Info 202 F12

What
principles are used in the Andronico organizing system? Define each principle
and provide a specific example of resources whose organization follows it.

Andronico’s Community Market at Telegraph Avenue, Berkeley is prototype of a
typical physical supermarket which concentrates on groceries. The store is a
multi-purpose large scale store which chiefly caters to the neighborhood and is
organized in a way which facilitates easy movement of the customers in a
structured shopping space so it also makes a big impact on their sales figure.
I find the below principles in respect to the organization of this store.

• The
  grouping of the items is careful in most of the cases so people can concentrate
  on a specific type of product while they are shopping. As an example in the row
  13 the Dairy, Ice Cream and Yogurts are placed together; it helps the customers
  to choose and compare similar products and pick their stuffs among the milk
  products they are looking for. This same principle is well demonstrated in
  other rows like 1, 2,4,5,6, 7 and 12.
  
• The
  placement of the items is also such that it makes a certain comfort zone for
  the customers. Like the store has got their meat section at the end of the
  store which facilitates two purposes; one, the customers who are vegan and are
  not comfortable with the sight of meat can easily escape the section; on the
  other hand meat-buyers who are generally picky and want to custom their order with
  the help of the store employees can do that (sometimes the customers are not
  comfortable handling the raw meat by hand this arrangement works fine for them
  as well). In the same way the wine section which is spacious than other rows
  give the customers enough space and comply with their sentiment of ‘precious’
  shopping.
  
• Also
  organization of certain objects is very strategic such that store can attain a
  better sales figure. Like the easy picks e.g. candy, chips, energy bars also
  flowers are positioned just in from of the check stands so that people who did
  not have them in their shopping needs can also grab some of these products as
  part of casual buying. In the same context the salad bar, prepared food and
  deli counter which are close to the entrance make it easy for the customers to
  grab foods before (hungry already) or after (done with the shopping) shopping
  apart from dedicated customers for these sections.
  

What
principles are used in the Amazon.com organizing system? Define each principle
(if you haven't already done so in part 1) and provide a specific example of
resources whose organization follows it.

Amazon.com: “Earth’s biggest
Selection” is one of the most diverse and possibly biggest collection of items among
the online stores. From the journey of an online book retail company to a multipurpose
online retail portal Amazon also developed their own range of digital products
and related items and this portal is the main hub of sales for these products
and services as well. The below mentioned organizing principles of this portal
attracted me specifically.

• It
  is important to mention that Amazon caters vast digital products and services
  besides of facilitating online retail store for range of products organic food
  to automobile spare parts. And the cataloging of the products is quite uniform
  and structurally similar.
  
• While
  playing the dual role of selling own products and facilitating sales for other
  vendors Amazon clearly prioritizes their own products. Normally the users look
  at a web catalog from top-left to bottom right and in that case the left half
  of the catalog is dedicated to Amazon products and related products/services.
  
• Another
  important thing is as an intelligent web portal Amazon provides visibly
  personal services to its customer which facilitated certain sense of authority
  on the shopping experience. The efficient recommendation mechanism is another
  great feature of the portal which not only facilitated improved shopping experience
  but also helps Amazon to achieve organic sales growth and sustained customer
  loyalty.
  
• In
  the process of attracting more customers the attractive links at the very top
  of the portal for daily deals and special offers are quite interesting and
  helpful. Apart from achieving clear business goals it also helps customers to
  make efficient shopping choices.
  
• The
  diversity of Amazon does not only reflect the range of products/ facilitated
  products but Amazon also works as a hub for redirection to its sister portals
  who share adjacent business interest with them. This outbound links in a way
  help people to make better choices and decisions.
  
• Also
  the regional portals of the company and their other services apart from retail
  are organized in a way which is not intruding but visible. Especially I would
  like to mention about the organization of the links to their country specific
  websites. The centrally formatted names of the countries which redirects to
  different flavors of Amazon are arranged in a way which gives a sense of a flat
  organization and equality.
  

Compare
and contrast the principles behind the two organizing systems?

The two stores which are in
subject are quite different in nature and operation but they have some similarity
in the organization principles apart from the fact that both of them belong to
the retail business space.

• The
  product grouping is the first thing common among both of them. It not only
  makes it easy for them to maintain their organization (inventory and database)
  but also helps customers to choose and compare among different products.
  
• The
  intention of selling their own goods and boosting sales with auxiliary shopping
  through organization of products can be visible in both the cases. For
  Andronico’s the sales of the ready foods and stuffs like chips, candies make
  that section while for Amazon it is definitely their own products.
  
• Also
  in both the cases the store experience is least compelling.
  

The differences I can observe in
the organizing principles are as below:

• Being
  a physical store Andronico’s has a space benefit and which can be perceived by
  the customers in different ways (e.g. extended wine section, large meat section
  or dedicated olive section). On the other hand being online store Amazon has to
  comply to the browser space and they use the space equally and efficiently for
  each items in the sub category.
  
• Being
  a physical store Andronico’s has a space limitation which possibly constraints
  them from more efficient organization which is not applicable to Amazon. The categories
  of Amazon are more structured and do not have incompatible adjacent
  organization.
  
• The
  organizing experience of Amazon is much customer centric and personal which
  cannot be delivered by Andronico’s without store operator intervention.
  

Restate
the principles so as to make them more similar. Can you take the principles
from your previous level to such an abstract level that they apply to both organizing
systems?

An Organizing System is an
intentionally arranged collection of resources and the interactions they support₁ .
Based on this definition we can try to achieve a more structured abstract level
of organization which can be found in these two distinct stores though they are
very different from operational perspective.

• In
  both the cases the organizations of items are intentional to support their
  business objectives and priorities. Also the organization of the items focus to
  keep the customers attached to the store as long as possible so they eventually
  buy more items.
  
• The
  collections of the items are aimed to be logical and successfully so in most of
  the cases. The groupings of the items are the representation of such case.
  
• The
  supported interactions are varied in both the stores but effective in their own
  way. The options like search, recommendation, aggregation (shopping cart) are
  the devices for supported interactions for Amazon while the obvious presence of
  store helpers are so for Andronico’s for similar activities.
  
• Also
  the organizing structures for both the cases are asynchronous which creates
  space for the customers which they can utilize to make their decision.
  

₁ The
Discipline of Organization Section 1.2 (Glushko, 2012)