Charlemagne and the Battle of Roncevaux Pass

Charlemagne and the Battle of Roncevaux Pass Conflict: The Battle of Roncevaux Pass was part of Charlemagnes Iberian campaign of 778. Date: The Basque ambush at Roncevaux Pass is believed to have taken place on August 15, 778. Armies Commanders: Franks CharlemagneUnknown (large army) Basques Unknown (possibly Lupo II of Gascony)Unknown (guerilla raiding party) Battle Summary: Following a meeting of his court at Paderborn in 777, Charlemagne was enticed into invading northern Spain by Sulaiman Ibn Yakzan Ibn al-Arabi, wali of Barcelona and Girona. This was further encouraged by al-Arabis promise that the Upper March of Al Andalus would surrender quickly the Frankish army. Advancing south, Charlemagne entered Spain with two armies, one moving through the Pyrenees and another to the east passing through Catalonia. Traveling with the western army, Charlemagne quickly captured Pamplona and then proceeded on to the Upper March of Al Andalus capital, Zaragoza. Charlemagne arrived at Zaragoza expecting to find the citys governor, Hussain Ibn Yahya al Ansari, friendly to the Frankish cause. This proved not to be case as al Ansari refused to yield the city. Facing a hostile city and not finding the country to be as hospitable as al-Arabi had promised, Charlemagne entered into negotiations with al Ansari. In return for the Franks departure, Charlemagne was given a large sum of gold as well as several prisoners. While not ideal, this solution was acceptable as news had reached Charlemagne that Saxony was in revolt and he was needed to the north. Retracing its steps, Charlemagnes army marched back to Pamplona. While there, Charlemagne ordered the citys walls pulled down to prevent it from being used as a base for attacking his empire. This, along with his harsh treatment of the Basque people, turned the local inhabitants against him. On the evening of Saturday August 15, 778, while marching through Roncevaux Pass in the Pyrenees a large guerilla force of Basques sprung an ambush on the Frankish rearguard. Using their knowledge of the terrain, they decimated the Franks, plundered the baggage trains, and captured much of the gold received at Zaragoza. The soldiers of the rearguard fought valiantly, allowing the remainder of the army to escape. Among the casualties were several of Charlemagnes most important knights including Egginhard (Mayor of the Palace), Anselmus (Palatine Count), and Roland (Prefect of the March of Brittany). Aftermath Impact: Though defeated in 778, Charlemagnes armies returned to Spain in the 780s and fought there until his death, slowly extending Frankish control south. From the captured territory, Charlemagne created the Marca Hispanica to serve as a buffer province between his empire and the Muslims to the south. The Battle of Roncevaux Pass is also remembered as the inspiration for one of the oldest known works of French literature, the Song of Roland.

The Manhattan Project Timeline

The Manhattan Project Timeline The Manhattan Project was a secret research project that was created to help America design and build an atomic bomb. This was created in reaction to Nazi scientists who had discovered how to split a uranium atom in 1939. In fact, President Franklin Roosevelt was not that concerned when Albert Einstein first wrote him about the possible consequences of splitting the atom. Einstein had previously discussed his concerns with Enrico Fermi who had escaped from Italy. However, by 1941 Roosevelt had decided to create a group to research and develop the bomb. The project was given its name due to the fact that at least 10 of the sites used for the research were located in Manhattan. Following is a timeline of the key events related to the development of the atomic bomb and the Manhattan Project.   Manhattan Project Timeline DATE EVENT 1931 Heavy Hydrogen or deuterium is discovered by Harold C. Urey. 1932 The atom is split by John Crockcroft and E.T.S. Walton of Great Britain, thereby proving Einsteins Theory of Relativity. 1933 Hungarian physicist Leo Szilard realizes the possibility of the nuclear chain reaction. 1934 The first nuclear fission is achieved by Enrico Fermi of Italy. 1939 The Theory of Nuclear Fission is announced by Lise Meitner and Otto Frisch. January 26, 1939 At a conference at George Washington University, Niels Bohr announces the discovery of fission. January 29,1939 Robert Oppenheimer realizes the military possibilities of nuclear fission. August 2, 1939 Albert Einstein writes to President Franklin Roosevelt concerning the use of uranium as a new source of energy leading to the formation of the Committee on Uranium. September 1, 1939 World War II Begins. February 23, 1941 Plutonium is discovered by Glenn Seaborg. October 9, 1941 FDR gives the go-ahead for the development of an atomic weapon. December 6, 1941 FDR authorizes the Manhattan Engineering District for the purpose of creating an atomic bomb. This would later be called the Manhattan Project. September 23, 1942 Colonel Leslie Groves is placed in charge of the Manhattan Project. J. Robert Oppenheimer becomes the Projects Scientific Director. December 2, 1942 First controlled nuclear fission reaction is produced by Enrico Fermi at the University of Chicago. May 5, 1943 Japan becomes the primary target for any future atomic bomb according to the Military Policy Committee of the Manhattan Project. April 12, 1945 Franklin Roosevelt dies. Harry Truman is named the 33rd President of the US. April 27, 1945 The Target Committee of the Manhattan Project select four cities as possible targets for the atomic bomb. They are Kyoto, Hiroshima, Kokura, and Niigata. May 8, 1945 War ends in Europe. May 25, 1945 Leo Szilard attempts to warn President Truman in person concerning the dangers of atomic weapons. July 1, 1945 Leo Szilard begins a petition to get President Truman to call off using the atomic bomb in Japan. July 13, 1945 American intelligence discovers the only obstacle to peace with Japan is unconditional surrender. July 16, 1945 The worlds first atomic detonation takes place in the Trinity Test at Alamogordo, New Mexico. July 21, 1945 President Truman orders atomic bombs to be used. July 26, 1945 Potsdam Declaration is issued, calling for the unconditional surrender of Japan. July 28, 1945 Potsdam Declaration is rejected by Japan. August 6, 1945 Little Boy, a uranium bomb, is detonated over Hiroshima, Japan. It kills between 90,000 and 100,000 people immediately. Harry Truman's Press Release August 7, 1945 U.S. decides to drop warning pamphlets on Japanese cities. August 9, 1945 The second atomic bomb to hit Japan, Fat Man, was scheduled to be dropped at Kokura. However, because of poor weather, the target was moved to Nagasaki. August 9, 1945 President Truman addresses the nation. August 10, 1945 U.S. drops warning leaflets concerning another atomic bomb on Nagasaki, the day after the bomb was dropped. September 2, 1945 Japan announces its formal surrender. October 1945 Edward Teller approaches Robert Oppenheimer to aid in the building of a new hydrogen bomb. Oppenheimer refuses.

