This week, Team C continued to analyze Amazon.

The team investigated and descri bed the relationship between Amazons strategic and financial planning. Together, Team C was able to [Wordiness: this phrase can be simplified to one word--"coul d"] find a strategic planning initiative. The proceeding [Check spelling--a "p roceeding" is a legal action, an event, or an official record of something; the "preceding" means "that which took place earlier"] explicates how the initiativ e affects Amazons financial planning in their costs and sales. Like all [Writin g suggestion: "All" or "all of" used as an intensifier very often can be removed with no loss of meaning] businesses, Amazon faces risks associated with the ini tiative and financial effects. It is imperative to plan properly in order to [W riting suggestion--the meaning will be the same (and less wordy) by removing "in order"] minimize these risks as much as possible. Strategic Planning initiative In 1995, Jeff Bezos founded Amazon.com. The company initially started in Bezos ga rage and within 30 days, had sold books in all 50 states and 45 foreign countrie s. Eventually, Amazon.com grew to become the online giant we [Use "we," "us," or "our" to mean yourself and coauthors, not general humanity (or yourself and the reader)] know today. [Move the period to follow the citation] (Jeff Bezos Bio graphy, n.d.). The companys mission statement is to be earths most customer centric company; to build a place where people can come to find and discover anything t hey might want to buy online (Amazon.com [If this URL is in a citation, it shoul d not appear here but rather on the references page] Mission Statement, n.d.). Bezos leadership style along with Amazons commitment to its mission statement has proven very successful for the company. Amazon.coms current annual 10K report to the SEC reflects Bezos original strategic initiative. The consumer is served [The passive voice is a form of "be" (is) an d a participle (served). Over-use of the passive voice can make paragraphs offic ious and tedious to read. Prefer the active voice. For example, passive voice = The paper was completed on time. Active voice = the student completed the paper on time. See Center for Writing Excellence > Tutorials & Guides > Grammar & Writ ing Guides > Active & passive voice] through the website and various retail web sites affiliated with Amazon.com (Amazon Com Inc 10k, 2012, pg. 6). Third part s ellers can sell their merchandize on the Amazon website where orders can be fulf illed [Passive voice ] by Amazon (pg. 6.). Amazon.com also realized that not pr edicting customer demand accurately could harm the business. Although risk is i nvolved [Passive voice ] , Amazon.com seeks to expand its operations further in order to [Writing suggestion--the meaning will be the same (and less wordy) by r emoving "in order"] provide excellent customer service and availability to the U.S. [In academic writing, this abbreviation should be used solely as an adject ive; otherwise, write out United States] and International [Do not capitalize w ithout the complete name of the institution (unless in a citation or as the firs t word in a sentence)] consumers. [Insert comma here to set off the adjective p hrase beginning with "according to" (unless it is a dependent phrase)] According to Amazon COM Inc 2012 10k Report, Capital expenditures were $1.8 billion, $979 million, and $373 million in 2011, 2010, and 2009, with the sequential increase s primarily reflecting additional investments in support of continued business g rowth due to investments in technology infrastructure, including AWS, and additi onal capacity to support our fulfillment operations. We expect this trend to con tinue over time. Financial Planning Amazon is not afraid of a little financial risk if it means that it could expand its customer base and improve the customer service experience. Jeff Bezos main tains the same basic financial plan and goals as he did upon the founding of his company in 1997. So much so that each year in his letter to the shareholders h e attaches the original letter from the companies founding year (Bezos, 2011). At the end of the first year off operation Bezos stated that Amazon is a corpor ation that is [Wordiness: see if you can remove "that" or "that is"] focused [P assive voice ] on the long term to ensure continued value for its shareholders (2011). Amazon continues this mission by focusing on customer service and longterm stability above short-term gain (Bezos, 2011). Amazon looks past the immed

