ASDA Human Resource Management

ASDA Human Resource Management The objectives of this report are to stimulate the Human Resource Management, Human Resource Planning and Development, and Performance of ASDA. Furthermore, it explains the human resource management activities, models of human resource management, effectiveness of organisational objectives, performance monitoring of ASDA. Additionally, it also address, the importance of staffing, performance appraisals, compensation and benefits, training and development, employee and labour relations, safety and health, and human resource research. It discusses how the Human resource management works to ensure that employees are able to meet the organizations goals. A brief introduction of ASDA: ASDA group of company operates as one of the largest food retailers in the United Kingdom. The companys stores sell a wide variety of merchandise including food and apparel, along with house wares, music videos, and books. ASDA has approximately 259 stores in its arsenal-each avenging nearly 42000 square feet with some as large as 100000 square feet. The company, once known as a dairy conglomerate, was acquired by Wal-Mart stores Inc. in 1999. TESCO has 31.1 per cent of the UK grocery market while ASDAs share is 16.4 percent. My familiar organisation is ASDA and I will answer these tasks using ASDA. Human Resource Management (HRM) Human Resource Management activities: HRM activities designed to enhance the effectiveness of an organisations work-force in achieving organisational goals. HRM consists of numerous activities, including: Equal employment opportunity (EEO) compliance. Employee recruitment, selection, motivation and orientation. Performance evaluation and compensation. Training and develop skills. Development and evaluation. Safety, health and wellness, etc. Recruitment and selection: The success of an organisation depends on having the right number of staff, with the right skills and abilities.Recruitment involves the utilization of organizational practices to influence the number and types of individuals who are willing to apply for job vacancies (Rynes, 1991; Rynes Cable, 2003). ASDA has always tried to keep it as simple as possible but theyre a big company and want to be sure that application is seen by the right person. Step one: At First ASDA score submitted application. ASDA has a specific jobs advertisement on their website. Step two: The application process of online will usually include some verbal, numerical and personality tests, as well as an application form. Step three: ASDAs employer may ask applicant to attend an interview. Objectives Of recruitment and selection: The objectives of the recruitment and selection process of human resource management are given below: To acquire, retain and develop the best talent and skills. Keep the expenditure of selection down. Make certain that the applicant selected will desire the job and stick at ASDA. To obtain the number and quality of employees that can be selected in order to help ASDA to achieve its goals and objectives. To identify the most appropriate candidate to fill each post. Achievement of recruitment and selection: ASDA always look for a candidate with solid experience and new ideas and a fresh perspective. Applications may be completed online or visiting an ASDA store and getting an application form. ASDA is determining for present and future manpower requirements to coordinate with planning and job analysis activities. Training and developing skills: Training is a planned process to modify attitude, knowledge or skill behavior through learning experience to achieve effective performance. Training is to develop the abilities of the individuals and to satisfy the current and future needs of the organization. A company like ASDA if an employee lacks training is risky for fire, chemical and other health hazards. Induction: ASDA have Award Winning Best Welcome induction is the best way to get up to speed with their business and find to feet as quickly as possible. Store Appreciation Day: A new comer will have the opportunity to attend a store appreciation day after his Best Welcome induction to understand how their stores operate. Growing career: ASDA will work to help grow talent to build up career with them. The new training programme is divided into two parts the first is the service day, the second day is devoted to selling skills. Objectives of training and developing skills: The objectives of the training and develop skills of HRM are given below: To staying competitive, training is the key to sustainability. Reduce wastage and accident rates. To keep staff motivated and up-to-date with industry trends and new technologies is essential to achieving that goal. Increase job satisfaction and motivate workers. Establish the most effective and efficient working methods. Achievement of training and development: ASDA follow an ideal step by step process to train and develop their human power. They hire attitude and train for skill and practical experience. ASDA have created some innovative and effective ways for staffs to learn. Their training and development programs have been designed to reach a senior role within five years. Benefits and rewards: Benefit and Reward may cost a lot but it is important for further achievement. It promote employee to give high performance. Likewise, holyday payment, Colleague discount voucher, Pension etc influence people to give their 100% effort where they works. Colleague discount: After 12 weeks, ASDA provide Colleague Discount Card. Bonus: Their bonus scheme is designed to recognize and reward colleagues for their valued contribution. Flexible working: ASDA offers the opportunity to do everything from swapping a shift.Pension: ASDA Pension Plan is a great addition for retirement. Night Manager Allowance: Night Managers receive an extra allowance