Borders vs. Amazon: Adaptability, Flexibility, and Management Structure Amazon and Borders Bookstore both remained very popular and profitable in the 2000's. However, as Amazon was rising, Borders was falling, in a series of events that eventually led to its demise and bankruptcy. These two companies both started by selling similar items- books and paper products. But their business models and management strategies differed immensely, enough to keep one in business and put one out of business. The reasons for this are many, but it can be attributed to a few main causes. Each company relied on a specific management policy, and only one company was able to adapt and change to remain relevant.

Company Histories

Borders

The Borders brothers, Tom and Louis, started a used bookstore in 1971 in Ann Arbor Michigan. This store eventually led to hundreds of retail locations, and its humble beginnings and slow growth at the beginning of the business helped Tom and Louis establish a presence within the local community and within the local University, where the brothers hoped much of their business would come from. As the brothers' store gained popularity, they expanded to 40 locations in the mid-1990's (Ovide, 2011). This was a time when the internet was still relatively new and people weren't doing as much buying and selling online. The brothers sold their chain to Kmart, which also held the Walden Books Company. In doing so, they gained great wealth but the Borders stores became behemoths, selling thousands of books and paper products in a super store type environment. Many people complained that they single-handedly put the independent bookstore out of business in America. Borders' rival Barnes and Noble worked hard to grow as quickly as Borders in as many locations. As technology advanced and the internet became a popular meeting and commercial space, Borders did not change their business model much, instead focusing on what worked in the past wen people had far less access to so many different sales mediums...

The chain eventually started to show losses after the 2008 recession, which kept people out of major retailers as consumers were less confident and less likely to spend money on items they could buy used or in digital format.
Amazon

Jeff Bezos, a Seattleite with two degrees from Princeton, founded Amazon in 1994. Bezos understood that, at the time, the internet was growing at a rate of 2300% per year, and he saw a unique opportunity to take advantage of such growth and prevalence (Marcus, 2005). He began to sell items at an online store. The store, which was first called Cadabra was later renamed Amazon. The first company meetings took place at local bookstores. The company held products in a warehouse and then filled orders that came in online. In this way, unlike Borders, the company did not have to worry about the overhead of filling stores with inventory (Marcus, 2005). This was a huge money saver. The company also began offering individuals not connected to Amazon, a platform to sell their goods. Tis eventually developed into one of the internet's largest online sales platforms. Bezos did not make any money until the 2000's, largely because the company was fueled itself by the profits and incoming cash flow, and because technology and society had not yet caught up to the idea of internet sales forums. Once they did however, Bezos and his company were making money hand over fist.

Management Approach to Internet Sales

Amazon's Success

Amazon's success, though slow to become apparent, is based upon the fact that it is highly adaptable to the popular goods and items that people want. They also don't have to worry about inventory overhead in the same way that Borders did. Also, Amazon offers people a platform for online sales, which helped to transition them to one of the internet's busiest online retailers. Amazon's success is also owed in part to the notion that the company experimented with alternative ales and marketing platforms instead of being…