iate gain possible on Wall Street to the future profitability. When company lea ders see the possibility of significant long-term gain or cornering a new market , the company is not afraid to take the risk to invest aggressively despite the risk that is always present in aggressive strategies (Bezos, 2011). The expansi on of online books and [Grammar: A run-on sentence requires a comma before "and " (or other conjunction) linking main clauses] the Kindle is one example of a fi nancial risk and innovation that has paid off in multitudes (Bezos, 2011). The Kindle and online books for purchase have revolutionized how people read. When Amazon first backed the Kindle, it was the first of its kind and a huge financia l risk. Now ["Now" is a difficult word. Because this is being read some time a fter you wrote it, "now" is ambiguous--do you mean at the time you were writing? When was that? If you mean "as of the present time" (Hawaii is now a state), yo u can leave out "now." If the time or date is important, fill it in. If the essa y is in the past tense, instead of "now," use "then"] books on this type of devi ce are the most commonly read. In order to [Writing suggestion--the meaning wil l be the same (and less wordy) by removing "in order"] continue to make money t he corporation focuses on growth and innovation. Bezos also puts an emphasis on maximizing present value and future cash flows even above the appearance of the ir GAAP accounting procedures (2011). Investors in Amazon can sleep soundly kno wing that their money is with a company that has a financial focus towards [The preferred spelling is "toward"] the distant future. Effects of Initiative on Costs In order for a company to be successful, the company should have in mind of the importance of developing strategic goals. Amazon has become a successful company because of the goal setting it has achieved within the company. The strategic i nitiative plan that Amazon has taken will show to be successful and is the path the company will need to stay on to continue their growth. Strategic Planning In itiative of Amazon is proven [Passive voice ] to be a profitable company and is evident in their 10k filing for 2012 even in tight economic times. Strategic go als help a company organize their efforts to see the greater vision of the compa ny. According to "Strategic Planning", [Place commas and periods inside quotation ma rks] [A period or comma goes inside the closing quotation mark] (Amazon procure ment of its strategic initiative, Zappos would positively affect its cost since Zappos has over 100 shareholder and investors who will be exchanging their Zappo s stock for Amazons stock and when this was done, Amazon became the only stockhol der of Zappos stock). Their stock cost per share will increase in the marketplace. Amazon and Zappos each had a large customer base before Amazon decided to buy Zappos. Now that [Since this is being read after you wrote it, "Now" and "Now t hat" are vague. Do you mean as of the time you were writing? When was that? To i ndicate a step or a point in a sequence, use "When." If indicating actions since some event in the past, try "Since," "As," etc. ] Amazon has acquired Zappos th ey have expanded their customer base even more and boast one of the largest for any company in this market. According to "Strategic Planning", [Place commas and periods inside quotation marks] [A period or comma goes inside the closing qu otation mark] (Both Amazon and Zappos are focused on growth and they will need to hire more people to help them grow so that this growth will cause some of their variable cost to increase, but invariably will also increase profitability and positive cash flow). Effects of Initiative on Sales Amazon knows that the way to grow as a company is to stick with the original mis sion of being [Doctoral rule (but good advice for any academic writer)--If not a noun (as in "human being"), the word "Being" is hard to imagine; it means "exi sting." Try to rewrite this without using "being"--with action words like "atten ding," "working," "living," "experiencing," simply "as"--or even removing "being " completely] the place where customers can come to buy anything online. The fut ure of Amazon is then [consider removing "then"] dependent on using third-party groups and selling their products on Amazon.com, which will affect the overall [Wordiness: unless meaning denim work clothes, "overall" is general and vague an d contributes little to the sentence] sales (Amazon.com [If this URL is in a ci

