COMPANY PROFILE
Company Overview
The company Amazon is an internet based retailer that sells a wide variety of products to customers all around the globe. Amazon has also spread into multiple business units including, but not limited to: electronic hardware, home automation, video streaming services, and small business enabling (About Amazon, n.d.).
Amazon’s slogan is “Your place for #allthethings” (Amazon Instagram, 2016).
Purpose
Amazon as an organization is based around the idea that providing for customers’ needs is the best way to build a business and earn a profit. Their mission statement exemplifies this best: “Our vision is to be Earth's most customer centric company; to build a place where people can come to find and discover anything they might want to buy online.” (About Amazon, n.d.).
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Organizational Culture
The culture of Amazon is mixed to say the least. Outwardly, they portray a company whose main focus is on their customers with their employees being a close second (About Amazon, n.d.). Inside their doors could be a different story however. As discussed in the following subsections, Amazon is a company that works for some employees and does not for others.
Company Values
Amazon has an extensive collection of beliefs that it holds to be very important. Everyone, both inside the company and out, understands that Amazon is known to value their leadership principles (Kantor, J., 2015). The principles, which were created by Jeff Bezos around the same time he started Amazon.com, are a list of thirteen guidelines used to inspire workers to become great leaders (Amazon’s Global, 2016). Qualities such as customer obsession, ownership of actions, frugality, and thinking big are just a few of those which can be found on the list, which every employee has memorized (Kantor, J., 2015).
The Amazon Leadership Principles (Amazon’s Global, 2016):
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“Customer Obsession”
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Pay attention to competitors, but obsess over customers
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“Ownership”
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Always act on behalf of company
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No such thing as “not my job”
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“Invent and Simplify”
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Expect and require innovation wherever it comes from
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“As we do new things, we accept that we may be misunderstood for long periods of time.”
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“Are Right, A Lot”
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Leaders are right a lot
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“Seek diverse perspectives and work to disconfirm their beliefs”
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“Hire and Develop the Best”
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“Leaders raise the performance bar with every hire and promotion”
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“Insist on the Highest Standards”
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Relentlessly high standards
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No defects must be sent down the line
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“Think Big”
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“Create and communicate a bold direction that inspires results”
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“Bias for Action”
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“value calculated risk taking”
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Speed matters
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“Frugality”
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“Accomplish more with less”
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Resourcefulness and self-sufficiency are key
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“Earn Trust”
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Respectful of (and respected by) employees
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Benchmark themselves and their teams against the best
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“Dive Deep”
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Stay connected to all levels of the company
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“Have Backbone; Disagree and Commit”
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Challenge decisions when they disagree
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Commit wholly to decisions once made
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“Deliver Results”
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Always rise to the occasion
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“Never settle”
Company Themes
Themes such as statistical data-supported decision making and a competitive work environment impact the organizational culture of Amazon.
Amazon is a corporation that is based very heavily around numbers, statistics, and studies which lead them to make the decisions they do with regard to corporate culture (Kantor, J., 2015). The problem with this is that a disconnect can (and seemingly has) occurred. A 2015 article in the New York Times revealed that employees at Amazon may not be as happy as the company would like you to think (Kantor, J., 2015). Employees say that there are two outcomes of working at Amazon; you either love it or you hate it (Kantor, J., 2015).
The reason for the divisiveness is the overly competitive environment that Amazon has created (Kantor, J., 2015). Amazon employees are expected to tear apart each other’s ideas, fight for rewards and recognition, work long hard hours, and sacrifice a great deal for the company (Kantor, J., 2015). Amazon employees are told that their fellow workers are rivals, not allies, and subordinates are just a means to achieving your production goals (Kantor, J., 2015). For some all of this competition is a great learning experience and allows them to test their abilities, but for others it is a horrible time (Kantor, J., 2015).
Typical Workday
Given the insight by former and current workers at Amazon, it is easier to see what a typical workday is like for them. Whether they like the environment or not, a typical workday seems to include a lot of hostility (Kantor, J., 2015). Employees are expected to tear apart each other’s ideas, fight for what they believe is the right way to do things, and work as hard as they possibly can (Kantor, J., 2015). There are even reports of employees crying The employees’ workdays are not over when they leave however. They are still expected to answer emails and texts while at home so that the work still gets done (Kantor, J. 2015). Some employees talked about working upwards of 60 hour weeks and being expected to be on call on top of that (Kantor, J., 2015).
