Intellectual Beauty

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Let's find out if you're on the right track†¦ * * * Home > SparkNotes > Poetry Study Guides > Shelley’s Poetry > â€Å"Hymn to Intellectual Beauty† contents * Context * Analysis * Themes, Motifs & Symbols * Summary and Analysis * â€Å"Hymn to Intellectual Beauty† * â€Å"Ozymandias† * â€Å"England in 1819† * â€Å"Ode to the West Wind† * â€Å"The Indian Serenade† * â€Å"To a Skylark† * Study Questions * Further Reading * How to Cite This SparkNote sparknotes Shelleyâ₠¬â„¢s Poetry Percy Bysshe Shelley Get this SparkNote to go! lt; Previous Section Themes, Motifs & Symbols Next Section > â€Å"Ozymandias† ————————————————- â€Å"Hymn to Intellectual Beauty† Summary The speaker says that the shadow of an invisible Power floats among human beings, occasionally visiting human hearts—manifested in summer winds, or moonbeams, or the memory of music, or anything that is precious for its mysterious grace. Addressing this Spirit of Beauty, the speaker asks where it has gone, and why it leaves the world so desolate when it goes—why human hearts can feel such hope and love when it is present, and such despair and hatred when it is gone. He asserts that religious and superstitious notions—†Demon, Ghost, and Heaven†Ã¢â‚¬â€are nothing more than the attempts of mortal poets and wise men to explain and express their responses to the Spirit of Beauty, which alone, the speaker says, can give â€Å"grace and truth to life’s unquiet dream. † Love, Hope, and Self-Esteem come and go at the whim of the Spirit, and if it would only stay in the human heart forever, instead of coming and going unpredictably, man would be â€Å"immortal and omnipotent. The Spirit inspires lovers and nourishes thought; and the speaker implores the spirit to remain even after his life has ended, fearing that without it death will be â€Å"a dark reality. † The speaker recalls that when he was a boy, he â€Å"sought for ghosts,† and traveled through caves and forests looking for â€Å"the departed dead†; but only when the Spirit’s shadow fell across him—as he mused â€Å"deeply on the lot / Of life† outdoors in the spring—did he experience transcendence. At that moment, he says, â€Å"I shrieked, and clasped my hands in ecstasy! † He then vowed that he would dedicate his life to the Spirit of Beauty; now he asserts that he has kept his vow—every joy he has ever had has been linked to the hope that the â€Å"awful Loveliness† would free the world from slavery, and complete the articulation of his words. The speaker observes that after noon the day becomes â€Å"more solemn and serene,† and in autumn there is a â€Å"lustre in the sky† which cannot be found in summer. The speaker asks the Spirit, whose power descended upon his youth like that truth of nature, to supply â€Å"calm† to his â€Å"onward life†Ã¢â‚¬â€the life of a man who worships the Spirit and every form that contains it, and who is bound by the spells of the Spirit to â€Å"fear himself, and love all humankind. † Form Each of the seven long stanzas of the â€Å"Hymn to Intellectual Beauty† follows the same, highly regular scheme. Each line has an iambic rhythm; the first four lines of each stanza are written in pentameter, the fifth line in hexameter, the sixth, seventh, eighth, ninth, tenth, and eleventh lines in tetrameter, and the twelfth line in pentameter. The syllable pattern for each stanza, then, is 555564444445. ) Each stanza is rhymed ABBAACCBDDEE. Commentary This lyric hymn, written in 1816, is Shelley’s earliest focused attempt to incorporate the Romantic ideal of communion with nature into his own aesthetic philosophy. The â€Å"Inte llectual Beauty† of the poem’s title does not refer to the beauty of the mind or of the working intellect, but rather to the intellectual idea of beauty, abstracted in this poem to the â€Å"Spirit of Beauty,† whose shadow comes and goes over human hearts. The poem is the poet’s exploration both of the qualities of beauty (here it always resides in nature, for example), and of the qualities of the human being’s response to it (â€Å"Love, Hope, and Self-esteem†). The poem’s process is doubly figurative or associative, in that, once the poet abstracts the metaphor of the Spirit from the particulars of natural beauty, he then explains the workings of this Spirit by comparing it back to the very particulars of atural beauty from which it was abstracted in the first place: â€Å"Thy light alone, like mist o’er mountains driven†; â€Å"Love, Hope, and Self-esteem, like clouds depart†¦ † This is an inspired technique, for it enables Shelley to illustrate the stunning experience of natural beauty time and again as the poem progresses, but to push the particulars into the background, so that the focus of the poem is always on the Spirit, the abstract intellectual ideal that the speaker clai ms to serve. Of course Shelley’s atheism is a famous part of his philosophical stance, so it may seem strange that he has written a hymn of any kind. He addresses that strangeness in the third stanza, when he declares that names such as â€Å"Demon, Ghost, and Heaven† are merely the record of attempts by sages to explain the effect of the Spirit of Beauty—but that the effect has never been explained by any â€Å"voice from some sublimer world. † The Spirit of Beauty that the poet worships is not supernatural, it is a part of the world. It is not an independent entity; it is a responsive capability within the poet’s own mind. If the â€Å"Hymn to Intellectual Beauty† is not among Shelley’s very greatest poems, it is only because its project falls short of the poet’s extraordinary powers; simply drawing the abstract ideal of his own experience of beauty and declaring his fidelity to that ideal seems too simple a task for Shelley. His most important statements on natural beauty and on aesthetics will take into account a more complicated idea of his own connection to nature as an expressive artist and a poet, as we shall see in â€Å"To a Skylark† and â€Å"Ode to the West Wind. Nevertheless, the â€Å"Hymn† remains an important poem from the early period of Shelley’s maturity. It shows him working to incorporate Wordsworthian ideas of nature, in some ways the most important theme of early Romanticism, into his own poetic project, and, by connecting his idea of beauty to his idea of human religion, making that theme explicitly his own. < Previous Section Themes, Mot ifs & Symbols Next Section > â€Å"Ozymandias† Become a fan on Facebook   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Follow us on Twitter Help | Feedback More Help Ask Miss Marm Help with grammar, writing, and your papers Shelley's Poetry Message Board Ask a question or post an answer. 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Customer Fulfillment in the Digital Economy