of either  £3000 or  £5000 per year depending on the responsibility of their role.Voluntary benefits: ASDA gives colleague benefits, like recognition, Long service awards etc. [Source: http://www.asda.jobs/all-about/index.html] Objectives of benefits and rewards: The aims of benefits and rewards of HRM are to: Achieve high performance from the staffs of an organisation. Make better life and certain future for staffs to get total output. Ensure workers concentrate 100% on their work. Encourage employees to think and better plan for the success of the company. Achievement of benefits and rewards: To achieve organisational success, a company must have to maintain the benefit, reward and compensation scheme. In 2008, ASDA paid out nearly  £38 million to 17,000 colleagues who planned to spend their cash on anything from horses, to shark dives to laser eye treatment! Voluntary benefits, Safety, Compensation, Wellness, Rewards, etc encourage employee to work or give 100% for the organization. Theoretical models of human resource management: Human Resource Management is generally performance or behaviour based. There are different types of theoretical Models of Human Resource Management. Among them two models are explained as below: Guests model of HRM: David Guests (1989, 1997) adapted the Harvard model to develop his model based upon four outcomes. These are: 1. Strategy integration, 2.Commitment, 3. Flexibility, 4.Quality. The guest model has 6 components: HRM strategy HRM practices HRM outcomes Behaviour outcomes Performance outcomes Financial outcomes Following Guest model ASDA takes some HRM strategies and practices to achieve some outcomes. It also tries its best to encourage employees through different activities for obtaining behaviour outcomes. Along with Handy, there are four types of culture; Power, Role, Task and Person. ASDA culture combines two of these. Top management of ASDA reveals power culture that makes the overall decisions. Other one is the task culture. In ASDA the overall aim of the organisation is task orientated and focussing on team customs, and powerful message between all levels of staff. ASDA has integrated the contingency approach by considering the environment culture. The Harvard model of HRM: The Harvard model was produced by Beer, Spector, Lawrence, Mills, and Walton in 1984, which is consists of six components 1. Stakeholders interests 2. Situational factors 3. Human Resource Management policy 4. Human Resource outcomes 5. Long term consequences 6. A feedback loop through which the outputs flow directly into the organisation and to the stakeholders The Harvard Model is emphasised as the soft approach to HRM, employees like stakeholders of the company. In this model has discussed four areas such as, reward system, employee influences, human resource flow, and work systems, there are also included situational factors such as influence of trade unions, labour market, and laws. According to the Harvard theory, employees are an asset rather than a cost. In ASDA, the line managers are in charge for people and store managers are in charge for the day to day running as a combination of both the hard and soft approach. In Task-2: Human resource planning and development Introduction: Organizations must be highly selective in identifying talented employees and developing and enhancing their skills to reach their full potential. HR planning: identifying human resource needs, career building, succession planning, and the development and implementation of a career development program. Human Resource Planning is systematic continuing process of analysing an organisations human resource needs under changing conditions and integrating this analysis with the development of HR policies appropriate to meet those needs. [Stephen P Marjorie C, Peoples Resourcing Contemporary HRM in practice, Chapter 4, Page-90 (3rd edition)] Human Resource Planning (HRP): HRP is not just the production of manpower plans and futuristic scenario planning, but needs to be seen as an important dimension of almost all aspects of HR. The planning of human resources becomes a search for those individuals who now and in the future will contribute most to the success of the organization. Employers have not only to acquire appropriate people to resource it, but they also need to train and develop them, for the following reasons as illustrated by Dressler, G (2003). Human Resource Development (HRD): Human Resource Development (HRD) is about develop people to improving recruitment and retention, improving competitiveness, implementing competitiveness, implementing new technology, improving customer service for enhance the organisations ability to compete with globalisation or competitive business world effectively. For worker development, human resource development (HRD) is the structure. By which, workforce can develop their personal and organizational skills, knowledge, and abilities. (Source: RDI DMS course material of HRM) Three HR Planning and development models: There are various human resources planning or development models. We look at three models which given below: Open new product line Open new Store and distribution system Develop staffing for new installation: -production workers -Supervisors -Technical staff -Other managers Recruit skilled workers Develop technical training programs Transfer managers from other facilities Recruiting and training programs feasible Transfers infeasible because of lack of managers with right skills Basic Human resource planning model and its effectiveness in ASDA: Too costly to hire from outside Develop new objectives and plans Recruit managers from outside Human Resource models are made according to the organizational objectives and plan requirement for attaining human resource goals. Furthermore, human resource objectives are straight related to the organizational