Growth Strategies 

Growth Strategies Introduction
While the Covid-19 pandemic saw the closure of many businesses worldwide, this was a blessing in disguise to some. The e-commerce industry thrived during the pandemic. An example of this is Amazon. Amazon is one of the largest online retailers, and with many countries on lockdown, the e-commerce giant saw a significant opportunity to raise its revenue. At the height of the pandemic, people went online shopping to purchase household goods and other commodities. The presence of an online platform that offers door delivery came in handy in the fight against covid-19 by reducing overcrowding in the marketplaces, and these e-commerce giants ate that up. The number of people who opted for online shopping in the company during the pandemic skyrocketed, with a significant number resulting in high-profit margins as compared to the previous years (Harris, 2020).
The lifting of the travel bans imposed during the height of the pandemic, things are slowly returning to normal. As a result, the companies that enjoyed the high returns are slowly starting to feel the impact. The current figures indicate that Amazon has a slow growth rate of about 9.61%, which clearly indicates that the Amazon Company needs to develop growth strategies to restore its growth rate to the highs experienced during the pandemic. For this reason, Amazon must develop proper techniques to boost its revenues and subsequently increase the company's growth rate. An important strategy to consider is reviewing the company's business plan to re-strategize and assess improvement areas to boost income revenue.
Analysis of Amazon
Amazon is an e-commerce company that focuses on online shopping. It prides itself in being the largest online retailer offering a variety of goods and services such as household goods, electronics, music, clothing, movies, and so on. The company started as an online platform for selling books and has made a name for itself. Jeff Bezos founded the company on July 5, 1994. Currently, Amazon operates in almost 20 countries across five continents.
Since its establishment, Amazon has been recording steady revenue growth. During the year it was founded, the company recorded no revenue. The revenue grew the following year to $511.000. Since 2004, the company has recorded a colossal growth in net income. Looking at Amazon's revenue in the past five years, there has been a significant increase in revenue despite changes in the growth rate. In 2018, the company registered total revenue of $232.89 B (Macrotrends, 2022).
Amazon recorded total revenue of $280.52 B in the year 2019. Note that this is the period before the pandemic. In 2020, the revenue was $386.064 B, an increase of 37.62%. In 2021, the revenue totaled $469.82 B, which despite being an increase from the previous year, the percentage growth had dropped to 21.7% (Macrotrends, 2022). During the first quarter of the year 2022, Amazon recorded a loss of $2 B (Weprin, 2022).
Notably, the loss experienced by Amazon is attributed to the easement of the restrictions pertaining to the Covid-19 pandemic. As per the latest revenue reports for the financial year ending June 30, 2022, Amazon has a total revenue of $485.902B which was a 9.61% increase. The increase depicts a slow growth rate since the Covid-19 bans were lifted.
Operations at Amazon
Managing operations are the fuel that drives the productivity and profitability of an organization. The Amazon Company has a total of ten management operations to enhance productivity. Their operations focus on quality management, which reinforces the quality of goods and services to meet customers' expectations. The second operation is a location strategy that focuses on the optimal location of the company's warehouses to improve the shipping process and transportation of the seller's goods.
The third is on layout, design, and strategy, an operation concerned with setting up the company’s website, the warehouse, and the website in an orderly manner to ensure there is a smooth flow by employees in the warehouse and quick access to goods and services by the customers at the company's website. The job design and human resources operation is focused on employees. The company has part-time and full-time employees, some working to improve the website and the amazon application, some working in the warehouses and fulfilment centres, and some aiding in shipment.
The process and capacity design operation ensure that Amazon can deliver the consumers' needs by providing a balance of demand and items available in the warehouse. Additionally, the operation ensures that the company can satisfy the customers' demands by having enough goods in the warehouses. The design of goods and services operation at Amazon mainly uses technology to address customer needs. The organization has a sizeable online presence where sellers can register to sell their products, and customers can make an order through the same online platform. Thus, the operation ensures the goods are easy to find online.
The supply and chain management at Amazon ensures clear communication between the buyers and sellers. For example, when there is a high demand for a good or service, the seller is made away and, as a result, adds more items. Additionally, the scheduling operation informs sellers and customers to know how much goods are left in the warehouse, which prompts both parties to either make a quick purchase or for the seller to restock their goods. The scheduled operation also takes care of the shipment of items to the customers.
Another operation at Amazon is inventory management, which is concerned with the record keeping of goods and services disbursed by Amazon and those goods still in the warehouses. The operation is also concerned with maintaining the Amazon database. The last operation at amazon involves maintenance that focuses on strengthening the company's online platform. The operations also include offering training to employees on how to manage the company's assets, such as warehouses.
Evaluation of Amazon's operations concerning ethical financial practices
Managerial operations, as stated earlier, contribute significantly to increasing production and profits in an organization. Studies have shown that improving organizational processes is the answer to boosting revenue (Fellman, 2018). The following functions still have room for improvement to increase Amazon's revenue ethically: Concerning the location operation, Amazon has not ventured into many locations. For example, it is based in around 20 countries, yet people from more than 100 countries shop on it. Amazon should also spread out to other countries in order to increase revenue. Additionally, the scheduling operation, which looks into ensuring customers get their shipment, should work towards minimizing the delivery time. Notably, the delivery time can only shorten when the warehouses are optimally located to meet the client's needs.
Recommendations to corporate governance
Corporate governance refers to the policies and regulations that govern the corporate board. These guidelines are the factors that can see the success or failure of any company. Corporate governance focuses on the board of directors, who play a critical role in a company's success. Four principles guide corporate governance. These principles include Fairness, transparency, responsibility, and accountability. Corporate governance is tasked with developing policies for hiring and firing senior executives and ensuring transparency between the company and the shareholders. The board is also responsible for ensuring that the company adheres to the set policies and ethics. The board of governance also deals with risk management. From the listed corporate governance roles, one can see why the board of governance can be the make or break of a company.
The board of governance at Amazon has a total of 10 members. Four of these ten are women. While the board has diversified by adding more women to the team, especially women of colour, other communities considered 'minor' communities are still left out of the board. As a global retailer, I recommend that the board diversifies to represent all persons in the international markets, be it having Asian and African representation on the board. People want to feel seen and appreciated, and having a board that cuts across will significantly boost the company.
Diversifying the board of governance will affect the company's financial statements because the net revenue in the income statements will increase. This is because the representation of different people will diversify the company's sellers and consumers, leading to higher profit margins.
Amazon is a leading retailer whose presence has been felt globally. Despite its numerous wins, Amazon has encountered some losses along the way. The company ventured into various markets, and some did not do well. In September 2019, the e-commerce giant launched a service known as Amazon Care. Amazon Care was established to provide health care services both physically and online. However, despite the high expectations that the service would do well, the company stated in August 2022 that they would shut do...