Rivers become amazingly complex in their last few miles.
If you have not yet done that try and navigate the Amazon delta from the sea up to the river – it is an enlightening experience.
As a former ship’s master, I have had the privilege of navigating up a number of rivers – Ganges, Amazon, St Lawrence, Houston, Delaware, Hudson, Nile, Mississippi, and many others.
The complexity of the naturally evolved network of the rivers’ last miles must be seen to be believed. You can get lost for your entire life in the intricate network if you do not retain tight control over your perspective.
Today, GPS would be a big help but even then you will need a good map and good navigation skills.
In this blog post, there are some illustrative pictures of the last miles of the rivers that I navigated.
The last mile of every network is almost always the most intricate, complex and difficult to navigate.
Think of the human body. The 60,000 miles of blood vessels move blood from the heart to various organs and disperse into smaller veins as they go.
To get to our fingertips, blood travels in the smallest blood vessels, capillaries, which are less than 1mm long each.
So you can imagine how sophisticated the network is and utmost caution is needed at all times. The same applies to businesses.
If you get it right – you will win.
Amazon is in news for its attempts to set up the last mile services. This will put them in competition with FedEx and UPS in the territory they have owned for decades. Their core competence is delivery to the last miles.
Will Amazon be able to outcompete them? In Amazon’s arsenal is predictive shipping.
At the beginning of this year, Amazon has received a patent for its “anticipatory shipping” technique. Possessing intimate knowledge of their customers, sometimes even more than the customers themselves, Amazon can control the entire end-to-end supply chain, they can create shops, they can change the entire e-commerce sphere.
The odds seem to be in their favour. They can hire and learn from UPS or FedEx. Infrastructure can be bought off the shelf. They also have very high-quality self-developed software.
But the jury is still out. If they fail – they will lose their shirt.
The last mile of every network can bankrupt a company because of the sheer complexity, cost and customisation involved.
Surely, you wouldn’t want to be in a situation where there was only $5,000 left in your company’s pocket. Not everyone would be as lucky as the founder of FedEx who gambled that amount and turned it into $32,000, just enough to save the company back in the 1970s.
For many others, bankruptcy was inevitable.
Webvan filed for bankruptcy in 2001 for being over-optimistic about its “last mile” while the real issue lied in how to get customers to the first mile. Good Amazon waited.
Why?
Because their strategies build on each other. If Amazon succeeds, it will build a 5-STAR Business Network that will give it a substantial, lasting competitive advantage – over not only retailers but also courier companies and distributors.
At a later stage, once it has figured out its own network, it can outsource what is not considered necessary.
What will it outsource?
Practically everything except for customer-facing interface. Because that gives it immense strength in the 5-STAR Business Network.
Its ability to understand customers and make them the right offers.
Fulfilment can be modularised and outsourced – but only once Amazon knows the best way to do it themselves.
Here is some useful information which I found about the last miles of Amazon
Amazon has gotten flack in the past for some of the challenges its crowdsourced “last-mile” delivery drivers face, but now it’s offering those with entrepreneurial ambitions the option to do more. Instead of showing up for gig work, drivers can opt for a new program where Amazon helps them establish their own delivery business.
The program will include access to Amazon’s delivery technology, hands-on training and discounts on a suite of assets and services, including the vehicle leasing and insurance, the retailer said.
That means drivers won’t have to use their own cars, as in the crowdsourced delivery program known as Amazon Flex. This gives them more space for organizing packages, the ability to use parking spots for delivery vehicles and the ability to haul extra equipment, like straps and dollies…{https://tcrn.ch/2yQINUr}
I impressed by Author! I really got interested to read about the Amazon river but in the end, I found it related to the business network.
Last-mile delivery has created a slew of issues that couriers and logistics companies have been working at for a long time. Recently, retailers have taken the issue into their own hands in attempts to ease that headache themselves. However, Amazon has made it clear that solving last-mile delivery is one of its priorities. It announced a set of plans to address such problem.
Outstandingly crafted piece of writing. Amazon’s decision to experiment with deliveries bypassing traditional delivery companies takes the retail battle to the newest area of competitive advantage: the last mile. Amazon wants to control every link in the supply chain, from sourcing the product to warehousing and now delivery to the doorstep. In certain categories, such as book publishing, it is also manufacturing the product. Owning its own trucking network and drones are part of the last-mile strategy.
Amazon has gotten flack in the past for some of the challenges its crowdsourced last-mile delivery drivers face, but now it’s offering those with entrepreneurial ambitions the option to do more. Instead of showing up for gig work, drivers can opt for a new program where Amazon helps them establish their own delivery business. The program will include access to Amazon’s delivery technology, hands-on training and discounts on a suite of assets and services, including the vehicle leasing and insurance.