Effects of Human Dimension on Organisational Behaviour Essay

Effects of Human Dimension on Organisational Behaviour - Essay Example The paper, therefore, makes it possible to define the best means of managing organizational behaviour through the simple task of managing attitudes and motivation.   This is because Walton (2007) noted that it is not all forms of organizational behaviour that promotes growth. Drory & Ritov (1997) noted that attitudes are evaluative judgments or statements made about people within an organization. This means that attitude embodies people’s habitual nature, readily associated or identifiable with them within the organization. The attitudes of people, however, do not always come in one form as there are three key components of attitude common with organizational members. The first component is the cognitive component, which Canary, Coach and Serape (2001) noted to be the form of attitude that highlights people’s opinion and beliefs. Because of the relationship between cognitive component of attitude and opinion, it is often seen as a means by which people give personal e valuation on actions that take place within the organization (Samovar and Porter, 2011). A typical example is the evaluative attitude of people when there is a promotion at the workplace. In such situations, employees are likely to evaluate the promotion as either being deserving of the person or not. Where the person’s evaluation says the person promoted did not deserve the promotion, chances are that a negative attitude will be developed towards that person. Meanwhile, where  there is a negative attitude, an organizational behaviour may be negatively affected due to the possibility of frequent organizational conflict.

Leadership 2 Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 4500 words

Leadership 2 - Essay Example Figure Name Page No. 1 Cost Leadership Strategy of Giffgaff 5 2 Revenue Decline of the UK Telecom Industry 7 3 Increase in Data Usage 10 4 Reduction in Mobile Voice Cost 13 5 McKinsey 7S Framework 14 6 Present Lattice Structure in Giffgaff 19 7 Proposed Organizational Structure for Giffgaff 20 1. Introduction In this paper, the researcher will shed light on state of art mobile phone service provider Giffgaff which has established its strong presence in telecom service industry of United Kingdom (UK) within few years of its inception. 2. Gifgaff-Introduction Giffgaff is SIM-only mobile network which was created by Gav Thompson in the year 2009 with an intention to attract digitally-savvy customers and the company is headquartered at Uxbridge, Greater London (Marketing Society, 2013). The company is subsidiary of Telefonica and currently it operates with 35 to 40 employees. The mobile operator has differentiated its value proposition by incorporating the community-powered model which w orks in similar pattern as web 2.0 technologies (Gifgaff, 2013). Interesting fact is that, the organization is run by its member partners and these members get rewarded for various activities such as increasing the channel length by bringing new partners, helping the company to earn revenues or promoting the brand etc. 2.1 Competitor Analysis & Business Strategy UK telecom operating industry is hypercompetitive due to presence of many big players with similar kind of product offerings such as Orange, T Mobile, Vodafone and O2. In such context, it was difficult for small player like Giffgaff to enter the UK telecom operating business without formulating unique value proposition statement. Giffgaff decided to work as mobile virtual network operator (MVNO) and operate through O2 network. However, both O2 and Giffgaff decided to target different customer segment and work as separate network player in UK. A comparison between network plans of different competitors can be depicted in the following manner; Figure 1: Cost Leadership Strategy of Giffgaff (Source: Marketing Society, 2013) As Giffgaff uses customers as promoter members and online platform to offer its plan hence the company is able to reduce significant amount of operational cost. The company has also reduced cost of its marketing activities and cost optimization strategy of the Giffgaff has given them the cost benefit advantage to reduce the price of offering in comparison to big players such as Vodafone, T Mobile, O2, Orange etc. However, Giffgaff targets young, digital savvy customers who are ready to engage with the brand and promote the brand by themselves hence it can be said that target market for the company is small. Online community of the company was created in order to handle customer queries of target market in efficient and responsive manner in comparison to call centres of big telecom operators (Marketing Society, 2013). From generic strategy viewpoint, Giffgaff’s business strategy can be viewed as excellent example for focused low cost strategy. 3. Analysis 3.1 Environmental Audit The study will try to understand the macro-environment of UK in terms of political, economic, social and technological factors in order to understand the business position of Giffgaff. Table 1: PEST External Environment Characteristics Opportunity/Threat for Giffgaff Political (P) Government has deregulated the telecom industry which has opened door for many international telecom operators to establish

Employee Rewards Essay Example for Free

