Essay --

My 20 year old cousin has been informed that I have recently taken a class in Aids and Epidemics. This line of descent was mainly used to inform me about how risky HIV transmission can be. As well how easily it may be spread from peerless person to another. My cousin has asked me to inform her about HIV and how it could effect her. There are many ways to avoid the spread but it requires taking befitting precautions which I willing inform you about as you read along. Its safest to try and be in a monogamous relationship so you and your partner in crime know who each of you are sleeping with. There are many ways at which you could be at risk and dont counterbalance know it. The safest way to protect you is to wait for sexual intercourse until the person is either checked or each of the individuals are virgins and commit to each other. This will ensure that neither one of you is sleeping with anyone else nor youre both clean. As you read the essay below I will inform you on how o n the nose HIV can be transmitted, how you could be at risk, and what measures you should take in order to protect yourself. This is a very scary v...

Irish Potato Famine Essay -- essays research papers

In the early 1800s life in Ireland wasnt easy, Irish citizens got by day to day by farming and relying on the potato. The potato was their primary(prenominal) source of food and money. With out the potato the Irish would have nothing. No one was prepared for what was about to happen in 1845, the beginning of the Great Irish Potato Famine. The Irish Potato Famine was the worst tragedy in the history of Ireland. The outcome of the famine would result in hundreds of thousands dead, an failure of the economy in Ireland, and millions of emigrants forced to leave their home and country just to try to survive. The famine would effect countries other than Ireland as well. Some of these countries included England, America, Canada, and Australia. The next five years, nigh all Irish citizens, would have the hardest struggle that they would ever face. It would tear families apart, destroy peoples lives, and cause large financial losses to landowners.In the early to mid 1800s Ireland was a ve ry poor and difficult place to live. Most of the land was owned by landowners that lived in England and rented their land out to Irish citizens. The owners had almost no disport in their land and property in Ireland. They only cared about getting their money from their renters. The rents were overpriced and live costs in Ireland were also extremely high. The living conditions for the renters in Ireland were horrible, with one-room houses that were expected to shelter whole families. Another problem with the country was that over 70% of the population was illiterate. The renters would use their land to farm potatoes because they were cheap, easy to grow, right of vitamins, and you could grow a lot in a small area and in poor farming conditions. The whole country relied on the crop of potatoes as their source of food and income. In the mid 1800s there were many seasons that produced poor crops, and in some cases no potatoes at all. These seasons were taken lightly, and just thought to be bad crop seasons. After these bad seasons, farmers became upset and began to grow poorer quality potatoes known as Lumper potatoes or Horse potatoes instead of the stronger healthier potatoes. ... ...money to their family so that they could escape Ireland and start a new life in America. Those whose lives became bad and worsened by the immigration were too ashamed to talk to their family and discontinued come home with family back in Ireland. In conclusion the potato famine effected not only those who lived in Ireland, but those in America too. The people that survived the crisis in conclusion returned their lives back to normal and were not physically harmed but rather emotionally scared with memories of wondering how much longer they were going to live. Also they remembered the whole mount with dead bodies every where and villages of which every resident was sickened and dying. The Americans were effected by this epidemic with the introduction of many diseases introduce d to their country. Especially those in the New England area of the country, where most of the immigrants arrived who had seen how the famine over seas had such an impact on millions of peoples lives. Over all many lives were lost, many lives changed, all due to the only crop that the Irish relied onthe potato.

Building A Campfire :: essays research papers

     There argon many different campfire structures that can be built to start a fire whilecamping. The most common are the teepee, log cabin, dugout, and tunnel structures. Almost anyone can build these fires if he or she follows just about key points.      A fire needs three elements air, fuel, and an ignition of some kind. For a campfirethe air element is easily accessible its the air a person breaths or oxygen. Fuel isequivalent to wood. Sometimes twinkleer fluid is utilize to start big fires immediately, butusually when dealing with a campfire the fuel is wood. Ignition can come from a spark,match, or lighter. It is anything that initially starts the fire.     Going deeper into wood, in that respect are three categories to classify it under. Kindling isthe stuff that is easiest to take fire. It could be leaves, dryer lint, or very small twigs. Thenext size of wood is sticks and small logs. These leave alone range in size from one half inch totwo inches in diameter. Anything larger than this is classified as the fuel. The fuel is thebig logs that will burn for hours. When a fire is started it needs to be built like this kindling first, then sticks and small logs, and then the fuel, once the fire is going good. Using this technique with the following fire structures will ensure hot easy fires.     The teepee style structure is probably the most used and easiest to build, butdoesnt necessarily publication in the hottest or longest burning campfire. To build this firethink about the name "teepee." The end result before burning this structure looks like anIndians teepee (If the teepee shape is not familiar, then envision a conic shape). Start byplacing the intermediate size wood or sticks in the ground in a circular shape about eightto twelve inches in diameter, leaning the tips of the sticks together in the center. Thesticks should already start to tally a teepee shape. Continue layering the walls of theteepee with more sticks, but not too thick, because air needs to be able to pass through thewalls easily. afford a hole on one side large enough to place kindling inside the stick walls. This hole is also left to light the kindling from the inside and may be filled in once the fireis lit.      Once this is completed, the structure should be a recognizable teepee or coneshape. The kindling should be lit on the underside inside the teepee walls through the hole

The Jazz Age Essay examples -- History, The Roaring Twenties

Watching a movie in the 1920s was a cheap and easy way to be transported into a world of glitz and glamour, a world of crime, or a world of magic and mystery. Some of these worlds included smells of current events, like war, crime, and advances in technology while others were completely fictional mysteries, romances, and comedies. Heartbreakers, heartthrobs, comedians and dishy women dominated movie screens across the country in theaters, called Nickelodeons. Nickelodeons were very basic and small theaters which later transformed into opulent and monumental palaces. When sound was introduced into film by Warner Bros. Pictures, talkies took top rank over silent films. Movies were an art form that had universal appeal. Their essence was entertainment their success, financial and otherwise, was huge (1920-30, 3/19/11). Films offered an escape from the troubles of universal life in the 20s, and moviegoers across the country all shared a universal language watching movies. Although th e film industry first began in radical York, Hollywood caught the attention of producers because of its various locations for shooting films and ideal weather for year-round production. The climate and scenery were not the only reasons filmmakers moved to Hollywood. Thomas Edison, along with other individuals, owned patents over the process of filmmaking, and moving to Hollywood was used by producers as a way to avoid lawsuits (Digital History, 2/12/11).In the root word of The Roaring Twenties, about fifty million people went to the movies per week, amplifying to ninety million in 1929. These huge numbers are a result of the publics obsession with the movies glamour, sophistication, and sex appeal. Watching movies motivated the viewers to ea... ...do their chores and work to earn money to see a movie.The Roaring Twenties, also known as The make do Age, was a busy and interesting time in history. Movies set new standards in society, changing pop culture for both the best and the worst. The best aspect of how pop culture was changed by society was the change in how people acted and dressed. One negative aspect of how film affected the society of the 1920s was the change magnitude in membership of the Ku Klux Klan, and some growth in gangs and violence. Children and women developed new freedoms and ways of thinking like the characters in the movies they watched. Women became liberated and realized that there was much to them than cooking and cleaning. Going to the movies was a new incentive for children and teenagers to do their chores. All in all, movies changed pop culture in the 1920s and it will never be the same.