Customer Fulfillment in the Digital Economy Amazon. com E-tail Customer Fulfillment Networks Pioneer â€Å"The logistics of distribution Scorecard are the iceberg below the waterline of online bookselling.B-web type —Jeff Bezos, founder and CEO, Amazon. comAggregation (e-tail) /Agora (auctions, Zshops) hybrid model KEY PARTICIPANTS â€Å"Ten years from now, no one will remember whether Consumers and business buyers Context providersContent providersAmazon. com and small online merchants (Amazon. com associates, Zshops, auctions) Suppliers and b-web partners (publishers; producers [OEM]; distributors e. g. Ingram Micro, Baker & Taylor Books, and others) Customers Amazon. com spent an extra $100,000 upgrading shipping from the West Coast to the East Coast. All that will matter is whether electronic commerceGave people a good or bad experience.2 —David Risher, senior vice president for merchandising, Amazon. com Commerce services †¢ Infrastructure providers â€Å"This [the Amazon. com distribution warehouses and CFN] is the fastest expansion of distribution capacity in peacetime history. † 3 —Jeff Bezos, founder and CEO, Amazon. com Offering Amazon. com and online merchants (Amazon. com associates, Zshops, auctions) Amazon. om and merchants participating in auctions and Zshops Third party shippers (UPS & USPS) Amazon. com Drop shippers such as Ingram Technology providers such as Oracle, Net Perceptions, and i2 Technologies Third party shippers (UPS, USPS) The largest online e-tailer of books, music, videos, toys, and gifts Recently expanded service offering to include auctions (March 1999) and Zshops (September 1999)—an aggregation of merchants on its Web site Aspires to become a one-stop shop for merchandise on the Web CFN value proposition â€Å"Earth’s largest selection† of merchandise at competitive prices, a validated product assortment, nd consistent customer service from â€Å"home page to home delivery†Ã¢â‚¬â€œ24/7 URL http://www. amazon. com 360 Adelaide Street W, 4th Floor Toronto, Ontario. Canada M5V 1R7 Tel 416. 979. 7899. Fax 416. 979-7616 www. digital4sight. com  © 2000 Digital 4Sight Corp. Reproduction by any means, or disclosure to parties who are not employees of Digital 4Sight member organizations is prohibited. Thank you for your cooperation. 1. 1 Customer Fulfillment in the Digital Economy Amazon. com few barriers to entry—but one of those barriers is customer fulfillment. In 1996–97, Amazon. com was largely alone in the e-tailing business. Now the Web is eeming with e-tailers like buy. com (which aggressively undercuts everyone else, including Amazon. com), CDNow, and barnesandnoble. com. There are also Web portal-run malls, many of which are copying and offering features (like the renowned â€Å"one-click shopping†) that have thus far differentiated Amazon. com. Yahoo’s online mall offers 7,000 stores with over four million items and walmart. com’s planned debut in 2000 poses a significant threat. Amazon. com’s first mover advantage, e-brand equity, and initial cost advantages (stemming from lack of investments in prime real estate for storefronts) are gradually eroding.Its margins are falling, while operating expenses from mergers and acquisitions are increasing. As of the end of 1999, Amazon. com expected to post approximately $600 million in losses for the year, at a time when growth in book sales is falling (from about 800% in 1997 to a little over 100% in 1999). On the plus side, customer retention rates exceeded 72% in the third quarter of 1999. 8 But average revenue per customer in 1998 was $98. 4, while average selling, general and administrative (SG&A) and distribution costs per customer (excluding cost of goods sold) were about $71. 30, leading to an average net earnings loss of around 21%. Amazon. com Founder Jeff Bezos wants to transform Amazon. com into the largest and most customer-friendly one-stop shop on the Web. Already the largest online e-tailer of books, music, and videos, the company has expanded its product offering to include toys, gifts, and electronics, and in September 1999 launched â€Å"Zshops,† a new initiative (online flea market on Amazon. com’s Web site) which offers customers â€Å"universal selection. †4 Zshops empower small merchants and customers to set up online stores on the Amazon. com Web site for a monthly fee of $10, and a transaction fee of 1–5% of every sale.With a market capitalization of approximately $31. 4 billion (as of November 1999), 12 million loyal customers, 18 million items on sale, projected 1999 sales of $1. 4 billion, and the most recognized brand name on the Internet,5 Amazon. com aspires to become the supermall of choice for online shoppers. Its recipe includes innovation driven by â€Å"customer obsession† and the ability to provide a secure, enjoyable shopping experience online, but its dominance is due to a customer fulfillment process that delivers. A carefully orchestrated and adroitly executed â€Å"sell all, carry few† strategy explains Amazon. com’s success ith e-tail customer fulfillment. Its business web (b-web) (for books) includes Ingram Book Group and Baker & Taylor, the two largest book wholesalers in the US, as well as dozens of others. In 1998, Amazon. com obtained 60% of its books through Ingram, which operates seven strategically located US warehouses. Amazon. com pays Ingram a wholesale markup a few percentage points above the publisher’s price for its drop shipping services. 6 How has Amazon. com responded to these formidable challenges? First, to increase revenue per customer, Amazon. com added product lines or capabilities practically every six weeks in 1999.In February, the company bought 46% of drugstore. com. The following month, it launched online auctions. It bought a 35% stake in homegrocer. com in May, 54% of pets. com in June, an d 49% of gear. com in July. The Zshops and All Product Search (a â€Å"search the Web† service) initiatives have moved it even closer to its goal of providing â€Å"earth’s largest selection. † For Amazon. com, the Zshops initiative is 80–90% grossmargin rich, since its marginal costs for providing one-click shopping and credit card collection on Zshops is nearly zero. In 1999, Amazon. com opened five new automated distribution centers of its own in the US (this is in ddition to two centers already operational in Seattle and Delaware). The intent is to improve declining margins in a cutthroat business (e. g. by sourcing books directly from publishers), lessen dependence on Ingram and other distributors, and extend and control its online fulfillment process to enhance competitive advantage. Amazon. com now offers its customers same to next day shipping (in the US) on most items. In the 1999 holiday season, the company sent more packages—perhaps in e xcess of 15 million—to more people than any other e-tailer or mail-order retailer in the country. 