LATE SHRI VISHNU WAMAN THAKUR CHARITABLE TRUST’S

BHASKAR WAMAN THAKUR COLLEGE OF SCIENCE,

YASHVANT KESHAV PATIL COLLEGE OF COMMERCE,
VIDHYA DAYANAND PATIL COLLEGE OF ARTS

“Analysis On Right Candidate For The Right Job.”

A Project Submitted To
University Of Mumbai
For Partial Completion of the Degree
Of Bachelor of Management Studies
Under the Faculty of Commerce

BY

(“Chanchal Pandey”)
ROLL NO. 41
SPECIALIZATION: Human Resources

Under the Guidance of

“Prof. Dipika Chavan”

ACADEMIC YEAR 2021-2022

 DECLARATION

I the undersigned Miss. Chanchal Pramod Pandey hereby declare that the work
embodied in this project work titled “ Analysis On Right Candidate For The Right Job ”
forms my own contribution to the research work carried out under the guidance of
Prof. Dipika Chavan is a result of my own research work and has not been
previously submitted to any other University for any other Degree/ Diploma to this
or any other University. Wherever reference has been made to previous works of
others, it has been clearly indicated as such and included in the bibliography.

I, here by further declare that all information of this document has been obtained
and presented in accordance with academic rules and ethical conduct.

Name of the Student: Chanchal Pramod Pandey

Signature of the Student & Date:

Name of the Project Guide: Analysis On Right Candidate For The Right Job

Signature of the Project Guide & Date:

 Late Shri. Vishnu Waman Thakur Charitable Trust’s
Bhaskar Waman Thakur College of Science,
Yashvant Keshav Patil College of Commerce,
Vidhya Dayanand Patil College of Arts,
NAAC ACCREDITED ‘B’ GRADE (CGPA 2.69)
Viva College Road, Virar (West), Pin – 401303.

CERTIFICATE
This is to certify that Ms. Chanchal Pandey has worked and duly completed her/his project work
for the Degree of Bachelor of Management Studies under the Faculty of Commerce in the
subject of FINANCE/MARKETING/H.R Her project is entitled, “Analysis on how executive
search firm find the right candidate for the leadership role”

I/We further certify that no part of the entire work has been submitted previously for any other
Degree or Diploma of University of Mumbai.

It is her own work and facts reported by her are her personal findings and investigations.

Seal of the Signature of Internal Examiner:

College
Signature of External Examiner:
 Acknowledgement

The report titled as “Analysis On Right Candidate For Right The Job” has been
prepared to fulfill the requirements of Internship program. While preparing this report
I have utmost and sincere guidance, Supervision and co-operation from management
persons and organizations.

First of all I would like to express my deepest appreciation to Prof. Dipika Chavan ,
Faculty, Viva college, who inspired me to take this study and advised me continuously
during preparation of the report. Her sincere guidance, untiring cooperation , valuable
advice and endless inspiration enabled me to overcome all the problems that cropped up
during the course of my internship program while preparing this report.

This was really a good way of learning and I really appreciate her efforts towards giving
me proper line directions.

Finally, My sincere gratitude goes to my family and friends for supporting me, sharing
their thoughts and give me the moral support during the preparation of this report.
 INDEX

CHAPTER CONTENT PG NO:

1 INTRODUCTION 1

2 OBJECTIVES OF STUDY 20

3 LITERATURE REVIEW 21

4 THEORETICAL & PRACTICAL STUDY 22

5 DATA ANALYSIS & INTERPRETATION 33

6 RESEARCH METHODOLOGY 36

7 FINDING 41

8 SUGGESTION 44

9 RECOMMENDATION CONCLUSION 46

10 CONCLUSION 47

11 BIBLOGRAPHY 48
 CHAPTER: 1

INTRODUCTION OF THE TOPIC

Amazon India launched its operations in June 2013. The company soon launched its website
Amazon.in which is offering customers a wide variety of choices in apparel, groceries,
household items, books, movies, television shows and almost everything that a person requires.

On the very first day of its operations, the company received more than 10,000 orders. Amazon
India is a subsidiary of US-based e-commerce giant Amazon Inc. The parent company Amazon
was founded by Jeff Bezos in 1994. The company wanted to explore other countries for sales
increment and the growth of the company.

So it did not limit its operations to the United States, and soon launched its operations in other
countries. Amazon looked upon China as a lucrative option because of its huge market, well-
developed infrastructure, and internet connectivity.

Hence, earlier Amazon expanded its operations to China. However, it did not prove to be that
much fruitful that it expected because of the stiff competition by local e-commerce companies
such as Alabama.

So it further expanded its operations and looked for some viable options. The Amazon analyzed
India as a country having great potentials and it was sure that India will turn out to be fruitful for
its growth. Hence, Amazon came to India and launched its operations here in 2013.

In a very short span of time, Amazon India has acquired an eminent position in the Indian
ecommerce space and has become a major shopping giant for millions of customers. Amazon
India is currently offering millions of products on its platform and has millions of registered
users.

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It has an endless list of products under broad categories and sub-categories such as mobile
phones, computers, men’s and women’s fashion, books, sports & fitness, electrical & electronic
items, movies, music, cars, motorbike, baby products, toys, grocery items, and so on.

Amazon India did not limit its expansion and operations here, it has started operating a Global
store which allows the customers to buy directly from sellers in the United States. Recently the
company launched Amazon prime in India which provides various services to its customers like
streaming video, music, e-books etc.

It currently delivers to most of the serviceable PIN codes in India. It has connected millions of
sellers and buyers in a network, making the shopping a much easier task for people. It caters to
more than 20,000 Indian sellers and has 41 fulfillment centers across 13 states in India.

In India, the popular advertisement of Amazon claiming it to be “APNI DUKAAN” is turning

out to be successful in grabbing millions of customers. It has become a reliable and convenient
source of buying and selling for people.

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 MEANING OF THE EXECUTIVE TALENT:

UNDERSTANDING THE PROCESS AND SETTING IT IN MOTION

Often, the difference between a good company and a great one is determined by who sits in the
executive offices. High-performing executives can add millions of dollars to their firms’ bottom
lines.

• Yet, failure rates for senior executives are high—and getting higher. The rate of CEO
turnovers for a variety of causes has been increasing lately, and research shows that
CEOs appointed in the past 25 years are three times more likely to be fired than CEOs
appointed earlier.
• Given the importance of executive positions, why are failure rates so high—and what can
be done to ensure that more executive hires succeed? The answer is fairly
straightforward: Most companies do not follow proven best practices at each step of the
process. If they did, costly turnovers would be much less likely. The most significant
reason for a lack of success in the talent search is that the executives in charge of
searches tend to follow ado procedures—often relying on instinct rather than taking
advantage of a wealth of information available to navigate the process.
• Effective executive selection is the result of integrating many processes, and each
component requires its own set of procedures grounded in careful analysis and best
practices.
• The complex nature of executive positions, the difficulty of defining and assessing
leadership qualities, and the fact that most executive selection decisions are made by a

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 diverse group of people creates more challenges than are found in lower-level
recruitment.

Because recruiting executive candidates from within an organization is usually a better option
than going outside, this report also includes some succession planning tips relevant to
executive positions. The following pages provide clear strategies for each of the five steps of
any executive search and hiring process: defining executive position requirements, delineating
executive attributes, recruiting candidates, assessing and evaluating candidates, and making
the final selection. The report concludes with a few suggestions for making the post-selection
tasks of negotiation, entry and socialization go forward more smoothly the entrepreneur’s
wandering process, driven by hunch, gut, intuition, curiosity, and a builder mindset. The
product discovery moves around a building, reworking, experimenting, and iterating loop.

The American Customer Satisfaction Index recently announced the results of its annual
survey, and for the 8th year in a row customers ranked Amazon #1

Customer obsession was also highlighted in the 2017 Shareholders Letter as a critical parameter:
Shareholders Letter, Jeff Bezos highlighted:
One thing I love about customers is that they are divinely discontent. Their expectations are never
static – they go up. It’s human nature. We didn’t ascend from our hunter-gatherer days by being
satisfied. People have a voracious appetite for a better way, and yesterday’s ‘wow’ quickly
becomes today’s ‘ordinary’.
This puts Amazon in a cycle where not being able to exceed customers’ expectations can make
Its flywheel slow down. Jeff Bezos specified:
Thus, how do you stay ahead of this game? Jeff Bezos offers us the answer: There’s no single
way to do it – it’s a combination of many things. But high standards
(widely deployed and at all levels of detail) are certainly a big part of it. We’ve had some
successes over the years in our quest to meet the high expectations of customers. We’ve also had
billions of dollars’ worth of failures along the way.
For Jeff Bezos, high standards have four core characteristics: The four elements of high standards
as we see it: they are teachable, they are domain specific, you must recognize them, and you must
explicitly coach realistic scope. For us, these work at all levels of detail. Everything from writing
memos to whole new, clean-sheet business initiatives.
We hope they help you too

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DEFINING EXECUTIVE POSITION REQUIREMENTS

What does your firm want a new executive to accomplish? The essential first step in hiring the
right person is to define the requirements for the position. Stakeholders—including current top
executives, the selection committee and board of directors—should develop a shared
understanding of expectations before embarking on the search. Some factors that will have an
impact on this discussion among stakeholders are:

• The nature of executive work.

• The particular phase of development of the firm.

• Current challenges facing the organization.