Death Penalty Essay -- essays research papers

Death Penalty The conclusion penalty, outlawed in almost of Europe, Canada, Australia and most other countries in the world, is still practiced in almost 40 states in the U.S. Today, there are more than 3,000 large number on remnant haggling waiting the day of their execution. They are put to decease by methods such as hanging, electrocution, lethal injection and by firing squad. Since the remnant penalty was reinstated bye the supreme court in 1976, by the Gregg v. Georgia decision, more than 525 people have been put to death. Today there are many people for the death penalty and see nothing wrong with it but there are many people who feel hat it constitutes cruel and unusual punishment. The eighth amendment of the U.S. protects its citizens from cruel and unusual punishment but the death penalty hasnt fell under the amendment yet. Nobody on either side of the death penalty debate wants to see an innocent person put to death, and yet studies have found that unmatchable in seven people sent to death row are later proven innocent. Still more innocent people are being sent to death row each year. In one case a prisoner was two days away from being executed when he was proven innocent. That means that many people reach death before they are proven innocent. In the last twenty-four years eighty-five innocent people have been released from death row, and will never make believe back the years of their lives they missed but just escaped a murder of themselves. In Illinois the governor has blocked executions to realize out why more death row inmates have been found innocent and released than executed. The governor of Illinois is not the only one examing the death penalty but many others are flavour further into the capital punishment. New technologies, like DNA testing, have made it possible to definitely prove or disapprove innocence in hundreds of cases where catching evidence has been preserved. In many cases DNA evidence has been a troublesome effor t, requiring lots of resources and sometimes taking years of effort to work. more people, regardless of their vantage point about the constitutionality of the death penalty, would agree that if a person was going to trial and could be executed, he would be represented fairly. However there are factors uncorrelated to the crime that have been riveted that determines who gets executed and who doesnt. Those factors are poverty, race, and geography. It has been pr... ...egulations concerning the death penalty. Something so important as a person living or put to death should be a nation wide regulated act not for each state to have its own standards and rules. The death penalty should be ban because of many reasons, which make it unfair. In order to live if you are innocent and convicted of a crime and receive the death penalty you have to be white, real wealthy to provide a good representation and have to live in a state, which doesnt strongly use the capital punishment for sente ncing. Many studies show that a majority of people favor alternatives to the death penalty such as life in prison without parole plus take to the victims family. Out of three hundred and fifty convictions in which a person was given the death penalty and proven that they didnt commit the crime, twenty-three were executed before they could be released. This means all of the years they sat in jail knowing their innocence they didnt get to find out that they were proven not guilty by the system. I dont think anyone would want to be in their position so the death penalty should be abolished for many reasons until it is fair and 100 % right in its convictions.

Death Penalty Essay -- essays research papers

Death Penalty The destruction punishment, outlawed in most of Europe, Canada, Australia and most other countries in the world, is still pr work outiced in almost 40 states in the U.S. Today, there be more than 3,000 people on devastation row waiting the day of their execution. They are put to finish by methods such as hanging, electrocution, lethal injection and by firing squad. Since the death penalty was reinstated bye the supreme court in 1976, by the Gregg v. atomic number 31 decision, more than 525 people spend a penny been put to death. Today there are many people for the death penalty and see nothing wrong with it unless there are many people who feel hat it constitutes cruel and unusual punishment. The 8th amendment of the U.S. protects its citizens from cruel and unusual punishment but the death penalty hasnt fell under the amendment tho. Nobody on either side of the death penalty debate wants to see an desolate person put to death, and yet studies nurse found that one in seven people sent to death row are later proven innocent. Still more innocent people are being sent to death row each year. In one case a prisoner was two days apart from being executed when he was proven innocent. That means that many people reach death before they are proven innocent. In the last twenty-four years eighty-five innocent people have been released from death row, and will never get back the years of their lives they missed but just get away a murder of themselves. In Illinois the governor has blocked executions to find out why more death row inmates have been found innocent and released than executed. The governor of Illinois is not the only one examing the death penalty but many others are looking further into the capital punishment. New technologies, like DNA testing, have made it possible to definitely prove or disapprove innocence in hundreds of cases where genetic evidence has been preserved. In many cases DNA evidence has been a troublesome effort, re quiring lots of resources and sometimes taking years of effort to work. Many people, regardless of their viewpoint about the constitutionality of the death penalty, would agree that if a person was firing to trial and could be executed, he would be represented fairly. However there are factors unrelated to the crime that have been committed that determines who gets executed and who doesnt. Those factors are poverty, race, and geography. It has been pr... ...egulations concerning the death penalty. Something so important as a person living or put to death should be a nation wide regulated act not for each state to have its own standards and rules. The death penalty should be banned because of many reasons, which make it unfair. In order to live if you are innocent and convicted of a crime and receive the death penalty you have to be white, very wealthy to provide a good representation and have to live in a state, which doesnt strongly use the capital punishment for sentencing. Many studies show that a majority of people favor alternatives to the death penalty such as life in prison without parole plus restitution to the victims family. Out of three hundred and liter convictions in which a person was given the death penalty and proven that they didnt commit the crime, twenty-three were executed before they could be released. This means each(prenominal) of the years they sat in jail knowing their innocence they didnt get to find out that they were proven not guilty by the system. I dont think anyone would want to be in their position so the death penalty should be abolished for many reasons until it is fair and 100 % even out in its convictions.

Mrs Fields Cookies Essay

Mrs. field biscuits was founded by Debbi palm in the late 1970s. She and her save Randy handle opened their first store in 1977 in Palo Alto, California, selling homemade-style cookies which quickly grew in popularity. ProductsMrs. Fields Cookies came in 14 varieties. All scorched products were made on premises in the individual stores and the company especially focused on the fresh cookies. If the cookies are not sold within cardinal hours, they were given away and discarded. CompetitorsMrs. Fields competitors included New Yorks Davids Cookies, Atlantas Original Great American Chocolate Chip Cookie Company, and the Nestle Companys Original Cookie Co. Challenges 1. Low barriers to entry and mall locations competition In the early 1980s, cookies were cheap to make and the barriers of sweet insect bite industry to entry were low. There were many cookies producers and many consumers in the market, and no chore had total control over the market price. Because some 80% of Mrs. Fiel ds outlets were in shopping malls, so the competition for the most favorable mall locations was fierce.2. Franchising Financing and performance of exchange marketMrs. Fields had consistently refused to franchise their stores, because she viewed franchising as a loss of control over the end product and loss of touch with the customers. To find bank financing and additional capital for expansion, Mrs. Fields tried to go public and made initial public offering on the London exchange in 1986, but this experience was not successful, because buyers did not endure the company and did not believe that Mrs. Fields business could be sustained growth without franchising. The result was that the stock price rose slowly.Business Strategyorganisational outline Mrs. Fields had a non-hierarchy organization with decentralized decision making. Typically, there was no official organization chart in company which means Mrs. Fields wanted to take advantage of the intelligence and trust the judgment o f employee throughout the company, instead of relying on a small set of decision makers. The employees at Mrs. Fields were given much more responsibilities such as local marketing decisions were made by the regional and district managers, because they needed to be able to serve quickly to the demands of target customers. Mrs. Fields to a fault encouraged employees to be wacky and personable, so that customers feel comfortable purchasing cookies. The company placed high survey on employees by using promote from within strategy, employees were rewarded for their performance with a bonus system.Information System strategyInformation engineering play a very important role at Mrs. Fields. MIS enabled Mrs. Fields to have network structure and use centralized t distributivelying system out of Utah and grant it to every store as needed. Mrs. Fields approach of information technology was consistent with an ad-hoc cost/benefit analysis. All stores were running under implementation of info rmation systems at Mrs. Fields to promote sales and control labor and cookies cost. Mrs. Fields also believed that it was not necessary to expand staff to accommodate business growth, and small groups of people at Mrs. Fields could make decision to solve business problems faster and better if people could work very well with the information technology to develop more new and creative applications, because a useful information system in company could save time and labor cost, and make business operations more accurate, effective and efficient.Operations strategyFirst, Mrs. Fields used very friendly and organized design style for their stores to attract more customers. Customers ever were drawn into the store by the openness of the design and by the aroma of hot cookies fresh from the ovens. Second, sophisticated management information system also played a very important role on the business operations. Store management system designed by Randy and the MIS organization was integrate d with each business process for day planning, production schedule, time clocks, store accounting, inventory, interview scheduling, skill testing and electronic mail. Controller at headquarter in Utah was also integrated with system collecting sales information received from all stores. The information system helped controller in generating reports for management review.Expanded store strategy/ diversification strategyFrom 1980s, Mrs. Fields started a series of acquisitions to expand their businesses including a 119-store French Bakery/sandwich chain, La Pette Boulangerie and Famous Chocolate Chip Company. These acquisitions brought a combination of full lines of both cookies and bakery products and presented an opportunity to carve out a niche in a highly fractionalized market, and the size of the operation naturalized an investment barrier to competition. But the same time, the acquisition also brought many of overhead functions into the existing organization, including accountin g, finance, personnel, human resources, etc.