7 Amazon. com’s leadership in customer fulfillment etworking (CFN) will be critical to its success as the landlord of the largest shopping mall on the Web. Second, its customer fulfillment networking (CFN) strategy is designed to increase gross margins by sourcing directly from publishers and other producers, rather than from wholesalers (e. g. distributors like Ingram) who provide drop shipping for a premium. Amazon. com will also reduce costs per sale by cross-docking orders (books, electronics, and toys all in one order) at the warehouse closest to the customer through state-of-the-art demand forecasting and optimization solutions from i2 Technologies. 10 Business contextE-tailing is fast becoming a crowded marketplace with  © 1. 2 2000 Digital 4Sight Corp. Reproduction by any means, or disclosure to parties who are not employees of Digital 4Sight member organizations is prohibited. Thank you for your cooperation. Customer Fulfillment in the Digital Economy Amazon. com So, what are the implications of Amazon. com’s push into more warehouses for better customer fulfillment? While the investment in five additional warehouses has been immense (in excess of $200 million), it enables same or next day fulfillment in most cases—driving greater customer satisfaction and loyalty, and higher evenues and profits per customer. It also lowers operating expenses and empowers Amazon. com to respond to pressures from Wall Street for profits. The strategy appears to be paying off—5. 69 million unique Web users (excluding its 12 million registered customers) shopped at Amazon. com in the 1999 holiday season (an 81% increase over 1998), with average spending per customer of $128 (a 30% increase over 1998). 14 However, maintaining stock in seven warehouses also increases inventory carrying costs, which the company will need to balance and contr ol through efficient customer fulfillment planning and execution. 2000 Digital 4Sight Corp. Reproduction by any means, or disclosure to parties who are not employees of Digital 4Sight member organizations is prohibited. Thank you for your cooperation. Less compelling High Complex*E-BRAND AS BARRIER TO ENTRY E-CUSTOMER EXPECTATIONS AMAZON. COM (Circa 2001)†¢ Landlord of largest Web supermall†¢ Universal selection, one-stop shopping, and same day customer fulfillment = competitive advantage†¢ Revenues: $2. 7 Billion (est. )†¢ Registered Customers: 19. 5 MM†¢ Items Offered: >18 MM AMAZON. COM (1998)†¢ Book E-tailer†¢ Investment in brand building†¢ Customer fulfillment largely outsourced to Ingram and Baker & Taylor†¢ Revenues: $610 MM†¢ Registered Customers: 12 MM†¢ Books Offered2. 5 MM Low Low This strategic shift (figure 1) makes sense because Amazon. com’s e-brand will be a less compelling barrier to entry beyond 2000, co mpared to its customized, collaborative, and integrated online fulfillment capability for â€Å"orders of one. † According to Andrew N. Westland, Amazon. com’s vice president of warehousing, transportation and engineering, it would risk losing its competitive advantage from its pioneering and innovative one-to-one customer fulfillment excellence if it hired another company to handle distribution.As he points out, â€Å"we would be the teacher and then they would offer those services to our competitors. †13 Designed and built for online order fulfillment, Amazon. com’s CFN and warehouse distribution system is among the first of its kind (another is Webvan). As such, it confers competitive first mover and learning curve advantage. ONLINE PRODUCT ASSORTMENT Amazon. com’s business model consists of two different but complementary revenue, pricing, and profit models. In the case of auctions and Zshops, relatively small topline revenues (at least as of t he end of 1999) contribute high gross and operating margins.In contrast, for the traditional e-tailing model, lower gross and operating margins offset high topline revenues. 11 The company wants to utilize both models: cross-sell the high margin Zshops/auctions offering to its registered e-tailing customers (immediately enhancing both revenue and profits per customer), and cut the cost of sales and operating expenses through efficient customer fulfillment. High Simple Third, its strategy of providing hassle-free, same or next day fulfillment on most items will enhance customer satisfaction and loyalty, driving repeat business, referrals, and increased market share.CUSTOMER FULFILLMENT AS CORE-COMPETENCE High * Complexity of product assortment implies both high breadth and depth of product lines offered. Figure 1. Amazon. com’s strategic shift: from book e-tailer to landlord of Web super mall. 12 Value proposition Amazon. com’s value proposition is â€Å"earth’s largest selection—24/7, at a competitive price. † The world’s most â€Å"customer-centric company† gives its customers what they want (universal selection), how they want it (in one consolidated package), and when they want it (same or next-day by the year 2000), by orchestrating an enjoyable buying experience at the front end and einforcing it with seamless fulfillment at the back end. Bezos, who describes his team members as â€Å"customer obsessed†¦genetic pioneers,†15 can take credit for numerous innovations, including customer recognition and one-click shopping, free book reviews, recommendations (suggestive selling), Purchase Circles (best seller list by region, country, company, and industry), All Product Search (shop the Web), free e-greetings, Auctions, Zshops, and seamless customer fulfillment. Each of these has been a first on the Web, and competitors have copied most of them. Recent innovations include a system that lets shoppers u t together a big order and then send each item, tagged with an individual message, to a different individual and address (September 1999); a â€Å"wish list†Ã¢â‚¬â€much like a wedding registry—that lets people tell the world what gifts they want to receive; and an â€Å"Amazon. com anywhere† initiative with Sprint (announced December 8, 1999) that facilitates wireless shopping through Sprint PCS Internet-enabled smart cellular phones. 16 1. 