• The strategic direction toward which executives and the board want to move. It may be useful
to think in terms of seven basic performance imperatives that researchers cite for organizational
executives: cognitive, social, personal, political, financial, technological and staffing. All
executive selection procedures should start with a careful review of these categories to
determine how much each should be weighted for the position in question.

Figure 1: Components of Executive Talent Assessment and Acquisition

Definition of Position Requirements Specifying what potential executives will likely need to
accomplish in the short and long term in the targeted positions

Delineation of Desired Candidate Attributes Specifying what would be the attributes and
qualifications of the ideal candidate Recruitment of Potential Applicants Building a pool of
applicants from within and/or outside of the organization Assessment and Evaluation of
Candidates

Determining the candidates’ standing on the targeted attributes defined in step 2 Selection of
Desired Candidate Using decision processes and metrics to determine the best candidate for the
targeted position

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Selection of Desired Candidate Using decision processes and metrics to determine the best
candidate for the targeted position.

Figure 2: Common Elements of Executive Work in Most Organizations

• Conducting-long range strategic assessment and planning.

• Communicating a vision or plan for organizational progress and growth.

• Managing relationships with external stakeholders.

• Implementing organization wide structural and policy changes.

• Fostering a climate that motivates high performance across the organization.

Figure 3: Effective Practices for Defining Executive Position Requirements

✔ Be specific about what should be accomplished in the position—both short and long term.

✔ Include both current and future job requirements.

✔ Consider how the executive position differs from positions at other levels of the organization.

✔ Understand the growth and performance of your organization and how this affects the
executive position.

✔ Know the strategic challenges and imperatives of your organization and how they relate to the
position requirements.
✔ Clarify how your global strategic position influences the requirements.

Expand your definition of the position’s requirements to cover what is needed for overall career
success in your organization

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ANALYZE ORGANIZATIONAL CYCLES

The type of executive a firm needs depends largely on where the firm is in a cycle of growth or
change. A desire to maintain the status quo will demand one type of executive, while a desire to
pursue rapid growth or to reverse poor performance will require a very different set of skills.
Executive candidates themselves will want to understand whether the organization they may join
is looking for growth, turn around, restructuring or sustaining its position. When looking for
someone to turn around poor performance, an executive selection committee may put innovative
strategic thinking at the top of its list of requirements. When firms are doing well, innovation
becomes less important than familiarity with company structure and operations, so insider “heir
apparent” look more attractive. If your company has had a recent history of restructuring or
strategic change, such as a merger, it is more likely you will look for an executive with a
background in finance or operations. Firm size may also influence selection criteria. Smaller
companies are more likely to choose outside candidates, in part because when growth is an
important factor, a firm may want a type of executive that isn’t available in its current group of
employees. The internal characteristics of an organization should always be considered along
with strategic goals in determining requirements for new executive positions. When assessing
needs before launching the selection process, make a comprehensive survey, taking into
consideration the firm’s size, structure, climate, values, strategic goals, prior performance
trajectories and financial position.

External challenges face by executive work

In addition to the internal issues discussed above, every firm has external challenges that will
influence the expectations for executives. For example, instability and dynamic change in an
industry will increase the need for new executives to show strategic flexibility, adaptability and
fresh perspective. Executives may have to engage in more networking and scanning of the
industry landscape in such an environment, so candidates with large professional networks and
diverse experiences—including experience outside the industry—are at an advantage. The global
strategic position of an organization also influences executive requirements. As executives
increasingly work across national and cultural boundaries, organizations may find that they must
adjust work requirements accordingly. Companies operate at three levels of globalization, which
reflect increasing complexity:

• From a strong corporate base in one culture, the firm interacts with constituents and
stakeholders in other cultures. All units in other cultures are directed from the home
culture.
• Many decentralized corporate units in a variety of cultures are connected, with each unit
reflecting its own local business customs.
• A unique transnational culture within the company integrates and ultimately supersedes
all local cultures.

Cultural complexity adds more cognitive and social work requirements for executives—such as
multicultural understanding—and deserves consideration in the position requirements.

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Clarify Organizational Strategy

Many experts argue that understanding a firm’s organizational strategy is the first order of
business for an executive selection team. According to RHR International, an executive
assessment and development group, succession planning involves “creating a fit between what
the company must do strategically and the person who can best implement that strategy.”
Interviews of executives involved in selection committees show that they also rate organizational
strategy as the top factor in defining requirements. The concept of strategic staffing can be
broken down into three models:

• A traditional approach, which matches the person with a stable job. This model is geared
toward finding the executive who is the best fit for the position in terms of knowledge, skills,
abilities and characteristics— without really taking larger organizational needs into account.

• A strategy-driven competency approach makes executive selection a part of the process of

implementing the firm’s strategy, making sure that an executive hire reflects the company’s
cultural values. A strategic skills analysis may be used to help define position requirements in
terms of long-range goals.

• A third model makes executive selection part of the strategic formation process, so that
executives are hired based on the expectation that they will develop new strategies for the
company, usually based on a rapidly changing environment. This is often the most complex
selection process because a committee would be focusing on a candidate’s strengths but with an
unknown strategy in mind.

 How to Create a Road Map Many elements influence executive work expectations, and a
good executive position analysis should focus on all of the relevant factors shown in
Figure 3. A position analysis should begin with agreement on the typical elements of
executive work, as highlighted in Figure 2.F then the selection committee should filter
those elements through analyses of
1) Where the organization is in its growth phase,

2) What current challenges exist in the environment, and

3) What the overall organizational strategy is?

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All these factors should contribute to the final definition of executive performance
requirements, and when done properly, this analysis will provide a road map for the rest of
the selection process. Without a shared understanding of performance requirements, the
selection process may wander off course from the start.

DEFINING EXECUTIVE ATTRIBUTES

The second process of executive selection is defining desired candidate attributes. These
attributes are derived from an understanding of how particular executive qualities will help the
organization meet strategic challenges. Unfortunately, members of executive selection boards and
staffing directors typically proceed by looking for characteristics similar to their own, using
attributes from previous searches or relying on instinct and intuition. Often, the executives
selected fit past performance needs and are not at all matched to current imperative.

Figure 4: Categories of Executive Attributes

Strategic Attributes
• Systems-level awareness
skills
• Visioning skills
• Complex problem-solving
skills
• Ability to map operating
environment
• Organizational change
skills
• Innovation skills
• Adaptability
• Talent management skills
Social Attributes
• Communication skills
• Social awareness skills
• Social judgment skills
• Persuasion and negotiation
skills
• Collaboration skills
• Team-building skills
• Relationship-building skills
• Behavioral complexity
• Multicultural awareness and
sensitivity

Business Attributes
• Business acumen
• Finance management skills
• Organization management
skills
• Global networking skills
Cognitive Attributes
• Intelligence
• Basic problem-solving skills
• Critical thinking
• Creative thinking
• Ability to learn
• Absorptive capacity

Define the Categories

Unique attributes define success at the executive level. Three broad sets of managerial skills—
technical, interpersonal and conceptual—are essential. Some experts argue that technical skills

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are most important to managerial effectiveness at the lowest level of organizations, interpersonal
skills are constant in importance across all levels, and conceptual skills are most important at the
executive level. Others suggest that because social complexity increases at the executive level,
interpersonal skills are also more important for executives.

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A recent investigation described four skill categories—represented in Figure 4—and looked at
how they change across levels, finding that business acumen and strategic skills seem to become
much more important for executives:

• Cognitive skills include problem solving, critical thinking, communication and reading
comprehension.

• Interpersonal skills include social awareness and judgment, persuasion and negotiation, and
skills in coordinating others.

• Business skills include business acumen and skills in managing financial, material and
personnel resources.

• Strategic skills include systems-level perceptiveness and understanding, “visioning,” complex

problem solving, and the ability to develop cognitive representations of strategic environments.

Today, a dynamic, fast-paced environment that extends across national boundaries demands a
new kind of executive. One can see this clearly in the current emphasis on interpersonal and
relationship skills. Human connections are becoming crucial for building effective teams and
multi-level collaborative relationships. Subordinates are more likely to follow a leader in fast
paced and changing circumstances if the connection between the leader and the follower is close.
Some describe these human connections as “the ability to move the human heart. “This quality is
quite difficult to measure and assess, of course—even in personal interviews.

One particular quality that has become more important for executives is the ability to balance
multiple roles—also called behavioral complexity. Leaders need a portfolio of roles they can
perform according to circumstances. This skill can be simply described as versatility—or the
ability to balance forceful versus enabling leadership and strategic versus operational leadership.
Another way of defining leadership is to focus on three central executive skills:

• Absorptive capacity—“the capacity to recognize new information, assimilate it, and apply it
toward new ends.”

• Capacity to change—the capacity to display strategic flexibility to dynamic conditions.

• Managerial wisdom—the ability to perceive and understand variation in the environment and
in social relationships and then “take the right action at a critical moment.”

