The Amazon.Com

1.) What portion of the business should be focused on sales of products, sales of services to consumers, business partnerships for sales, and partnerships for order fulfillment/Web services? The portion of the business that should be focus on sales of products is advertising, sales promotion, publicity, personal selling, sales force management, customer relations, and dealer relations. These activities are especially critical when a firm pursues a market penetration strategy. The effectiveness of various selling tools for consumer and industrial products varies. Personal selling is most important for industrial goods companies, and advertising is most important for consumer goods companies. With regard to advertising products and services on the Internet, a new trend is to base advertising rates exclusively on sales rates. This new accountability contrasts sharply with traditional broadcast and print advertising, which bases rates on the number of persons expected to see a given advertisement. The new cost-per-sale online advertising rates are possible because any Web site can monitor which user clicks on which advertisement and then can record whether that consumer actually buys the product. If there are no sales, then the advertisement is free. The portion of the business that should be focus on business partnerships for sales is research and development partnerships cross-distribution agreements, cross-licensing agreements, cross-manufacturing agreements, joint-bidding consortia, joint venture, cooperative arrangements, merger and acquisition, and private-equity acquisition.
Is it possible for the company to become too diversified or to get too far away from its initial business of selling books? Yes, an organization can be most effective when its work force mirrors the diversity of its consumers.
2.) Who are the likely competitors of Amazon.com in the future? How can the company ensure that it can compete effectively in its diverse business?