3 Customer Fulfillment in the Digital Economy Amazon. com 1 Customer places order; credit card processed for payment 4 E-Customer All items picked, packed and assembled at nearest warehouse & shipped ia UPS or US Postal Service 5 Order delivered from the nearest warehouse via UPS/USPS AMAZON. COM WAREHOUSE WWW Electronics OEM Amazon. com’s servers in Seattle Demand forecasting visibility and optimization through i2’s Supply Chain OptimizationSoftware 2 Customer order parsed out to appropriate suppliers (if not stocked in Amazon. com warehouse). Books sourced from Ingram or other book publisher Music company LEGEND Inventory Information 3 Producers dispatch goods to Amazon. com warehouse. Figure 2. Amazon. com’s customer fulfillment network (CFN)—circa 2000. CFN strategy Amazon. com is a CFN pioneer. Its innovative CFN trategy enables true dynamic commerce that provides a customized experience to not only fulfill, but also create demand—profitably, and in real-time. This is a virtuous cycle realized through integration of the customer relationship management applications with the order fulfillment applications and its b-web, as well as intelligent and dynamic demand-supply synchronization. It is rendered possible by the following CFN value drivers: †¢ †¢ †¢ †¢ Business processes and applications Sourcing multiple line items from disparate suppliers and assembling them to a customer’s order and specifications for same/next day fulfillment invo lves ramatically greater logistics and supply chain complexity than delivering huge pallets from warehouses to shelf spaces (brick-and-mortar retail). Dynamic and intelligent personalization that ensures dynamic content insertion and cross-selling (enhancing revenues and profits per customer) while matching the customer’s demands with Amazon. com’s fulfillment abilities Virtual integration across the b-web (from customer to supplier and warehouses) that ensures synchronicity across business processes, delivering intelligent and profitable order fulfillment Dynamic demand and supply planning and ptimization to minimize inventory carrying and transportation costs and reduce cycle times, Three factors—selling an expanded selection of products online (Amazon. com offers 18 million items), the need to move a large volume of small parcels, and rising customer expectations—combine to put new pressures on order fulfillment systems. According to Toby Link, CEO of e-Toys, â€Å"Inventory management is the great ecommerce business process that no one seems to know much about. It is the true barrier to entry. †17 Amazon. com, which has depended largely on a drop shipping and just-in-time arrangement for books with  © 1. 4 aximizing profit and service levels Maximum visibility and responsiveness to supply and demand variability and anomalies through dynamic exception notification (e. g. an electronic alert signal if something goes wrong) 2000 Digital 4Sight Corp. Reproduction by any means, or disclosure to parties who are not employees of Digital 4Sight member organizations is prohibited. Thank you for your cooperation. Customer Fulfillment in the Digital Economy Amazon. com Order Management System (OMS) Credit card data verification, e-ordering (if needed), reconcilliation of shipping and customer charges Inventory Management System (IMS)Which items and categories to stock, where and in what quantities? What is available and what needs to be ordered? I2’s Demand Optimizer Inventory turnover data by product, category, country, region, state, industry, etc. I2’s Available to Promise (ATP) Can we fulfill these orders profitably? Oracle database of products and consumer profiles All Product Search What are customers looking for? Customer Orders What are they buying? Warehouse & Transportation Management System (WMS & TMS) Pick, pack and ship orders most efficiently & profitably Purchase Circles (Best seller listing by country, region, industry or company)WWW E-Customer New Customer Profile Who are the e-customers (demographics, etc. )? What are their preferences? Suggested Selling (Cross-sell and Net Perceptions up-sell profitable, Collaborative Filtering: in-stock items that What items and categories of customers want) products are customers likely to buy based on affinity? a nagement (CRM) Decision Support, S upply Chain Planning & Execution Customer Relationship M Figure 3. Amazon. com’s suite of CFN applications. 20 Ingram and Baker & Taylor, has now primarily moved to a from-stock hybrid model (that also includes the other options) with its seven US warehouses. In ddition to enlarging its Seattle and Delaware warehouses in 1999, the company has invested over $200 million to lease five distribution and warehousing facilities in Fernley, Nevada; Coffeyville, Kansas; Campbellsville and Louisville, Kentucky; and McDonough, Georgia. of Digital Equipment Alpha Servers and Netscape Commerce Servers built around an Oracle database server and Oracle Financials Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) system. 21 According to Jeff Bezos, 80% of the company’s investment in software development since its founding in 1994 has not gone into its famously user-friendly screens, but to back-office logistics. 2 In 1998, two-thirds of Amazon. com’s 2,100 employees worked on customer fulfillment. 22 These seven warehouses, comprising 3. 5 million square feet of total space, will en sure fulfillment in 24–48 hours in most cases in the US. 18 The CFN comprising Amazon. com’s warehouses, b-web of suppliers and drop shippers, and end-to-end integration is specifically designed for online retailing from the ground up (i. e. , shipping merchandise item by item to individual customers). 19 It is one of only a handful of such networks. Amazon. com developed most of its own front end e-commerce applications, including page design and rder management systems (OMS). The acquisition and incorporation of Junglee, a highly sophisticated XML-based shopping bot, forms the basis of Amazon. com’s New Product Search application. It sourced its highly acclaimed suggested selling collaborative filtering software from Net Perceptions and recently acquired a Supply Chain Planning and Optimization package from i2 Technologies. 24 All other software—including middleware and the much-praised and patented one-click shopping application—is customized fo r Amazon. com or proprietary, and zealously guarded for competitive advantage. Amazon. com’s CFN, including its network of istribution centers, is illustrated in figure 2; figure 3 shows CFN applications deployed. Amazon. com’s initial hardware and software consisted  © 2000 Digital 4Sight Corp. Reproduction by any means, or disclosure to parties who are not employees of Digital 4Sight member organizations is prohibited. Thank you for your cooperation. 1. 