“All the Single Ladies” by Kate Bolick (Rhetorical)

In the 2011, November issue of The Atlantic, the cover clause titled All The oneness Ladies by Kate Bolick, was published. This powerful article presents a strong, independent, feminist- passed woman, who discusses marriage with the economic and demographic changes, the role of women and men in teaching and the oeuvre, and how these shifts argon changing traditional marriage. Bolick uses ethos, pathos, and logos to reach out to the Single Ladies, the feminists, and the enlightened men closely marriage in nows quickly changing world.In recent years, there has been an explosion of male joblessness and a sort out in male income, educational attainment, and employment vistas. However, in this brave new world women are rising to the top higher than ever in their education and careers. The world is consistently changing. In one- direction which differs from the past is the variety of our interactions with the opposite sex. Now the opposite sex can be our classmates, bosses, or subor dinates.Then come the debates that are all these statistics decreasing the group of traditionally marriageable men. Bolick explores how this new gender balance is giving people a fresh new outlook and prospect to re-think how they look at the institution of marriage. She explains how this shift is causing some women to choose to delay marriage, and why remaining single is not such a sturdy idea. Bolick demonstrates intrinsic ethos by being exceptionally knowledgeable about womens success and the alterations of customary marriage.The single 39-year-old feminist, with a New York University masters degree in ethnical criticism is a recipient of a MacDowell fellowship. She has also taught writing, which shows Bolicks extraordinary literary credentials. With a blend of personal reflection and reporting, she equally subjoins together reflecting on her own life and experiences as well as interviewing others about their lives and encounters. Bolick shares many of her own personal dating e xperiences. She chooses to write about these ideas for the reason that it is her life and the way she was raised.Bolick relies heavily on the strong influences and encouragement from her mother as seen throughout the article, Not being ready to settle down is a second-wave feminist idea Id acquired from my mother, who had embraced it, in part, I suspect, to correct for her own choices (Bolick 118). Her mother learned from her own mistakes, and wanted nothing more but a future of limitless possibilities for her daughter. This is why there was so much stress on not being tied down just yet.Due to Katie Bolicks upbringing and choice to be a single woman, has built her argument and credentials and makes her a credible voice in the debate about marriage. Bolick begins her essay in an interesting and heartfelt way, where she uses pathos while stint out to her readers hearts and capturing the readers interest. She specifically describes her break up with the perfect and exceptional boyfr iend of three years for no good reason. heartache is more than just an emotional defeat it is painfully real. Readers connect and start to feel sorry for her when we read, The period that followed was awful.I barely ate for sobbing all the clock (Bolick 116). This detached tone in her writing significantly shows and suggest Bolicks attitude and feelings towards her painful past. Her readers can feel that this tone expresses tender emotions. Most members of her auditory modality have likely been there before, recognizing the feeling of heartbreak she describes. However, at one point or another, the majority of people can relate to a mind numbing feeling fears of being alone, fears of making a mistake. Bolick uses her emotional break up to engage the audiences emotions as they imagine and relate to the feeling.Bolick enforces a logical petition as she demonstrates being a strong user of data and statistics. She supports all her informative ideas and arguments with evidence, that p rovides for her claims. As seen throughout the article are facts to back up her initial idea, such as For starters, we keep putting marriage off. In 1960, the median age of first marriage in the U. S. was 23 for men and 20 for women immediately it is 28 and 26 (Bolick 120). She uses several statistics to show the growing number of marriages being delayed nowadays.She also successfully compares statistics of mens and womens education and workplace accounts. She has clearly done a great deal of research and it is shown here as well as in all of her statistics. These statistics not only add surprise and interest to her writing, but also add logical appeal. With Bolicks efficient use of the data and facts, the article backs itself with rationale and logic which leads the audience to a greater understanding and to logically infer and agree with her agreement of why the shift in marriages is currently on hold.These statistics displayed by the author are logically appealing and unmistakab ly apparent in her perspective and studies. Throughout the article, Bolick successfully and skillfully uses ethos, pathos, and logos to create a strong, convincing article. More important than the purport of these techniques she uses independently is how Bolick uses them together, overlapping to create effective writing to inform the reader, and present her ideas on how the world around us is changing therefore, altering the idea of family and romance.In todays world, education, the workplace, and marriage is very different from what it use to be. It is time to reevaluate marriage. As the economy evolves, we are now offered an opportunity. It is time to embrace new ideas and thoughts about romance relationships and family, acknowledging and kissing traditional marriages goodbye. Works Cited Bolick, Kate. All The Single Ladies. Atlantic Monthly (10727825) 308. 4 (2011) 116-136. Academic Search Premier. Web. 5 Nov. 2012.

Lifestyles Theory Essay

The life-style/ depiction theory was developed by Hindelang, Gottfredson, and Garofalo (1978243 e.g., see Goldstein, 1994 Maxfield, 1987275 Miethe, Stafford, and Long, 1987184). This poseur of twist events links victimization risks to the day by day activities of specific individuals (Goldstein, 199454 Kennedy and Forde, 1990208).Lifestyles are patterned, regular, recurrent, prevalent, or routine activities (Robinson, 1997b also see Cohen and Felson, 1979 Felson, 1994 Hindelang, Gottfredson, and Garofalo, 1978241 Garofalo, 198724, 39). Lifestyles consist of the activities that people engage in on a daily basis, including both obligatory and discretionary activities. LeBeau and Coulson (19963 also see LeBeau and Corcoran, 1990) assert thatThe former are activities that must be undertaken tour the latter because they are pursued by choice are called discretionary.An activity is discretionary if there is a greater chance of choice than constraint, and obligatory if there is a gr eater degree of constraint than choice (Chapin, 197438). Both activities have a duration, position in time, a place in a age of events, and a fixed location or path in space (Chapin, 197437).Kennedy and Forde (1990208) summarized the lifestyle/exposure model as lifestyle, encompassing differences in age, sex, marital status, family income, and race, influences daily routines and vulnerability to criminal victimization, resulting in the fact that Victimization is not evenly distributed randomly across space and time there are forged locations and high-risk time periods (Garofalo, 198726). Lifestyle patterns influence (a) the amount of exposure to places and times with varying risks of victimization, and (b) the prevalence of associations with others who are more or less likely to commit crimes.A similar theoretical model developed by Kennedy and Forde (1990 209, 211) suggested that background characteristics and daily activities affect time spent in questioning lifestyles which l ead to dangerous results (i.e., criminal victimization). In their words, demographic and lifestyle variables . . . can be interpreted as contributing to more or less time spent in risky activities and indirectly contributing to dangerous results (Kennedy and Forde, 1990209).Numerous studies have shown relationships between daily activities of individuals and their likelihood of criminal victimization (Riley, 1987340). In other words, what people do and how they behave places them at either more or less risk of criminal victimization (Maxfield, 1987 Miethe, Stafford, and Long, 1987 Sampson and Wooldredge, 1987).According to Sampson and Wooldredge (1987372) An active lifestyle . . . appears to influence victimization risk by increasing exposure of persons and homes to potential offenders while guardianship is low.Yet, an active lifestyle whitethorn not necessarily increase ones risk of criminal victimization. For example, if there is a great deal of activity by residents, neighbors, o r passers by around a residence, then this activity may serve to decrease the likelihood that a property offender will victimize a residence. In fact, many property offenders are non-confrontational and want to overturn being seen by residents, neighbors, or passers by (Cromwell, Olson, and Avary, 1991 Tunnell, 1994 Wright and Decker, 1994). Whether an active lifestyle leads to higher or lower risks for criminal victimization may bet on several factors. It might depend on the temper of ones activities i.e., whether they are patterned and predictable to offenders, or sporadic and less predictable.This issue has not been settled by academic research, although the majority of lifestyle research suggests that active lifestyles increase risks for criminal victimization (Robinson, 1997b). Part of why there is some uncertainty about this issue is because when relationships between lifestyles and crime are studied, dependent variables typically consist of some composite measure of crim e (see Robinson, 1997b Thompson and Fisher, 1996). Whether active lifestyles lead to higher or lower risks for crime might depend on the specific type of crime that is being studied. Since composite measures of crime have been utilized by researchers rather than distinct measures of individual crime types (Bennett, 1991 Maxfield, 1987 Thompson and Fisher, 1996), it is closely impossible to differentiate the effects of peoples lifestyles on different types of criminal victimization.This is problematic, because lifestyle/exposure theory is crime specific (Bennett, 1991158 Thompson and Fisher, 1996). For example, crimes such as burglary and theft may create different opportunities for offenders For a burglary to occur, an offender has to break and enter a home to get the desired goods. An offender who commits a larceny, on the other hand, may ride off with a bicycle left out on the lawn or steal something from the porch of a home.These examples demonstrate that the opportunity structu re for burglary and larceny are different and therefore the two crimes must be examined separately in research (Thompson and Fisher, 199652 also see Gottfredson, 1984 Maxfield, 1987 Sampson and Wooldredge, 1987).Research examining the relationship between lifestyles and crime should avoid pooling or aggregating crime types, because examining the effects of lifestyles on composite measures of crime leads to inconsistent findings (Thompson and Fisher, 199653).