Employee Rewards Essay Introduction The purpose of this essay is to critically examine the processes used by Scotia Learning and identify if their rewards are appropriate to those of the market. The report will begin by discussing the background of Scotia Learning and follow on to define reward management highlighting the objective and constraints within the reward strategy. We will then consider the legal framework and examine why there are variations in pay and how job evaluation can ensure equity and fairness is achieved. Finally we will discuss the concept of motivation and the implications of pay for performance within the reward strategy. The report ends with an analysis of the key issues of the topic. Scotia Learning is the case study for this essay and is one of a network of university-based study centres offering preparation for students wishing to study undergraduate and postgraduate degrees for progression into university degree courses. The company has joint venture partnerships with top universities throughout the United Kingdom, Ireland and United States of America. â€Å"Reward management is concerned with the formulation and implementation of strategies and policies that aim to reward people fairly, equitably and consistently in accordance with their value to the organisation† (Armstrong Murlis, 2007, p3). Research by Redman Wilkinson (2009) indicates that reward is an enormously complex issue and has to take account of three fundamental principles in determining systems and structures: internal equity, external equity and business strategy. In addition Thorpe Homan (2000) state that the organisation should identify what objectives and behaviours the payment system should have for example, labour market competitiveness and management skills whilst Perkins White (2009) highlight the importance of legal regulations that can put constraints on organisations, for example minimum wage (legal), collective bargaining (trade unions), and the external labour markets. Scotia Learning does not recognise a trade union however it does recognise that collective bargaining has been influential in discussing and setting pay arrangement due to internal and external rates of pay not being equal. Within the employment legislation pay has always been an area of controversy especially when one considers employee’s collective concerns (Brown et al., 2003). The introduction of The Equal Pay Act 1970 outlawing unequal pay for men and women having since evolved into equal pay for equal work and the Equal Pay (Amendment) Regulations 1983 after the UK joined the EU in 1973 (Perkins White, 2009), now gives employees a certain degree of protection in their employment relationship. To strengthen current legislation The Equality Act 2010 was introduced highlighting human rights and discriminatory factors, such as equal pay, sex discrimination, race, disability and equality (religion, sexual orientation, and age) (Equality and Human Rights Commission, 2012). In response to this Scotia Learning are aware that they have a ‘duty of care’ to all employees and comply with the Equal Opportunities Policy by ensuring the relevant training is undertaken by managers and employees ensuring everyone understands the importance of and their responsibilities under this Policy. This is also promoted in all recruitment documents, ensuring that wording of job advertisements does not discriminate against any potential applicants. As part of this legislation, employers are legally required to ensure their pay structures are not discriminatory against men and women in terms of valuing work between them in their employment and in order to defend themselves against equal pay claims, organisations must be able to prove that the jobs within their grading system are valued according to the job rather than the gender of the person doing the job. Failure to adhere to these regulations can result in a tribunal claim and if proven the organisation will have to pay all money accrued which can be backdated six years in England and five years in Scotland. In the case of (Birmingham City Council v Abdulla and others [2012] UKSC 47), the Supreme Court ruled that equal pay claims brought in the High Court more than six months after the end of the claimants employment, which would have been out of time in an employment tribunal, should not be struck out under section 2(3) of the Equal Pay Act 1970. The reasons for a claimants failure to bring a timely claim in a tribunal are not relevant in any way to the notion of convenience under section 2(3). (PLC Employment Law Weekly email). Within Scotia Learning pay and benefits are provided on the basis of objective criteria, free from discrimination taking into account the principle of equal pay for equivalent work or work of equal value. In addition we ensure transparency within the reward system is clear to all employees in that they understand how their pay is worked out and what is required from them to achieve this. Job profiles and person specifications for each new vacancy are drawn up in keeping with other jobs of a similar size and responsibility which focus on the skills, experience and qualifications that are directly relevant to the job. Armstrong Murlis (2007, p115) state that â€Å"the payment system is important as it not only conveys a signal to the employees what the organisational priorities are but also acts as a catalyst for wider organisational change† a view reiterated by Armstrong (1996) in which he proposes that the foundations of reward management are to achieve the individual and organisational behaviour that a company needs if the business goals are to be met. Therefore the term ‘employees are the key to enhanced organisational performance’ becomes relevant with links to Kessler and Purcell (1994) where they emphasise that payment systems are related to recruitment, retention and motivation of staff and that the determination of pay is not only the interaction of market forces but also employers. It is also acknowledged that variations in pay can occur for a variety of reasons and from a legal perspective it is important to understand why (Redman Wilkinson, 2009). Firstly the power scenario, in that if labour is scarce, employees will have more power and hence may be able to demand higher pay, in contrast with an over-supply of labour employers have the power and hence may be able to hold pay at lower rates (Redman Wilkinson, 2009). Secondly, it has been acknowledged that ‘the rate for the job’ should be the same for employees doing the same job but considering organisational performance is reliant on the employ ee’s effort, skills and competencies, it is not logical to assume that effort should be rewarded and pay should vary accordingly. A view shared by Redman Wilkinson (2009, p161) who advocate that â€Å"variable pay schemes (VPS) are said to hold out the promise towards the