The organizational structure of Amazon

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The organizational structure of Amazon 

Amazon.com service and experience have been the foundation of the company’s 

success, and yet the features of the company’s organizational structure also play a 

big role. What has to do with Amazon’s organizational structure is that it provides 

comprehensive top-down control over global e-commerce operations. This is ideal 

because the company has different operations in different business areas. As a 

leading online business, Amazon must maintain a structure that supports its diverse 

and rapidly expanding market opportunities. 

Amazon’s organizational structure is a functional structure that focuses on 

different business functions and components as a basis for determining the 

interactions and reporting relationships between different components. As can be 

seen  from Amazon’s organizational structure, it consists of three main 

components: 

• Common global hierarchy 

• Function-based global groups 

• Geographical divisions with their own divisions 

General Global Hierarchy: Corporations swear by hierarchical structures. They 

were the first type of organizational structures, and most large businesses still use 

them globally, especially as Amazon. In the example of Amazon.com, the 

hierarchy is represented in terms of a global system of specific powers that have a 

significant impact on the firm’s operations. For example, Jeff Bezos exercises final 

control over all senior executives and managers who voluntarily or through Jeff 

Bezos directs the sectors under his control. These guidelines will affect all relevant 

offices of the company worldwide. These are such comprehensive hierarchies that 

they provide complete management control over entire organizations, even when 

multiple product lines, services, and divisions are available. 

Function-based global groups: The strongest part of the Amazon organization 

structure is function-based global groups. Each major business function has its own 

dedicated team, led by an executive-level manager such as the CEO or SVP. By 

setting up the company in this way, Amazon can effectively and successfully 

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manage its e-commerce operations throughout the organization. This structure also 

allows Amazon to more easily streamline operations in new and emerging markets. 

Amazon’s main global groups, at the time of writing, and in no order: 

o CEO’s office headed by Jeff Bezos 

o Amazon Web Services, led by CEO Andy Jassie 

o Business and Corporate Development led by SVP Jeff Blackburn 

o SVP & CFO Finance led by Brian Olsavsky 

o Worldwide Consumer led by CEO Jeff Wilke 

o Legal, led by SVP David Zapolsky 

o VP Shelley Reynolds-led World Supervisor (Accounting). 

o Corporate Affairs led by SVP Jay Carney 

Geographic divisions and their divisions: Amazon’s organizational structure also 

includes geographic divisions. The company bases the groups on their physical 

geographic location and relevant business goals. For example, Amazon.com Inc., 

the company’s e-commerce division, uses these divisions to facilitate the 

management of e-commerce businesses based on any challenges such as the 

intricacies of these regions, their regulatory framework and logistics. The strategic 

advantage of dividing company elements into geographic divisions is that it allows 

Amazon to better and more accurately address issues or problems specific to each 

region, and does so effectively, taking into account the regional markets 

themselves. Despite Amazon’s size, the company has only two geographic 

divisions: 

1) North America 

2) International.