objective and planning. To open a new branch of any company, Human Resource department need to think about production staffs, line managers, business manager, technical staffs and etc. Workforces are valuable for implementing the new product line, factory, distribution system, and achieving organizational goads. HR department of ASDA recruit skilled workers, develop technical training programs, and transfer managers from other facilities with right skills. ASDA involves forecasting outcome of various HR programs for employee flowing into, all the way through and out a variety of job classifications. They develop training programs regularly and broadly which are reflected in their activities. Attwoods Human Resource planning model and its effectiveness in ASDA: Human resource planning attempts to analyse likely influences on the supply of and demand for people, with a view to maximising the organizations future performance, Attwood (1989) Attwood decorated the planning for people in organizations that involves trying to obtain the right people, in the right numbers, with the right knowledge, skills and experience, in the right jobs, in the right place, at the right time, at the right cost. Following the Attwoods Human Resource Planning model, ASDA tries to do actions of supplying and making demand for the people to maximizing its future performance. ASDA also makes projects of future availability of key staff. This model adjusts and matches between current staff and future plan for its staffing terms. Then it makes evaluation of substitute approaches of dealing with these. Then ASDA selects the best substitute to reach its better HR planning. Following the Attwoods Human Resource Planning model, ASDA does analysing of current staff in organization and personal trends from personal records. Workforce planning model and its effectiveness in ASDA: Workforce planning is the system of analysing an organisations probable prospect needs for people in terms of data, skills and locations. This model allowed the company to diagram how those requirements can be met through recruitment and training. The main policy of this model is to make a right proportion of recruitment which is suitable for the organisation. It is very significant for a company like ASDA to plan ahead by following this model for better performance of workforce. ASDA is applying a workers planning diagram to set up the possible require for new workforce. This one considers executive and non- executive positions. In 2009/2010, for instance, ASDA estimate that to maintain their trade development there will be a demand for approximately 1,800 new managers. So, ASDA can adjust employment levels and recruit where needed. ASDA is looking to fill many vacancies within the company following this model. Task-3: Performance Introduction: Performance management is a process for sharing an understanding about needs to be achieved and then managing and developing people in a way that enables such shared objectives to be achieved. It is always important for managers and supervisors to get the best performance from their workforce in terms of levels of production and quality of output. Armstrong and Baron (2005) define performance management as a process which; contributes to the effective management of individuals and terms in order to achieve high levels of organisational performance. As such, it establishes shared understanding about what is to be achieved and an approach to leading and developing people which will ensure it is achieved. The purpose of performance appraisal is to enable employees to gain a clear picture of how they are performing in the organisation and to identify areas where they need additional support and training. Performance management is the method of making a work environment or setting in whic h people are enabled to perform to the best of their abilities. The five key elements of the performance appraisal are: Measurement Feedback Positive reinforcement Exchange of views and contract. Monitored HR Performance in ASDA: In ASDA, performance development reviews throughout the year and also formal appraisal interviews at regular intervals. ASDA can improve Benchmarking but they have to set standards and monitor the progress of themselves and competitors. For instance, setting goals, monitoring the employees accomplishment of those goads, contributing feedback with the employees, evaluating the employees performance, rewarding performance or firing the employee. ASDA is a huge organisation and they know that the secret to being successful and reliable is to provide good Customer Service. ASDA monitor the customer service progression via Benchmarking. This method in used by many organisations and is helped to show the performance of Customer service with other supermarket outlets. ASDA believe that the best approach to accomplish value for money is to monitor the performance levels of staff and want to reduce wasteful actions. Effectiveness of Performance in ASDA: By monitoring improvement, departmental managers or business managers can assess the efficiency of employees and determine which ones are meeting the terms of their agreement and contributing to ASDAs success. ASDA monitoring is the quality of work being produced that is one of the features and the efficiency levels within departments. 1. Assurance that the right people are in the right place at the right time. 2.  The improvement in the short-term outcomes such as attracting applicants, maximizing performance, and minimizing dissatisfaction and stress is made in order to retain valued employees. 3. HR planning will serve as a thread that ties together all other human resource activities and integrates these with the rest of the organization. 4.  