Go Lean Commentary
Time flies when you are …
Time just flies … PERIOD!
18 years can go by real fast.
It was only 18 years ago (1999) that Amazon was this small budding company in Seattle, Washington USA. Now today, they are huge … and transforming how America shops … for Christmas and beyond!
Notice the graphic here:
In a previous blog-commentary by the movement behind the book Go Lean … Caribbean, it was asserted that the retail industry – the greatest benefactor of the Christmas holiday shopping tradition with the estimate $107.4 Billion for 2017 – is being threatened by the Retail Apocalypse of e-Commerce in general and the internet-based mover-shaker company of Amazon in particular.
See the story here on Cyber Monday 2017 in the related VIDEO here:
Title – Cyber Monday: Who won online shopping’s biggest day?
VIDEO – CNET Surveys Holiday Shopping Trends – https://www.cbsnews.com/videos/cnet-surveys-holiday-shopping-trends/
Published November 28, 2017 – Monday [(November 27)] broke shopping records, becoming America’s largest-ever online shopping day. Some $6.6 billion in sales were generated, according to Adobe Analytics, which tracks 80 percent of online shopping activity. By 10 a.m. Monday, $840 million had already been spent online, Adobe said — a jump of 17 percent from the year before.Spending on Cyber Monday typically peaks in the evening, between 8 and 11 p.m., and shopping activity during that time on Monday exceeded that of a typical 24-hour day, according to Adobe Analytics.
So where are we spending all that money? In a word: Amazon (AMZN). The e-commerce giant accounts for somewhere between 45 percent and 50 percent of all sales by volume, according to separate estimates from SunTrust Robinson Humphrey and GBH Insights.
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See the rest of the news article in the Appendix below.
How did they – Amazon – get here … so quickly?
Amazon: Then and Now
See here the width-and-breath of Amazon.com in 1999 in this 60 minutes Interview/Story:
VIDEO – What they said in 1999 about Amazon.com – https://youtu.be/6cTjhzSgdwE
Published on Nov 20, 2017 – Interview look the year when the internet dotcom bubble burst dramatically. What they were saying about Amazon.com and Jeff Bezos?
- Category: Science & Technology
- License: Standard YouTube License
Now see the width-and-breath of Amazon today … with this CNBC Feature/Story:
VIDEO – Inside Amazon Empire Documentary 2017 – https://youtu.be/_JnRzt8_YQc
Published on Sep 28, 2017 – Inside Amazon Empire Documentary 2017
- Category: Film & Animation
- License: Standard YouTube License
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The Go Lean movement pays more than the usual attention to this “Amazon” business enterprise. We want to copy their good examples … and avoid their bad examples.
This company is a model for the Caribbean’s own venture into e-Commerce. The Go Lean book describes the design for the Caribbean Postal Union and the www.myCaribbean.gov web-portal so as to perform a lot of the same functionality that Amazon does in the USA.
The book Go Lean…Caribbean serves as a roadmap for the introduction and implementation of the technocratic Caribbean Union Trade Federation (CU) and the Caribbean Postal Union (CPU). These entities are designed to address the “Agents of Change“ in modern society, but for a Caribbean scope only. The “Agents of Change” at play in the foregoing news sources, according to the book (Page 57), are defined as follows:
- Technology
- Globalization
Amazon and its CEO Jeff Bezos are role models that we can copy in the Caribbean. It is our assessment that one person can make a difference in society. Look at the impact of this one man – Jeff Bezos – in the fast-time of 18 years, since 1999. These above Agents-of-Change have disrupted Caribbean life in the past; now we need to be our own Change Agents. We need to forge our own change in our society so that we can survive as a culture on the world stage.
The future is not assured if we do not take a hold of our societal engines. We must reboot our industrial landscape to foster new opportunities (jobs, entrepreneurism and industrial development). This is the charter of the CU. In fact, the following 3 statements are identified as the prime directives of this CU charter:
- Optimization of the economic engines in order to grow the regional economy to $800 Billion & create 2.2 million new jobs.
- Establishment of a security apparatus to protect the resultant economic engines.
- Improve Caribbean governance – as e-Commerce alters sales & border taxes – to support these engines.
What Amazon did and does, is the epitome of what the Caribbean Union Trade Federation needs to do to reboot Caribbean society. Amazon disrupted the status quo in so many industries – think: book retailers & movie rentals – and transformed markets to exploit opportunities and derive profits. This is the “Sum of All Caribbean Dreams“.
This reference to Caribbean Dreams is presented early in the Go Lean book with these opening pronouncements in the Declaration of Interdependence (Page 12 – 14):
xv. Whereas the business of the Federation and the commercial interest in the region cannot prosper without an efficient facilitation of postal services, the Caribbean Union must allow for the integration of the existing mail operations of the governments of the member-states into a consolidated Caribbean Postal Union, allowing for the adoption of best practices and technical advances to deliver foreign/domestic mail in the region.
xxiv. Whereas a free market economy can be induced and spurred for continuous progress, the Federation must install the controls to better manage aspects of the economy: jobs, inflation, savings rate, investments and other economic principles. Thereby attracting direct foreign investment because of the stability and vibrancy of our economy.
xxvii. Whereas the region has endured a spectator status during the Industrial Revolution, we cannot stand on the sidelines of this new economy, the Information Revolution. Rather, the Federation must embrace all the tenets of Internet Communications Technology (ICT) to serve as an equalizing element in competition with the rest of the world. The Federation must bridge the digital divide and promote the community ethos that research/development is valuable and must be promoted and incentivized for adoption.
