Download Running head: UNIT V CASE STUDYUnit V Case StudyColumbia Sou and more Lecture notes Accounting in PDF only on Docsity! Running head: UNIT V CASE STUDY Unit V Case Study Columbia Southern University Whole Foods a specialty grocery giant and Amazon an American multinational e- commerce giant merged an acquisition deal in the ballpark of a little over 13 million dollars in 2017. What began as a mere written note resulted in full fruition for the mega giant Amazon, catapulting the company into the grocery business. With just a few years into the business, Whole Foods has only tugged Amazons aspirations as grocery food giant. These few short years have stimulated Amazons businesspersons for more research in groceries success and e- commerce conversion (Weise, K. 2019). While this emergent has encountered its challenges with its bricks and clicks style of doing business, it has come to discernment, all perishable items and shelf-stable items don’t mix, nor stand the test of time regardless of its ordering and delivery process from corporation to consumer. Amazon has realized this is a journey with Whole Foods and not a race, while also readjusting their way of thinking and doing business, gaining insight culturally. Amazon and the way forward for success, was not to step on toes or compromising Whole Foods foundational vision (Weise, K. 2019). With the difference in cultures of business, Amazon learned quickly the brick and mortar Whole Foods and their e-commerce needed an adjustment. Distribution from abundance of warehouses at an equal amount greater more than 100, 000 square footage versus the 20,000 square footage of a grocery store are differences in integration into the e-commerce and grocery delivery market. Culturally looking at it from Amazons standpoint, the company had to come to terms with large does not always mean efficient in groceries, but efficient in terms of transporting goods and customer service, while also achieving this process in an e-commerce distribution and fulfillment centers (Weise, K. 2019). Looking at the strategic gain from the acquisition of Whole Foods to Amazon corporation and business operation stand point, this falls within the lines of a formal international cooperative alliance among the partners. With this in mind, the parties have outlined the process and procedures needed from human capital, to fiscal transactions, to include leadership and knowledge management for forward thinking for success for both parties. Sometimes, establishments structure formal cooperative alliances by one form takin equity or ownership share in an agreement in cooperation on various activities (Parboteeah, John B. Cullen; K.P. 2018). Amazon does business all over the seven continents with dedicated marketplaces for the United States, the United Kingdom, Canada, Germany, Spain, India, to name a few. Whole Foods ventured out to the United Kingdom in 2007, establishing nine stores along the way outside the U.S. (Green, D. , 2019). While there are no cultural barriers for business for Whole Foods, there are language differences in dedicated market places for Amazon. As part of its multilingual approach, Amazon went along with creating multiple country-specific gTLDs for bigger countries, like Canada, Australia, Spain, Italy and Germany, using amazon.ca and amazon.it, for example (Team, Z. , 2020). The greatest benefits of the alliance for each company, has been the capital gain for Whole Foods in the acquisition from Amazon. Amazon in turn gains the knowledge base to transition the grocery industry in the e-commerce in the future, providing the same efficiency in terms of distribution and customer service, with Whole Foods as the way forward for success with Amazon.