Valuing Families
If you ask Amazon directly, they will tell you that they value their employees’ home lives including their families (About Amazon, n.d.). According to Thamarai at Amazon, their “salaried employees earn two weeks of vacation time in their first year of employment and three weeks of vacation in their second year. Hourly employees earn 40 hours of vacation time in their first year of employment and 80 hours in their second year. All employees earn six personal days per year.” (Thamarai, 2016).
With all of the time off that they earn, you would think that they really valued the family time of the employees. However, former and current employees dispute this with some stories of less than friendly responses to family emergencies (Kantor, J., 2015). One such story is about a former human resource manager at Amazon. She says that she was required to put a woman on a “performance improvement plan” (general business term for probation or slippery slope to firing) after she had taken time off for major surgery (Kantor, J., 2015). Another story involves a woman by the name of Michelle Williamson. Michelle is a former employee of Amazon who says that she was told by her boss that she needed to look for a job outside of Amazon because the raising of her children would get in the way of her being able to complete her work there (Kantor, J., 2015).
While all of these accounts paint a pretty bad picture, other employees say that the environment is wonderful for families and even inspires them to do more for and with their children including teaching them the leadership principles (Kantor, J., 2015). It seems as though the family feel at Amazon is much like the rest of the environment there; you either love it or you hate it (Kantor, J., 2015).
Company Communication Networks
The formal supervisor to employee communication networks as well as employee to employee communication networks seem to be fairly demanding at Amazon. A belief of “Purposeful Darwinism” turns employees into winners and losers (Kantor, J., 2015). Employees who perform well are rewarded, while employees who can’t keep up with the environment quit or get fired (Kantor, J., 2015). Managers have also been known to “cut the fat” every year at an Organization Level Review (Kantor, J., 2015). At this event, managers evaluate their subordinates and determine who stays and who leaves (Kantor, J., 2015). These extremely competitive conditions initiated rivalry between employees in the company (Kantor, J., 2015). Cases of co-workers sabotaging the work of their peers to get ahead were reported (Kantor, J., 2015). The demanding atmosphere of corporate Amazon seems to have caused tense relationships between supervisors and employees, as well as among peers.
History of Amazon
CEO and founder Jeff Bezos incorporated Amazon in 1994 (FAQs, n.d.).
In July of 1995, Amazon opened for business out of Bezos garage in the state of Washington (FAQs, n.d.).
Amazon’s first order was placed in July of 1995 (About Amazon, n.d.).
Amazon was then reincorporated in Delaware in 1996 (FAQs, n.d.).
Amazon gave its first public offering of stock in May of 1997 under the Nasdaq symbol AMZN (FAQs, n.d.).
In October of 1997, Amazon sold its one-millionth order, which Jeff Bezos hand delivered himself to the customer in Japan (About Amazon, n.d.).
Amazon Facts
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Every year, they offer their fulfillment center associates $5,000 to quit (About Amazon, n.d.)
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Very mixed reviews among employees. Some love the company while others hate it. (Adams, S., 2015).
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Amazon has multiple charitable programs including The Kindle Reading Fund and Girls Who Code (About Amazon, n.d.).
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Amazon is very influential in its home city of Seattle. It employs 20,000 local people and has stayed in Seattle even though it would have been cheaper to move away. (About Amazon, n.d.).
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Amazon is currently innovating in the fields of home automation, drone delivery technology, quicker delivery services, and hardware manufacturing (About Amazon, n.d.).
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Amazon was founded by Jeff Bezos (the current CEO) in his garage in July of 1995 (About Amazon, n.d.).
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Amazon’s mission statement is “our vision is to be Earth’s most customer centric company; to build a place where people can come to find and discover anything they might want to buy online.” (Thamarai, 2016).
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One of Amazon’s current slogans is “Your place for #allthethings” (Amazon Instagram, 2016).
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63% of employees would recommend the company to a friend, 82% approve of Jeff Bezos, and overall Amazon gets a 3.4 star rating by its employees (Adams, S., 2015).