Because these factors define executive effectiveness specifically within the strategic dynamism
of today’s business environment, they should be high priorities in executive searches. What
about the ability to learn? This skill has added value in a firm that is seeking new strategies and
for executives operating internationally. A search that lists many learning-oriented or adaptive
qualities in its descriptive categories—such as cross-culturally adventurous, seeking
opportunities to learn, seeking feedback, flexibility—will produce candidates that are more
likely to be effective in dynamic or uncertain environments. Characteristics related to the ability
to learn are often what separates high-potential managers from solid performers who aren’t
likely to advance—and are key qualities for a “global” executive.
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Special Requirements for the Global Executive

A recent survey of more than 400 executives showed that working well across cultures was the
second most important leadership quality for the near future. The components of this valuable
cross-cultural sensitivity include comfort with other cultures, empathy, open-mindedness,
adaptability and positive evaluation of other cultures. Unfortunately, executive searches for
global assignments are usually conducted under strong time constraints, with a primary focus on
internal candidates who have demonstrated success in cross-cultural projects in their home
country. Too little attention is paid to a candidate’s skills in managing within other cultures. For
executive talent searches to be more successful, search selection committees must pay more
attention to the abilities a global executive needs and factor them into their assessments.

RECRUITING CANDIDATES

Once you have defined both the requirements of the position and the ideal characteristics of the
executive you want to hire, it’s time for the third process—recruiting candidates.

INTERNAL VERSUS EXTERNAL CANDIDATES

A search committee may first want to consider whether to look for an insider or an outsider.
Traditional recruitment literature stresses the value of candidates who are familiar with the
organization. Yet, most executive search committees seem to prefer outside candidates, at least
under typical circumstances. Most companies look outside of the firm to fill 20 to 40 percent of
executive vacancies. The proportion of outside hires can be as high as 70 to 93 percent in
companies in the private nonprofit sector or in small companies.

Several situations frequently result in firms choosing an internal candidate for an executive
position:

• High firm performance prior to executive hiring. If a company is doing well, a committee will
be less inclined to risk any significant changes by hiring an external candidate. On the other
hand, low firm performance will increase the likelihood of seeking an external candidate to
shake things up.

• Firm size. A smaller firm will have fewer qualified candidates for any executive position and,
therefore, will be more likely to look for an external candidate.

• Number of strong internal candidates. A large number of internal candidates—especially if

they serve on the board of directors—suggests that the organization has a deep bench and a
strong senior management development program. Both conditions should increase the
probability of hiring internal candidates.
• Number of non-CEO inside directors and stockholders. When inside executives have
considerable power over decisions by virtue of serving on boards of directors or having
significant stock ownership, they are in a strong position to challenge current CEOs and
position themselves or other internal candidates as successors.

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 More often than not, the result of hiring externally is lower performance, even though
executives usually prefer recruiting outside their firm. Surprisingly, in studies of companies
dealing with new directions, startup situations and cultural or strategic change, internal
candidates were still more successful than external candidates—even though these sorts of
circumstances seem to favor external hires. Outsider succession has been shown to result in
lower post-succession performance, while internal succession is associated with higher
subsequent performance. The statistics are stunning: In 2003, 55 percent of North American
outsider CEOs were forced to resign because of performance. In Europe, it was 70 percent.
Researchers also found that in companies that moved from below average to above-average
growth, only two out of 42 CEOs were outsiders. Finally, in a study of more than 200 CEO
successions, external candidates were much more likely than internal candidates to be dismissed
quickly.

But there are circumstances in which external executive hires result in better performance:

• In environments conducive to organizational growth.

• When previous performance of the firm was particularly low.

• When strategic changes were made too slowly.

• When the new CEO came with big changes in the executive team.

Some experts still make the argument for both external and internal recruiting, but based on a
wide variety of studies, it seems wiser to look toward internal candidates and put more company
investment into building that pool of talent via leadership development programs. There will still
be points when a search for an external candidate is the right call—such as when a firm is
undergoing rapid expansion or in great need of new perspectives. One reason that external
candidates seem to perform poorly may be the way they are recruited. External candidates are
often located by executive search firms, which use cold calls, publicly available directories, old
contacts and web-based searches. Many companies advertise for executives directly via the
Internet. Research suggests that these kinds of sources for applicants are demonstrably inferior to
sources that attract candidates with more knowledge about the hiring company. Using in house
postings, referrals from current employees and even rehiring former employees tend to result in
higher performance and lower turnover than using external sources such as employment
agencies, job fairs and campus visits. The insider/outsider debate is summarized in Figure 5.
When companies are doing well, do not want to make significant strategic shifts or have a deep
bench of strong executive candidates, they are more likely to favor internal candidates. When
companies are not doing well, do not have bench strength or feel the need to change their
strategic focus, they are more likely to pursue candidates outside of the company. But keep in
mind that the research on executive performance after succession suggests that companies may
25 be favoring external candidates too much. Executives promoted from within the company
tend to perform better than those hired from outside.

Figure 5: Circumstances Favoring Internal or External Candidates

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 Circumstances that lead executive selection Circumstances that lead executive selection
committees to favor internal candidates committees to favor external candidates

• High organizational performance • Low or stagnant profitability and

before succession organizational performance before
• Number of inside executives on succession
board of directors • Weak bench; lack of a systematic
•Strong executive and leadership succession leader succession program
program in place • Rapid organizational growth
•Larger companies • Small firms
• Desire to maintain current strategic • Need for new strategic perspectives
direction and skill sets
• Desire to chart a new direction

ASSESSING AND EVALUATING CANDIDATES

“The key characteristics I look for are calmness under pressure and the ability to focus down
onto what’s really important. Potential CEOs also need resilience and the ability to
metaphorically take a punch,” said Adam Crozier, CEO of Royal Mail, in a recent interview.66
Measuring calm and resilience is not easy, nor is throwing a metaphorical punch at a candidate.
But some strong assessment tools are available when it is time to evaluate each candidate’s
strengths and weaknesses. The tools range from tests of cognitive skills to work samples to
interviews. In deciding which tools to use, consider two basic questions:

1. Does the tool accurately measure the attributes it is intended to measure?

2. Can the tool successfully predict who will mostly likely succeed in the position being filled?

In general, strategies for assessing leadership qualities can be put into three broad categories:

• Strategies that provide inferences about future leadership behavior, such as cognitive
ability tests, personality inventories and leadership potential inventories.

• Strategies that ask for descriptions of past leadership behavior, such as resumes,
biographical data and career achievement records.

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 • Strategies that seek demonstrations of leadership skills, such as work simulations. Each
of these strategies has its own strengths and weaknesses, and the best course is to use a
combination of methods.
Most executive selection committees rely too heavily on a few methods— usually interviews and
records of past performance, such as resumes and references. The value of interviews varies
widely depending upon several factors, including whether the interview protocol is structured or
unstructured, whether interviewers are trained or untrained, and interview topics. Resumes can
be untrustworthy because of exaggeration, and references usually provide limited or misleading
information—generous praise and sparse criticism. Clearly, the top three methods for assessing
executives are often the most unreliable as sources of information, lending credence to the
recommendation that committees rely on multiple strategies. Taking this one step further, it’s
also best to use multiple evaluators in order to get more reliable judgments. The problem with
using multiple methods and strategies is that they cost more in both time and money, but keep in
mind that costs have to be weighed against the costs of a failed executive.

To help you put together the best set of assessments for your firm’s executive search, the most
prominent strategies— and their strengths and weaknesses—are summarized in the next section.

Resumes, References and Performance Records

Most companies use resumes and references as assessments of past achievements and
performance when evaluating executive candidates. In fact, along with interviews, resumes and
references are the most common selection tools. Even though the limitations of resumes and
references are well known, it is worthwhile to restate them as a reminder:

• Resumes commonly inflate past successes and minimize past failures.

• References are almost uniformly positive, in part because threat of litigation from
candidates discourages referees to offer negative information.

As an alternative to resumes, biographical data instruments that ask carefully constructed

questions to elicit past achievements and behavior provide a better window on leadership
performance. For example, such assessments may ask executive candidates to indicate how
many performance awards they have won in their career, what kinds of assignments they have
completed and what unit financial goals they have met. Ideally, these measures query candidates
in ways that are objective, verifiable and focused on external, controllable events. Studies have
shown these instruments can be helpful when used alone or combined with cognitive ability
testing and interviews.

Work Samples: Judgment Tests, Simulations and Assessment Centers

Work sample measures, which ask candidates to demonstrate leadership proficiency, can be
among the best tools available for predicting performance. Work sample measures include
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situational judgment tests, simulations and assessment centers. Situational judgment tests—or
SJTs—have increased in popularity as performance predictors over the last 15 to 20 years.
Candidates are presented with sample situations and problems they might encounter in a work
environment, along with some possible answers. Candidates are then asked to choose the best
answer, choose the best and worst answers or rank-order the answers from best to worst. Such
tests yield information as helpful—or more helpful—in the selection process as that obtained in
cognitive tests and personality measures. They also tend to result in less adverse impact than
cognitive ability tests and provide possible realistic job previews for candidates. One
disadvantage of SJTs is their higher development costs compared with some other selection
tools; fortunately, their administration costs are lower. Simulations and assessment centers

are similar to SJTs in that they offer a wide range of leadership situations and problem-solving
exercises—but the exercises themselves are often more dynamic, interactive and engaging than
those provided by SJTs. Candidates might be given in-basket tests, financial or business data
analysis, leaderless group discussions, interview simulations, role-plays or psychological
inventories. Several raters would observe the exercises, judge the results and then come together
to integrate their ratings for an overall score.114 Assessment centers have a good track record
for predicting the quality of executive candidates. In pioneering research at AT&T, scores from
assessment centers predicted managerial advancement 20 years in the future. Unfortunately,
work samples and assessment centers both carry high development and administration costs,
comparable only to interviews among selection tools. This may be why a relatively small
percentage of firms use assessment centers as tools in their executive selection.