creation of internal labour market that is fairer in rewarding people as it is only ‘fair’ that rewards should have a direct link with effort†. The argument with this theory is that ‘risk adverse’ workers will be less willing to ‘gamble’ on pay related performance than a set amount of pay. Thirdly, we should also take into consideration the external market rate of pay and uneven market pressures such as differing regional or occupational rates of pay as Kessler (2007, p167) states â€Å"external equity is an organisational imperative as failure to respond the labour market changes will leave organisations at a disadvantage competitively†. Scotia Learning responds to these challenges by regularly benchmarking and studying the market rate of pay within the educational sector. Data collected i s beneficial in determining pay to ensure pay scales are in line with and competitive with similar jobs. For example, when recruiting teaching staff, the use of organisations such as SATEFL and other educational websites are particularly useful, for administration staff we would use S1jobs.com and jobseeker.gov.uk website and with management we would use agencies. However, although the aforesaid strategy is very useful, Scotia Learning is a relatively large organisation with Centres worldwide and other factors have to be taken into consideration, such as location and cost of living. In determining the value of jobs within our organisation, although we consider the external market pay rates, decisions concerning pay are done through a coherent wage and career structure internal to our organisation which ensures consistency and fairness in our reward systems. It has been reported that issues with this reward system have arisen within the banking sector resulting in Government intervention to deal with inequalities of pay setting at senior management/director level and low pay via the nati onal minimum wage. This is not an area of concern for Scotia Learning as the annual salary increase is a % rate consistent throughout the organisation and our pay structure process involves a job evaluation â€Å"a systematic process for establishing the relative worth of jobs within an organisation† Redman Wilkinson (2009, p141). In addition Scotia Learning is accredited to the British Council and British Accreditation Council and all HR policies and personnel files are properly documented and filed. Our job evaluation comprises of an analytical (i.e., jobs are broken down into individual components) broad-band pay structure with a range of factors such as knowledge and skills, problem solving, decision making and then allocating points to them. It is interesting to note that research by IRS (2007) showed that an average of 86% of organisations use this form of job evaluation. Within this broad-band pay structure we have 6 wide overlapping salary bands made up of management, HR, teaching staff , finance, student services and cleaning staff with a salary range for each bank of at least 75%. Progression up the bands will be by skills and qualifications, performance and competence enhanced through individual career development thus supplying the motivation for continuous learning. To support this, the annual performance review takes place, however it is not linked to pay or rewards and is based on the objectives of skills and competence which are linked to organisational performance. In terms of equity and fairness the rate of pay for full-time and part-time teaching staff is calculated on the same hourly rate therefore ensuring consistency and fairness within the system. It is interesting to note that research by Redman Wilkinson (2009, p139) argues that by paying an hourly rate â€Å"employers control over pace and performance is reliant on either direct supervision or the willingness of employees to engage with the task† synonymous with the argument surrounding ‘risk adverse’ workers. This point of view may be viable in organisations such as ‘call centres’ where technology enables the monitoring and regulating of work by measuring output and input and within the customer service industry where we have the ‘secret shopper’, but within the education sector autonomy is part of the job as is their professional code of ethics which includes commitment, motivation and discretionary behaviour which is contradictory to the argument by Thorpe Homan (2000) who suggest that non-financial aspects are secondary and rarely given the same prominence in the design of payment systems. Managing rewards is largely about managing employee expectations linking to their psychological contract which is concerned with pay, performance and the development of skills (Armstrong Murlis, 2007). The argument then becomes, if reactions to rewards depend on the psychological makeup, values and needs of individual, one cannot wholly rely on performance related pay schemes to enhance all employees’ performance as not everyone is motivated by money. Motivation only takes place if rewards are worthwhile to the individual and if the process is seen to be fair, therefore, it would require to be customised for every individual in the organisation (Armstrong Murlis, 2007). For example, an employee nearing the end of their career may be more interested in job satisfaction (intrinsic reward), whereas a graduate beginning their career may be more interested in training and development (extrinsic reward). For that reason it can be argued that both intrinsic rewards such as respect, recognition, job satisfaction and responsibility are just as important as extrinsic rewards such as pay rises, bonuses, training and development opportunities and benefits such as annual holidays, company sick pay and company pension. This highlights the importance of implementing an equitable and fair reward strategy in that by incorporating financial and non-financial rewards is that they can be used as a tool to enhance employee motivation resulting in improved organisational performance. Finally the importance of management skills cannot be undermined as they are a fundamental element of human resource management. The management strategy