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Amazon works on a purposeful Darwinism idea wherein the employees who do well are deemed winners and rewarded while those who do not are deemed losers and are let go (Kantor, J, 2015).
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Amazon employees are expected to be frugal, hardworking, and willing to sacrifice for the job (Kantor, J, 2015).
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Every year an Organization Level Review is held wherein managers evaluate their subordinates and determine who stays and who leaves (Kantor, J, 2015).
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There is a major gender gap in Amazon corporate level management. There are no females at the top (Kantor, J, 2015).
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Amazon refers to their stakeholders as “Amazonians” (Amazon.com, 2016)
Interview Questions
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I understand that Amazon began as a very small company located in a garage, how has it been able to keep this small business mentality with kinship among its employees even after it has grown so large in stature? (Amazon Facebook, 2016)
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Drone use is a hot topic in the modern age, how does Amazon manage the many differing opinions on this subject while working on its own drone delivery systems? (About Amazon, n.d.)
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With 26.9 million followers on Facebook, 2.4 million followers on Twitter, and 689 thousand followers on Instagram, how will you protect the image of greatness that Amazon has while keeping up with the growing social media going into the future? (Amazon Facebook, 2016) (Amazon, 2016) (Amazon Instagram, 2016).
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After the scandalous reporting by the New York Times in late 2015, how has the company addressed the grievances brought up by the report? (Kantor, J., 2015).
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I understand that the culture here at Amazon is based around productivity and competitiveness, how quickly could someone new like me get a grip on this fast paced environment? (Kantor, J., 2015).
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Jeff Bezos is highly regarded among studies done on Amazon employees, but how well would someone like me (applying for an entry level position) really get to know him? (Adams, S., 2015).
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Amazon is well known for its work in the local community around Seattle, how does Amazon strive to give the same kind of respect to other communities that it effects (i.e. cities with fulfillment centers, warehouses, etc.)? (About Amazon, n.d.).
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It is known publicly that there is a gender gap in the corporate level management here (with no females being in the management) so how would a woman looking to be the best crack into that level? (Kantor, J., 2015).
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With programs like The Kindle Reading Fund and Girls Who Code, it is apparent that Amazon cares about its social obligations, how are the lower level employees able to contribute to such programs and help the company in this way? (About Amazon, n.d.).
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Given the mixed reviews that Amazon gets from its employees, how has the culture changed within the organization? Do you ever see it changing at least in the near future? (Kantor, J., 2015).
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What do you love most about working for Amazon?
Works Cited Page
About Amazon. (n.d.). Retrieved October 19, 2016, from https://www.amazon.com/p/feature/rzekmvyjojcp6uc?ref_=aa_navb_logo&pf_rd_r=8SZE5KEKWG3TG85036XP&pf_rd_p=913f552f-5076-4907-bc19-0624b398bba4
Adams, S. (2015, August 18). How people who work for amazon really feel. Retrieved October 22, 2016, from http://www.forbes.com/sites/susanadams/2015/08/18/how-people-who-work-for-amazon-really-feel/#217905ed5c7a
Amazon (@amazon) | Twitter. (2016). Retrieved November 9, 2016, from https://twitter.com/amazon
Amazon Facebook. (2016). Retrieved October 20, 2016, from https://www.facebook.com/Amazon
Amazon Instagram. (2016). Retrieved October 20, 2016, from https://www.instagram.com/Amazon
Amazon's Global Career Site. (n.d.). Retrieved October 22, 2016, from https://www.amazon.jobs/en
FAQs. (n.d.). Retrieved October 20, 2016, from http://phx.corporate-ir.net/phoenix.zhtml?c=97664&p=irol-faq
Kantor, J., & Streitfeld, D. (2015, August 15). Inside amazon: Wrestling big ideas in a bruising workplace ... Retrieved October 24, 2016, from http://www.nytimes.com/2015/08/16/technology/inside-amazon-wrestling-big-ideas-in-a-bruising-workplace.html
(Thamari, Amazon Support Online Interview, October 21, 2016)
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Links Used
https://www.amazon.com/p/feature/rzekmvyjojcp6uc?ref_=footer_aa
http://phx.corporate-ir.net/phoenix.zhtml?c=97664&p=irol-irhome
https://www.facebook.com/amazon
https://www.instagram.com/amazon/
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