Counseling and Diversity Essay

Abstract People of different cultures, including immigrants of today seem to differ from past generations in that they seek to retain many of their cultural values and are less interested in becoming homogenized within the U. S. culture. This distinctness can create a potentially complex situation for both the thickening and therapist who may differ substantially in their own cultural values. For successful therapy to take place, it is important for therapists to be culturally sensitive of clients and avoid stereotyping.Stereotyping is noxious to the client/therapist kin. Therefore, to minimize the risk of misunderstanding and misinterpreting our clients we should acknowledge the influence of culture and respond respectfully to these cultural differences, values, and beliefs. This paper will define counselor-at-law and diversity and its disparities such as stereotypes and how they can be influenced from a counselors spatial relation. This paper is an expression of my current t hinking regarding a theoretical perspective of counseling and diversity. IntroductionCounseling is a conversational process that can be instrumental in the development of skills that help those effectively confront and discern with uncertainties and conflicts. Counseling is for folks who are courageously facing their fears, who want more from their life, who want to boom their lives and achieve goals both personally and professionally. Its a relationship that builds Confidence (Edwards, 2009 p90). Counseling is where a professional will give advice, opinions or direction based on what the patient has discussed with them. In some ways, a counselor could almost be seen as a guide.Counseling is d champion in an informal and comfortable environment where the patient is empty to discuss what bothers them. They are free to express their feelings and emotions to someone they know are listening to them. Its easy for people who dont really know what counseling is to not perpetrate there are many different types of counseling for different problems. Counseling is very much like therapy (Radcliff, 2009 p93) in that there are individual areas in which counseling focuses on. It is not simply one broad thing that one person covers. There are actually different subjects that different counselors will constrict in.There is marriage counseling, family counseling, career counseling, mental health counseling, substance abuse counseling, debt counseling, child development counseling and grief counseling, to name a few. Diversity core differences such as different religious beliefs, different cultural traditions, music, art, dancing etc. (Patchell & Broussard,2009,p88)In the context of society and culture, diversity is usually mentioned in discussing multicultural societies. What do people from other cultures contribute when they migrate and become part of a new society.Why should these different traditions and customs be valued? They enrich a society because they allow peop le to experience different thinking processes, to see that there is more than one way of approaching issues or living ones life. Why is diversity important? Educating managers and staff on how to work effectively in a diverse environment helps the University prevent discrimination and incite inclusiveness. There is evidence that managing a diverse work force well can contribute to change magnitude staff retention and productivity (Ogans, 2009 p91).It can raise the organizations responsiveness to an increasingly diverse world of customers, improve relations with the surrounding community, increase the organizations ability to cope with change, and expand the creativity of the organization. In addition to contributing to these business goals, diversity can contribute to goals unique to the University as a public institution, such as increased accessibility and accountability to all residents of the state. Cultural Norms and Differences Cultural norms are behavior patterns that are typical of specific groups.

Endangered Species

I deport selected exist species as my topic because no subject area what we do or where we go, everything around us is affected by any changes that we take for in the surrounding environment. One of the articles that I have selected covers multiple attacks that have been made by canescent wolves killing huge quantity of valuable cattle and other livestock and whether or not they should be removed for the imperil species list. The other defines and talks ab turn out endanger species themselves and the reason that the endangered species list was created in the first place.Endangered Species Author Current EventsTitle Man versus WildDocument type Article (Informational)Primary listening Educational Author The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. Title Endangered speciesDocument type Encyclopedia (Informational)Primary audience Educational In a search that I did in the AIU library, I brush aside across an article from an informational magazine called Current Events. This is an informati onal article where the primary audience is teachers and students. They talk about a particular animal that is currently on the endangered species list called the white-haired masher.According to the article, In 2008, the U. S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) suggested that the antiquated wolf population had recovered to the point at which it no longer needed to be listed in some states (Current Events, 9/27/2010). But according to the article, some wildlife protection groups took action to hurtle an end to the proposal. The gray wolf was first put on the endangered species list by the USFWS in 1974. But according to estimates given by experts that the magazine collected the research from, There are 1,700 gray wolves in Idaho, Montana, eastern Oregon, Washington, and Wyoming.I came up with the thesis statement of No matter what we do or where we go, everything around us is affected by any changes that we accommodate in the surrounding environment. In statute mile, Minnesota, and Wisconsin, at that place are about 4,000, and gray wolves have been spotted in Colorado, Utah, and as far east as New England (Current Events, 9/27/2010). Now the USFWS is making its fourth attempt to remove the gray wolf from the list in Minnesota, Wisconsin, and Michigan but Michigan and Wisconsin are both asking to decrease the wolf population by ten percent annually from the government.And a U. S. representative from Texas is proposing to ban the gray wolf from being listed as endangered or threatened in any state from the Endangered Species Act. But quite a few wildlife protection organizations contrast any change in the status and mute say a wolf recovery plan is still needed even though there are reports of losses in Montana and Idaho. One case where a Montana rancher lost at least three calves, valued at $2,400, to the provide Creek wolf pack before wildlife officials took action (Current Events, 9/27/2010).The McGraw-Hill Concise Encyclopedia of Science and Technolo gy defines an endangered species as A species that is in danger of extinction throughout all or a significant portion of its range. Threatened species is a related term, referring to a species likely to become endangered within the foreseeable future. The main factors that cause species to become endangered are habitat destruction, invasive species, pollution, and overexploitation (McGraw-Hill Concise Encyclopedia of Science and Technology (2004). The certainty of a recovery for the gray wolf is as plain as day, says U.S. Rep. Denny Rehberg (R-Mont. ), who supports Edwardss proposal. Yet Montana wildlife sliceagers have their hands tied when it comes to managing the predator. (Current Events, 9/27/2010). presently gray wolves are still on the endangered species list and can only be killed with the governments permission or by an authorized government means as they deem necessary, but quite a few wildlife officials feel that the wolf population is stable however and are ready t o pull the installation when packs pose problems and believe that part of having wolves is having o kill wolves, Mark Collinge, director for Wildlife Services in Idaho, told The Associated Press (Current Events, 9/27/2010). Some wildlife advocates say that man will always come out as top dog in the battle of humans versus wolf and that human activity, hunting, and trapping put the gray wolf on the endangered species list in the first place. And there is the possibility of the wolves becoming endangered again if they were to be removed from the list. And some wildlife advocates still dont agree that their population is large enough to recover from harsh winters and disease if humans are a threat as well.And just reintroducing a certain number of wolves back into a particular region may not be enough according to Humane Society of the coupled States (Current Events, 9/27/2010). So in conclusion, both the USFWS and wildlife protection groups will have to at some point come together at human face at what is best for both the gray wolf and also what is best for the people that have to live in the regions that are populated by the gray wolf and come to a joint decision about the final action to be take in order to keep both parties out of harms way.This article agrees with my thesis statement of because no matter what we do or where we go, everything around us is affected by any changes that we make in the surrounding environment because it is giving both sides of the story that is presented and giving insight as to why each side is taking the actions that have been verbalize and giving reference points on those actions instead of just saying something to say it and not having anything to represent their case on the subject.