Interviews

The mostly widely used executive selection tool has been, and continues to be, the candidate
interview.119 There are two main types of interviews: unstructured and structured.120 In
unstructured interviews, the format and types of questions are left open to the interviewer and
can vary from candidate to candidate. In structured interviews, interviewers ask candidates
rigorously constructed sets of questions that focus on particular situations, behaviors, critical
incidents or types of problems. One type of structured interview—the situational interview—
examines how respondents would behave in particular hypothetical situations. The job-related
interview, on the other hand, asks about job-related behaviors candidates have displayed in the
past, without tying them to particular situations. The behavioral interview combines approaches
and asks interviewees how they behaved in the past in particular situations. Structured interviews
assess candidates’ job knowledge best and can assess job experience and social skills as well
while carrying less risk for legal challenges. Structured interviews also are better at predicting
future performance than are unstructured interviews. As one expert observed:

“A typical interview— unstructured, rambling, unfocused—tells the interviewer almost nothing

about job candidates, other than how they seem during a couple of meetings in a conference
room. But what are these people like late at night and under pressure? What motivates them?
How smart are they? Have they handled tough projects? Do they prefer working alone or are
they better with a team? Regular interviews assess barely any of this and are, in fact, miserable
predictors of success.” Despite the clear advantages of structured interviews, HR managers use
unstructured interviews more often. Why? HR managers may not be aware of, or accept, the
superiority of structured interviews. In addition, managers may perceive structured interviews as
15
sacrificing their autonomy or spontaneity. Or perhaps job candidates or the organization itself
may view structured interviews unfavorably, leading to pressure on HR staff not to use them.
Finally, structured interviews are likely to be more costly in time and money than unstructured
interviews.

MAKING THE FINAL DECISION

Compared with other topics covered in this report, less research has been devoted to the actual
decision processes boards of directors and other top executives use when choosing who among
the final candidates should be offered a position. Some themes can be discerned, however, from
a few studies.

Decision makers often lack access to or do not make use of all necessary information. In
part, this results from delegation or outsourcing of the executive search and assessment process.
Outside firms often take on the major responsibilities of defining position requirements and
candidate attributes, candidate recruitment and initial evaluation of all candidates. Then a few
finalists are presented to the decision makers for interviews. This delegation of responsibilities is
usually done because executives are too busy to participate fully in all of these processes, but the
downside is that the final decision makers do not have information about all of the candidates.
Often, those who do the initial work of selection do not share the decision makers’ perceptions
of the position and attribute requirements—leading to obvious problems

Decision makers do not systematically compare candidates’ attributes. Executives tend to

review each candidate’s portfolio in its entirety before moving on to another candidate, instead
of comparing similar parts of all portfolios. Executives generally spend the most time reviewing
interview data, followed by search firm reports and the opinions of others. In one particular
study, executives that that did not make the best choice of candidates for a position spent much
more time on interview data than did those who did choose the best candidate. Those who made
the best choices focused more on search firm reports and HR information. The authors of this
study determined that executives ranked candidates higher if the executives had spent more time
reviewing their materials. More research is needed to understand all aspects of the executive
decision-making process. However, overall, this study demonstrated the propensity of executives
to favor information that produced poor choices and to spend time in the decision making
process justifying an early decision instead of fully reviewing all choices.

Research on compensatory versus multiple-hurdle systems is still too limited to provide

much help. In compensatory systems, lower scores on a desired attribute are mitigated by higher
scores on others—as long as candidates meet a minimum threshold on each attribute. In multiple
hurdle models, candidates must reach particular levels on each attribute before receiving further
consideration. This system can be used to create a pool of acceptable candidates from which a
final selection is made. When board members are involved in CEO or top executive selection,
they may bring their biases and agendas to the table. These agendas can then influence the
weight they place on various applicant qualities. Thus, for some selectors, an applicant may fall
below an acceptable threshold on a key attribute, but for others, the candidate may clear that
hurdle easily. Such differing perceptions can create considerable tension around an executive
choice, leading to the choice of a candidate who may meet the minimum standards for the most
selectors but does not have any extraordinary qualities.
16
POST-SELECTION CHALLENGES: NEGOTIATION, ENTRY AND SOCIALIZATION

Even after selecting the best candidate, the process of acquiring new executive talent is not finished.
Another round of challenges begins with negotiations of the terms for acceptance. Candidates may want
to address issues such as staffing, personal and political dynamics while negotiating future
responsibilities and relationships. After the candidate formally accepts the position, a two-way
socialization process begins. The firm relays expectations and cultural norms to the executive,
and the new executive conveys the values he or she brings to the table. Ideally, the socialization
process begins early, with the selection committee providing realistic previews of job conditions
and expectations throughout the recruitment and assessment process. At the executive level, this
means letting candidates know about expectations that cannot be gleaned from public financial
and organizational records, which any good candidate will have already examined. A candidate,
in turn, should provide previews of his or her world view and values during the selection process
and, once on board, should immediately let subordinates understand his or her leadership
philosophy and personal way of doing things. Although these final processes are as important to
the success of an executive talent search as earlier processes, very little research has been done
on the topic. One survey concluded that “organizations do little to increase the odds of a new
executive’s successful entry and integration” into a new position. This survey found that when
more than 100 senior-level managers and CEOs were asked to define the steps to a successful
integration, the top answers were:

• The personal credibility of the executive.

• How closely the executive’s plans and the organization’s goals were aligned.

• The degree of mutual acceptance between the executives and others in the firm.

• The results achieved by the executive. How does an ideal integration happen? Primarily by
following three simple guidelines:

1. The firm should set clear roles and expectations for the incoming executive.

2. The new executive should quickly form relationships with stakeholders around the
company.

3. The executive should learn the norms and values of his or her unit sooner rather than
later.

The Search for Executive Talent: A Checklist

✔ Consider where the organization is in its current growth or performance cycle, strategic
challenges in the industry and the global positioning of the firm.

✔ Remember that executives always operate in a dynamic environment, so evaluate candidates

based on their ability to learn, adapt and respond to new conditions.
17
✔ Seek candidates who are collaborators with international leadership skills, flexibility and
good talent management skills.

✔ Avoid focusing on external candidates. Research shows that internal candidates consistently
perform better.

✔ Invest in senior leader development within the organization.

✔ Use a variety of assessment methods—and avoid relying exclusively on resumes and

interviews. Make situational judgment tests and leadership demonstration tests a part of the
package

Effective Practices for Making the Final Selection

✔ Make sure that decision makers have access to—and make use of—all available and
necessary information.

✔ Encourage decision makers to systematically evaluate candidate attributes.

✔ Make sure that decision makers understand and consider the candidates’ scores in various
tests and interviews.

✔ Allow room for some subjective criteria to influence the selection, including social context,
interpersonal dynamics and the politics of your organization.

Assessment Tools for Executive Searches

• Work sample tests » High validity/high cost

• Situation judgment tests » High validity/moderate cost

• Cognitive ability tests » Valid in general, but less so for executive positions

• Resumes and references » Tend to be unreliable

• Unstructured interviews » Often of mixed validity

• Structured interviews » Often highly valid

Effective Practices for Evaluation of Candidates

✔ Consider multiple options for evaluating candidates, including interviews, tests, work history and
accomplishments, simulations, and multi-rater feedback.
✔ Use techniques that provide reliable and valid information about the candidate’s potential to meet
the position’s requirements.

18
✔ Emphasize strong, proven techniques, including:

• Work samples.

• Situational judgment tests.

• Leadership styles and potential tests.

• Structured interviews.

• Cognitive ability tests.

• Biographical data.

• Multi-rater feedback.

✔ As much as possible, avoid unreliable techniques, including unstructured interviews, resumes and
references.

Recruiting From the Inside: Executive Succession Programs

Wendy Dooryard’s day in the life of an executive started shortly after 7:30 a.m., when she was given an
office, a computer and a telephone. For the next 10 hours, she was bombarded with phone calls and
deluged with e-mails from aggrieved customers, colleagues seeking advice and the like. A steady stream
of people poured through her office door–from feuding employees to colleagues coming in to consult on
a strategic plan. There was an analysis to be done on whether a merger proposal made sense and a
presentation to prepare. All the while, Ms. Dooryard’s every move was analyzed: How sound were her
business decisions, was she able to satisfy that customer, coach those employees, make a compelling
presentation? And how did she behave under pressure? […] At the end of this day-in-the-life simulation,
Ms. Durward and 10 other middle managers in Nissan Canada Inc.’s “acceleration pool” were assessed
on their performance and advised of the personality attributes that could help–or hinder–them as the
company prepares them for executive roles. Nerve-wracking? You bet, Ms. Durward said of the
assessment process. “It was exhausting and exhilarating, a bit of both,” Ms. Durward said of the process,
which led to individual development programs for each member of the pool. […] The idea of the day-
inthe-life simulation, said Penny Kavanagh, Nissan Canada’s human resources executive, is to develop a
pool of managers who can step into almost any executive role as the Mississauga-based company brings
up its next generation of leaders.