within Scotia Learning is based on autonomy, communication and high levels of trust between management and employees. Evidence to support this is the turnover rate of staff with one employee resigning over the past two years and the annual absence levels within Scotia L earning for all staff inclusive stands at 0.1% of working hours, which is the lowest in the entire organisation. Conclusion This objective of the report was to establish the processes that ensure equity and fairness in the reward systems. We have covered the legal aspects, strategies, market awareness, motivation, job evaluation and performance appraisal and it has become evident that Scotia Learning complies with all legal legislation, and displays equity and fairness within the reward systems. However there was an air of negativity surrounding performance and reward as within Scotia Learning the annual appraisal is not yet connected to pay for performance. It is possible that issues could arise if this was implemented, namely, it could seriously affect the dynamics of the office environment between a very closely-nit team of employees, managers and directors in that, how does the manager justify their decision in the event of a low reward without affecting the equilibrium of the office environment and within a unionised organisation all trade unions argue against performance linked to pay. Schemes relating pay to performance, although generating a tremendous amount of interest have very little in the way of conclusive evidence concerning their effects on performance (Redman Wilkinson, (2009). This echoes Thompson (1992) findings in which he states, â€Å"research fails to provide convincing evidence of a link between individual performance-related pay schemes and improvements in productivity†. The evidence supports that other approaches should be considered in rewarding employees, for example a one-off bonus payment which would not affect the employees’ annual salary. References Armstrong, M. (1996) Employee Reward, London: Kogan Page/IPD Armstrong, M., and Murlis, H. (2007) Reward Management. 5thedn. London: Hay Group Brown, W., Marginson, P., and Walsh, J. (2003) The management of pay as the influence of collective bargaining diminishes. In: P.K. Edwards, Industrial Relations: Theory and Practice, Oxford: Blackwell IRS (2007) Job evaluation is thriving, survey finds: Employment Review, 667 Kessler, I. (2007) Reward Choices: strategy and equity. In: Storey, J. HRM: a critical text 3rd edition, London: Thomson Learning Kessler, I., and Purcell, J. (1994) Performance Related Pay: Objectives and application, Human Resource Management Journal, Vol.2, No.3 Perkins, S. J., and White, G. (2009) Employee Reward: Alternatives, consequences and contexts, 2nd edn. London: Chartered Institute Of Personnel and Development, Redman, T., and Wilkinson, A. (2009) Contemporary Human Resource Management: Text Cases, 3rd edn. London: Prentice Hall, Thompson, M. (1992) Pay for Performance: The employers experience, Brighton, Institute of Manpower Studies Thorpe, R., and Homan, G (2000) Strategic Reward Systems, Harlow: Financial Times Williams, S., and Adam-Smith, D. (2006) Contemporary Employment Relations: A critical introduction, Oxford: University Press Equality of Human Rights Commission, available from: http://www.equalityhumanrights.com/human-rights/ date accessed 23/10/12 PLC Employment Law, available from: [emailprotected] – date accessed 26/10/12

Symbolic Illustration of the Power of Relationships in Susan Glaspells

Symbolic Illustration of the Power of Relationships in Susan Glaspell's Trifles A friend can be a remarkable thing. Unfortunately, many lack the powerful bonds that all humans need to survive and lead healthy, happy lives. In Susan Glaspell's play Trifles, Mrs. Wright is starved of the human interaction and relationships she so desperately needs. Consequently, she is never rescued from her loneliness, is brought to the point where she cannot handle any more of life's saddening struggles, and kills her husband in his sleep. Through powerful and often ironic symbolism, such as Mrs. Wright's kitchen, the names of the characters, and the bird, Susan Glaspell clearly displays the power of human relationships and how truly devastating a lack of this absolute necessity can be. One of the numerous symbols Glaspell uses to emphasize the importance of wholesome human relationships is Mrs. Wright's kitchen. Upon entering the crime scene, the men and women notice the unkept kitchen. They are alarmed by the "Dirty towels" (Glaspell 1174), the unwashed pans under the sink, a loaf of bread outside the breadbox," "the walls covered with a faded wall paper" (Glaspell 1172), and the "sticky" shelves (Glaspell 1174). The abrupt, incomplete work reflects the emptiness Mrs. Wright had bottled inside of herself and also displays the sudden sense of explosion she must have experienced to go as far as murdering Mr. Wright. Also, they see a small chair beside the kitchen table. Obviously intended for a child, the small chair illustrates Mrs. Wright's empty expectations of raising children. Mrs. Hale explains, "Not having children makes less work-but it makes a quiet house, and Wright out to work all day, and no company when he did come in" (Glas... ...there are so many that go unnoticed and unappreciated. Unfortunately, they do not know how to reach out for help until it is too late. There are also many others that see these lonely and depressed individuals, but no one ever does. Mrs. Peters explains regretfully, "Somehow we just don't see how it is with other folks until-something turns up" (Glaspell 1178). Many times, it is unfortunately too late to save a person. Through her powerful symbols, Glaspell stresses the importance of reaching out to those that are lonely and need emotional support before it is too late. After all, "We all go through the same things-it's all just a different kind of same thing" (Glaspell 1180). Work Cited Glaspell, Susan. Trifles. The Bedford Introduction to Literature: Reading, Thinking, Writing. 5th ed. Ed. Michael Meyer. Boston: Bedford/St. Martin's, 1999. 1172-1181.

