Ownership is justified to be what a certain business is owned by. Amazon is a PLC which is a company privately owned by Jeff Bezos however it is floating on the stock exchange which allows the public to by parts of it making it owned by the public as well. It has a number of 1989 holders and has shared a total of over £300 million. It was founded by Jeff in 1994 and wasn’t originally floating on the stock exchange. Other PLC’s are shops such as Tesco or Next PLC
Liability
Liability is the protection of the businesses reputation, assets or Finance. Amazon’s liability is limited because of the type of ownership they are. This means that Amazon have a limit to how much can be claimed. This seems like an option that is chosen by most businesses however the risks can be overlooked
Purpose
The main purpose of many businesses are to supply people with products and services at a reasonable price while making sustainable profit .The purpose of Amazon is to “Become the earth’s most customer-centric company” Quoted from the Amazon mission statement. It is also to create an E-commerce tertiary business that can sell things to suit anyone’s needs. The internal purpose however for Amazon when it first started off was too survive in the market however now the purpose has changed a lot. Its purpose now is too simply keep growing and making profit.
Sector
Most businesses operate in 4 different sectors.
• Primary – Extract resources and raw materials in a natural way. An example of this is Shell Oil.
• Secondary – Use the resources collected in the primary sector to create a manufacture products that can be used in the tertiary sector. An example of this could be Oil refining or energy production
• Tertiary – Provides products and services that have been manufactured by the Primary and Secondary sector. For example large supermarkets such as Asda, they provide fresh vegetables that have all been prepared and manufactured in some way by the first two sectors.
• Quaternary – Provide products and services like the tertiary sector however it’s all based on knowledge, for example ICT services or consultancy services. This sector can become included with the tertiary sector as they both promote services. The two sectors make up 76% of the workforce economy.
Amazon Sector
Amazons sector is tertiary as they provide products and services that have been through the Primary and secondary sector. For example Amazon sell Computers and Laptops. The materials to create these devices would have been extracted from the earth in a raw material form by the primary sector and then manufactured by the Secondary sector.
Amazon Scope of activities
The scope of activities is the range in which the business covers. There is two different types of scope. Local and National.
Amazon is an international Business. This means that they operate in a different country to where their headquarters are. So for Amazon their headquarters are in Seattle however they have warehouses in over 50 other countries. They also have software development centres in over 50 countries and they ship to over 50 countries. Such countries as France, Spain or Germany. International also means that they do business transactions in other countries. This is due to the growth in technology and international business. This provides Amazon with amazing opportunities to sell products and services multinationals. This means Amazon’s profit and customer base will increase.
Size of a business and size of Amazon
When measuring the size of a business it can depend on the amount of employees and staff. There are 4 main sizes of a business. These are;
Micro Enterprise – Up to 9 Employees and Staff
Small Enterprise – 10-49 Employees and Staff
Medium Enterprise – 50-249 Employees and Staff
Large Enterprise – More than 250 Employees and Staff
This means that because of the fact Amazon has 341,400 employees they are in the large category
Organisational Structure & Functional Areas
Organisational Structure
The organisational structure of a business is a key feature to ensure that they operate safely, efficiently and can grow and make profit. Within this structure there is a lot of things that have to be set out correctly. For example 1 specific person has to be in control of the structure this is normally the CEO. They then have to split the business up into different parts. For example a finance section and a sales section etc. On these section there has to be people assigned to ensure these section are working correctly and that they are communicating with the rest of the business effectively.
The first way business can execute an organisational structure is by using a Hierarchical structure. This is the way large businesses organise their sections in this case Amazon organise theirs this way.
Hierarchical just means that it is ordered from responsibility and authority of a person and of a role.