– Excerpted from Virginia Galt

“Managers on fast track try out the hot seat,”

Toronto Globe and Mail, June 29, 2005

19
 CHAPTER 2

OBJECTIVES OF STUDY

1. Refine the quality of your candidates

2. Create a pool of qualified candidates

3. Streamline the recruitment and hiring processes

4. Reduce employee turnover

5. Encourage leadership development

SCOPE

Analyzing the right candidate for the right job involves a range of factors, includes a candidate
skills, experience, education, personality, and cultural fit. Here are some areas to consider when
analyzing a candidate for a job:

1. Skill and experience

2. Education and training
3. Personality traits
4. Cultural fit
5. Interview performance

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 CHAPTER 3

LITERATURE REVIEW

Amazon.com Inc. was founded in 1994 in Washington and Amazon.com website became first
active in July 1995 to become the largest online retailer in the world to offer Earths Biggest
Selection in less than two decades. The e-commerce and cloud computing company earned an
operating income of USD4.2 billion, USD4.1 billion, and USD12.4 billion for 2016, 2017, and
2018 respectively (Annual Report, 2018). Forbes lists Amazon as the world’s 4th most valuable
brand with the brand value of USD 97 billion and according to Brand ranking Amazon is the
most valuable brand in the world with the brand value as high as USD 315,50 billion (Annual
Report, 2018).
The e-commerce giant employs approximately 647,500 full-time and part-time employees
referred to as Amazonians (Annual Report, 2018). Amazon has declared its adherence to four
principles: customer obsession rather than competitor focus, passion for invention, commitment
to operational excellence and long-term thinking. These principles represent sources of Amazons
competitive advantage.

Amazon business strategy is a hybrid of cost leadership and business diversification. The online
retailer also benefits from encouraging communication between various elements within its
ecosystem and promotion of its leadership principles consisting of 14 points discussed in this
report.
Combination of pragmatist, visionary and autocratic leadership styles are exercised at various
levels at Amazon. The company has a hierarchical organizational structure. Nevertheless, it
remains highly flexible to adapt to frequent changes in the external marketplace. Amazon
organizational culture, on the other hand, is based on the principles of high level of cost
consciousness, constant reinvention and improvement of organizational culture and customer
obsession.
Major weaknesses associated with Amazon include seasonality of the business, low profit
margins and lack of focus on product or service categories. Moreover, a weak competitive
position of Amazons Fire Phone and damage to the brand image due to tax avoidance scandal in
the UK can be listed as weaknesses of Amazon.

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 CHAPTER 4

THEORETICAL & PRACTICAL STUDY

INTRODUCTION OF THE FIRM

Amazon.com, Inc. is an American multinational technology company which focuses on

ecommerce, cloud computing, digital streaming and artificial intelligence. It has been referred
to as "one of the most influential economic and cultural forces in the world", and is one of the
world most valuable brands. It is one of the big five American information technology
alongside Alphabet, Apple, Meta and Microsoft.
Amazon was founded by Jeff Bezos from his garage in Bellevue. Washington, on July 5, 1994.
Initially an online marketplace for books, it has expanded into a multitude of product categories:
a strategy that has earned it the moniker “The Everything Store”. It has multiple subsidiaries
including Amazon web series (cloud computing), Zoox, (autonomous vehicle) (satellite
Internet), Amazon lab 126 (computer hardware R &D). Its other subsidiaries include Ring,
twitch, IMDb and whole food market. Its acquisition of Whole Foods in August 2017 for
US$13.4 billion substantially increased its footprint as a physical retailer.
Amazon has earned a reputation as a disruptor of well-established industries through
technological innovation and mass scale. As of 2021, it is the world's largest internet company,
online marketplace Ai assistant provider, Cloud computing platform and live- streaming service
as measured by Revenue and market place. In 2021, it surpassed Walmart as the world's largest
retailer outside of china, driven in large part by its paid subscription plan, Amazon prime which
has over 200 million subscribers worldwide. It is the second largest private employer in the
United States.
Amazon also distributes a variety of downloadable and streaming content through it amazon
prime video, amazon music, twitch and audible units. It publishes books through its publishing
arm, Amazon publishing film and television content through Amazon studios, and is currently
acquiring film and television studio Metro Goldwyn Mayer. It also produces consumer
electronics—most notably, kindle e-reader, echo devices, fire tablets, and Fire T.V.
Amazon it has been criticized for practices including technological surveillance overreach, a
hyper-competitive and demanding work culture, Tax avoidance and Anti-competitive behavior.

22
 HISTORY OF THE FIRM

The company was founded in 1994, spurred by what Amazon founder Jeff Bezos called his
"regret minimization framework," which described his efforts to fend off any regrets for not
participating sooner in the Internet business boom during that time. In 1994, Bezos left his
employment as vice-president of D.E Shaw & Co., a Wall Street firm and moved to Seattle. He
began to work on a business plan for what would eventually become Amazon.com.
Bezos incorporated the company as "Calbara" on July 5, 1994. Bezos changed the name to
Amazon a year later after a lawyer misheard its original name as "cadaver". In September 1994,
Bezos purchased the URL Relentless.com and briefly considered naming his online store
Relentless, but friends told him the name sounded a bit sinister. The domain is still owned by
Bezos and still redirects to the retailer. The company went online as Amazon.com in 1995.
Bezos selected the name Amazon by looking through the dictionary and settled on "Amazon"
because it was a place that was "exotic and different" just as he envisioned for his Internet
enterprise; the Amazon River he noted was by far the "biggest" river in the world and he planned
to make his store the biggest in the world. Bezos placed a premium on his head start in building
a brand, telling a reporter, "There's nothing about our model that can't be copied over time. But
you know, M.C. Donald’s got copied. And it still built a huge, multibillion-dollar company. A
lot of it comes down to the brand name. Brand names are more important online than they are in
the physical world." Additionally, a name beginning with "A" was preferential due to the
probability it would occur at the top of any list that was alphabetized.
Since June 19, 2000, Amazon's logotype has featured a curved arrow leading from A to Z,
representing that the company carries every product from A to Z, with the arrow shaped like a
smile.
After reading a report about the future of the Internet that projected annual Web commerce
growth at 2,300%, Bezos created a list of 20 products that could be marketed online. He
narrowed the list to what he felt were the five most promising products, which included:
compact discs, computer hardware, computer software, videos and books. Bezos finally decided
that his new business would sell books online, due to the large worldwide demand for literature,

23
the low price points for books, along with the huge number of titles available in print. Amazon
was founded in the garage of Bezos' home in Bellevue, Washington.
The company began as an online bookstore, an idea spurred off with discussion with John
ingram of Ingram Book (now called Ingram content group) along with Keyur Patel who still
holds a stake in Amazon. Amazon was able to access books at wholesale from Ingram. In the
first two months of business, Amazon sold to all 50 states and over 45 countries. Within two
months, Amazon's sales were up to $20,000/week. While the larges brick and morter bookstores
and mail order catalogs might offer 200,000 titles, an online bookstore could "carry" several
times more, since it would have a pra1ctically unlimited virtual (not actual) warehouse: those of
the actual product makers/suppliers.
Amazon was incorporated in 1994, in the state of Washington. In July 1995, the company began
service and sold its first book on Amazon.com: Douglas Hofstadter’s “Fluid concepts and
Creative Analogies: Computer models of the fundamental mechanism thoughts” In October
1995, the company announced itself to the public. In 1996, it was reincorporated in Delaware.
Amazon issued its Initial public offering of Stock on May 15, 1997, trading under the
NASDAQ stock exchange symbol AMZN, at a price of US$ 18.00 per share ($1.50 after
three stock splits in the late 1990s).
Amazon's initial business plan was unusual; it did not expect to make a profit for four to five
years. This "slow" growth caused stockholders to complain about the company not reaching
profitability fast enough to justify investing in or to even survive in the long-term. When the dot
com bubble burst at the start of the 21st century, destroying many e-companies in the process,
Amazon survived and grew on past the bubble burst to become a huge player in online sales. It
finally turned its first profit in the fourth quarter of 2001: $5 million (i.e., 1¢ per share), on
revenues of more than $1 billion. This profit margin, though extremely modest, proved to
skeptics that Bezos' unconventional business model could succeed. In 1999, Time magazine
named Bezos the The Person Of The Year, recognizing the company's success in popularizing
online shopping.
Barnes and Nobles sued Amazon on May 12, 1997, alleging that Amazon's claim to be "the
world's largest bookstore" was false because it "... isn't a bookstore at all. It's a book broker." The
suit was later settled out of court and Amazon continued to make the same claim. Walmart sued
Amazon on October 16, 1998, alleging that Amazon had stolen Walmart's trade secrets by hiring
former Walmart executives. Although this suit was also settled out of court, it caused Amazon to
implement internal restrictions and the reassignment of the former Walmart executives.[41]
On October 11, 2016, Amazon announced plans to build convenience stores and develop
curbside pickup locations for food. In December 2016, the Amazon Go store was opened to
Amazon employees in Seattle. The store uses a variety of sensors and automatically charges a
shopper's Amazon account as they walk out of the store therefore there are no checkout lines.
The store opened for the general public in early 2017. In 2017, Amazon acquired Whole food
market for US$13.4 billion, which vastly increased Amazon's presence as a brick-and-mortar
retailer. In 2018, Bezos announced that its two-day delivery service, Amazon prime had
surpassed 100 million subscribers worldwide.
In 2011, Amazon had 30,000 full-time employees in the USA and by the end of 2016, it had
180,000 employees. The company employs 306,800 people worldwide in full and part-time jobs.

24
 About The Organization

Mergers and acquisitions

Investment

• 2008: Engine yard, a Ruby-on-Rails Platform as a services (PaaS) company.