tation, it should not appear here but rather on the references page] Mission St atement, n.d.). Bezos is quoted [Passive voice ] saying "Were driving a lot of d emand for third-party sellers," "We need to continue expanding into new product categories and increasing the depth of selection of those that we are already in " (Behr, 2012) [The citation for a direct quote needs the page number] . Amazon is working hard to add third-party sellers, but also [Remove comm a (if the following is not an independent clause or last element in a series)] to ensure that customers are using the site. One way Amazon is using the initiat ive to affect sales is to offer free shipping on select orders, often free shipp ing on orders over a certain price. While ["While" is accurate in linking simul taneous events (meaning "during"), but if that is not the case here, use "althou gh," "whereas," "and," or "but"] this may affect sales negatively with the loss of the shipping fees, it [Writing suggestion: often you can remove "With" and " it" (and the comma before "it" if present), simplifying the sentence-- the loss of the shipping fees] will increase sales for those customers who might have oth erwise shopped at a brick and mortar competitor such as [Place comma before "suc h as" if the following is a nonrestrictive phrase (meaning its information does not define or restrict--it merely illustrates " mortar competitor"). If the sent ence ended here, would it communicate a clear message? If so, the nonrestrictive phrase should be separated from the rest of the sentence by a comma] Barnes an d Nobles Bookstore. Amazon is also increasing sales with the addition of the Ama zon services, where Amazon will set up retailers such as [Insert comma if the fo llowing is a nonrestrictive phrase] Toys R Us and Target with web operations and sell their products on Amazon.com for a fee. The addition of Amazon services is bringing in a great deal to the overall sales through Amazon (Behr, 2012). Risks and Their Financial Effects Every initiative whether by a big or small organization comes with some form of risk. These risks include the following. First is the unleashing of latent confl icts that may damage working relationships or the operations of departments or e ven the entire organization. Also, [Remove comma (unless introducing a nonrestr ictive phrase)] the revealing of organizational weaknesses for which there may b e no easy remedy. Furthermore [Insert comma after this introductory word (or ph rase)] the investing of considerable time and money at a very high opportunity c osts with little or no gain if the strategic planning process is not successfull y completed. Again is the short-term [Only as an adjective is this word hyphena ted; as a noun, spell it as two words, e.g., We stayed for a short term] introdu ction of high levels of uncertainty and anxiety into the life of the organizatio n. In addition the potential loss of capital and staff whose contribution may n o longer be justified [Passive voice ] within a new or re-defined organizationa l mission. We are rapidly and significantly expanding our global operations, incl uding increasing our product and service offerings and scaling our infrastructur e to support our retail and services businesses. This expansion increases the co mplexity of our business and places significant strain on our management, person nel, operations, systems, technical performance, financial resources, and intern al financial control and reporting functions. We may not be able to manage growt h effectively, which could damage our reputation, limit our growth and negativel y affect our operating results. [Move the period to follow the citation] (Amazon .com [If this URL is in a citation, it should not appear here but rather on the references page] Annual report, p.6 [Leave a space before the number] ) This means that, [Remove comma (unless it introduces a nonrestrictive phrase)] the risk associated with initiative or expansion affects an organization both fi nancially and human resources. Conclusion Team C was able to [Wordiness: this phrase can be simplified to one word --"could"] understand Amazons relationship between strategic and financial plann ing. It is clear that Amazon is not afraid of a little financial risk as long a s they could expand thier customer base and improve the customer service experie nce. Amazon has also become an extremely successful business due to the fact th at [Wordiness: avoid "due to the fact that" in academic or business writing. Use simply "because"] they set goals for themselves and throughout the company.

It is because of this type of strategic planning that Amazon will minimize their risks while also continuing to grow.

References Amazon.com Mission Statement (n.d.). Retrieved from http://retailindustry.about. com/od/retailbestpractices/ig/Company-Mission-Statements/Amazon-com-Mission-stat ement.htm Behr, M. A. (2012). eweek.com. Retrieved from http://www.eweek.com/c/a/Cloud-Com puting/Will-Amazoncoms-Growth-Strategy-Work/1/ Bezos, J. Biography (n.d.). Academy of Achievement. Retrieved from http://www.ac hievement.org/autodoc/page/bez0bio-1.Amazon COM Inc 10k (2012.) Retrieved from ? Bezos, J. (n.d.). 2011 Letter to Shareholders. Retrieved May 20, 2012, from Amaz on.com: http://phx.corporate-ir.net/phoenix.zhtml?c=97664&p=irol-proxy Strategic Planning. Retrieved from http://www.bignerds.com