The business models of Amazon have been further elaborated upon in previous blog-commentaries, as follows:
| http://www.goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=13091 | Amazon Opens Search for HQ2 Amazon is accepting bids for a 2nd headquarters in North America. The city that lands HQ2 will have a lot to celebrate, as this enterprise can create many high-paying direct jobs – 50,000 – and have an indirect stimulus on the rest of the economy. This is a feature of Amazon that “we” want to model in the Caribbean. |
| http://www.goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=12291 | Big Tech’s Amazon – The Retailers’ Enemy Big Tech companies like Amazon have the treasuries, talent and temperament (culture, values and commitment) to change the world, for good and for bad. The Amazon threat had been “all things internet”, but now they are attempting to dominate the physical retail space as well, with their acquisition of Whole Foods grocery stores. |
| http://www.goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=11358 | Retail Apocalypse – Preparing for the Inevitable There is feast and famine “in the cards” for the retail eco-system. On one end of the spectrum , there will be prosperity for electronic commerce stakeholders, but on the other end, for brick-and-mortar establishments, there will be a Retail Apocalypse. This is not just a future problem as the, the threat has already manifested! |
| http://www.goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=9839 | Amazon and Alibaba’s Cloud allows for global reach This model, with cutting-edge data centers, is the new colonialism. Amazon and Alibaba are people-intensive companies – lots of employment – but Information Technology (I.T.) companies too. |
| http://www.goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=7297 | Death of the ‘Department Store’: Exaggerated or Eventual Modern technology and electronic commerce has transformed many aspects of society; much has been added and much taken away. Just consider: cameras, watches, pagers, maps, calculators, calendars, payphones, books, music and more. The related industries have also been affected: travel agencies, music retailers, book retailers, newspapers, travel agencies and Big Box retailers. Amazon is to blame for many of the transformations. |
| http://www.goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=7023 | Thanksgiving & American Commerce – Past, Present and Amazon To better understand American commerce, one must understand Cyber Monday and its dominant player Amazon. This company demonstrates how to be lean and technocratic as it employs cutting-edge automation and robotics. They are a great model for a new Caribbean. |
| http://www.goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=1416 | Model of an E-Commerce Fulfillment Company: Amazon Amazon is the model for the Caribbean Postal Union (CPU): our means for delivering the mail. Considering the US, one might think that the American model would be the US Postal Service (USPS). No, the Go Lean book relates how the USPS is a failing enterprise, while Amazon flourishes with growth, capital and profits. |
Understanding the Amazon business model is very important for the Caribbean’s effort to reform and transform the region. Creating the CPU and the Caribbean Cloud is “Step One, Day One” in the Go Lean roadmap. This will be a direct result of assembling and integrating the governmental agencies for postal mail for all 30 Caribbean member-states. The strategy calls for a separation-of-powers between the CU entities, like the CPU and the entities of the Caribbean member-states.
This is a win-win approach. Imagine the jobs! (See the indirect jobs production in the Appendix VIDEO below).
These postal agencies, under the current models, are inefficient, ineffective and unprofitable. But following the Amazon model can be transformative. We can do this; we can impact our communities and retail eco-systems in such positive ways.
We urge everyone in the Caribbean – citizens, businesses and governments – to lean-in to the empowerments in the CU/Go Lean roadmap. We can make our region better places to live, work and play. 🙂
Download the free e-book of Go Lean … Caribbean – now!
Sign the petition to lean-in for the roadmap for the Caribbean Union Trade Federation.
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Appendix – Cyber Monday: Who won online shopping’s biggest day? – Cont’d
By: Irina Ivanova, MoneyWatch
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Amazon’s revenue take is somewhat smaller, thanks to the large number of third-party sellers on its platform. Amazon will have about 24 percent of the online shopping share this holiday season, STRH estimated, up from 20 percent last year.
eBay (EBAY), the online auction site, is the second-largest online shopping site, but its share of sales is in the “high single digits,” said Youssef Squali, managing director and senior analyst at STRH. Walmart (WMT) is No. 3.
Other factors feed into making this an exceptionally strong season for Amazon, not least of which is the availability of the Echo speaker and other “smart home” devices, which funnel shopping through the giant cybermerchant.
“Given a record breaking Prime Day in 2Q, continued momentum in 3Q, and the fact that this is just the second holiday season offering monthly Prime memberships (a service we view as most compelling during the holidays), we expect a record breaking holiday season for the company,” STRH analysts wrote in a note. Amazon’s market share typically peaks in the fourth quarter, they added.
The breakneck pace of Cyber Monday shopping comes on the heels of a strong retail showing over Thanksgiving day and Black Friday, the latter of which set an online sales record. Macy’s (M), JCPenney (JCP) and Kohl’s (KSS) each reported strong or record-setting sales over the weekend. Foot traffic in stores on Black Friday fell only about 1 percent from last year, according to ShopperTrak — less than many had feared.
Shoppers are bolstered by record stock market highs and soaring home values, analysts said.
“The economy is doing well, and when consumers feel confident, they’re going to spend,” said Aaron Shapiro, CEO of Huge, a digital marketing company.
“So far it’s been a really strong holiday season. The biggest winner has been the internet,” said Shapiro. “Combined with the fact that people tend to shop at the last minute, that portends a really strong holiday shopping season.”
Big as it may get, Cyber Monday is no match for the world’s largest shopping holiday. That would be China’s Singles’ Day, on Nov. 11, which this year generated a whopping $25 billion in sales (not to mention some 300,000 tons of carbon dioxide). Not bad for a holiday that’s less than a decade old.
Source: © 2017 CBS Interactive Inc. – Posted November 28; retrieved November 28, 2017 from: https://www.cbsnews.com/news/cyber-monday-who-won-the-biggest-day-in-online-shopping/
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Appendix VIDEO – Amazon Last Mile – https://www.cbsnews.com/videos/amazon-program-hires-self-employed-couriers/
Amazon’s FLEX, a little-known program to get your package to your doorstep.