• 2010: Living social, a local deal site.
• 2014: Acquired the '.buy' domain in an auction for $4,588,888.
• 2014: Amazon Announces Additional US $2 Billion Investment in India in June 2014.  2016:
Amazon Announces Additional US $3 Billion Investment in India in June 2016.
Subsidiaries

• 2003: A9.com, a company focused on researching and building innovative technology.

• 2004: Lab126, developers of integrated consumer electronics such as the Kindle.
• 2007: Endless.com, an e-commerce brand focusing on shoes.
• 2007: Brilliance Audio, the largest independent audio book producer in the US.
• 2009: CreateSpace, self-publishing services for independent content creators, publishers, film studios and
music labels; created by internal merger of Custom Flix (on-demand DVDs for independent filmmakers)
and Book Surge (self-publishing, on-demand printing, online distribution), both originally acquired 2005.
Amazon owns over 40 subsidiaries, including Zappos, Shopbop, Diapers.com, Kiva Systems, Good reads,
Teachstreet and IMDb.[62]

Board of directors

• Jeff Bezos, President, CEO and Chairman

• Tom Alberg, Managing partner, Madrona Venture Group
• John Seely Brown, Visiting Scholar and Advisor to the Provost at University of Southern California
• Bing Gordon, partner, Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers
• Jamie Gorelick, partner, Wilmer Cutler Pickering Hale and Dorr
• Judy McGrath, former CEO, MTV Networks
• Alain Monié, CEO, Ingram Micro
• Jon Rubinstein, former Chairman and CEO, Palm, Inc.
• Thomas O. Ryder, former Chairman and CEO, Reader's Digest Association
• Patty Stonesifer, President and CEO, Martha's Table
• Wendell P. Weeks, Chairman, President and CEO, Corning Inc.

Merchant partnerships

Until June 30, 2006, typing ToysRUs.com into a browser would bring up Amazon.com’s “Toys & Games"
tab; however, this relationship was terminated due to a lawsuit. Amazon also hosted and managed the website
25
for Borders bookstores but this ceased in 2008. From 2001 until August 2011, Amazon hosted the retail
website for Target.
Amazon.com operates retail websites for Sears Canada, bebe Stores, Marks &
Spencer, Mothercare and Lacoste. For a growing number of enterprise clients, including the UK merchants
Marks & Spencer, Benefit Cosmetics' UK entity, edeals.com and Mothercare, Amazon provides a unified
multichannel platform where a customer can interact with the retail website, standalone in-store terminals, or
phone-based customer service agents. Amazon Web Services also powers AOL's Shop@AOL.
On October 18, 2011, Amazon.com announced a partnership with DC Comics for the exclusive digital rights
to many popular comics, including Superman, Batman, Green Lantern, The Sandman and Watchmen. The
partnership has caused well-known bookstores like Barnes & Noble to remove these titles from their shelves.
On November 2013, Amazon.com announced a partnership with the United States Postal Service to begin
delivering orders on Sundays. The service, included in Amazon's standard shipping rates, initiated in
metropolitan areas of Los Angeles and New York due to the high volume and inability to deliver timely,
with plans to expand into Dallas, Houston, New Orleans and Phoenix by 2014.
On July 2016, Amazon.com announced a partnership with the U.K. Civil Aviation Authority to test some of
the technologies and may use delivery service via prime air drone in the future.

Products and services

Amazon.com's product lines available at its website include several media (books, DVDs, music CDs,
videotapes and software), apparel, baby products, consumer electronics, beauty products, gourmet food,
groceries, health and personal-care items, industrial & scientific supplies, kitchen items, jewelry, watches,
lawn and garden items, musical instruments, sporting goods, tools, automotive items and toys & games.
In India, Amazon is now gearing up to play a role in the grocery retail sector aimed at delivering customer
needs.[70]
Amazon.com has a number of products and services available, including but not limited to:

• Amazon Fresh
• Amazon Prime
• Amazon Web Services
• Alexa
• Appstore
• Amazon Drive
• Echo
• Kindle
• Fire tablets
• Fire TV
• Video
• Kindle Store
• Music
• Music Unlimited

26
• Amazon Digital Game Store

• Amazon Studios
• Amazon Wireless

Amazon sales rank

The Amazon sales rank (ASR) provides an indication of the popularity of a product sold on any
Amazon locale. It is a relative indicator of popularity that is updated hourly. Effectively, it is a "best sellers
list" for the millions of products stocked by Amazon. While the ASR has no direct effect on the sales of a
product, it is used by Amazon to determine which products to include in its best-sellers lists. Products that
appear in these lists enjoy additional exposure on the Amazon website and this may lead to an increase in
sales. In particular, products that experience large jumps (up or down) in their sales ranks may be included
within Amazon's lists of "movers and shakers"; such a listing provides additional exposure that might lead to
an increase in sales. For competitive reasons, Amazon does not release actual sales figures to the public.
However, Amazon has now begun to release point of sale data via the Nielsen Book Scan service to verified
authors. While the ASR has been the source of much speculation by publishers, manufacturers and marketers,
Amazon itself does not release the details of its sales rank calculation algorithm. Some companies have
analyzed Amazon sales data to generate sales estimates based on the ASR, though Amazon states:
Please keep in mind that our sales rank figures are simply meant to be a guide of general interest for the
customer and not definitive sales information for publishers—we assume you have this information regularly
from your distribution sources

Amazon's technology

Customer Relationship Management (CRM) and Information Management (IM) support Amazon's business
strategy. The core technology that keeps Amazon running is Linux-based. As of 2005, Amazon had the
world's three largest Linux databases, with capacities of 7.8 TB, 18.5
TB and 24.7 TB. The central data warehouse of Amazon is made of 28 Hewlett Packard Enterprise servers
with four CPUs per node running Oracle database software. Amazon's technology architecture handles
millions of back-end operations every day, as well as queries from more than half a million third-party sellers.
With hundreds of thousands of people sending their credit card numbers to Amazon's servers every day,
security becomes a major concern. Amazon employs Netscape Secure Commerce Server using the Secure
Socket Layer protocol which stores all credit card details in a separate database. The company also records
data on customer buyer behavior which enables them to offer or recommend to an individual specific item, or
bundles of items based upon preferences demonstrated through purchases or items visited. Amazon runs data
centers for its online services and owns generators or purchases electricity corresponding to its consumption,
mostly renewable energy.The US Navy has stated that its Relocatable Radar remains operable regardless of an
Amazon wind farm.
On January 31, 2013 Amazon experienced an outage that lasted approximately 49 minutes, leaving its site
inaccessible to some customers.

27
On May 5, 2014 Amazon unveiled a partnership with Twitter. Twitter users can link their accounts to an
Amazon account and automatically add items to their shopping carts by responding to any tweet with an
Amazon product link bearing the hashtag # Amazon Cart. This allows customers to never leave their Twitter
feed and the product is waiting for them when they go to the Amazon website.

Today, a dynamic, fast-paced environment that extends across national boundaries

demands a new kind of executive. Human connections are becoming crucial for building
effective teams and multi-level collaborative relationships.

Aim of the Organization

“We aim to be Earth’s most customer centric company. Our mission is to continually raise the bar of the

customer experience by using the internet and technology to help consumers find, discover and buy anything,

and empower businesses and content creators to maximize their

Success.”

We aim to be Earth’s most customer centric company. Our mission is to continually raise the bar of the
customer experience by using the internet and technology to help consumers find, discover and buy anything,
and empower businesses and content creators to maximize their success.

We believe this mission is important for the UK because digital empowerment for customers and businesses
improves living standards for people up and down the country and drives our economic competitiveness and
productivity in a global economy.

We will continue to push at the boundaries of how technology – digital infrastructure and services – can
improve the customer experience and help make the economies of the countries where we operate more
competitive on the global stage.

28
 Mission and Vision of the Organization

Mission of the organization

Amazon’s mission statement is to “serve consumers through online and physical stores and focus on selection,
price, and convenience.” Amazon’s vision statement is “to be Earth’s most customer-centric company, where
customers can find and discover anything they might want to buy online, and endeavors to offer its customers
the lowest possible prices.”

As pointed out by Amazon, “when Amazon.com launched in 1995, it was with the mission “to be Earth’s most
customer-centric company, where customers can find and discover anything they might want to buy online,
and endeavors to offer its customers the lowest possible prices.” In its annual report for 2019, Amazon
highlights its mission as to “serve consumers through online and physical stores and focus on selection, price,
and convenience.”

• Selection.
• Price.
• Convenience

I’ve highlighted in Amazon Flywheel or Virtuous Cycle how this focus has been in place since the start, and it
has been one of the critical elements of Amazon speed!

The Amazon Flywheel or Amazon Virtuous Cycle is a strategy that leverages customer experience to drive
traffic to the platform and third-party sellers. That improves the selections of goods, and Amazon further
improves its cost structure so it can decrease prices which spins the flywheel.

