Comparing Two Similar Businesses Essay Example

When you think of acquiring a book, what companies come to mind? No doubt you think of Amazon.com and Borders Books. A comparison of the two companies will be discussed in this essay. We will see how they got started in describing the history and core business of each company. Compare and contrast the management approach that each took to internet marketing and sales. Analyze three reasons for Amazon’s success, despite not turning a profit for the first five to six years. Discuss three reasons Borders, although initially successful and profitable, ended up in Chapter 11 bankrupt. Discuss the extent to which the management of each company adapted to the changing market conditions. Finally, recommend three ways a company should build in flexibility to back up its decision-making process so as to adapt to changing market conditions.

Amazon.com was founded by Jeff Bezos in 1994, and launched in 1995. They started in a garage with desks built out of doors and four by fours, while the business meetings were held at the local Barnes and Noble. The company started under the name Cadabra.com, from the word abracadabra. The name quickly changed because it sounded too similar to cadaver which refers to a human corpse. He renamed the company "Amazon" after the world's largest river. It started as a small online bookstore but Bezos wanted Amazon.com to be the place where you could buy anything and everything online. The small online bookstore quickly diversified by adding other items, such as DVDs, music CDs, video games, electronics, furniture, toys and clothing. Amazon.com was able to offer many times more what regular bookstores or mail-order catalogs could offer because it didn't have to have the entire inventory stocked in the local store. It could have a large warehouse stocked with the entire inventory.
Borders Books started as a single used bookstore in Ann Arbor, Michigan. The bookstore was founded by Louis and Tom Borders in 1971. Serving the academic