Award winner: Amazon as an Employer

By continuing to use our site you consent to the use of cookies as described in our privacy policy unless you have disabled them.
You can change your cookie settings at any time but parts of our site will not function correctly without them.

This case won the Human Resource Management/Organisational Behaviour category at The Case Centre Awards and Competitions 2021. #CaseAwards2021

Who – the protagonists

Jeff Bezos is the CEO and founder of Amazon, the online retailing giant.

What?

The case explores the unconventional office culture at the US retailer following an article in The New York Times that alleged Amazon was “conducting an experiment in how far it could push white-collar workers to get them to achieve its ever-expanding ambitions.” The constant demands on Amazon employees to work harder and faster was under criticism.

Amazon Campus

Why?

With Amazon about to open several large new offices and increase its staff to around 50,000, the case asks if The New York Times article will impact its search for talented employees. Bezos dismissed the article stating many of his employees were excited to be working on cutting edge projects and felt working at Amazon advanced their careers.

Where?

Amazon is a global retailing giant with its headquarters in Seattle, United States.

When?

The New York Times article was published in August 2015, just months after Amazon was ranked fourth in Fortune magazine’s Elite List of World’s Most Admired Companies. 

Key quote

“You can work long, hard, or smart but at Amazon.com, you can’t choose two out of three.”
Jeff Bezos, CEO and founder of Amazon

What next?

In 2014, Harvard Business Review ranked Bezos as its top CEO, yet, in 2015, his ranking fell to 87th, with his method of keeping employees on edge to bring about constant innovation, being criticised. Amazon’s stock prices, however, more than double in this period.

AUTHOR PERSPECTIVE 

This is the first win for authors Jyotsna and Shweta, and for Management Development Institute (MDI), Gurgaon.

Heartening

Jyotsna and Shweta said: “This award is a reward for case writing. It is heartening to know the questions we raised resonate across the HR/Organisational fraternity, globally.”

Why Amazon?

They continued: “Amazon is a very popular brand.

“The case captures a very sensitive issue of keeping people on edge for business, and poses questions of compassion versus business profitability.”

Amazon counter

Writing the case

The authors commented: “The background research for the case was daunting and enjoyable at the same time. We did many drafts, and our patience was tested while writing the teaching note.

“We’d like to express our gratitude to Management Development Institute (MDI) Gurgaon for providing an opportunity to do the research and case writing, to Ivey Publishing for publishing the case and to our teachers, Paul Marshall, Noam Wasserman, and Rohit Deshpande at Harvard Business School.”

Top tip

They concluded: “If there is a debate and controversy in a case, your case class will always be a winner.”

INSTRUCTOR VIEWPOINT 

Discover how this case works in the classroom.

"The case is super insightful, being not only relevant for my Corporate Entrepreneurship course in that it allows students to analyse Amazon’s culture but, also, to assess and develop recommendations for making the firm more entrepreneurial in terms of culture (e.g. organsational processes, cognitive processes, etc.). Moreover, the case is very interesting in that it covers a couple of surprising elements that allow students to not only increase their knowledge on leadership in a highly successful firm but also their reflection capacity regarding areas of improvement and recommendations for Amazon.

"I appreciate the balanced yin-yang approach of the case including both bright and dark sides and how they can enhance or exacerbate Amazon’s success, and for whom, enabling deep and critical discussions on sustainable entrepreneurial advantages."

Isabella Hatak, Professor for Management of Small and Medium-sized Enterprises at University of St. Gallen

THE CASE 

The case

Who – the protagonists

Jeff Bezos is the CEO and founder of Amazon, the online retailing giant.

What?

The case explores the unconventional office culture at the US retailer following an article in The New York Times that alleged Amazon was “conducting an experiment in how far it could push white-collar workers to get them to achieve its ever-expanding ambitions.” The constant demands on Amazon employees to work harder and faster was under criticism.

Amazon Campus

Why?