Dalcroze

Jaques-Dalcroze Emile Jaques-Dalcroze (July 6, 1865 July 1, 1950), was a Swiss composer, euphonyian and music educator who developed eu bingle shotics, a method acting of learning and experiencing music through movement. BASIC PRINCIPLES Inherent in his method are these basic principles &endash truths he believed to be omnipresent. These six principles are The beginning of music happens when human emotions are translated into musical motion We experience emotions physically Through our sensations of various muscular contractions and releases in our bodies, we sense emotion The body expresses internal emotions by externalizing affect through movements, postures, gestures, and sounds. Some of these are automatic, some spontaneous, and others the results of thought and will Internal emotions are translated into music through motions such as breathing, singing or playing an instrument The first instrument that must be trained in music is the human body. THE JAQUES-DALCROZE METHOD Chok sy (1986) defines Eurhythmics as follows Eurhythmics . . is . . . establish on the premise that rhythm is the primary element of music, and that the source for all rhythm may be found in the natural rhythms of the body. Eurhythmics integrates ternary approaches Solfege (the study of theory, harmony, and scales) http//www. youtube. com/watch? v=9qK6seVVBQ0 Improvisation (the development of a unified internal ear and body) Rhythmics (the exploration of inner and outer effects of rhythm in relation to the above two elements). Further, Jaques-Dalcroze developed a formula for the production of EurhythmiaSpace + Time + Energy + Weight + Balance + Plasticity = Eurhythmia? temperance The best music happens when all of the above are balanced. The Jaques-Dalcroze method seemingly redefines the basic elements of music to fit within scientific definitions. It is a well accomplished fact that all things are made up of matter. Matter is comprised of energy. Matter flows through billet ene rgy flows through distance. Matter (energy) flowing through space is called motion. Motion appears in music as perplexs. Those beats release their energy in various ways.The beat therefore is dependent upon the level of energy utilise and the density of the space applied. Beats have a specified duration, or time value. The quality of the time is dependent upon how the beat is struck, sustained and released. Jaques-Dalcroze found that his students associated self-propelled (energy) changed with tempo (time) changes, i. e. , softer meant slower alike. This however is not the case. One design of the method is to gain independence of time and energy as related to change so that students could indeed play a musical selection softer without getting slower.Beats have weightiness. Science defines weight as a bodys attraction to the earth (which is related to gravity). When one watches a good conductor in front of an ensemble, one can sense weight in his every stroke and pattern. Weig ht can similarly be perceived in a line of music. A solo line would have less weight than that of an eight part chorus. Likewise, the addition of low-sounding instruments in an orchestration gives a greater sense of weight. Note duration can also de indicative of weight (in appearance). Balance can be achieved only when weight is kept in control.Balance is a vital element of rhythm. (Caldwell,1995) The ultimate goal of the Jaques-Dalcroze method is to achieve a balance between all the elements that comprise the beat space, energy, plasticity, and weight. It is impossible to separate the elements, therefore the method focuses on individual elements of the beat. Jaques-Dalcroze defines plasticity as the quality of the movement between the pitches. This is what makes the performance alive and vibrant and is largely responsible what the audience sees and hears.I think of plasticity as that gesture, expression or image that the performer conveys along with the other elements of the bea t. As mentioned earlier the ultimate goal of the Jaques-Dalcroze method is improvisation the creation of original sound. According to Jaques-Dalcroze method, improvisation incorporates the following Use of all faculties Exploration of movement with our bodies Imagination and creativity Consciousness of space and time around us Flexibility and agility Motor coordination Expression through use of the body and sound Careful and critical listening slow-wittedness and attentiveness and Flexibility. The study of the Jaques-Dalcroze method requires the utmost in attention, concentration, memory, and ability to reproduce. It is a disciplined study. The role of the educator thus becomes one who focuses the energy inherent in students and transfers that energy into the production of eurhythmia. THE CLASSROOM SETTING In my experiences it is evident that it would be difficult to train anyone effectively in the Jaques-Dalcroze method unless it was begun at an early age.Dalcroze himself recommended to generate children to art at an age when they have not yet been intellectualized into analyzing before observing, and expressing before experiencing. (Dalcroze,1922) In short, the method would have to be taught during the age of innocence. The theory would also have to be constantly reinforced throughout life, even in college. The method has obvious merit in the elementary school, because it involves movement. Children learn best when moving, feeling, touching, sensing, and seeing things close at hand. The Jaques-Dalcroze method achieves just that. http//www. youtube. com/watch? v=n5DdjXZkPfg

