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Amazon HQ2 SWOT

Analysis

E-Commerce Sophomores
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Overview:
- Amazon began a search for a second headquarters to expand their
company

- The city selection was narrowed down to twenty (20) after a few months

- Instead of waiting, we put our knowledge to the test and in small groups,
made optimization matrices that narrowed down the cities to the top
three based on weights

- Here are our findings...

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Amazon’s Top 20 Cities
Toronto
Columbus
Indianapolis
Chicago
Denver
Nashville
Los Angeles
Dallas
Austin
Boston
NYC
Newark
Pittsburgh
Philadelphia
Montgomery County
Washington D.C.
Raleigh
Northern Virginia
Atlanta
Miami
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Amazon’s Requirements
1. Site/Building
2. Capital and Operating Cost
3. Incentives
4. Labor Force
5. Logistics
6. Time to Operations
7. Cultural Community Fit
8. Quality of Life
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How we found the best cities

1. Rank the cities according to each requirement
2. Weight the traits from least to greatest importance
3. Multiply the trait weight by the city score through an
optimization matrix
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Group 1 William Hendershot and Christopher Oppel

Weights Top Choices
Site/Building 10 1. Miami, FL
2. Newark, NJ
Capital and Operating Cost 6
3. Austin, TX
Incentives 5
Labor Force 8
Logistics 8
Time to Operations 5
Cultural Community Fit 8
Quality of Life 5
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Group 2 Jake Baldanza and Mila Smolinski

Weights Top Choices

Site/Building 10 1. Los Angeles, CA
Capital and Operating Cost 9 2. New York, NY
3. Chicago, IL
Incentives 5
Labor Force 7
Logistics 8
Time to Operations 5
Cultural Community Fit 6
Quality of Life 5
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Group 3 Sadie Kent and Andi Kidd

Weights Top Choices
Site/Building 9 1. Austin, TX
Capital/ Operating Cost 7 2. Columbus, OH
3. Nashville, TN
Incentives 6
Labor Force 7
Logistics 8
Time to Operations 5
Cultural Community Fit 7
Quality of Life 7
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Group 4 Izabella Nowicki and Matthew Grey

Weights Top Choices
Site/Building 8 1. New York City, NY
Capital/ Operating Cost 7 2. Atlanta, GA
Incentives 9 3. (Tied ) Austin, TX and Chicago, IL
Labor Force 6
Logistics 6
Time to Operations 8
Cultural Community Fit 6
Quality of Life 8
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Group 5 Anthony Savarese and Jeffrey Bassett

Weights Top Choices
Site/Building 10 1. Chicago, IL
Capital/ Operating Cost 9 2. Austin, TX
3. Northern Virginia, VA
Incentives 10
Labor Force 8
Logistics 9
Time to Operations 7
Cultural Community Fit 8
Quality of Life 6
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Overall Scores
2 groups showed interest in New York
3 groups showed an interest in Chicago
4 groups showed an interest in Austin
Final Rankings:
1. Austin, TX
2. Chicago, IL
3. New York, NY
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Conclusion
We conclude that Amazon should place it’s next HQ in
Austin, TX. Here are some reasons...
- Whole foods HQ
- International Airport
- Good schools
- Very friendly taxes
- Open space for a large building