We are recommending that Amazon continue to utilize Porter's Five forces in addition to a VRIO strategy to maintain a sustainable strategic advantage at the functional, business, and corporate level. Amazon continues to remain a leading retailer, service provider, and hardware innovator. Their lines of business are endless from product sales, service sales, AWS, fulfillment, publishing, digital content subscriptions, advertising, transportation and logistics, and co-branded credit cards. Amazon has used the Five Forces along with a VRIO strategy on various aspects of the company to make it a successful model of business. Remaining customer centric and offering a value proposition based on price and convenience continues to drive sales and maintain sustainability. No matter what product or service, low prices are maintained through strategic alliances, partnerships, acquisitions, and achieving economies of scale. While many companies choose one strategy, Amazon utilizes all strategies where appropriate. We believe Amazon could continue into the Blue Ocean area and expand its Blue Origin project. This is Amazon's privately funded aerospace and space flight services company. The company is developing technologies that enable private human access to space at a dramatically lower cost. Bezos is offering civilians an experience to become an astronaut for a day. Amazon's innovation allows America independence from Russian made spacecraft. It also allows scientists to conduct experiments and collect sufficient data due to their frequent flights. The new Shepard booster is the result of Bezos finding a niche that yields a sustainable competitive advantage. Research and development has creatively developed this as the next big wow in aeronautical engineering by defying gravity and its ability to take off and land vertically. Amazon has revitalized the aerospace and technology arena. Realizing that they have only touched the surface of suborbital flights, Amazon should continue exploring space and redefining aeronautical innovations and achieve orbital flight. Their Blue Ocean strategy may have produced an innovation that will take decades for outer countries to catch up to. Reusable rockets and vertical landings are sustainable competitive advantages worth continuing to develop. On June 28, 2016 Bezos broke ground on a new facility in Cape Canaveral, Florida. We believe this Blue Ocean strategy will help to maintain their long-term goal of entering space by 2019. The second recommended strategy involves Amazon's Prime Air. It is a future delivery system from Amazon designed to safely get packages to customers in 30 minutes or less using small-unmanned aerial vehicles/drones (Amazon). They will fly at under 400 feet and weigh less than 55 pounds. In the agricultural business drones are flown over crops with advanced sensors and imaging capabilities. This is giving farmers new ways to reduce crop damage. A partnership or strategic alliance with the agriculture business could potentially allow Amazon to work around some of the Federal Aviation Administration rules and regulations. The drones are currently used in Sonoma Valley North of San Francisco. This partnership could help to resolve Amazons' short-term problem of being blocked by the FAA. If Amazon could use its technology to help the farmers manage their crops then perhaps they can show that the delivery of packages is just as safe. Currently, the Amazon drones have been used in Canada and the Netherlands, and U.K. Perhaps the partnership and strategic alliances can serve as a work around for delivery of packages. This partnership could satisfy the short-term problem they are facing with the FAA. Amazon could also strategically utilize the Red Ocean strategy to enter into the egaming market. This market is big in S. Korea and Germany. The electronic sports (Esports) market consists of the input of players and teams as well as the output of the eSports system are meditated by human computer interfaces. If Amazon's technology team can pull off a goal of creating the next big game in eSports just as they did with the Kindle, then they could carve out a new niche and turn the Red Ocean into a Blue Ocean for a period of time. The Kindle was Amazon's Blue Ocean. There are several imitators but Amazon maintains its sustainable competitive advantage through pairing the Kindle with its AWS cloud based service. The notion of entering the mobile gaming market is a longterm commitment. The research and development team members would need time to create Blue Ocean innovation for e-gaming. Amazon will provide high value and diversification using technology. The current policies that Amazon has in place promote the use of the above listed strategies. Analysis of strategic factors and position are guided by four principles- Customer obsession rather than competitor focus, passion for innovation, commitment to operational excellence, and long-term thinking. These principles guide strategic plans. The key to success has remained that they maintain a customer focused low cost structure with a variety of merchandise. This low cost structure creates satisfied customers that return to the site often. These frequent visits lend to increased traffic and growth. They can sell more online units without increasing marginal costs. The competitive rivalry among e-retailers is intense. The threat of new entrants against Amazon is low. The strong brand image of Amazon is an advantage in every category that it competes. Economies of scale are demonstrated by the vast array of product lines and the geographic market served. Cloud services, continuous strides into aeronautics, eSports and the use of drones will help to continue diversification of services and products offered will help to maintain Amazon's sustainable competitive advantages. Customer centricity and focus remains at the heart of Amazon's mission and objectives. Great customer service is what lured consumers to Amazon and partly what keeps them returning to the site. Entering Blue Ocean waters and continuing to acquire new partners/acquisitions would help to improve Amazon's value proposition. IMPLEMENTATION PLANS 1. What kinds of functional tactics and action plans (for example, restructuring the corporation or instituting TQM) should be developed to implement the recommended strategy? 2. Who should develop these programs? 3. Who should be in charge of these programs? 4. Are the tactics financially feasible? Can pro forma budgets be developed and agreed upon? Are priorities and timetables appropriate to individual programs? 5. Will new standard operating procedures need to be developed