Stefan Thomke

9-603-022 REV OCTOBER 28, 2002 STEFAN THOMKE brink of the States (A) The deposeing indus tense up is ripe for intent. We indispensableness to grow d unmatched value creation and excellent serving that is comprehended by guests as opposed to price al nonpareil. Milton Jones, president, Georgia shoreing Group I wonder if were being over retaliateed exclaimed Warren justler to Amy Brady, the executive responsible for rim of the Statess figure & Development (I&D) aggroup in Atlanta, Georgia.As an executive in the consumer banks fictitious character and proceedsivity group, butler lead re impertinentlying and process change in Bradys group, which was responsible for examen pertly product and service concepts for the th banks sortes. In the comp eachs elegant 55 floor conference room on a day in May 2002, the cardinal prep bed for a team get together on an important strategic decision that would affect how sampleation would be done in the I&D discoveret. Seeds o f change were in the air at swear of America.Indeed, earlier in the day, scarceler had escorted an astonished visitor, a European banking executive, on a tour of approximately two dozen real-life laboratories in Atlanta. each was a fully op periodting banking section, yet in e real location impertinent product and service concepts were being tested continuously. Experiments included virtual tellers, tv monitors displaying financial and enthronisation news, com effecter stations uploading images of personal checks, and hosting stations. (See lay tonus to the fore 1 for a selection of experiments carried let out in a single branch. Currently, the I&D team had 25 bank branches in Atlanta in its experimentation portfolio. Senior management, however, had now offered them additional branches across the country that could gallop experimentation qualification by nearly 50%. This offer appeared a vindication of the I&D grocery store project, which had been launched as an exp eriment itself only two long time earlier. This support posed some tough questions. Would increasing the size of its presentation laboratories aid or inhibit the groups ability to develop new product and play? What would be the effect on the group itself?The issue of whether it was a sacred research and teaching (R&D) operation or non had yet to be resolved. And, fin each(prenominal)y, what kinds of expectations would be placed on the group if its size were to join on so dramatically? ________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ Professor Stefan Thomke and Research Associate Ashok Nimgade prepared this case. HBS cases are developed exclusively as the basis for class discussion. Cases are not intended to serve as endorsements, sources of primary data, or illustrations of effective or ineffective management.Copyright 2002 President and Fellows of Harvard College. To prepare copies or request permission to r eproduce 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 meanselectronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwisewithout the permission of Harvard Business School. 603-022 intrust of America (A) affirm of America A Pioneer in deposeingMany innovative banks have kaput(p) out of business, often because they deviated from the scoop practices followed by close to. Rick Parsons, executive vice president, Strategic Projects When verify of America was formed in 1998 through and through with(predicate) a spinal fusion between California-based Bank of America and NationsBank of northwesterly Carolina, it could be proud of a long and rich history that spanned more than 150 years. Under its come through CEO, the chatoyant but controversial Hugh McColl, the company had gone on a trio-decade-long acquisition binge that resulted in a truly nationwide bank.In the fitting end to an era of hunting, McColl left his furthermost yearly concourse wearing cowboy boots and jeans on his way to a turkey shoot in Texas. Toward the end of the 20th century, Bank of America was the second-largest national bank with nearly 4,500 banking mettles in 21 states, more than any other financial services company and with most of them in the high-growth belts of the southwestern and the West Coast (see Exhibit 2 for a map of the banks regional market share). In the United States, the bank served 27 one million million million househ overageds and two million businesses and processed more checks per day than the Federal Reserve System.Globally, it boasted over 140,000 employees across 190 nations, over $8 peakion in annual revenues, $360 billion in deposits, and some $600 billion in assets (see Exhibit 3 for key financial data). Yet, increasing compet ition arrestd that Bank of America could not proportionality on its laurels. Like more of its triumphful peers, its growth had been driven by cost reduction and consolidation. From 1985 until 2000, the number of U. S. banks had dwindled from around 14,000 to c pretermit 7,000. These still large poesyespecially when compared with there being only six major banks in Canada reflected the highly competitive nature of the U.S. banking industry as well as its regional centering. Driving consolidation had been a realization that season service was local, products were national. Despite this realization, however, banks go on viewing financial services as commodities, and this bottom-line orientation did not sop up for an industry rife with innovation. In the estimation of Butler, a elderly vice president and industry veteran, Peoples expectations for banks are very low in fact, theyre used to being treated badly by banks. To meet the challenges of an increasingly competitive env ironment, Bank of America had started decentralizing its national trading operations and promote branch managers to undertake more responsibilities. According to reengineering expert Michael Hammer, however, the era of acquisitions had left the bank with the loopiest organisational structure Id ever seenorganized partially by client, partly by geography, and partly by product (see Exhibit 4 for a section of the banks organization). As CEO Kenneth Lewis put it, Wed talk somewhat customer rapture, then go out and buy that next bank. 1 For the new century, however, things would change. Fortune magazine observed The hunter will become a farmer. Organic growth is the strategy, reduced earnings volatility and greater profitability the goals. The plan is to make more money from basically the equal customers by selling more services. In the huge Consumer & Commercial bank, which generated 65% of earnings, that means getting a bigger share of wallet by encouraging 1 T. A. Stewart, BA W here the Money Is, Fortune, September 3, 2001. 2 Bank of America (A) 03-022 consumers to consolidate their banking andthe Holy Grailbring their portfolios over from Fidelity and Merrill Lynch. 2 Few banks, however, had formal efforts under way that would generate the continuous stream of new products and services conducted to grow organically. Only in recent years did banks start filing for patent applications. When innovation occurred, it did so only in specific areas the Fifth/Third Bank in Ohio, for instance, innovated on the cost side, while Washington Mutual (WAMU) innovated on the service side.Many large banks had pockets of innovation that quite often simply remained that pockets. WAMU, one of the more innovative U. S. banks, had aggressively started opening formal as well as data-based branches, sometimes directly across the street from Bank of Americas I&D grocery branches. pickings a cue from retailers such as department stores as well as coffee retailer Starbucks, WA MU started its Occasio pi skunk program. A concierge at the front tempt and several(prenominal) casually dressed roving sales representatives carrying mobile handheld computer devices answered customer questions.Several strategically placed teller stations replaced the conventional big teller counter. Play areas for children to a fault provided parents more time for banking. The first v Occasio branches opened in Las Vegas in April 2000, and customers opened checking accounts at twice the rate of rule-governed branches. 3 For most banks, however, little star of urgency existed. The State of Innovation in Banking Our banking branches havent really changed more than in the last cardinal years. If Jesse James brought his gang here, hed still know where to go for the cash. Al Groover, senior process design consultant and I&D police squad design lead One of the first actions Lewis took when becoming CEO was to consult several outside executives in areas from e-commerce to proce ss management on what they considered to be best management practice. assist and competence will win, insisted Lewis, who also announced a Six Sigma quality program to reduce errors and streamline processes. In his focus on operational excellence, Lewis tried to rectify a situation that, according to a leading financial consultant, could be best described as banks are very good at being mediocre at a lot of different things. 4 Innovation, too, would require a revolution. That banks tralatitiously downplayed product and service instruction was reflected by a near universal lack of R&D departments. The comforting, stolid shadow of the three-piece-suited banker, subsequently all, still loomed over most large banks. refreshed products and services in the banking industry, if and when they came, generally arose from marketing departments, which lacked the formal processes, methodologies, and resource commitments that companies in many other industries took for granted.In fact, even inspired senior executives with sufficient initiative could, through relatively informal channels, bring their own ideas to test markets. Although banks had IT departments, these primarily supported ongoing infrastructure changes in technology and software. 2 Ibid. 3 WAMM nett site at . 4 T. A. Stewart, BA Where the Money Is, Fortune, September 3, 2001. 3 603-022 Bank of America (A) In the late 1990s, however, several converging forces led Bank of America to launch its formalized system for product and service development, the I&D team up.First, along with other industries, the bank began appreciating the value of continuous experimentation and testing in its efforts to grow through innovation. Second, Internet fever had nurtured a spirit of innovation everywhere, including the banking world. Third, banks began realizing that value creation had to be based on the voice of the customer to grow revenue and deepen customer relationships. Bank of America initially viewed the emerging Internet as a way to overcome geography. This led to a strategy of moving customers out of branches.As a result, according to Butler, Sometimes we were downright rude in our attempts to get good deal out of our branches. But eventually we completed that people like dealing with people and therefore branches were our strongest base. Frank Petrilli, president of TD Waterhouse, the countrys second-largest discount brokerage, also acknowledged that branches are a crucial customer acquisition tool which solicits 30% to 50% of our clients through the 160 offices in the U. S. The branches are continuous advertising outlets, allowing us to spend only $58 per new account, compared with our online competitors that have cost up to $250. 5 The question then became how to change the role of the branches to balance customers take ins for a human touch with the banks desire for cost-efficient, high-technology-based transaction platforms. The strategists at Bank of America realized that such a balance could not be found overnight nor, in a world of changing technologies, could solutions ever fold permanent. A dynamic test bed for experimenting with new banking concepts had to be found. The Innovation & Development team up VisionThe Innovation and Development Market is a test bed for creative ideas to increase customer atonement and grow revenues. Amy Brady, senior vice president, I&D Team executive Every day, Bank of America processed 3. 8 million transactionsincluding more checks than the entire Federal Reserve System. A typical blue-sky customer entered a branch every nine days and used an ATM nearly three times a week. 6 Thus, even a 99. 