Business of Data Warehousing Foundations Essay

Executive Summary mySupermarket is a grocery shopping and comparison website which aims to provide customers with the best price for their shopping. This report examines how data warehousing provided mySupermarket with the foundation in which to build a successful enterprise, and allowed a subsequent expansion into the ‘business intelligence’ sector. The research draws attention to the problems and limitations that mySupermarket encountered including; coping with diverse sources of data streams, customer loyalty issues, achieving real-time data, data integrity and generating a sustainable revenue stream. These problems were tackled respectively through; building their own data warehouse, adopting a CRM strategy underpinned by their warehouse, adopting Microsoft’s SQL software, supermarket website ‘crawling’, offering ‘targeted’ advertising space and the realisation that the granularity of detail they offered, would allow them to expand into the ‘busi ness intelligence’ sector. The report appreciates the importance of storing data, but concludes that data itself is the prerequisite to success, and that good management is needed to convert this data into meaningful information. It is therefore a combination of data warehousing and good management that has enabled mySupermarket to become a successful venture. Introduction â€Å"On the 31st August 2006, entrepreneur Johnny Stern received a seven-figure sum from investors to transform the way consumers shop for their groceries. From this, the price comparison site mySupermarket.co.uk was born and the company has utilised data warehousing to give consumers access to cheaper grocery shopping. The venture has not been without its problems, however four years on the company has withstood Adam Smith’s ‘Invisible Hand’[1] and grown into a c. £10m company†¦Ã¢â‚¬  mySupermarket is a grocery shopping and comparison site that allows customers to compare and shop from four main UK supermarkets in one central place. Their mission statement is â€Å"to get the best possible price for your supermarket trolley while enjoying an easier and more consumer-friendly shopping experience†. Through the use of SQL and data warehousing, mySupermarket is able to collect product pricing, promotion and availability data directly from retailers’ websites. It then uses its proprietary technology to match identical Stock Keeping Units (SKUs) across retailers. After initial investment from Greylock Partners and Pitango Venture Capital (investors in Facebook & LinkedIn), mySupermarket have faced the same difficulties as other price comparison sites in generating a sustainable revenue stream after Stern declared that â€Å"the portal would remain free in principle for shoppers†. The customer proposition for mySupermarket is to first log into their account. Then choose which supermarket to shop at from; Asda, Ocado/Waitrose, Sainsbury or Tesco. Tick their preferred supermarket and choose a delivery time/date, then start to shop. mySupermarket is updated on a daily basis so that the prices shown are the most competitive. Once the customer has made their choice of store, they start to shop by using the tabbed choices along the top of the page. These are divided up into â€Å"virtual aisles† so making a choice from Fruit and Veg, Meat, Fish & Poultry, or Drinks etc. Once shopping has been completed, it then shows basket prices across the four supermarkets and allows the customer an opportunity to switch supermarkets. This report will critically discuss how data warehousing has enabled mySupermarket to build a successful business model including the benefits and problems that have arisen from the use of this technology. The report will finally analyse the extent to which data warehousing has contributed to mySupermarket’s success. Technologies Discussed According to Bill Inmon[2] (1993) data warehousing can be defined as, â€Å"a  subject-orientated, integrated, time variant and non-volatile, collection of data in support of the management decision making process†. It is, in essence, a large data storage facility which enables an enterprise to gain a competitive advantage through analytics and business intelligence. Providing integrated access to multiple, distributed, heterogeneous databases and other information sources has become one of the leading issues in database research and industry, IEEE Computer (1991) which can be seen through the success of First American Corporation (FAC), Cooper et al (2000) and Tesco/Dunnhumby, J. Perry (2009). Data mining is the process of ‘digging-out’ patterns from data, usually through Clustering, Classification, Regression and Association rule learning. Data mining technology can generate new business opportunities by providing: †¢ Automated prediction of trends and behaviours. †¢ Automated discovery of previously unknown or hidden patterns – D. Champion and C. Coombs (2010) This process is carried out by sophisticated software packages such as Oracle, IBM and SQL. This alleviates the (potentially) very time consuming task of manually inputting and analysing the data Within data warehousing, there is a high importance placed on the quality of data, as without it, meaningful analysis is impossible. Data collection should therefore be taken with a high level of detail, and have solid definitions, as to avoid subjectivity. The purpose of a data warehouse is to support creative strategic decision making through a greater granularity of information with a consistent view of what’s happening. Customer Relationship Management (CRM) emerged in the 1990’s at a time when customers were becoming better informed and less brand loyal. CRM is an integration of technologies and business processes used to satisfy the needs of a customer during any interaction, Bose (2002, p. 89) and is underpinned by data warehousing. As with VISION in the FAC case (2000), the subsequent  benefits of CRM, is that firms are able to exploit the ‘80:20 principle’ which states that some customers are more important/profitable than others. These information sources can only come through data warehousing and data mining. mySupermarket – The Beginning The inspiration for mySupermarket came from Stern’s bargain-obsessed elderly relative; who would scour the aisles of Tesco’s to find his favourite tin of baked beans, jot down the price and travel to competitor stores to try and