29
 Vision of the organization

Amazon vision statement is an extension of its mission as “to be Earth’s most customer-centric company,
where customers can find and discover anything they might want to buy online, and endeavors to offer its
customers the lowest possible prices.”
However, its vision gets traction from a core belief summarized as always being in “day one.” Jeff Bezos
explained day one in these terms, “day 2 is stasis. Followed by irrelevance.
Followed by excruciating, painful decline. Followed by death. And that is why it is always Day 1. “
Now, it might be easy to say that Jeff Bezos made it, so he can say whatever he likes. However, he has been
obsessed with this concept since the beginning. In the 1997 Shareholders Letter, Jeff Bezos explained:

But this is Day 1 for the Internet and, if we execute well, for Amazon.com. Today, online
commerce saves customers money and precious time. Tomorrow, through personalization,
online commerce will accelerate the very process of discovery. Amazon.com uses the Internet to
create real value for its customers and, by doing so, hopes to create an enduring franchise, even
in established and large markets.
At the time Amazon focused on:
• Long-term.
• Obsess over customers.
• Infrastructure.
• Employees.
It all starts from there. In 2016 Jeff Bezos highlighted a few core values that made up Amazon‘s
culture:
• Customer obsession.
• Resist proxies.
• Embrace external trends.
• High-velocity decision making.
It is worth exploring how Amazon deals with being a customer-obsessed company. Indeed, most businessmen
know that exceeding each time customer’s expectations isn’t’ a simple game. And as expectations are met and
exceeded customers become more and more accustomed to the quality of the service, until they grow
unsatisfied.

Thus, how does Amazon keep up with that?

Breaking down customer-centrism according to Amazon

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Customer obsession goes beyond quantitative and qualitative data about customers, and it moves around
customers’ feedback to gather valuable insights. Those insights start by the entrepreneur’s wandering
process, driven by hunch, gut, intuition, curiosity, and a builder mindset. The product discovery moves
around a building, reworking, experimenting, and iterating loop.

Customer obsession was also highlighted in the 2017 Shareholders Letter as a critical parameter:
The American Customer Satisfaction Index recently announced the results of its annual survey,
and for the 8th year in a row customers ranked Amazon #1
Amazon is aware of the fact that customer obsession isn’t an easy game. And in the 2017
Shareholders Letter, Jeff Bezos highlighted:
One thing I love about customers is that they are divinely discontent. Their expectations are
never static – they go up. It’s human nature. We didn’t ascend from our hunter-gatherer days by
being satisfied. People have a voracious appetite for a better way, and yesterday’s ‘wow’
quickly becomes today’s ‘ordinary’.
This puts Amazon in a cycle where not being able to exceed customers’ expectations can make
Its flywheel slow down. Jeff Bezos specified:
I see that cycle of improvement happening at a faster rate than ever before. It may be because
customers have such easy access to more information than ever before – in only a few seconds
and with a couple taps on their phones, customers can read reviews, compare prices from
multiple retailers, see whether something’s in stock, find out how fast it will ship or be available
for pick-up, and more.
Thus, how do you stay ahead of this game? Jeff Bezos offers us the answer:
There’s no single way to do it – it’s a combination of many things. But high standards (widely
deployed and at all levels of detail) are certainly a big part of it. We’ve had some successes over
the years in our quest to meet the high expectations of customers. We’ve also had billions of
dollars’ worth of failures along the way.
For Jeff Bezos, high standards have four core characteristics:
The four elements of high standards as we see it: they are teachable, they are domain specific,
you must recognize them, and you must explicitly coach realistic scope. For us, these work at all
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levels of detail. Everything from writing memos to whole new, clean-sheet business initiatives.
We hope they help you too.

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 CHAPTER 5

DATA ANALYSIS & INTERPRETATION

An executive career is often likened to a ladder. While there is a certain logic to this, the reality is that it is a
flawed analogy. While slight vertigo means I can’t claim to be an expert on ladders, those I’ve seen are
generally as wide at the bottom as the top, and the steps are typically spaced equidistantly.

The executive firms aim to proactively source the right candidate on behalf of the client company.
They don’t simply forward resumes from applicants, as they can find the good leadership role too.

This is a major difference to what an executive might experience earlier in the organization. The job of
these advisers is to go out and find the very best candidate for a role – be they an ‘active’ or a ‘passive
candidate’ and to persuade his/her to take the job.

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 Effective Practices for Recruiting Successful Candidates

✔ Although most companies recruit outside of their organizations, internal candidates generally outperform external
candidates.

✔ Recruit internally if your organization has the following characteristics:

• A good number of internal candidates, especially non-CEO directors and stakeholders.

• Larger size organization.

• High firm performance.

✔ Keep in mind that recruiting internally also requires good succession planning and leadership development programs

Effective Practices for Defining Executive Attributes

✔ Be as specific as possible about the attributes your organization needs in each of four categories: cognitive, social,
business and strategic.

✔ Understand that important attributes will vary depending upon the level of the executive and the position
requirements.

✔ Always consider the importance of character, ethics and integrity.

✔ Include attributes related to learning, adapting and responding to dynamic environments.

✔ Add newer, emerging attributes to your traditional list, including collaboration, global leadership, talent management
and skills in managing change.
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✔ Incorporate attributes that appear in recent studies of leadership skills and competencies: Leadership
Skills

• Collaboration

• Managing change

• Effective team building

• Exercising influence without authority

• Driving innovation Leadership competencies

• Motivating the team

• Facilitating change

• Developing talent

• Making tough decisions

✔ Most important: Make sure that you clearly link executive attribute requirements to executive position requirements
so that you understand how each relates to overall performance expectations.

OUTSIDER SUCCESSION HAS BEEN SHOWN TO RESULT IN LOWER POST-

SUCCESSION PERFORMANCE, WHILE INTERNAL SUCCESSION IS ASSOCIATED WITH
HIGHER SUBSEQUENT PERFORMANCE

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 CHAPTER 6
RESEARCH METHODOLOGY

Amazon during the dot-com bubble

As you can notice above, Amazon managed to survive the dot-com bubble. While its revenues grew from 1997
to 2001 as a result of the aggressive expansion, the company’s losses mounted. During that time, Amazon’s
employee base grew from 158 to 614. That was a time when management, leadership, and culture started to
play a critical role in Amazon’s success. Indeed, if we were to break down or have a theory around what makes
a company able to scale, there is the core which is represented by a must-have product or a service which
obsesses over customer experience.
To gain further traction, the company needs a strong business model. And as it scales, culture might become
extremely important. Thus, it might look something like that:

That is why, as Amazon scaled up and as it started to expand its products aggressively it has also to find
business model-market fit.

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By 2001, Amazon had that!
The company, had not only expanded its selection away from books and into many other categories.

But it had also opened up its platform to third-party sellers which helped further grow Amazon
customer base, by following the Amazon flywheel model:

At the time, Amazon also strategically opened to third-party sellers to enhance its brand. In other words, where
today Amazon might host third-party sellers which might be primarily small businesses.

Value Chain analysis

Value chain analysis is an analytical framework that assists in identifying business activities that can create
value and competitive advantage to the business. Figure 1 below illustrates the essence of Amazon value chain
analysis.

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 Figure 1 Amazon Value Chain Analysis

Amazon Primary Activities

Amazon Inbound logistics

Generally, Amazon does not have long-term contracts or arrangements with its vendors to guarantee the
availability of merchandise, particular payment terms, or the extension of credit limits. Fulfilment by Amazon
(FBA) is the cornerstone of Amazon inbound logistics for company-owned retail business. Moreover, the
economies of scale is an important source of value creation for Amazon inbound logistics.

Sellers can also use FBA by stowing their inventory in Amazon fulfilment centers. In this case, Amazon
assumes full responsibility for logistics, customer service, and product returns. If a customer orders an FBA
item and an Amazon owned-inventory item, the company ships both items to the customer in one box, as a
significant gain of efficiency. The use of FBA is an optional choice for sellers and this choice makes the
products of third-party seller’s eligible for Amazon Prime free two-day shipping, free shipping and other
benefits.

Amazon uses logistics beyond the point to serve Amazon Marketplace and starting from recently, the company
has been offering logistics services to others. For example, Beijing Century Joyo Courier Services, an Amazon
subsidiary registered with the U.S. government as an ocean shipping provider. From this point of view,
efficient logistics infrastructure also belongs to the list of Amazon competitive advantages.

Amazon Operations

Amazon operations are organized into three segments:

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1. North America. This segment operates North America-focused websites such as www.amazon.com,
www.amazon.ca, and www.amazon.com.mx. Sales in this segment increased by 33% in 2017 and 2018,
compared to the comparable prior years.

2. International. This segment operates internationally-focused websites such as www.amazon.com.au,

www.amazon.com.br, www.amazon.cn and others. International sales increased by 23% and 21% in 2017, and
2018 respectively. Revenues from international operations are subject to changes in currency exchange rates.
Specifically, changes in foreign currency exchange rates impacted international net sales by USD (489)
million, USD138 million, and USD1.3 billion in 2016, 2017, and 2018, respectively.

3. Amazon Web Services (AWS). This segment deals with global sales of computing, storage, database,
and other service offerings for start-ups, enterprises, government agencies, and academic institutions. AWS
sales increased by 43% and 47% in 2017 and 2018, compared to the comparable prior years.
AWS offers pay-as-you-go cloud storage, compute resources, networking and computing services and its major
customers include Interest, Dropbox, and Airing. Moreover, AWS is positioned as a platform for building
applications and businesses like GE, Major League Baseball, Tata Motors, and Qantas have built applications
ranging from apps for crowdsourcing and personalized healthcare to mobile apps for managing fleets of trucks
on the basis of AWS.

A creative and innovative approach to problem-solving is one of the major sources of value creation associated
with Amazon operations. Specifically, the tech giant initially developed cloud storage and cloud compute
resources for its own business needs in an attempt to sophisticate its business operations. Later the company
commercialized cloud services once its benefits became evident.