Balancing present needs-of organizations and their employees for the future. Balance score card (BSC): The balanced scorecard (BSC) is the most widely applied performance management system today. The BSC was originally developed as a performance measurement system in 1992 by Dr. Robert Kaplan and Dr. David Norton at the Harvard Business School. Unlike earlier performance measurement systems, the BSC measures performance across a number of different perspectives-a financial perspective, a customer perspective, an internal business process perspective, and an innovation and learning perspective. Through the use of the various perspectives, the BSC captures both leading and lagging performance measures, thereby providing a more balanced view of company performance. Leading indicators include measures, such as customer satisfaction, new product development, on-time delivery, employee competency development, etc. ASDA balanced Scorecard: Total Management commitment IT solutions for results reporting SMART Target setting how does this Work? Linking reward and recognition to scorecard performance Cascading the BSC throughout the business Transferring ownership of the target measures to individuals Business planning the BSC way. Suggest ways to make Improvements: Sometimes, we see that poor performance lead to dismissal. Without checking, if wastefulness is allowed to continue, staff will lose interest, motivation will be concentrated and no encouragement to produce good quality products or services. Extra information on how to make improvement in the HR of ASDA is summarized as a suggestion as follows: 1) Choose the composition of the audit team: There has to be a representative from the HR function and from among senior line managers. 2) Recognize the functions main customers: The key decision is to clarify who makes the final decision to buy the services provided by the function. 3) Reconsider the HR functions mission statement: This statement describes the reason for the HR functions existence. 4) Reconsider the HR functions role in developing relevant HR policies and practices 5) Make internal comparisons to establish best practice: The organization need to build and constantly update a unique database of HR practices that gives an overview. Recommendations: They should to do constant reviewing of their Human Resource Development, and make adjustment are necessary. They should do demonstrate a model implementation of HRP. They should improve their HR sector to reach an ultimate goal. Suggested improvements: ASDA should- reduce employee turn over give confidence to long-term employment support training allowing employees progression to superior job opportunities increase their employees wages make recruitment strategy efficient let the employee enjoy more wealth of benefit include bonus keep continue environmental improvement

MedNet: Confronts Click-Through Competition Essay

It was just 9:30 a.m., and the day was off to a terrible start. Heather Yates, vice president for business development at MedNet, walked at a quick clip down the hall of the company’s modern Birmingham, Alabama, office space, her face clouded with concern. The company, a website delivering health information free to consumers, generated its income through advertising, mostly from pharmaceutical companies. Now, Windham Pharmaceuticals, MedNet’s biggest advertiser, had asked to change the rules by which it had done business for the past four years. Moreover, Mahria Baker, Windham’s CMO, had told Yates that this wasn’t just an exploratory conversation. Windham was seriously considering shifting its MedNet ad dollars to Marvel, a competing website with which Windham already did some business. Yates, who had been with MedNet since just after the company was founded in 2002, felt blindsided and, at the same time, resigned. â€Å"We have some legwork to do,† she thought to herself. â€Å"We can’t afford to say ‘No,’ and just walk away, and we can’t just ask them to stay with us because we’re good people. We have to convince them that our set-up is worth their ad dollars. And we have to move quickly. Our other advertisers won’t be far behind Windham.† She had asked Baker to fax over a copy of the results of Windham’s latest advertising campaign, and had promised to call her back the next day, as both companies needed to finalize their budgets. Then, immediately after they had hung up, Yates had called Bill Bishop, MedNet’s vice president of consumer marketing. â€Å"Can you clear some time for me right now?† she had asked him. â€Å"Windham is thinking of pulling their ad dollars from us and taking them to Marvel.† Now she was on her way up to Bishop’s office, two floors above, with the fax from Baker and notes from her conversation in hand. Industry Background and Company Origins This case, though based on real events, is fictionalized, and any resemblance to actual persons or entities is coincidental. There are occasional references to actual companies in the narration. Copyright  © 2007 by Harvard Business School Publishing. To order copies or request permission to reproduce materials, call 1-800-545-7685, write Harvard Business School Publishing, Boston, MA 02163, or go to http://www.hbsp.harvard.edu. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, used in a spreadsheet, or transmitted in any form or by any means—electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise—without the permission of Harvard Business School Publishing million in profits. (See Exhibit 1 for 2006 income statement.) The accessibly written, easy-tonavigate, and vividly presented content was developed by 24 trained journalists, doctors, designers, and administrators. Additional materials came from the faculty of a prominent medical school, news agencies, a photography service, and an active community of visitors that used social media tools such as blogs, community chat, and virtual reality to communicate medical information. (Visitorgenerated media was reviewed by medically trained journalists.) The award-winning site was considered the best health website for trusted, evidence-based, consumer health information. Advertisements on MedNet proposed specific and immediate solutions to health concerns. MedNet had 4.3 million monthly visitors, but new competitors had flattened its audience growth during the last quarter of 2006. Competitors Now, in the first quarter of 2007, MedNet faced competition both for visitors and advertisers. Nonprofit and governmental websites competed with MedNet for visitors by providing similar content on mainstream medicine. The websites of the U.S. National Library of Medicine and World Health Organization weren’t nearly as easy to navigate as MedNet, but they were comprehensive. In contrast to MedNet, these two websites provided information on alternative therapies as well as on scientifically based solutions, albeit with with carefully worded disclaimers. What’s more, employees of large corporations could increasingly turn to customized health websites on their own company intranets. The theory was that if internal health websites could help workers quickly identify health problems (prompting overdue doctor visits) and promote general good health, the employers could reduce their portion of employee health care costs. For-profit health websites posed different degrees of financial competition for MedNet’s advertising revenue and audience. Recently, so-called condition-specific sites that focused on particular problems, such as Cholesterol.com, had emerged. (Yates was confident that Cholesterol.com was already drawing pharmaceutical advertising dollars away from MedNet.) An indirect competitor, ClinicalTrials.com, marketed only experimental procedures. Its audience was smaller than MedNet’s and the material was difficult for the layperson to understand. ClinicalTrials.com received a fee for each time a visitor it referred enrolled in a clinical trial. Then there was Alternativehealth.com, a long-time, popular player in the â€Å"health space.† It provided information about scientifically â€Å"unproven† therapies and procedures such as herbal remedies, vitamin regimens, and massage. Its audience was larger than MedNet’s and its advertising sales more robust. Due to a recent lawsuit concerning its content, Alternativehealth.com had begun using disclaimers—with no apparent impact on its audience size. Due to the alternative health consumer’s distrust of pharmaceutical companies, the website did not compete with MedNet for advertising dollars. Still, MedNet had to keep Alternativehealth on its radar. Methods Used to Calculate Advertiser Payment Yates’s thoughts raced through the company’s competitive landscape as she waited for the elevator. In her short phone conversation with Bill, he had told her to take a little time to review MedNet’s original value proposition to its advertisers. What they needed to do was re-justify their approach, if it was possible to do so. But, he had cautioned, they were compelled to keep an open mind. â€Å"Think through the facts,† Bill had said. â€Å"Why don’t you come up here in about half an hour. I’ll start to mull over our options as well.† Yates thought back to MedNet’s roots. Back in 2002, MedNet’s founders had made some key choices regarding revenue generation. MedNet could, in theory, sell content to site visitors, like an online magazine, charging a few dollars per article or an annual subscription fee. On the other hand, if the site could draw advertisers, and if advertising revenues were strong enough, the company could provide content free of charge—which is what most web users expected. An advertising revenue model was made possible by sophisticated web analytics: technology that tracked the behavior of each site visitor—pages viewed, links clicked, and so on. This software made it easy for advertisers to calculate their return on advertising investment (ROI). The obvious candidates to buy onscreen advertising space from MedNet were pharmaceutical companies, which for over a decade had promoted their drugs aggressively to consumers. As it happened, MedNet was launched at a time when many other consumer health care websites were going out of business, leaving pharmaceutical firms looking for web promotion outlets. MedNet seized the opportunity to build relationships with these advertisers. In deciding how best to generate revenue from advertisers, MedNet chose traditional banner advertising, charging pharmaceutical advertisers such as Windham Pharmaceuticals on a cost-perthousand impressions (CPM) basis. (One advertising impression meant that one visitor requested from a Web server a page that had a specific advertisement on it.) Measuring impressions was the closest way to estimate the number of people who actually saw an online advertisement. By pursuing an impression business model, MedNet was fully â€Å"monetizing† its available inventory of â€Å"eyeballs† (site visitors). An independent auditor verified the company’s impression counts each month. Marvel’s Challenge Yates reached Bill Bishop’s office and pushed the door open. Bill was on the phone, but he waved her to a seat. â€Å"Two minutes,† he mouthed at her. She nodded, and sat back. She thought about what she knew about Marvel. Marvel was essentially a large search engine that had decided to follow the alternative advertising model: contextual, or pay-per-click, banner advertising. Under these terms, advertisers paid website owners only when visitors actually â€Å"clicked† on an advertisement to learn more about an advertised product. The key metric to measuring this kind of online advertising campaign was the click-through rate (CTR), measured as the number of clicks divided by the number of ad impressions delivered. Advertisers considered website click-throughs (and telephone calls to a call center generated by a newspaper advertisement) to