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Characteristics of Business Leadership

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Characteristics of Business Leadership
Characteristics of Business Leadership BUS302-024016 October 30, 2011

Characteristics of Business Management
The purpose of this paper is to show a comparison of two successful businesses. Borders Books and Amazon.com are two companies that both sold books but used different methods in operating their businesses. Even though they both were successful businesses, both companies had different leadership styles, visions and goals. Out of the two businesses, only one remain successful and present today. In this paper, I will show how both businesses started, how the leaders differ in leadership styles and techniques, and how Amazon continues to be a great success today.

Description of the Businesses
I will describe each business and how each business started. I will also describe three main challenges each company faced while establishing or running the business.
Amazon.com was founded in 1994 by Jeff Bezos as an online bookstore. As CEO he has built it into the largest retailer on the web, selling everything from groceries to electronics and shoes. Jeff Bezos was working in a quantitive analysis group at an investment firm, when he saw an opportunity to sell books on the internet. In 1994 he went on a cross-country drive from New York to Seattle to start Amazon. He typed his business plan as he went. And he picked up $300,000 dollars from his parents in Fort Worth, Texas. He set up his business in his garage and began selling books via the internet. His business became worth $4.4 billion according to Forbes ' latest billionaire rankings in 2009. Since the start of Amazon.com, Jeff Bezos came very close to failure. The company was on the brink of bankruptcy. Jeff Bezos lost a total of $550 million in startup cost by November 1999. But inspite of that, Time magazine named Jeff Bezos " Person of the year" a month later.
Borders Books was founded by Louis Borders, who was the leader of Borders Books and got his start in Ann Arbor


References: Bomey, Nathan (2011). Borders ' rise and fall: a timeline of the bookstore chain 's 40-year history. http://Ann Arbor.com/business-review/Borders-rise-and-fall-a-timeline-of-the-bookstore-chains-40-year-history Bomey, Nathan (2011). Exclusive interview with Borders CEO Mike Edwards: 'We are fighting to the end '. http://annarbor.com/business-review/exclusive-interview-with-borders-ceo-mike-edwards Kirby, Julia and Stewart, Thomas A. (2007). The Institutional Yes: An Ineterview with Jeff Bezos. Harvard Business Review. http://hbr.org/2007/10/the institutional-yes/ar/pr Lagesse, David (2008). America 's Best Leaders: Jeff Bezos, Amazon.com CEO. US News. http://www.usnews.com/news/best-leaders/articles/2008/11/19/americas-best-leaders-jeff-bezos-amazoncom-ceo "Top Executive Profiles." Internet Archive Wayback Machine (1984). http://web.archive.org/web/20090204204126/http://www.portfolio.com/resources/executive-profiles/Jeffrey-P-Bezos-1984 Maney, Kevin (2003). Technology: Founder of Web-based grocery store tries again with online newsstand. http://www.usatoday.com/money/industries/technology/maney/2003-07-22-maney_x.htm
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