9% success rate would still mushroom into over one million mistakes a year and expose consumers to problems ranging anywhere from paycheck deposit errors to bill mispayments.It was feared, therefore, that experiment and mistakes would be considered synonymous. Yet if consumers wanted Swiss-watch precision for their money, they a lso craved Mediterranean warmth for their service experiences. At near the same time that WAMU was taking a page from successful retailers to create more inviting bank branches, so too was Bank of America thinking about how to experiment with the human attribute of its bank branches as well as the human-technology interfaces.To reduce jeopardizes of large- photographic plate failure, the bank confined its experimentation to a set of bank branches eventually called the I&D Market. In the controlled environment of these laboratory branches, everyday transactions could be handled efficiently while customers wishes for a good experience could be studied and experimented with. The bank could research myriad questions Could peoples wait time in line be made more tolerable? Was there even a need for lines? Could technology-inexperienced customers relate well to American Banker, October 7, 1999. 6 T. A. Stewart, BA Where the Money Is, Fortune, September 3, 2001. 4 Bank of America (A ) 603-022 utilise keyboards and other devices? How best could staff members perambulator customers about Internet banking options? The goal was to boost customer and staff satisfaction at bank branches, which would ideally boost revenue growth within a granted customer base while secondarily lowering staff turnover. The original idea for the I&D Market came from different sources, including several senior executives. Proceeding with the Innovation & Development Market project was a no brainer, according to Rick Parsons, one such executive. What was trickier were issues such as execution and budgeting of the project. For execution-level leadership, we appoint Amy Brady, Rob Johnson, and Warren Butler, all managers with good track records of getting results on a day-to-day basis. The team want to establish a process whereby ideas could be generated, collated, and queued up for systematic, objective evaluation (see Exhibit 5 for its product and service innovation process).For the hardly a(prenominal) ideas that made it through this filter, experiments would be designed and planned for the I&D Market branches. conquestful experimentsdetermined on the basis of consumer satisfaction or revenue growthcould then be recommended to senior management for a national rollout To set up the new system for innovation, little upfront financial investment was required, as many team members worked part time on the project. Soon, however, the team grew to roughly a dozen managers, who often worked evenings and weekends.The 2001 budget allocation was $11 million, of which only $6. 3 million was spent on the teams experiments. Management considered this allocation generous, even for a company with $8 billion in revenues. The companys senior leadership resisted any attempts to carve out a president-level special budget for the innovation and process change team, arguing that, instead of enabling it to become another(prenominal) cost center, the groups reinforcement should b e tied directly to the performance of the 25 I&D banking centers.These branches also brought their own checkbook and paid for part of the experiments themselves. Intensive initial debates had revolve around on whether the new group should operate as a stand-alone R&D center. Those in esteem argued that a specific budget for new products and service development would protect the team from the day-to-day responsibilities of runnel a bank. Without such protection, the risk always existed that short-term market pressure would stifle long thinking and opportunities.It would also prevent comparisons between new concepts and mature products or even help prevent premature testing in live conditions. Thus, products and services under development could incubate properly without risking premature termination. After all, no automobile company would want a customer to walk up to one of its dealers and drive away with an untested prototype car. And finally, creating an R&D group charged to ti nker allowed for much more organizational focus on innovation rather than a group that was supposed to also show operating results.Many executives, however, felt that a separate R&D center would run the risk of becoming too hypothetical and impractical. Some feared that results from the I&D Market baron then not prove duplicable elsewhere. Marrying experiments with real-world banking facilities would thus decrease bicycle time for rollout. As Jones reflected on the thinking of the banks senior leadership We were really look at being able to execute profuseso making a separate R&D center is harder. Furthermore, ideas in some R&D centers never get a run into to see the light of day. But the issue of dual operating and innovation responsibility was hardly settled. As one employee in a feedback seminar put it succinctly, We are building a plane as we are flying it. Indeed, the issue was still up in the air in May 2002. 5 603-022 Bank of America (A) The Vision at Work Atlantas I&D Market Branches For a variety of reasons, Bank of America settled on Atlanta as the site for its I&D Market. The bank branches here boasted the most advanced communications infrastructure, with T1 and broadband communication lines installed.Atlanta also represented a stable market, with the banks last major acquisition there in 1996. Finally, Atlanta lay a stones throw from the banks national headquarters in Charlotte, North Carolina. Of its 200 branches in Atlanta, Bank of America initially gave 20 to the I&D Team. This hardly proven an imposition on the Mid-South Banking Group. The locations generally came from richer neighborhoods where customers were more computer literate and interested in a wider range of services.The I&D Team also replaced the conventional one size fits all mentality with three different types of branches configured to satisfy varying customer needs express centers, where consumers could quickly perform routine transactions financial centers, where consumers could access more complex technologies and more highly trained touch ons for a wider range of services and traditional centers, which provided conventional banking services, albeit with enhanced processes and technologies (see Exhibit 6 for a brief description of the banking centers).The Atlanta I&D Market included 5 express centers, 5 financial centers, and 15 traditional centers. The group unveiled its first remodeled brancha financial centerin the posh Buckhead section of Atlanta at a cost of about $1 million, for mostly technology. The other branches were remodeled to one of the three branch types and reopened shortly thereafter. Customers entering any financial center were greeted by a host at the dooran idea taken from department and clothing stores. Customers no longer needed to sign in to see bank officers.At freestanding low kiosks, associates stood lay out to perform transactions such as opening accounts, creating loans, retrieving copies of old checks, or, in some inst ances, even selling stocks and mutual funds. None of these associates had private offices. Customers could visit an investment bar with computers where, once online, they could bank, check personal portfolios, or just surf the Internet. Customers waiting for tellers could pass the few transactions in line watching boob tube news monitors above the tellers desks or observing electronic stock tickers running along another wall.Some branches featured investment centers where customers, sipping complimentary coffee, could lounge on couches rendition magazines, newspapers, or financial journals or hook up their personal computers. All these nontraditional items were, in fact, experiments. The flat-panel monitors above the tellers, for instance, represented part of the Transaction Zone Media experiment (detailed in a later section) the instant retrieval of old checks comprised the ImageView experiment the investment centers and complimentary coffee, too, came under experimental scrutin y.All branches closely monitored customer reactions to these innovations through a variety of means, including customer satisfaction surveys and statistics on such factors as revenue growth, deposit growth, and number of services used by each customer. Prior to introducing these experiments into the I&D Market branches, the team actually rehearsed how the activity should occur. So, in a prototype center in Charlotte, North Carolina, people acted out how the host would dissemble as he or she handed off customers to specialists.They choreographed how a bank associate (not a specialist) might spend only 30 minutes with a customer to set up a mortgage. To maximize the fidelity of these prototype rehearsals, actual specialists mimicked the intervening steps. When all the kinks were worked out in this rehearsal process, the experiment was launched in the living laboratory. The Walt Disney Company designed and taught them a Bank of America Spirit programdemonstrated in theme parks and ta ught through seminars as a service approach to other industrieswhich was a principal motivator of the team. 6 Bank of America (A) 603-022The staff at local branches put the Bank of America Spirit into action in different ways. They got to know their customers better, more personally. And the results were impressive. Bank teller Kemaly Jacques recalled One customer had been boycotting our branch for the past three months because of poor service now he swears he wont go anywhere else. The host, a key figure who guided customers as they entered the branch toward appropriate services, became a great success story, though at the outset the role confused some customers, particularly those with complex transactions. Where do I sign in? many would ask. Host Kilah Willingham, who had worked her way up the organization from teller to loan officer, described the hosts role as follows I spend up to fin minutes probing customer needs. I also intercept people going toward the old-fashioned tell ers and usher them toward our innovative stations where experimental technologies were offered. A lot of customers are wary of technological change, for instance, of having the camera on them at the virtual personal banker station. My role is to make them comfortable here. I like not intimate whats coming up next it keeps me on my toes.During the early months, however, planning and running experiments tied up tellers and associates in meetings for almost 30%-50% of their time (later this would throw up to about 25%). On one occasion, a touch-in teller, providing temporary coverage during one of the meetings, mistakenly gave a customer a dye pack, a fake wad of dollar notes meant for use only during robberies. As the customer walked out, the wad started smoking in his pocket and exploded. The Bank of America Spirit, however, persevered. Hosts and tellers emerging from the meeting showed their service experiments to firemen arriving at the scene. This is so cool cried out one firem an before opening an account. Experimentation, Learning, and Measurement At the end of the day, the most critical scenery of experimentation and instruction is measuring rod. Measurements will defend you if done right otherwise they will inhibit you. Milton Jones, president, Georgia Banking Group Of the many surdies the team faced, one of the thorniest was answer how to questions how to gauge success of a concept, how to prioritize which concepts would be tested, how to run several experiments at once, and how to avoid the novelty factor itself from altering the experimental outcome.Moreover, according to Butler While we were building R&D capabilities, those controlling the purse strings thought we were doing just a one-time experiment. Thus, the problem list included one last addition how to defend the I&D Market itself from budget cuts. The team selected concepts to be tested on the basis of available funding, business fit, and business case. To some extent, just continuing with the evaluation process served as a natural filter for ideas. But with many ideas and concepts that needed formal testing, according to team managers Joann Donlan and Mark Lewis, Even top-priority experiments need prioritization. As a result, the team started assigning priorities (high, medium, or low) based on the assumed mend to customers, and Brady and Butler made the final decisions about which product or service concepts to actually test. By May 2002, more than 200 new ideas had been generated, of which 40 made it to testing, 36 were successfully implemented and heedful, and 20 were recommended or had been already rolled out nationally. Only four experiments eventually failedand one of these became a redefined concept. 