be the equivalent of customers interested in potentially making a purchase. Yates thought back to 2002. No sooner had MedNet’s founders opted for a pay-per-impression model than advertisers began resisting that pricing structure—but mainly from general-interest websites, where the majority of impressions came from visitors uninterested in their products. Advertisers based this perception in part on the percentage of click-throughs that ads yielded; the click-through rate on a general-interest site tended to be half as high as on highly focused â€Å"destination† content sites like MedNet. In 2006, MedNet.com therefore could still command a $100 CPM ($100 for each 1,000 impressions) contract from its advertisers—10 to 20 times what general interest websites might charge. Similarly, Alternativehealth.com’s advertisers paid for impressions only, and not for click-throughs. But Marvel, a hugely successful search engine, turned the table on its competition in the fall of 2006 by declaring it would provide impressions for free and charge advertisers only for clickthroughs. Because Marvel had a vast audience (19 million visitors per month), charging for even a   small percentage of click-throughs would pay off handsomely. If the site sold advertisements in enough categories, including the pharmaceutical market, Marvel could bring in huge revenues. By late 2006, some advertisers began to ask other sites to charge only for click-through â€Å"sales leads† like Marvel did. One drawback to this popular revenue model: reports of increasing â€Å"click frau d.† Advertisers’ competitors were fraudulently clicking on advertisements to drive up advertising costs. Not only was Marvel offering MedNet’s long-standing advertisers like Windham different financial terms, but it also competed for visitors interested in healthcare. Visitors often came to MedNet by way of a search engine such as Marvel, although such search engines served as a starting point of inquiry, not a serious source of trusted medical information. Mahria Baker’s challenge stuck with Yates: â€Å"At Marvel we get all our impressions for free, and we pay $0.54 for each click-through. At MedNet we pay for every impression, and by my calculation we pay $3.33 for each click-through. Granted, we’re not averse to getting impressions—anytime that anyone sees your logo, your slogan, and your product’s name, you are theoretically doing your brand some good. But here at Windham, click-throughs are really what matter. They separate accidental observers of our ads from the serious prospects who proactively seek more product information and may buy our product. I can’t justify paying six times as much for a click-through from one of your visitors.† Baker had paused a moment, then added, â€Å"Heather, help me here. Is there another way of looking at this that I’m missing?† â€Å"Yes, there is,† Yates had replied, â€Å"and if you let me call you back tomorrow I believe I can show you what you are missing.† MedNet’s Audience and Visitor Behavior Bill Bishop hung up the phone and turned to Yates. She spread out a copy of the results of Windham’s latest advertising campaign, and the two of them pored over it. (See Exhibit 2 for Baker’s data.) Many search engines and general-interest websites had large audiences that returned to the sites regularly, in a predictable pattern. By contrast, most visitors to targeted health websites such as MedNet came only when â€Å"in crisis.† However, when they did come, they stayed long and explored avidly, clicking around to clarify symptoms or determine the best course of action for a pressing health problem. They often researched unrelated symptom areas as well, in order to help family members, or out of curiosity. These visitors then returned during the next crisis, although some did become repeat visitors. MedNet visitors clicked on more pages and advertisements than generalinterest web surfers did (see Exhibit 3). In addition, health website visitors tended to buy more products from advertisers when they did decide to purchase. (See Exhibit 4 for a study of results and frequently viewed web pages on MedNet.) If the product advertised was not available over-thecounter, then the visitors would urge their physicians to prescribe the medication that they’d discovered in the advertisements on MedNet. Windham produced Vesselia, a prescription medication that reduced cholesterol and plaque in a patient’s veins with fewer side effects than competitors’ offerings. High cholesterol was one cause of heart disease, and it was attributed to both genetic predisposition and lifestyle choices. Keeping cholesterol low could be a long-term issue for many patients, requiring months, possibly years, of daily medication. Each patient who began a series of treatments would use the medicine for an average of 12 months. To encourage customers to request a prescription for Vesselia from their doctors, Windham provided coupons on its website that customers could print out and redeem at a pharmacy. For instance, when a customer clicked on a Windham ad at MedNet’s website, he was taken to the Windham website. Windham’s computer system could identify that the customer came from MedNet and insert that information into the Windham coupon bar code within fractions of a second. A different coupon code was provided to those web visitors who came to Windham from Marvel Search. (Coupons with yet another barcode were sent by postal mail by the Windham telephone call center to respondents to newspaper advertisements.) When patients redeemed the coupons at a pharmacy, the pharmacy returned them to Windham. Windham could thus attribute drug sales to the relevant advertising venue. On average, patients took three months to redeem coupons for Vesselia after Windham had first placed the advertisements. The current campaign would be considered closed at the end of February 2007.