5 Customer Fulfillment in the Digital Economy Amazon. com Amazon. com is in the process of integrating its b-web (suppliers, distributors, and customers) with its supply chain planning (SCP) and ERP, as well as management systems for orders (OMS), inventory (IMS), warehouse WMS), and transportation (TMS) (figures 2 and 3). This strategy will lead to intelligent demand forecasting, optimization, and profitable distribution execution. The customer relationship management (CRM) suite at the front end, which consists of one-to-one personalization and collaborative filtering from Net Perceptions and Amazon. com’s own order management system (OMS), works in sync with i2’s Supply Chain Planning, Optimization (SCPO) and Decision Support Systems (DSS) at the back end. These form a virtuous cycle that creates profitable demand while delivering a customized buying experience in real-time, as well as ntelligent, profitable fulfillment that ensures customer satisfaction and referrals. Figure 3 presents a hypothesis of how the applications work to deliver intelligent end-to-end order fulfillment: †¢ †¢ †¢ †¢ †¢ This is a true â€Å"sense and respond† CFN based on Amazon. com’s move towards a â€Å"real-time inventory solution† (if the customer can order it, it is available, and can be shipped) to drive customer loyalty, revenues, referrals, and profitability. Data is gathered initially from the customer to form a customer profile in the Oracle data base. Information on items customers are looking for, and ctually buy, is gathered through the All Product Search function and customer orders, respectively. Data from All Product Search drives the categories and product lines that Amazon. com keeps adding to its colossal assortment. The buying data is queried to yield inventory turnover (for every item) by zip code, state, country, business, company, and industry. The inventory turnover data is used to stratify Amazon. com’s inventory on an A, B, C basis (e. g. ‘A’ items could be best sellers, ‘B’ items have medium turnover, and ‘C’ items are one-off orders). The inventory turnover data (XML tagged by zip ode) is fed back to the customer by way of Purchase Circles (best-seller listing) to seduce the customer into buying the item. As well, data from the customer profile and previous buying patterns are mined (using collaborative filtering from Net Perceptions) to predict affinities betwe en customers and products. This enables real-time suggestive selling recommendations (the right suggestions to the right buyer at the right time—right now) relevant to each customer’s buying objectives. These recommendations convert browsers into buyers, increase revenue and profits per customer, and stimulate repeat buying. 25 2’s demand planner uses the inventory turnover and buying data to dynamically anticipate customer needs by accurately predicting customer demand on an ongoing basis. By integrating these with i2’s available-to-promise (ATP) inventory management and distribution systems, Amazon. com ensures that B-web organization Amazon. com’s b-web is an Aggregation (e-tail) and Agora (auctions and Zshops) hybrid model powered by its CFN. Win-win b-web relationships and electronic integration with suppliers, distributors, publishers, producers, and software and hardware providers account for Amazon. com’s winning experience and fulfi llment.These partners contribute significantly to, and derive benefits from, its success. In addition to large and assured revenue streams, learning from this e-tailing and CFN pioneer assures competitive advantage in the high velocity arena of e-commerce. In book e-tailing, for instance, Amazon. com ties Ingram’s inventory data to its customer interface. This gives Amazon. com available-to-promise (ATP) capabilities that lets customers know when they can expect to receive their merchandise. As soon as an order comes in, Amazon. com sends it to Ingram electronically (if it doesn’t carry the ordered item); Ingram then ships the rder, usually the same or next day, to Amazon. com’s customer fulfillment center for cross-docking and shipping via UPS/USPS. Key lessons Four factors explain Amazon. com’s in success e-tailing: †¢  © 1. 6 it maintains an optimum inventory of its most ordered books, CDs, videos, toys, and electronics in its warehouses for in- stock fulfillment. Continuous reconciliation of order and inventory data via the ATP function enables Amazon. com to commit to lead times on its Web site that it can profitably fulfill. Distributors like Ingram will drop ship one-off items (‘C’), or Amazon. com will order them (through theOMS) on a just-in-time basis from other suppliers for cross docking at its warehouse closest to the customer (figure 2). Intelligent distribution, warehousing (WMS), and transportation (TMS) optimization ensures that Amazon. com picks, packs, and transports orders for delivery, via US Postal Service (60% of orders) or UPS (40% of orders), â€Å"from buy button to customer doorstep† 24–48 hours for in-stock items, and within seven days for others, in the US. 26 First, it translated its customer-centric understanding of market need into an easy-to-use, intuitive buying experience that pleases customers and drives evenues and referrals 2000 Digital 4Sight Corp. Reproduction by any means, or disclosure to parties who are not employees of Digital 4Sight member organizations is prohibited. Thank you for your cooperation. Customer Fulfillment in the Digital Economy Amazon. com †¢ Second, Amazon. com invested tens of millions of dollars in building the most valuable brand on the Web Third, Amazon. com built loyalty and barriers to entry by investing in innovative technology solutions such as suggested selling from Net Perceptions, Supply Chain Optimization (i2), Purchase Circles, and All Product Search, and integrating them into a irtuous cycle for dynamic commerce Fourth, and arguably most important, Amazon. com’s commitment to fulfillment has translated into deep and effective b-web relationships with distributors and suppliers like Ingram and a core competence in one-to-one inventory management and distribution †¢ †¢ Thanks to these four factors, Amazon. com forecasts a customer base of 22. 3 million and revenues of $3. 15 billion b y 2002. The company’s strategic investments in its warehouses, technology, and b-web integration (CFN) to enable reliable and accurate same or next day customer fulfillment are a key part of its first mover dvantage and a significant barrier to entry. Amazon. com can strategically leverage this â€Å"killer app† CFN in a number of ways:26 †¢ †¢ †¢ First, Amazon. com can offer excess capacity in its warehouses to Zshops’ merchants on a â€Å"fee for fulfillment† basis. This would accrue considerable marginal revenues for a significantly lower marginal cost incurred. Second, by installing Web-enabled buying kiosks (as well as interactive television sets and wireless Webenabled devices like PDAs) at high traffic areas in malls, office buildings, and other locations, it can move its Web buying experience to the real world for ess Web-savvy customers. Third, and perhaps most radical and innovative, Amazon. com can build free customer buying port als for each of its registered, loyal customers. For an incremental cost, Amazon. com can create customized buying pages (similar to Dell’s Premier Pages for its business-to-business customers) that will allow customers to go online and enter their buying requirements as needed. Amazon. com can then deliver the items it carries, and turn over remaining orders to its Amazon. com associates, Zshops, or other b-web affiliates for fulfillment. —Arindam (Andy) De  © 2000 Digital 4Sight Corp.Reproduction by any means, or disclosure to parties who are not employees of Digital 4Sight member organizations is prohibited. Thank you for your cooperation. 