DNA Money Edit: How a giant firm boosts entrepreneurs

The move by the global retail giant Amazon to allow its employees leave their job and start a complementary delivery business to support the company will go a long way in spawning entrepreneurship. The Seattle-based Amazon, which is striving to ensure faster delivery of packages, is helping its employees start smaller business units delivering goods. The plan is to build an exclusive network of such units to crunch the delivery time for its customers.

Amazon has drawn up an excellent plan that covers up to $10,000 in start-up costs for employees who leave their job to launch an independent business, and paying each a lumpsum amount equivalent to three months' salary. They will also be able to lease blue vans with the Amazon smile logo. Already, more than 200 Amazon delivery businesses are already up and running.

A freight broker who started his business in Atlanta a few months ago is extremely happy as he employs 120 people and a fleet of 50 vans that can handle up to 200 delivery stops a day. He is already preparing for the one-day shipping switch by hiring more people.

The plan may disrupt the existing logistics business run by giants such as UPS and FedEx. Since these new units will exclusively handle Amazon deliveries, the retail major will have a sway over the deliveries and need not bank on the other carriers.

Amazon India