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_______ / 29 Score ____________________Name ________Period ________Date Study Questions: Through the Tunnel COMPREHENSION (10 points; 1 point each) On the line provided, write the letter of the best answer to each of the following items. _______ 1. Jerry’s mother allows him to go to the beach by the wild bay because she— A would like some time to herself B does not realize how dangerous it is C wants him to make friends with the boys playing there D does not want to be overly protective _______ 2.Jerry is especially fascinated by the local boys at the wild bay because they — F speak a language Jerry doesn’t understand G are older and stronger than he is H dive from a rock and swim through an underwater tunnel J climb through a tunnel to reach a high rock from which they dive ______ 3. When Jerry masks his shame at not having found the tunnel because he was clowning around, the other boys — A laugh at his antics B frown like his mother C speak Englis h to him D smile and wave at him _______ 4.Which statement best describes Jerry’s attitude toward going through the tunnel? F He feels the tunnel is more than he can handle at his age. G He’s frightened but determined to go through it. H The tunnel has little meaning but poses some interest to him. J He has no fears about getting through the tunnel. ______ 5. As soon as the local boys leave the wild bay, Jerry doesn’t go through the tunnel mainly because — A his mother made him promise not to overdo anything B Jerry doesn’t know where the tunnel is locatedC Jerry can’t hold his breath long enough D without goggles, Jerry can’t see underwater ______ 6. The event that forces Jerry to decide that he will make his attempt to go through the tunnel occurs — F after he watches the local boys go through the tunnel for a second time G when his ability to hold his breath surpasses two minutes H when he buys a pair of goggles enabling him to see clearly underwater J after his mother tells him that they will be leaving the beach in four days ______ 7.The best description of Jerry’s approach to going through the tunnel is that he — A enters impulsively and swims around until he finds his way out B waits until one of the older boys dives first and then follows him to safety C decides to wait until the following summer when is older and stronger D carefully plans and practices for several days before trying ______ 8. In addition to overcoming the dangers of the water, Jerry has to contend with — F his mother’s reluctance G his own rigorous training H taunts from the other boys J weather problems ______ 9.In the end, while eating lunch, Jerry tells his mother — A absolutely nothing about his adventure underwater B every detail of what happened as he swam through the tunnel C that he can hold his breath for three minutes underwater D that he wants to go swimming again that day ______ 10. Which statement best expresses the theme of â€Å"Through the Tunnel†? F Friendship is life’s great prize. G Amother’s love conquers all. H Proving one’s worth is never easy. J Never judge a book by its cover. LITERARY FOCUS (4 points; 1 poins each) On the line provided, write the letter of the best answer to each of the following items. ______ 11.Areader finds the symbolic meaning in a story by — A outlining the events in the story’s plot B interpreting and making connections among all of the story’s symbols C discovering the reasons a character acts the way he or she does D determining who the narrator is and how he or she is connected to the story’s Characters ______ 12. Of the following details from â€Å"Through the Tunnel,† the most important symbol in the story is the — F pair of goggles G umbrella H tunnel J villa ______ 13. The wild bay is a symbol for — A Jerry’s entrance into a new phase in his life B the ways in which Jerry’s mother coddles himC life in a foreign country D vacations and other exciting adventures ______ 14. Which of the following descriptions from the story helps to create a mood of danger? F â€Å"There she was, a speck of yellow under an umbrella that looked like a slice of orange peel. † G â€Å"Soon the biggest of the boys poised himself, shot down into the water, and did not come up. † H â€Å"It was as if he had eyes of a different kind—fish eyes that showed everything clear and delicate and wavering in the bright water. † J â€Å"Rocks lay like discolored monsters under the surface. † VOCABULARY DEVELOPMENT (5 points; 1 point each)Match the definition on the left with the Vocabulary word on the right. On the line provided, write the letter of the Vocabulary word. ______ 15. small; tiny a. contrition ______ 16. appeal; request b. supplication ______ 17. disbelieving; skeptical c. inquisitive ______ 18. regret or sense of guilt at having done wrong d. minute ______ 19. questioning; curious e. incredulous CONSTRUCTED RESPONSE (10 points) 20. On a separate sheet of paper, write a paragraph explaining what you think Jerry’s accomplishments are and how you think they change him. Support your ideas with at least two instances of symbols or figurative language from the story. Me Hjgkhjlkghjlk _______ / 29 Score ____________________Name ________Period ________Date Study Questions: Through the Tunnel COMPREHENSION (10 points; 1 point each) On the line provided, write the letter of the best answer to each of the following items. _______ 1. Jerry’s mother allows him to go to the beach by the wild bay because she— A would like some time to herself B does not realize how dangerous it is C wants him to make friends with the boys playing there D does not want to be overly protective _______ 2.Jerry is especially fascinated by the local boys at the wild bay because they — F speak a language Jerry doesn’t understand G are older and stronger than he is H dive from a rock and swim through an underwater tunnel J climb through a tunnel to reach a high rock from which they dive ______ 3. When Jerry masks his shame at not having found the tunnel because he was clowning around, the other boys — A laugh at his antics B frown like his mother C speak Englis h to him D smile and wave at him _______ 4.Which statement best describes Jerry’s attitude toward going through the tunnel? F He feels the