ethnicity, or religion, so long as their qualifications show their legitimacy for the job.
To support innovative ideas from both lines of business, Amazon ensures that they diversify the cultures of each line. They encourage them to provide a conducive environment where employees can express their ideas and communicate (Baumgartner, 2010). This factor has helped encourage diversification within Amazon on different levels, such as individual, team, and company diversity. Diversifying thoughts on a personal level has advantages, such as opening one’s brain to many new ideas. It also enables one to create different models of solutions to problems, thereby providing more innovative ideas. Having a team of employees from diverse backgrounds can further broaden personal ideas to create a unique solution. Amazon considers these things when determining individuals to employ and how they can help promote innovation in the workplace.
Conclusion
In conclusion, the interaction between Amazon’s Retail business line and Amazon Web service has shown us the interrelationship between Amazon’s businesses and some of the advantages of Amazon’s business-IT alignment. With the increasing development and technological advancement, many other organizations are relentlessly overcoming competition by acquiring necessary resources and adopting new economic trends quickly. They are adopting business-IT alignment, posing a competitive challenge to Amazon. To promote growth and innovation, Amazon should adopt a more diversified employment technique to categorize employees regarding their qualifications and performance at the workplace. This aspect will enable them to easily determine employees they can depend on when making critical decisions.
Reference
Baumgartner, J. (2010). Why Diversity is the Mother of Creativity. Retrieved from; https://innovationmanagement.se/2010/11/24/why-diversity-is-the-mother-of-creativity/.
Denning, S. (2019). How Amazon Became Agile. Retrieved from; How Amazon Became Agile (forbes.com)
Robischon, N. (2017). Why Amazon is the world’s most innovative company of 2017. Fast Company Magazine, 2. Link; https://publicaffairs-sme.com/PatriotFamily/wp-content/uploads/2015/01/Why_Amazon_is_most_innovative_company_13_Feb_2017.pdf
Kellner, T. (2024). Everything you need to know about Amazon Business, one of Amazon’s fastest-growing ventures. Retrieved from Amazon Business: What It Is and How It Can Benefit Your Company (aboutamazon.com)
Milanesi, C. (2022). Amazon’s Business is Growing and Diversifying, and so is its Sustainability Strategy. Retrieved from; Amazon’s Business Is Growing And Diversifying And So Is Its Sustainability Strategy (forbes.com)
Porter, M. (2008). The five competitive forces that shape strategy. Harvard Business Review, 86(1), 78. Link; https://www.academia.edu/download/49313875/Forces_That_Shape_Competition.pdf#page=25
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