Assignment Questions

1. What are the chief elements of Amazon's overall competitive strategy? How well do the pieces fit together? Is the strategy evolving?

2. What are the key elements of Amazon's strategy in e-commerce, cloud computing services, personal media players, digital media streaming? Are those strategies successful? Are they compatible? Explain.

3. What does a competitive strength assessment reveal about Amazon's e-commerce business, as compared to the leaders in the retail industry? Use the methodology in Table 4.3 to support your answer.

4. Does it appear that the company's competitive positions in personal media players and digital streaming are stronger or weaker than its position in e-commerce and cloud-based computing services? What steps should it take to ensure that the digitally streamed media-and mobile platforms to access that media-become a major contributor to the company's overall performance?

5. Does it make good strategic sense for Amazon to be a competitor in the e-commerce, cloud-based computing services, and personal media device industries? Which of its three principal product lines-e-commerce, cloud computing services, or personal media players-do you think is most important to Amazon's future growth and profitability? Why? Should any of the product lines be discontinued?

6. What is your assessment of Amazon's financial performance the past three years? (Use the financial ratios in the Appendix of the text as a guide in doing your financial analysis.)

7. What strategic issues confront Amazon in 2015? What market or internal circumstances should most concern Jeff Bezos and the company's senior leadership team?

8. What recommendations would you make to Amazon to address the strategic issues confronting it in 2015 and sustain its impressive growth in revenues and maintain its profitability ?