find a better deal. Stern identified the growing interest in online grocery shopping and felt that it was an area that could be exploited (Fig. 1). Figure 1: Mintel Intelligence – Online Grocery Data Stern spent 18 months before the launch developing the software and tweaking the concept (Fig. 2). Figure 2: Adaption of Martin et al., 2005: 193 The data warehouse was developed through ‘crawling’[3] the four supermarket websites and adding product pricing, promotion and availability data to the warehouse. Once this data was implemented in the warehouse, proprietary technology and SQL software allowed mySupermarket to match identical SKU’s across retailers. This data was also used in developing its CRM strategy through the use of ‘cookies’[4] to store data in the customers computer using the functionality of their browser to find out whether the computer has visited the site before and what SKUs they purchased. â€Å"This enables us to operate an efficient service and to track the patterns of behaviour of visitors to the website.† – mysupermarket.co.uk. The feature enables mySupermarket to utilize this information by creating functions such as a ‘Regular Shop’ button, saving customers’ time on their shopping. mySupermarket – Problems Many problems can arise through the use of data warehousing, both technically and commercially. According to Mintel Intelligence (2009), â€Å"Consumer loyalty is fairly low in the [price comparison] market – with more than 14 million people (c.58% of market) having used three or more different price comparison sites†. Underlying these efforts was the recognition that, to succeed with this strategy, it must know its customers exceptionally well and leverage that knowledge in website design, service and interaction with their clients. mySupermarket would therefore have to find a strategy to retain a ‘loyal customer base’ in a notoriously disloyal sector. Kimball & Ross (2002) state that a common pitfall of data warehousing is to â€Å"presume that the business, its requirements, analytics, underlying data and supporting technology are static† – an early problem mySupermarket encountered was the variation in regional pricing and a growing demand for ‘real-time’ data. Another problem with data warehousing is ensuring the integrity of data, this is typically a human procedure and so subject to human error. Even the most sophisticated data mining systems cannot produce good analysis from poor data. A good illustration of this is from Blastard and Dilnot ‘The Tiger That Isn’t’ where a hospital survey found that an alarming amount of patients were being born on the 11th November 1911. Further investigation showed that nurses often would not fill in patient files properly and to save time, when asked to enter patient D.O.B. they would type 11/11/11 into the database. No matter how intelligent a computer system is, if you put ‘garbage-in’ you will get ‘garbage-out’. Beynon-Davies (2004) states that data warehousing projects are large scale development projects typically taking up to three years to complete. Some of the challenges of such problems may include; selecting, installing and integrating the different hardware and software and also, the diverse sources of data feeding a data warehouse introduces problems of design in terms of creating a homogenous data store. Finally, as with all comparison sites, the major obstacle facing  mySupermarket was generating a sustainable revenue stream from the database they had accumulated. mySupermarket.co.uk did not generate any revenue 5 months after the website went live. Originally, mySupermarket didn’t operate a ‘search advertisement’ scheme (a central platform for companies such as Google eg, BP paying for advertising of their oil spill cleanup when people typed in â€Å"BP Oil Spill† – G. Cheeseman, 2010) . There are also no revenue-sharing agreements in place with the four stores whose prices it monitors in effort to remain independent. This, in part, may stem from mySupermarket’s limited market, consisting of ‘a comparison of groceries’. mySupermarket recognised that they would have to expand their focus if they were to generate a large enough turnover to operate a successful business. mySupermarket – Technological Impact The first problem mySupermarket addressed was the industries poor ‘customer loyalty’. They decided to attack this through the implementation of a CRM strategy. After the initial launch, mySupermarket was receiving feedback from customers regarding such things as; healthy options, promotions on offer, printable shopping lists and regular shops. mySupermarket realised that the information stored in their data warehouse could be exploited to meet these demands and increase customer utility. Subsequently, a Health Checker feature was launched based on the Food Standard Authority’s approved ‘traffic light’ system. In November 2008, the mySupermarket ‘Quick Shop’ function was added, allowing users to type their shopping list on a virtual notepad and find their required items in one go. â€Å"As delivery slots started running out towards Christmas we also introduced a new ‘print your shopping list’ feature, which was popular,† said Stern. â€Å"A lot of our shoppers are using the website as a quick way to find the best deals and are then going to the supermarket to make their purchases†. Recent analysis of visits shows mysupermarket.co.uk has a loyal repeat following, with Stern claiming visitors are spending an average of 20 minutes on the site. â€Å"Until recently, there were few viable tools to provide real-time data warehousing nor an absolutely current picture of an organization’s business and customer† J. Vandermay (2001). To combat the problem of achieving  real-time and regional data, mySupermarket used Microsoft’s SQL software[5]. Most data integration solutions focus on moving data only between homogeneous systems and database software. However, SQL integration is capable of moving data among a wide range of databases and systems. It also offers transformational data integration tools to consolidate and synchronize heterogeneous data into a warehouse. This allows consumers to view whether a certain item is in stock in their local store, or view delivery slots for their specific region. This real-time data saves the mySupermarket team having to continually update the warehouse manually. Fortunately for mySupermarket, their website ‘crawling’ technique allows them to take the SKU data directly from the supermarkets themselves. Therefore data will only be wrong, if the supermarket has made the mistake (so would have to sell the item at that price) and so mySupermarket would not be liable. Although Stern took half the time recommended by Beynon-Davies, the warehouse has had to be continuously tweaked since its launch. After its launch mySupermarket noticed a data stream that wasn’t being filtered into the data warehouse – calories. After the realisation, mySupermarket were able to add a ‘calorie counter’ function on to the website. For any business to survive, it needs to generate a revenue stream to achieve a sustainable cash flow:mySupermarket were able to negotiate with supermarkets a commission of  £5 for every ‘first-time buyer’ that shops through their site and  £1 every time thereafter. Other sources of revenue came from the use of advertising, which could be split into two different segments on-site and search-related advertising. Marks & Spencer (Fig. 3) are one company that has chosen to advertise with mySupermarket.co.uk as the content is relevant and it is independent from the four supermarkets being compared. Advertisers will typically pay $1.00 – $1.50 per 1,000 run-of-site impressions for the advertising placement. However, advertisers may pay even more for targeted sidebar advertisements. Search advertisements are targeted to match key search terms entered on the search engine, these products (advertisements) will then appear first in the search. Danone (Fig. 3) has  pa id for advertisement when the search term ‘yoghurt’ is entered, and so their umbrella brands (eg, Activia) show at the top of the list, increasing its probability of being bought. Figure 3: mySupermarket.co.uk – advertising example Due to the amount of data mining available to mySupermarket, an opportunity was identified for expansion, called ‘mySupermarket insights’. It acts as real-time B2B data service for the ‘Fast Moving Consumer Goods’ (FMCG) sector. As mySupermarket has access to SKU by SKU trends, it is able to offer extremely high level, intelligent data. The services it offers include; New Product Development (NPD) alert reports, Online auditing reports, Price comparison reports, Product substitution report and Customer profiling reports (allowing for further use of CRM through ‘cluster analysis’[6]). This sort of information is of high value to companies and a subscription to the service can range from  £5,000 –  £20,000p.a. (current clients include Kellogg’s, Innocent Smoothies, Nielson and Ella’s Kitchen). Finally, mySupermarket is often contracted by media companies, such as ‘the Independent’ to analyse trends for news stories – J. Burchill (2010). I feel that information is now widely recognised as being one of the key corporate resources, needing to be carefully managed so that it can be effectively utilised in the decision-making process. Timely, accurate and relevant information can only be generated, however, if corporate data is stored in a secure, accessible and flexible manner. The following table provides a summary of the impact that data warehousing technology had for mySupermarket: Figure 6: Technological Impact Summary mySupermarket – Conclusion To conclude, data warehousing has enabled mySupermarket to overcome issues  such as customer retention, real-time data and generating revenue. It really does appear that â€Å"information is key†, whereby data is the prerequisite for information. J. Poole et al. (2003) state ‘†¦ the underlying economic justification is ultimately based on the value a given technology provides to the customers of the computing systems and software products’ and so the determinate of mySupermarket’s success is essentially based on ‘whether people use the technology’ and ‘the value of the company’. Based on an monthly unique user level of 1 million, and 500k registered users turning over c. £10m, we can assume that at this point in time mySupermarket is justified economically. On the other hand, you could argue that mySupermarket is a ‘recession business’ and not a sustainable enterprise. In which case, the rapid growth in recent years could be due to the economic climate and not because there is a long term demand. Looking towards the future, â€Å"Our investors have international ambitions,† Stern said. â€Å"They see the potential of transporting the model to different markets.† mySupermarket are looking to expand the company’s development team to support its entry into Europe and the US. mySupermarket are currently looking for another round of funding to bridge G. Murray’s (1994) second equity gap. Technology firms often require ‘follow on development funding’, as cash is heavily plowed into ‘Prototype testing’ and ‘Research & Development’. In terms of an exit, mySupermarket would be very attractive to major FMCG companies such as P&G, Unilever and Kraft’s venture arms. I believe that mySupermarket will achieve their second round funding as they are now profitable and have a proven concept that has high growth prospects for the future. Over the past few years there has been a huge growth in the use of ‘numbers’ and ‘analytics’. Businesses are recognising that it is not enough to work harder than the competition; they also have to work smarter. Davenport (2006) argues that it is â€Å"virtually impossible to differentiate yourself from competitors based on products alone† and so to pull ahead of the pack, businesses need to compete on analytics. In which case, ‘mySupermarket insights’ is poised in a perfect position to capitalize on this new thirst for ‘business intelligence’, whereby companies feel that  they will have to subscribe to the service to compete on an even playing field. However, it is not enough to just store data, it has to be managed, analyzed, implemented and utilised to convert raw data into real information. mySupermarket realised the benefits of data warehousing and were able to exploit this, expanding from a mere ‘price-comparison site’ to a ‘business intelligence provider’ to major FMCG companies. I believe that with the current shift towards analytics and business intelligence, mySupermarket has the potential to be a major force in the FMCG sector whilst offering a greater transparency for customers, all of which stems from good management and data warehousing. 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