Amazon Outbound Logistics

Generally, Amazon outbound logistics integrates the following:

1. Fulfilment centers. The e-commerce giant operates 109 fulfilment centers around the globe and the
company uses robotic technology in an extensive manner to manage receipt, stowing, picking, and shipment of
products.

2. Co-sourced and outsourced arrangements.

3. Digital delivery. These relate to products and services that can be downloaded from Amazon website.

4. Physical stores. The e-commerce giant acquired Whole Foods chain in 2017. The company has
generated USD 4, 3 billion revenues in Q2, 2018 from physical stores sales alone.

Traditionally, Amazon had relied upon the services of overnight delivery businesses such as UPS, FedEx and
TNT. However, during the past decade the largest internet retailer in the world by revenue has been investing
aggressively in its own logistics system. Its logistics system comprises increasing numbers of planes, trains,

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ships, vans, and trucks. The online retail giant has also announced Amazon Prime Air (a drone delivery system)
and Amazon Flex (gig economy based intra metro delivery service).

As it is illustrated in Figure 2 below, as a result of these and other initiatives Amazon has been successfully
decreasing its dependence on third-party courier companies, consequently taking shipping in-house.

Figure 2 Changes in Amazon shipping patterns it has been noted that Amazon’s enhancing logistics network
consisting of planes, trains, ships, vans, and trucks are not just for moving its own packages. Industry analysts
note that the tech giant may soon compete with FedEx and UPS for the global delivery business.

Amazon Marketing and Sales

Amazon’s annual global marketing expenses have been consistently increasing during the past seven years to
exceed USD 13.8 billion in 2018. This includes advertising and other promotional costs that amounted to
USD 5.0 billion, USD 6.3 billion, and USD 8.2 billion in 2016, 2017, and 2018 respectively.

In 2016, Amazon spent more on marketing than Wal-Mart Stores, Target, Best Buy, Home Depot, and Kroger
combined. Therefore, it can be argued that marketing and sales is one of the major sources of value in
Amazon chain of operations, but this value is generated thanks to excessive marketing investments.

Amazon marketing message conveys the promises of the largest selection of products and services, attractive
prices, fast delivery of products and overall superior customer services. Several components of the marketing
communication mix such as print and media advertising, sales promotion, events and experiences, public
relations and direct marketing are used in an integrated way in order to communicate the marketing message
to the target customer segment.

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 CHAPTER 7

FINDINGS

1) Why do companies make the decision to hire an executive search firm?

1.Companies decide to hire an executive search firm because they have a leadership role to fill that’s both
critical and time sensitive to their business, and they need to be confident that they have the very best candidate
for that role (not just the best person in their networks or who can be found on LinkedIn).

2. Companies choose an executive search partner over in-house resources because the internal team doesn’t
have the time, expertise, network, or skill set to achieve the desired goal.

2) What types of executive search firms are out there?

1. A firm that works on a retained basis is paid fees at the onset of a search. While speed is always a desired
factor, finding the "perfect fit" candidate is the goal of retained searches.

2. Many executive search firms specialize in some way, by industry (e.g. “We serve the BioPharma industry”)
or by position (e.g. “We are the CRO experts”), They also vary by the way they approach searches—
contingency or retained. A firm that works on a contingency basis gets paid contingent on hiring someone.

3. Executive search firms may also differentiate by providing other types of recruiting services, like RPO
(recruitment process outsourcing) services. Companies lean on RPO providers to expand their existing HR
team or outsource their recruiting function entirely. It’s a great option if you need to scale up or down quickly
without hiring a full in-house team…especially if you need to scale back later.

3) How do executive search firms find candidates?

1. Great executive search firms don’t simply pull great candidates from their databases like rabbits out of a hat.
They approach searches through a number of angles, including:

• Activating their peer network to learn the thought leaders in the space

• Identifying who has been successful in similar companies

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 • Researching social channels and internal databases

2. When you rely on just one of these angles, you’ll get misleading information. According to Dave Melville,
CEO and Founder of The Bowdoin Group, “When you conduct deep research into all of these angles, certain
names light up, and they keep lighting up the more you dig into it. Start with them.”

3. The biggest risk recruiters make is being overly reliant on their network. Melville says, “We all want to help
our friends. While a friend may be the right person for the role, it’s important to validate that in the market.
Jumping to “known” candidates without doing your due diligence is the fastest path to hiring the wrong
person.” Especially in today’s day and age, hiring managers must think about diversity, equity, and inclusion as
they build their teams. As executive recruiters, it is our job to provide a diverse slate of candidates to show
leaders that the “right” candidate may be just outside the specs.

4) How long does an executive search typically take?

1. The process for executive hires generally takes 90 days from start to offer, although the timeline
can be affected by a number of factors, like the organization’s capacity to make decisions quickly and
competitiveness of the market.

2. While you can estimate that the entire process will take 90 days, 95% of the time, a great search firm will
have identified the candidate you will eventually hire in the first 30 days. You’ll still have to go through the
interview process, but much of the research is complete within that first month.

5) What advice do you have for executive candidates to ensure they can be found?

Melville says this best:

“Don’t hide. Calling on an executive search firm is a good first step, but we tend to focus on the searches we’re
involved in at the moment.” He recommends that you keep your public profile updated (and not just your
LinkedIn profile). “Have coffee with people, sit on panels, publish thought leadership. Step outside of your
bubble and connect with people. Trust me—it works.”

6) What advice do you have for companies considering an executive search?

You’ll want to answer four questions before you decide to partner with any executive search firm:

42
1. Does this firm have the ability to represent my company the way I want them to?

2. Do they understand what we’re trying to achieve as a business?

3. Do we trust each other enough to have real conversations?

4. Do they have a track record of success in searches similar to mine?

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 CHAPTER 10

SUGGESTIONS

The first and most important step in executive recruiting is to do your research. It should go without saying that
you need to prepare very well in order to find and hire the best executive for your company. Start by crafting
the perfect job description. Feel free to use the job description templates, but make sure you customize them to
fit your own needs.

• Leverage employee referrals

When it comes to recruiting executives, networking is the way to go. Utilize the connections and the networks
of the existing leaders in your company. Try to find someone who knows your targeted executive candidate or
who can suggest a few executives suitable for the position you are looking to fill. Go above and beyond to
leverage personal contact, social media connections and employee referrals.

• Think outside the box

include your current employees, alumnus, investors, board members and other relevant stakeholders in your
search for executives. Be discrete and maintain confidentiality Make sure that you demonstrate the highest
level of professionalism when contacting potential C-level candidates.

According to the previously mentioned Experteer study:

• 86.9% of executive candidates prefer being contacted through a private email address or via online
networks (77.9%).

When contacting your potential executive candidates through their private email or personal social media
profile, ensure them that you will maintain confidentiality and be discrete throughout the whole process.

• Build relationships

The critical part of executive recruiting is building relationships with your candidates. In order to do that, you
need to adopt a highly personalized approach. The candidate should always be in the focus of your recruitment
process.

Remember, the best executive candidates are hard to find and even harder to persuade to make a move. This is
why you shouldn’t attempt to sell your position immediately. Instead, focus on getting to know your candidate
first.

• Discover their drive

After establishing the first contact with your executive candidates, try to get to know them better.
You need to discover what drives them.
• Provide a great candidate experience
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When recruiting any candidate today, you really need to work hard to provide the best possible candidate
experience. When it comes to executive recruiting, your efforts to improve your candidate experience
should be scaled 10X.

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 CHAPTER: 8

RECOMMENDATION

.New approaches to executive search and executive resource planning are required if these functions are to
have a strategic impact on improving organizational performance. The need to map and match specific
executive perspectives and competencies to the future needs of the business is required if executive search
and executive resource planning are to become strategic management tools. This paper examines the three
“drivers” of strategic leadership and provides a framework for synchronizing specific executive perspectives
and competencies to these three drivers.
A case study illustrates bow common practices such as raiding direct competitors for executive talent or
always promoting from within may be counterproductive to the strategic needs of the business.
Recommendations for applying these new concepts at the board corporate, and strategic business unit level
are made.

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 CHAPTER 9

CONCLUSION

Failure rates among top executives and CEOs have continued to escalate over the last decade. To combat this
trend, succession planning and the retention of effective executives is one of the most urgent challenges for any
company. Unfortunately, those responsible for hiring often overlook the best practices researchers have
identified for executive selection. There is no substitute for understanding your own organization as a
prerequisite for a successful executive talent search. Devoting time and attention to defining position
requirements and choosing the right assessment tools are essential steps in picking winners for your firm and
ensuring its future success.

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 CHAPTER 11

BIBILOGRAPHY

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amazon_(company) https://www.britannica.com/topic/Amazoncom

https://www.aboutamazon.co.uk/news/job-creation-and-investment/our-
mission#:~:text=%E2%80%9CWe%20aim%20to%20be%20Earth's,creators%20to%20maximise
%20their%20success.%E2%80%9D

https://fourweekmba.com/amazon-vision-statement-mission-
statement/#:~:text=Amazon's%20mission%20statement%20is%20to,and%20endeavors%20to%2
0offer%20its https://www.talentis.global/insights/how-executive-search-firms-find-candidates/

https://www.bowdoingroup.com/our-services/

https://www.shrm.org/hr-today/trends-and-forecasting/special-reports-and-expertviews/documents/executive-
talent.pdf

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