1. 7 Customer Fulfillment in the Digital Economy Amazon. com Amazon. com: Key Performance Indicators (see Table 1 and figures 4a to 4f) Table 1. Comparison of 1998 performance: Amazon. com, Barnes & Noble, and Borders. 28 †¢ †¢ †¢ 117. 8 million US adults, or 60% of the adult population, recognize the Amazon. com brand name, making it the most recognized brand name on the Web, followed by Priceline and e-Bay. 29 Amazon. com, with a low customer acquisition cost of around $2930 compared with $109 for a new e-tailer) and a customer retention rate of over 72%31 enjoys huge competitive advantage in terms of repeat revenue streams and significant growth in its customer base. Analysts estimate that Amazon. com’s customer base will be about 22. 3 million users by 2002 (figure 4a). 32 With an average revenue per user of $141. 25 (figure 4b), this would translate into $3. 15 billion in revenues. Gross margins over the same period would increase from 22% in 1999 to about 25% in 2002. †¢  © 1. 8 Amazon. com, with $610 million in sales in 1998 and revenue growth of 230% (June 1998–June 1999), had ero days of receivables, 23 days of inventory, 87 days of payables (figure 4c) and a positive â€Å"gap in finance cycle†(figure 4d) of 64 days. 33 This implies that Amazon. com, unl ike its competitors, is actually financing working capital with cash flow from suppliers. Amazon. com’s revenue per employee (1998) was $290,476 (figure 4e) and revenue per dollar of fixed assets (figure 4f) was $20. 47 (appreciably higher than the competition). Figures 4e and 4f show an interesting correlation between Amazon. com’s market capitalization of $31. 40 billion and its revenue per employee and revenue per dollar of fixed ssets, against the competition. This may help explain the significant upward disparity in market capitalization enjoyed by the company vis-a-vis its clicks-and-mortar competitors. 2000 Digital 4Sight Corp. Reproduction by any means, or disclosure to parties who are not employees of Digital 4Sight member organizations is prohibited. Thank you for your cooperation. Customer Fulfillment in the Digital Economy Amazon. com REVENUES ($ MILLIONS) 19,500 22,300 $3,150 20 $2,700 2500 16,500 2000 13,300 15 $2,100 1500 10 $1,403 1000 6,200 Total reven ue per user Annual net income per user $127. 27 Gross margins $138. 6 25% 25 $105. 49 90 $98. 39 22% 22% 21% 21% 20 60 15 30 10 0 ($8. 08) 5 500 30 $141. 25 120 $ PER USER 3000 $150 NUMBER OF REGISTERED USERS (MILLIONS) Revenues ($millions) Number of registered users (millions) GROSS MARGINS (%) 25 $3500 $610 -30 ($19. 57) ($20. 09) 5 ($36. 73) ($45. 37) 0 1998 1999 2000E 2001E -60 2002E Figure 4a. Amazon. com: Revenues & number of registered users (1998–2000). 34 0 1998 1999 2000E 2001E 2002E Figure 4b. Amazon. com: Revenues & net income per user, registered users and gross margins (1998–2002). 35 80 64 INVENTORY TURNOVER OR CASH-TO-CASH CYCLE 60 Inventory turnover (1998) Gap† in finance cycle (1998) Revenue growth (1998-99) 400% 40 20 16. 14 0 -20 300 2. 4 AMAZON. COM 1. 83 B&N BORDERS 230. 1% 200 -40 -60 -80 100 (80) 6. 3% -100 Figure 4c. Book retail: Age of receivables, payables, and inventory (1998). 36  © 2000 Digital 4Sight Corp. Reproduction by any mean s, or disclosure to parties who are not employees of Digital 4Sight member organizations is prohibited. Thank you for your cooperation. REVENUE GROWTH (%) 0 (90) 14. 5% 0 Figure 4d. Book retail: Revenue growth (June 1998–1999) vs. inventory turnover & gap in finance cycle (1998). 37 1. 9 Customer Fulfillment in the Digital EconomyAmazon. com $350,000 300,000 $35 Revenue per employee (1998) Market capitalization ($ billions) $30 Revenue per $ of fixed assets (1998) $35 Market capitalization ($ billions) $31. 41 25 $30 $31. 41 $30 $20 200,000 $15 150,000 100,000 $103,641 $10 $95,404 50,000 0 $20 15 $15 10 $10 $5. 89 $1. 21 $0 $25 $20. 47 5 $5 $1. 64 20 $1. 64 0 $5. 26 MARKET CAPITALIZATION ($ BILLIONS) $25 REVENUE PER $ OF FIXED ASSETS ($) 250,000 MARKET CAPITALIZATION ($ BILLIONS) REVENUE PER EMPLOYEE $290,476 $5 $1. 21 $0 AMAZON. COM B&N BORDERS Figure 4e. Book retail: Revenue per employee (1998) and market cap (November 1999). 38Figure 4f. Book retail: Revenue per $ of fixed assets (1998) and market cap (November 1999). 39 1. Anthony Bianco, â€Å"Virtual Bookstores Start to Get Real,† Business Week, 27 October 1998. 2. Saul Hansell, â€Å"Amazon’s Risky Christmas,† The New York Times, 28 November 1999. 3. Ibid. 4. Jeff Bezos quoted by Stefani Eads, â€Å"Is Amazon Shopping for Profits in its Zshops? † Business Week, 12 October 1999. 5. According to Opinion Research Corp. , 117. 8 million Americans, or 60% of the US adult population, recognizes the Amazon brand name, making it the most valuable brand name on the Web. 6. Anthony Bianco, op. cit. 7.Saul Hansell, op. cit. 8. As quoted in SS Investor Equity Research Report on Amazon, December 1999. 9. Analysis and estimates by Lauren Cook Levitan, analyst, Banc Boston Robertson Stevens, August 1999. 10. Jeanne Lee. â€Å"i2 Learns What Not to Say When Talking to Analysts,† Fortune, 29 March 1999. 11. Jeff Bezos, quoted in an interview with Robert D. Hof, Business Week, 31 May 1999. 12. Strategy map based on Digital 4Sight analysis of Amazon’s etailing strategy. 13. Saul Hansell, op. cit. 14. Media Metrix numbers quoted in â€Å"Amazon, e-Bay Get Most Holiday Visitors,† Los Angeles Times (Home Edition), 4 January 2000. 5. Jeff Bezos quoted by Chip Bayersin â€Å"The Inner Bezos,† Wired, (March 1999). 16. Amazon press release from its Web site, URL http://www. hoovers. com/cgi-bin/offsite? url= http://www. amazon. com/exec/obidos/subst/misc/investorrelations/investor-faq. html/002-5319771-2477605. 17. John Evan Frook, â€Å"Missing Link Emerges: Inventory Management,† Internetweek, 9 March 1998. 18. Bob Tedeschi, â€Å"Many Internet Companies Have Focused on Attracting Customers. The Bigger challenge Is Fulfilling Orders,† The New York Times, 27 September 1999. 19. Katrina Booker, â€Å"Amazon vs. Everybody,† Fortune, 8 November 1999: 120. 20.Digital 4Sight hypothesis based on secondary research. 