AIU Online
Abstract
It appears that over the years the internet retailers have increased the ways for the consumer to shop online. The internet organizations have had to use less capital planning whereas the traditional organizations needs to the use of high capital. This paper will discuss the organizational structures as well as identify two management or leadership challenges in each of the two business types.
Traditional Retailer vs. Online Retailer With the evolving of online retailers, the retail leaders have been faced with finding e-commerce business leaders in an environment where the sources of talent are limited in the extreme (How to Open a Business Guide, nd). Traditional retailers and online retailers share some of the same traits but they also have varying traits.
Wal-Mart is made up of a divisional structure which is one made up of separate divisions where each one is run by management (Lilly, M., 2005). Wal-Mart’s structure consists of three divisional structures which include Wal-Mart Stores, Sam’s Club and International Stores. The International Stores division makes up 20 percent of the income overall for the organization. EBay’s organizational structure has a short chain of command. Its structure is rather simple because the CEO has the majority authority from the rest of the team members (The Official Board.com). The organizational structure is somewhat decentralized because their decision making authority and responsibility is generally passed along to other organizations. The management decisions are left to the senior management team.
Regardless of the type of business model in experience the retail industry one of the biggest challenges is that of leadership requirements. The degree of experience required leaves to question whether it is more or less valuable rather in a traditional retail environment or as an online retailer. Should the e-commerce leader in a
References: Ebay, November 6, 2012. Retrieved from http://www.wisegeek.com/what-is-a-traditional-organizational-structure.htm January 10, 2013. Russell Reynolds Associates, nd. Internet Retail Leadership Transformational Business Leaders and Potential Group CEOs. Retrieved from http://www.russellreynolds.com/content/internet-retail-leadership January 12, 2013. WiseGeek, nd. Retrieved from http://www.wisegeek.com/what-is-a-traditional-organizational-structure.htm January 12, 2013.