Amazon Business Case: Influence Of Safety Protocols On Cost Management

Question

Assessment Tasks: This section describes the assessment tasks.

Business case report: To successfully complete the business case report, you and your group are required to undertake the following activities:

Activity 1: In the first few weeks of term, you are required to self-select into and form groups of 3 to 4 students, maximum of 5 students. On-campus students confirm groups with the assigned lecturer. Distance students confirm groups via email with the unit coordinator. This activity is to be completed by week 5. You will have the opportunity to work on the business case with your group in class from week 6.

Activity 2: To successfully complete the assessment, your group is required to identify a business and the business stakeholder you will be writing the business case for. You might be pitching to an investor or the management of a business. Identify the business and the stakeholder. It can be:

1. A business that one of the group members is or has been employed at and therefore knows well. It is a very good option if other members of the group are familiar with a similar business too. It is important that no confidential business information is included in the business case report.
2. A business that in the public eye, meaning there is a lot of publicly available information about this business.
3. If you suggest an organisation other than the ones above, you will need approval from the assigned lecturer.

On-campus groups confirm the selected business with the assigned lecturer. Distance groups confirm the selected business via email with the unit coordinator. This activity is to be completed by week 7.

Activity 3: Identify an innovation that your group believes could be reasonably discussed as the subject of the business case. The innovation you choose should have the potential to be developed sustainably over a commercially viable period of time. The suggested innovation must not be implemented by the firm yet. It can be an innovation your team come up with yourselves or something you learned about through any media.

Activity 4: Consider and evaluate the possible business models that could be used to realise the opportunities inherent in the innovation.

Activity 5:Develop the business case report with appropriate sections. Your report must include:

• Logical and persuasive articulation of: the problem to be solved; problem insight; portfolio of generated solution ideas; solution selection analysis; targeted customers; value proposition benefits; business model description; value proposition development and delivery; financial value capture and strategic fit.
• Logical and persuasive argumentation in regards to how uncertainty related to customer desirability; technical feasibility; and financial viability is addressed.
• A convincing executive summary; clear and succinct purpose described in the introduction; and a clear and succinct conclusion.

Each group is required to demonstrate both scholarly independence and academic integrity in undertaking all steps of the business case development process. Students are required to base their analyses on data that is reasonably and ethically sourced, and to use assumptions that can be justified in a commercial setting.

Responsibility for structuring, coordinating, and managing processes to finalise the business case lies with each group. Groups are encouraged to work with content beyond Tidd & Bessant (2018) and Osterwalder & Pigneur (2013). Groups must take charge and deliver a business case capable of convincing key or principal stakeholders that a return is assured.

As part of your group work, you are required to provide evidence of your team formation and ongoing team work with your business case. The team working evidence should be provided in the appendix, by including team charter and meeting agendas and minutes

Answer

Introduction
It is given in this Amazon business case that based in Seattle, Washington, Amazon is a multinational company that focuses on the different aspects like cloud computing, e-commerce, artificial intelligence and digital streamlining. Founded in 1995, Amazon was an online market for books but slowly expanded into the field of selling apparels, electronics, food, furniture and other such items. It has different subsidiaries like Amazon prime, amazon music and audibles. Amazon has been developing its technology with every new service that it provides. Amazon prime allowed faster delivery of the products purchases online, Amazon Prime Now offers deliveries done within two hours and their new venture Amazon Go is a physical supermarket that will allow people to enter the store and purchase items using their amazon mobile application.

In order to provide these services, the employees in the company have to keep working without any breaks and have shifts. The night shift employees work for almost ten hours due to which the office canteen needs to be operational at all times. However, there are a lot of safety protocols that can be violated. This business case will identify the problem in detail and generate a credible solution to the problem.

1.0 The problem to be solved
Amazon is known for the innovative products and services. In order to come up with these, the employees at Amazon work day and night without any breaks. However, the people working at night are far less than the people working in the day due to various safety protocols that the company has to follow. Just like any other corporate offices, Amazon too provides canteen services to its employees. As the number of employees at the night is less than that of the day, having the canteen services at night time is not feasible. There are different kitchen safety protocols and risks that arise when the canteen is open for all night. If these protocols are broken, Amazon as a company may have to face consequences that could be a hindrance to the progress of the company as a whole. (Antikainen & Valkokari, 2016)

1.1 Problem insight
It is given in this Amazon business case that there are different safety procedures that need to be carried out in order to safeguard the equipment that are used in the kitchen of the canteen. Since the people work all day and night, the equipments in the kitchen remain plugged in all the time. This can turn hazardous as the equipments remain running without any breaks. This will overwork the machineries causing them to malfunction which will in turn increase the costs of maintenance of the equipments. Night shifts at Amazon last for ten hours. The timings differ according to the regions but the common timings usually between six o’clock in the evening and five o’clock of the next morning. During the period only a small percent of the total number of employees at Amazon come at work. These include people who deal with international business processes of the company. Keeping the canteen open for these employees is not feasible for the company. Instead a different solution for the problem should be found that is feasible and will reduce the maintenance cost of the different equipments of the kitchen. (Cabezas, 2017)

2.0 Portfolio of generated solution ideas
In order to avoid risks and breaking any safety protocol, it is given in this amazon business case that amazon must come up with a solution that is both feasible and beneficial. There are a number of plausible solutions that will help solve the problem and will help in catering the demand of the company. Every option will have their own pros and cons which will be discussed in detail. (Charles et al.2017) Some solutions that be applied are:

1. Providing the employees with pre-cooked set menu that is cooked freshly every day.
2. Having packaged food for the employees.
3. Collaborating with food delivery companies that will deliver food for the employees.
4. Provide only dry snacks and cold drinks that can be made available through a vending machine.