21. Customer case study on Oracle’s Web site, URL: http://www. oracle. com/customers/ss/amazon_ss. html. 22. Anthony Bianco. op. cit. 23. Mary Beth Grover, â€Å"Lost in Cyberspace,† Forbes, 8 March 1999. 24. Jeanne Lee, op. cit. 25. Product data from Net Perceptions Web site. URL:http://www. netperceptions. com/product/home/0,,1091, 00. html. 26. Michael Krantz, â€Å"Cruising Inside Amazon,† Time, (December 1999). 27. Digital 4Sight analysis of Amazon. com’s e-tailing strategy. 28. Digital 4Sight Financial Ratio Analysis based on P&L and balance sheet data sourced from www. oovers. com.  © 1. 10 2000 Digital 4Sight Corp. Reproduction by any means, or disclosure to parties who are not employees of Digital 4Sight member organizations is prohibited. Thank you for your cooperation. Customer Fulfillment in the Digital Economy Amazon. com 29. Opinion Research Corp. survey quoted in â€Å"Equity Research Report on Amazon,† SS Investor, December 1999. 30. McKinsey & Company Data quoted in â€Å"Online Customer Acquisition Costs† Business 2. 0, (November 1999): 16-17. 31. As quoted in â€Å"Equity Research Report on Amazon. com,†SS Investor, December 1999. 32.Analysis and estimates by Lauren Cook Levitan, op. cit. 33. Gap in Finance Cycle = Days of Payables – (Days of Receivables + Days in Inventory). 34. Analysis and estimates by Lauren Cook Levitan, op. cit. 35. Digital 4Sight Financial Ratio Analysis, op. cit. 36. Ibid. 37. Ibid. 38. Ibid. 39. Ibid. 360 Adelaide Street W, 4th Floor Toronto, Ontario. Canada M5V 1R7 Tel 416. 979. 7899. Fax 416. 979-7616 www. digital4sight. com  © 2000 Digital 4Sight Corp. Reproduction by any means, or disclosure to parties who are not employees of Digital 4Sight member organizations is prohibited. Thank you for your cooperation. 1. 11

International Terrorism and Global Politics Essay

In the 21st century, it would seem that the term â€Å"terrorist† has become an all encompassing description of anyone whom civilized people feel is a threat to innocent civilians, domestic tranquility, and the everyday life that most people take for granted. Government officials declare â€Å"war on terrorism† and the like. Expanding upon, and deviating from the typical definition of a terrorist, Charles W. Kegley’s 2002 edition, The New Global Terrorism: Characteristics, Causes, Controls, contains a chapter entitled â€Å"Is There a Good Terrorist? †, which asserts that one nation’s terrorist may fairly be considered another nation’s patriot. This paper will maintain the argument that no terrorist is a â€Å"good terrorist†, in contrast to the presentation of Kegley in his volume. Defining Terrorism To begin, a valid argument can be made against so-called â€Å"good† terrorists by establishing a baseline definition of terrorism. In some of his other writings, Kegley has maintained that one of the problems in condemning terrorists is that the act of terrorism itself is so hard to define; in other words, as was mentioned previously, a terrorist may not be considered a terrorist by everyone, because ultimately, some group of people or nation is supposedly benefitting from the terror inflicted on another group. However, by fine tuning the definition of a terrorist, it will be possible to reinforce and build upon the argument of this paper- that there is no such thing as a good terrorist. In order to make that assertion solid and tenable, one must realize that the term terrorism should in fact refer to acts of violence, war or sabotage inflicted upon innocent civilian populations by a person or persons not affiliated with an organized army and outside of the scope of declared warfare. Within this context, we are not talking about the soldier who serves his country by defeating enemies in combat, but we are talking about extremists who detonate car bombs near schools and hospitals. In using this definition, it is possible to further bolster the argument. Terrorism is about Targets as Well as Intentions A second assertion that can be made in critique of Kegley’s presentation comes from a discussion of the issue of the targets of terrorism as well as the intentions of terrorists, as earlier defined. For example, a terrorist, for all of his claims that he is trying to free other people from the oppression of another group, change a bad situation, avenge previous wrongs and the like, is violating international law as well as the basic moral codes when the terrorist inflicts casualties among defenseless civilians, such as when terrorists launch attacks on religious centers, public places or even private residential areas, there is a tremendous wrong being done, no matter what noble cause the terrorist claims to support or advance. Simply put, the means do not justify the end. A Fine Line between Patriotism and Vigilantism A key point continues to echo throughout this research- the fine line between defeating enemies and violating the written and unwritten laws of humanity. Indeed, one could make the argument, for example, that the founders of the United States in some ways inflicted terrorism according to our previously stated definition, for many of them were un-uniformed, taking up arms against an organized, sovereign government, no matter how noble the cause was for which they were fighting. However, when looking at terrorists in regard to being those who step over the line of legality and morality for the sake of their causes, again the message returns that there must be at least some level of decency in the world, even among those who adamantly oppose one another, for if opposing groups are allowed to continually launch terror attacks upon each other, all of humanity will soon degrade to chaos and anarchy, serving no one’s interests. Indeed, it is morally, ethically and legally wrong for people to take the law into their own hands; therefore, all potential or actual terrorist acts must be dealt with in the harshest possible terms. Conclusion In this paper, the argument has been made and supported that there is no such thing as a good terrorist, no matter what the intentions, motivations or goals of the terrorist, keeping in mind that there are certain criteria which define what makes a terrorist. Therefore, it must be remembered that patriots are not those who blow up women and children, poison reservoirs or destroy public gathering places, nor are those who wear the uniform of their country and fight in declared wars terrorists. Once that differentiation is made and adhered to, all of humanity will be all the better for it. Conversely, if we allow these grey areas to exist where a potential terrorist thinks they will receive rewards, either in this world or the one to come, the death toll of innocents will continue to swell. Hopefully, this key distinction will be realized by the people of the world before it is too late.

