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eBay and Amazon

eBay CEO John Donahoe’s leadership style is more laid back, a lot more vague, general and includes less principles. He believes in staying true to an individual’s personal values and that an employee cannot be forced to perform a task he or she cannot perform. Donahoe asserts that it is only possible to assist individuals help themselves and illuminating what needs to be done as well as emphasizing on efficient and direct communication (Dutta Web). The changes he initiated such as reducing some fees while raising the percentage the company gets from final prices is believed by sellers as a move to disenfranchise them. Donahoe makes changes without regarding the impact on other stakeholders.

eBay puts itself as a diverse and socially responsible company that encourages creativity amongst the employees respects their workforce as well as their background. The company does not discriminate against her employees but rather employs based on qualifications and abilities. The organization’s commitment in social responsibility includes programs such as the eBay Foundation and the eBay Green Team. The internal culture is dependent on trust, respect, independence, enablement and inspiration hence employees are required to be honest in their dealings and treat each other with respect. Open communication is encouraged where employees are empowered to voice their ideas and oppositions as the management is also encouraged to initiate recommendations and embrace non-hierarchical team based approach to issues (Dutta Web).

Amazon CEO, Jeff Bezos is a stubborn but flexible leader that pays attention to the industry trends and adjusts the business strategies to fit the industrial demands. He is a straight talking leader who sums up situations in few words and empowers employees to apply their human intelligence to solve the company’s problems. He further believes in identifying the risks and eliminating not just reducing them. Bezzo also identifies the best performing people in any field and gives them resources to ensure the project is successful and further aids in identifying the ideas that promote innovativeness (Stone Web). Additionally, he constantly encourages his employees to experiment and does no fear failure as this may lead to new ideas that are more satisfying to customers. Importantly, Bezzo believes in the idea that “the customer is always right” and therefore focuses much on the customers’ feedback, proper packaging and quality products. He is convinced that Amazon should begin with customer’s needs then eventually work its way backwards as this expands and grows business (Stone Web).

There is belief that delays in delivering what customers want is a defect that is eradicated as much as possible. Amazon does not allow bureaucracy in her procedures, employees are encouraged to work outside the scope of their positions, and that they should do everything that benefits the company. The company has the “Just Do It” honour for employees who go beyond their job titles in the name of benefiting the company. Employees are encouraged to create solutions to the Amazon’s operations. Bezos who is the CEO at Amazon empowers employees to develop experimentation culture that does not condemn failure provided that it results in new lessons (Stone Web).

According to Stone, new ideas are tested because nothing can work before it is tried thus making the users to experience new features constantly (Web). At Amazon, there is always constant pressure to perform that has prompted a grinding pace of work and that only exceptional employees are promoted. An OLR custom includes biannual meetings where top management debate on the effectiveness of their subordinates that may lead to either promotion or dismissal depending on their (employees) performance.

Works Cited

Dutta, Rajiv. eBay’s Meg Whitman on Building a Company’s Culture. BloombergBusinessweek, 27 May 2009. Web. 18 Nov. 2013. <http://www.businessweek.com/managing/content/mar2009/ca20090327_626373.htm>.

Stone, Brad. Why It’s So Difficult To Climb Amazon’s Corporate Ladder. BloombergBusinessweek, 15 Oct. 2013. Web. 18 Nov. 2013. <http://www.businessweek.com/articles/2013-10-15/careers-at-amazon-why-its-so-hard-to-climb-jeff-bezoss-corporate-ladder>.