2.1 Solution selection analysis
The different solutions that have been identified in the above section will be analyzed in detail and the most credible solution will be selected.

1. Providing the employees with pre-cooked set menu that is cooked freshly every day. This will ensure that the employees are served proper food. It will be served at a specific time so that the canteen staff does not have to stay for longer at the company and can go home once they are done with serving the food and cleaning the kitchen by following the provided guidelines. (Evans et al.2017)
   However, since there are only a few people, if someone is absent, the food that is left over will be wasted and having a single set menu will make the food boring for the employee. They would rather bring their own food than having the same food. There might also be cases where the taste of the food is not likable people will stop eating from the canteen.
2. 2. Having packaged food for the employees ordered from outside.
   This solution is similar to the previous one. In this amazon business case though, the food need not be cooked freshly. The company can collaborate with a food company that will be responsible for delivering food to the employees.
   Similar problems will be faced for this solution as well. The package food company will send the same food depending on the order that is placed by the company. They will not have the number of the people who are not present or have brought their own dinner. This will lead to a loss of food. The company will have to regularly update them with the number of employees so that they do not cook and send in extra food at dinner time. (Kopnina & Blewitt, 2018)
3. 3. Collaborating with food delivery companies that will deliver food for the employees. Food delivery companies like uber eats or any other delivery applications is another plausible solution to this problem. The company just has to collaborate for the food delivery. The employees can select anything they want to eat and the food can get delivered to them any time they want. With this collaboration, employees can enjoy different corporate benefits like discounts or lower rates. They will just need to login using their corporate email ids and avail the services. The employees can decide if they want to order or not. The mobile application will also display the available food places at any time of the night and they will not have to worry about the food not being delivered. There will be no wastage of food whatsoever. (Rosca et al.2017)
   This type of collaboration might be expensive as the food delivery company will have keep the food delivery executives ready to deliver food at late nights.
4. 4. Provide only dry snacks and cold drinks that can be made available through a vending machine.
   The company will not have to worry about the food that it has to provide to the employees. Employees can order anything they want or carry their own dinner on their way to office and store it in the refrigerator for dinner time. (Sachs, 2015)
   This will mean that employees need to arrange for their own food or eat till the time canteens are open for all the employees. Depending on dry snacks and cold drinks is not healthy and encouraging people to have that will result in sickness and affect the work culture. (Schaltegger et al.2016)

3.0 Value proposition benefits
The problem of the company given in this amazon business case is that the Out of the four different solutions, collaborating with the food delivery service will prove to be the most beneficial one for the company and the employees as well. Only a limited number of people will order. (Tukker et al.2017)

The benefits of these services are as follows:

1. Since there will be only a small fixed number of employees coming for the night shift, there will only be a limited number of orders. Based on them, the company can make a deal with a convenient number of orders.
2. Employees can order whatever they desire without worrying about not liking the food as they will be able to select what they want to eat from the different available restaurants. (Vörösmarty et al.2018)
3. In this way, the kitchen will not break any safety protocols and there will not be any overuse of the kitchen equipments. The company will be safe from any kind of risks and hazards as there will be no way of it occurring.
4. Since, there will only a small number of orders, not a lot of unauthorized people will be able to enter the office building at night time which will also ensure safety of the company from being infiltrated into. (Stafford-Smith et al.2015)

Since the benefits of the services will outweigh the costs, the service provided will be proven beneficial for the company and its employees.

3.1 Value proposition development and delivery

4.0 Business model description

4.1 Financial value capture
There may not be many ways to produce revenue. However, kit is given in this amazon business case there will be savings on different aspects of the company when this service is implemented in the company. (Joyce & Paquin, 2016)

There will be savings on:

1. The money used for the buying groceries to keep the canteen running for the whole night.
2. Savings on electricity as there will not be any equipments running at night.
3. The equipments’ maintenance costs go down significantly
4. There will be no need to hire more people for the canteen staff for the night shift employees.

5.0 Strategic fit
There are a number of strategic advantages for the collaboration with food delivery company.

1. There will be huge saving in the costs of the kitchen supplies as the canteen staff will not have to stock up for the night shift employees. Wastage of food and supplies will go down on a large scale as there will not be any extra food leftover and the stored supplies will only be for the day time. (Ovans, 2015)
2. The company will also save up on maintenance of kitchen equipments and electricity use will be minimal as no kitchen equipments will be plugged in ready for use at all times. The equipments will have a longer life as they won’t be under use all day and night. (Dyck & Silvestre, 2018)
3. Employees can select what they want to order and will not have to depend on what the company is providing. The cost of the food will be minimal with respect to the contract signed between the company and food delivery services. (Seifert, 2016)

Conclusion
It is concluded from this amazon business case that the main problem faced by amazon is the canteen running all night which can lead to violation of various safety protocols and increase in the cost of maintenance and electricity used. An alternative selected for this is Amazon collaborating with the food delivery services that will allow employees to login using their corporate email ids and order food according to their choice. This will lower the maintenance costs, supply storage cost, electricity bills and the amount of kitchen staff hired. Amazon business case assignments are being prepared by our management assignment help experts from top universities which let us to provide you a reliable assignment help online service.

References
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Cabezas, H. (2017). Yoram Krozer: Theory and practices on innovation for sustainable development.

Charles Jr, O. H., Schmidheiny, S., & Watts, P. (2017). Walking the talk: The business case for sustainable development. Routledge.

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