With Amazon about to open several large new offices and increase its staff to around 50,000, the case asks if The New York Times article will impact its search for talented employees. Bezos dismissed the article stating many of his employees were excited to be working on cutting edge projects and felt working at Amazon advanced their careers.

Where?

Amazon is a global retailing giant with its headquarters in Seattle, United States.

When?

The New York Times article was published in August 2015, just months after Amazon was ranked fourth in Fortune magazine’s Elite List of World’s Most Admired Companies. 

Key quote

“You can work long, hard, or smart but at Amazon.com, you can’t choose two out of three.”
Jeff Bezos, CEO and founder of Amazon

What next?

In 2014, Harvard Business Review ranked Bezos as its top CEO, yet, in 2015, his ranking fell to 87th, with his method of keeping employees on edge to bring about constant innovation, being criticised. Amazon’s stock prices, however, more than double in this period.

AUTHOR PERSPECTIVE 

Author perspective

This is the first win for authors Jyotsna and Shweta, and for Management Development Institute (MDI), Gurgaon.

Heartening

Jyotsna and Shweta said: “This award is a reward for case writing. It is heartening to know the questions we raised resonate across the HR/Organisational fraternity, globally.”

Why Amazon?

They continued: “Amazon is a very popular brand.

“The case captures a very sensitive issue of keeping people on edge for business, and poses questions of compassion versus business profitability.”

Amazon counter

Writing the case

The authors commented: “The background research for the case was daunting and enjoyable at the same time. We did many drafts, and our patience was tested while writing the teaching note.

“We’d like to express our gratitude to Management Development Institute (MDI) Gurgaon for providing an opportunity to do the research and case writing, to Ivey Publishing for publishing the case and to our teachers, Paul Marshall, Noam Wasserman, and Rohit Deshpande at Harvard Business School.”

Top tip

They concluded: “If there is a debate and controversy in a case, your case class will always be a winner.”

INSTRUCTOR VIEWPOINT 

Instructor viewpoint

Discover how this case works in the classroom.

"The case is super insightful, being not only relevant for my Corporate Entrepreneurship course in that it allows students to analyse Amazon’s culture but, also, to assess and develop recommendations for making the firm more entrepreneurial in terms of culture (e.g. organsational processes, cognitive processes, etc.). Moreover, the case is very interesting in that it covers a couple of surprising elements that allow students to not only increase their knowledge on leadership in a highly successful firm but also their reflection capacity regarding areas of improvement and recommendations for Amazon.

"I appreciate the balanced yin-yang approach of the case including both bright and dark sides and how they can enhance or exacerbate Amazon’s success, and for whom, enabling deep and critical discussions on sustainable entrepreneurial advantages."

Isabella Hatak, Professor for Management of Small and Medium-sized Enterprises at University of St. Gallen

THE CASE 

The authors

Jyotsna Bhatnagar
Professor in Human Resource Management and Dean of Graduate Programmes & Student Affair

Shweta was a FPM Scholar at Management Development Institute (MDI), Gurgaon when writing the case.

In conversation with Jyotsna and Shweta

Due to the Coronavirus pandemic we were sadly unable to visit Jyotsna and Shweta to present their awards in person.

However, they joined our Director, Richard McCracken, from India to discuss their winning case.

Watch the full conversation here:

You can also watch shorter sections of the discussion:

The protagonist

Jeff Bezos
CEO and founder
Read the case

Educators can login to view a free educator preview copy of this case and its teaching note.

CASE - Reference no. 9B16C006
TEACHING NOTE - Reference no. 8B16C006
This case was published by Ivey Publishing.
Get our newsletter

Stay in touch with all the latest case news and views in our free newsletter, Connect.

Read it online or sign up to have it delivered direct to your inbox!

Picture representing 'Get our newsletter'
Picture representing 'Get our newsletter'
Get our newsletter

Stay in touch with all the latest case news and views in our free newsletter, Connect.

Read it online or sign up to have it delivered direct to your inbox!

Discover more