Personal statement Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words - 31

Personal Statement Example ol that would build my dreams and inspirations with my mind building games capabilities, and my talents to bring out the psych and inspiration in my fellow students (Green and LeKita 2). In my high school years, I relentlessly though, and contemplated the school that would suit my preferences, capabilities to a much higher understanding standard. When I visited the school, I saw that this is exactly the school; I have been looking forward to complete my studies. I like the challenges and the faculty and I hope to fulfill my inspirational dreams (Green and LeKita 22). I like the drive that I see around and I want to be an alumni of it and the school a part of my success. Inspirationally to try and be the unsurpassed as I love challenging people, who are better than me and beat them (Richards, 37). I crave competitive environments that are inspirational, and that is why I chose to work with the board game staff to increase my knowledge and skill. Am engrossed in pursuing my degree in this campus because I love the demand for skill that this campus requires, and I believe that it is in my capabilities to provide such skill (Richards, 37). I am going to educate myself for the whole academic period. I have confidence in being successful in my career of study in this

MGMT442 U5 DB Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

MGMT442 U5 DB - Research Paper Example Employers and employees can be able to pass information about the needs of their customers faster and get quicker response including even in the customer care department. The quickest way to outdo competitors is to gain and maintain customers. If customers are severed better because of faster communication through the programs, then they tend to be maintained outdoing competitors. With the constant upgrading of the communication programs with the current technology, the company is able to appease the stakeholders and the continue increasing investments. Challenges present in a multinational organization with the communication programs is the language barrier. Multinational means having employees speaking and communicating using different languages of their various countries (Wrench, 2013). The communication program therefore has to constantly keep on being reprogramed to accommodate the different languages and still perform its work effectively without disrupting or disorienting employees. Having the program be compatible with different languages of employees is an added competitive advantage to the organization in addition to making the organization work smoothly across the

Human Rights Law Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words - 1

Human Rights Law - Essay Example As part of the global war on terror, governments have embraced various torturous tactics including extraordinary rendition against the suspects. Basically, the suspects are not given a chance to challenge their arrest in court and are held incommunicado. They are held and interrogated through methods that amount to torture and breach of human rights. In most cases, the suspects are tried by foreign governments and sometimes executed. Recently, a study carried out by the European parliament concluded that extraordinary rendition results to multiple human right violations such as unwarranted arrests, torture, false trials, inhumane treatment, and deprivation of liberty and to the worst death. According to both Human rights committee and committee against torture, extra ordinary rendition violates a number of provisions set out in conventions against torture. Under the Rome Statute, which established the International Criminal Court (ICC), rendition infringes on several human rights including deprivation of liberty as outlined by Article 7(1) (e), disappearance of individuals and Article 7(1) (i) torture Article 7(1) (f), which are termed as an attack on civilians. The Security Council resolution of 1483 requires all nations to play their part under the Geneva Convention of 1949. According to General Taguba, all detainees should be accorded the full protection of Geneva convection. Article 49 of the fourth Geneva Convection requires deportations and forcible transfers of persons to be protected despite the underlying motive. . The European Court of Human rights requires that all movement of people from one jurisdiction to another regardless of whether it is deportation, extradition or rendition to observe the procedures set out under international and domestic laws. In Bozano v. France1, the court ruled that the procedures laid down affects the legality of holding an individual besides the validity of the transfer. The United Kingdom is not bound by any treaty in ensuring that its airports and airspace are not used for rendition practices. However, cruel and inhumane acts of torture are not allowed by United Nations Commission Against Torture (UNCAT) as defined by Article 1. In addition, Article 16 states that, â€Å"†¦ in particular, the obligations contained in Articles 10,11,12 and 13 shall apply with substitution for references to torture or references to other forms of cruel, inhumane or degrading treatment or punishment†. These Articles refer to rules that should be observed during the in terrogation process. Article 3 of UNCAT prohibit forceful extradition of any individual to a state where one is believed to be susceptible to torture and other forms of ill treatment. However, the UK is bound by the International Covenant on Political and Civil Rights and the ECHR not to engage in extradition of any person to any place that pose risk for ill treatment or torturous acts. Article 3 of UNCAT provides that all transfers including those that are extralegal should comply with the legal procedures of extradition. Otherwise, breach of the principle could result to state responsibility. The transit state and the sending state may avoid liability under the international law through diplomatic assurances between the officials of the two states that the person in question will not be subjected to ill treatment or torture. Moreover, it is argued that such diplomatic assur

Research Report Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Report - Research Paper Example Breeding of genetically modified animals is counted as a procedure too (Jha 1). The use of animals has increase by 1% in 2010. This includes the 1.6 million procedures done involving the genetically modified mice. According to Judy McArthur, a chief inspector at the animals’ scientific procedures inspectorate of the Home office, excluding the genetically modified animals, the increase is less than 1%. This is because of the increase of the number of fish up to 23%, which counts for about 93 000 of the total animals. Dogs, primates, cats and horses are protected by the law, therefore, the total number of the procedures done using the animals is 19, 773, which accounts for around 0.5% of the total. The number of the dogs used in the procedures dropped by 2%, and that of cats dropped by 32%. In toxicology tests, the number of animals used dropped by 11%. Barney Reed, a senior scientist at the RSPCA described the rise of these procedures as astonishing. He pointed out that the rate of carrying out the procedure had incerased by 37% for the past one decade. Martin Walsh, the head of the Home Office’s animals scientific procedure division, provided that efforts are being made to reduce the number of animals used for research, as well as ending the use of animals as household products. The main ethical question raised in the article is why scientists breed the genetically modified animals, yet they could be endangered by such procedures. Here, according to professor Dominic Wells from the royal veterinary college, one of the reasons why the scientists produce more of the genetically modified animals is because they have refined their procedures. The scientists, therefore, produce two lines of mice that do not show any adverse phenotype until they are crossed. This enables them to generate any number that they want before they conduct any procedure. Breeding of the mice help the scientists