tunnel is more than he can handle at his age. G He’s frightened but determined to go through it. H The tunnel has little meaning but poses some interest to him. J He has no fears about getting through the tunnel. ______ 5. As soon as the local boys leave the wild bay, Jerry doesn’t go through the tunnel mainly because — A his mother made him promise not to overdo anything B Jerry doesn’t know where the tunnel is locatedC Jerry can’t hold his breath long enough D without goggles, Jerry can’t see underwater ______ 6. The event that forces Jerry to decide that he will make his attempt to go through the tunnel occurs — F after he watches the local boys go through the tunnel for a second time G when his ability to hold his breath surpasses two minutes H when he buys a pair of goggles enabling him to see clearly underwater J after his mother tells him that they will be leaving the beach in four days ______ 7.The best description of Jerry’s approach to going through the tunnel is that he — A enters impulsively and swims around until he finds his way out B waits until one of the older boys dives first and then follows him to safety C decides to wait until the following summer when is older and stronger D carefully plans and practices for several days before trying ______ 8. In addition to overcoming the dangers of the water, Jerry has to contend with — F his mother’s reluctance G his own rigorous training H taunts from the other boys J weather problems ______ 9.In the end, while eating lunch, Jerry tells his mother — A absolutely nothing about his adventure underwater B every detail of what happened as he swam through the tunnel C that he can hold his breath for three minutes underwater D that he wants to go swimming again that day ______ 10. Which statement best expresses the theme of â€Å"Through the Tunnel†? F Friendship is life’s great prize. G Amother’s love conquers all. H Proving one’s worth is never easy. J Never judge a book by its cover. LITERARY FOCUS (4 points; 1 poins each) On the line provided, write the letter of the best answer to each of the following items. ______ 11.Areader finds the symbolic meaning in a story by — A outlining the events in the story’s plot B interpreting and making connections among all of the story’s symbols C discovering the reasons a character acts the way he or she does D determining who the narrator is and how he or she is connected to the story’s Characters ______ 12. Of the following details from â€Å"Through the Tunnel,† the most important symbol in the story is the — F pair of goggles G umbrella H tunnel J villa ______ 13. The wild bay is a symbol for — A Jerry’s entrance into a new phase in his life B the ways in which Jerry’s mother coddles himC life in a foreign country D vacations and other exciting adventures ______ 14. Which of the following descriptions from the story helps to create a mood of danger? F â€Å"There she was, a speck of yellow under an umbrella that looked like a slice of orange peel. † G â€Å"Soon the biggest of the boys poised himself, shot down into the water, and did not come up. † H â€Å"It was as if he had eyes of a different kind—fish eyes that showed everything clear and delicate and wavering in the bright water. † J â€Å"Rocks lay like discolored monsters under the surface. † VOCABULARY DEVELOPMENT (5 points; 1 point each)Match the definition on the left with the Vocabulary word on the right. On the line provided, write the letter of the Vocabulary word. ______ 15. small; tiny a. contrition ______ 16. appeal; request b. supplication ______ 17. disbelieving; skeptical c. inquisitive ______ 18. regret or sense of guilt at having done wrong d. minute ______ 19. questioning; curious e. incredulous CONSTRUCTED RESPONSE (10 points) 20. On a separate sheet of paper, write a paragraph explaining what you think Jerry’s accomplishments are and how you think they change him. Support your ideas with at least two instances of symbols or figurative language from the story.

Computer Security Systems Report A Literature Review For...

CSci530 Computer Security Systems report: A literature review for Electronic Commerce Security Zhiheng Chu 4398125439 zchu@usc.edu I have read the Guide to Avoiding Plagiarism published by the student affairs office. I understand what is expected of me with respect to properly citing sources, and how to avoid representing the work of others as my own. I wrote the material in this paper, except for such material that is quoted or indented and properly cited to indicate the sources of the material. I understand that using the words of others, and simply tagging the sentence, paragraph, or section with a tag to the copied source does not constitute proper citation and that if such material is used verbatim or paraphrased it must be†¦show more content†¦Then we turn to counter part to current widespread defense technologies and solutions in industry against those attacks. Key words: electronic commerce; security; I. Introduction After a successful IPO, the electronic commercial (E-Commerce) colossus Alibaba boasts a world-class market capital of $231.4 billion according to the FORTUNE magazine [1]. With the huge success of Alibaba’s IPO, E-Commerce is considered as one of the most important and promising business in world. Then what is e-commerce? It is commonly exchanging goods or services via Internet. Today you can get all retail brands via their online presence and even private goods. Moreover, e-Commerce also includes business-to-business (B2B) transactions between manufacturers and suppliers or distributors or other business parties. E-Commerce enables online-to-offline (O2O) mode, which is ordering or purchasing online and delivering offline. Recently, there are more and more retail brands, including BestBuy, supporting multi-channel retail, which is offering in-store pick-up service for online purchasing. Not limited to the online retail, e-Commerce systems are also widespread for the services industry. All leading commercial banks provide their online banking entrance on both mobile devices and Internet. Such kind of entrance allows users to retrieve bank statements, issue transactions, pay bills, invest in stock market and get financial support online. Thus to ensure the