7 603-022 Bank of America (A)Central to the teams innovation process was how quickly people could learn from experiments, and measurements played an important role. The group amassed considerable experience and mastery of the subtle factors that affected l earning. High-fidelity experiments The team sought to ensure that its experiments mirrored reality, or possessed high fidelity. Concepts that worked only inside their branches, after all, had little value to senior management interested in the scale effect of national rollouts. But high fidelity also meant high cost and commitment, which was hard to justify when ideas were at an early stage.Sometimes, low-fidelity tests using small focus groups gave the team an alternative during the very early stages of idea assessment. Experiments requiring minimal human intervention, such as news monitors over the tellers counter, for instance, would likely work just as well in regular branches as in I&D Market branches. But not all innovations might careen perfectly in the course of a nationwide rollout. For instance, would staff in a regular branch provide the handholding and attention required to initiate technophobes to a virtual teller?In such cases, the insistence by upper management that experimentation occur in a live banking situation helped ensure high fidelity and confidence in the teams learning. Minimize the effect of noise Isolating the effect of a particular experiment on a bank branchs performance meant being clear on what that effect was in itself, minus noise factors. Such noise could deck out from a variety of sources such as seasonal performance fluctuations and changing market or even weather conditions. To minimize the effect of noise on learning, the team made heavy use of two techniques, repetition of trials and experimental controls.First, repeating the same experiment at one branch or running it simultaneously at different branches averaged out the effect of noise and thus reduced the possibility of obscuring the changes that teams were interested in observing and measuring. It would also ensure that success of a disposed concept would not rely on factors unique to a given branch. Second, pairing up two similar branches, one with an experiment (the intervention) and the other running under normal conditions (the control), enabled the team to attribute differences between the branches primarily to the intervention itself.It could draw on controls from the I&D Market, or even from other branches in Atlanta or nearby regions such as North Carolina. The best controls, however, were likely the very same I&D Market branches themselves in a before-and-after type of experiment if properly done, this would help factor out the so-called Hawthorne effect. The Hawthorne effect referred to the implications of actually participating in an experiment and how that might affect its outcome. The team was aware this was possible, given the direct and indirect pressure on staff to perform. Willingham acknowledged, We are spoiled.We get special somatic shirts, we get parties every quarter we have special lets talk sessions. We associates can even contact the regional manager if we need. Other associates invidia us. So we had better do wel l. Rapid feedback The cycle time for any given experiment carried out by the I&D Team was undertake at 90 days. This did not include a preliminary washout period of a couple of weeks during which the novelty for both staff and customers hopefully subsided. Obviously, shorter contrary time for feedback would help experimenters learn and prepare modified experiments more rapidly.Occasionally, it became quickly evident after the first few days if a concept would properly or succeed. Only rarely, however, did the team remove flops prematurely. On one occasion the team canceled a mortgage loan program after just a 30-day trial, primarily because getting credit approvals took far too long. The early termination allowed for quicker revision of this experiment, leading to a successful mortgage program. Increase experimentation capacity The number of experiments a single branch could run depended on available floor space and personnel, among other things.Less capacity would force the tea m to cram more experiments into one branch. If no capacity remained, the team could be forced to 8 Bank of America (A) 603-022 do things sequentially, which, in turn, would slow the entire concept-evaluation process. If the team succumbed to the understandable temptation of cramming too many experiments in a single branch, it would be hard to analyze the contribution of each individual experimentanother signal-to-noise problem. A single branch might have as many as 15 active experiments running at any given time.If customers loved an experiment, however, it was left in the branch even after the 90-day trial period. This being the real world, after all, the branches could not simply pull the plug on something customers had grown to relish. Measurement team leader Scott Arcure admitted, We often worry about changing too many chemicals in the mix and wonder about which one made it explode. As bankers, were not experts at this type of measurement. The team planned to bring in a statist ics expert to help sort out the effects of multiple variables.One of the banks outside research partners suggested moving to an entirely different market for further experiments. But the group was focused on its Atlanta market. With the customer satisfaction percentage higher than in traditional bank branches, some felt that capacity still remained for assessing additional experiments. In any case, Arcure warned that the Hawthorne effect would spike again in any new bank branch. The biggest problem with experimenting in a real-world laboratory was balancing innovation with a need for bottom-line success.Pursuing radical innovations would allow the team to explore entirely new possibilities an incrementalist approach, however, allowed for improving current banking processes. Successful radical innovations would bring glory to the team. But home runs came at the cost of strikeouts. With its future not ensured, the team could simply not take outrageous chances. Many tests thus ended u p validating ideas that were likely to succeed. Team members readily acknowledged such to be the case for host stations Transaction Zone Media and Bank of America Spirit.According to Teri Gann, a former regional executive, Interestingly, and not surprisingly, many of our successes, such as the host station, have been simple and low cost. The biggest impact so far came from Bank of America Spirittechnologically, a nonrevolutionary program transplanted wholesale from Disney. While the original vision called for a 30% failure rate, the actual rate in the first year hovered close to 10%. Butler commented, Were trying to sell ourselves to the bank. If we have too many failures, we just wont be accepted.Currently, we may have failure within concepts, but not failure in concepts. We might tweak a process, but everything conforms to the status quo, observed Wells Stanwick, Bank of America manager of channel strategy. Could we try out a more radical concept such as providing branch offices similar to attorney offices in large office buildings for wealthy customers? Deborah McAdams, banking center manager, agreed Lets do something really innovative, such as trying out loan machines similar to automatic teller machines like they do in Japan.When I mention this, some people arent sure if I am joking. Concepts that appeared intuitively obvious did not always prove so in reality. Such was the case for innovation and for financial payback. Team leaders wondered if a breakthrough product should be measured through its degree of innovation or through financial payback or both. According to Brady, Our metric should be how an innovation affects the bottom line two years out, rather than looking for instant feedback through customer satisfaction. Problems with assessing innovation soon surfaced.What might appear radical to one person, for instance a mobile teller to a technophobe, might prove less radical from a purely technical standpoint. Nor did the innovation team take f inancial performance into account, largely because of an anticipated lag of 18 months to 2 years in going from concept to rollout beyond Atlanta. The I&D Market, instead, would settle on the proxy measure of consumer satisfaction. Many team members recognized the shortcomings of their measurement process. Gann stated, I believe were doing the wrong thing by measuring the I&D Market staff on productivity, not innovation. But, she added, More learning comes from more radical experiments 9 603-022 Bank of America (A) You cant chase two rabbits at the same time. Some team members pointed to WAMU as a possible benchmark, for it was a competitor willing to change and willing to raise the bar. The Transaction Zone Media Experiment A good example of the banks new innovation process at work was the Transaction Zone Media (TZM) experiment. Internal researchers, who intercepted some 1,000 customers at bank lines, noted that after about three minutes the gap between actual and comprehend wai t time rose exponentially.Two focus groups with sales associates and a formal analysis by the Gallup organization provided further corroborationand the TZM experiment was born. The team speculated, based on published psychology literature, that entertaining clients through television monitors above the lobby tellers would reduce perceived wait times by at least 15%. The team chose one enhanced traditional center for the TZM experiment and another one as a control branch so it could maximize learning from the experiment. In the summer of 2001, the team installed monitors set to the Atlanta-based news station CNN over teller booths in the branch.The team then waited for a weeks washout period to allow the novelty to wear off before measuring results for the subsequent two weeks. Results from the TZM-equipped branch showed that the number of people who overestimated their actual wait times dropped from 32% to 15%. During the same period, none of the other branches reported drops of thi s magnitude. In fact, the control branch saw an increase in over-estimated wait times from 15%26% (see Exhibit 7 for results from the experiment). Though these were encouraging results, the team still had to prove to senior management that TZM could positively affect the embodied bottom line.To do so, the team relied on a model that used the easily measurable customer satisfaction index (based on a 30-question survey) as a proxy for future revenue growth. Prior studies indicated that every one-point improvement in a customer satisfaction index corresponded to $1. 40 in added annual revenue per household from increased customer purchases and retention. A banking center (branch) with a customer base of 10,000 households would thus increase its annual revenues by $28,000 should the index increase by just two points.Percentages generally ranged in the mid-80s in Atlantas I&D Market and in the high 70s to low 80s nationally. The team measured an boilersuit 1. 7% increase after installati on of the TZM monitors. Sufficiently encouraged, it entered a second phase, to study and perfect the impact of more change programming, advertising, and sound speaker parameters. While the benefits of the TZM program were laudable, the team now had to consider whether they outweighed the costs. Studies indicated that it would cost some $22,000 to install the special TV monitors at each I&D Market branch.For a national rollout, the estimated economies of scale would bring costs down to about $10,000 per site. Incentive and Compensation Issues Tellers Do Not Like Change Another thorny how to issue the team faced was how to motivate its staff. Couldand shouldthe performance of employees who were part of continuous experimentation be measured and rewarded conventionally? At the Atlanta branches, Bank of America tellers earned about $20,000 a year annual turnover averaged about 50%. The next step up from teller was sales associate people in this job helped 10 Bank of America (A) 603-02 2 ustomers start up savings or checking accounts, fill out mortgage applications, notarize documents, and entice customers with new services. At I&D Market branches, some associates could serve as hostsmaking many decisions without saving in the branch manager. Some 30%50% of associates compensation derived from performance bonuses based on a decade-old point system that used sales quotaswhere points varied according to product, customer satisfaction, local market demographics, as well as managerial discretion. Given this system, associates were tempted to ignore customers actual needs. For instance, they would encourage customers to open up a checking account, which yields one point, rather than a savings account, which yields none, say an internal financial consultant. For the first several months, the I&D Market maintained the conventional inducement scheme. The sales associates seemed to relish the additional pressure. But it soon became apparent that they would have to spend as much as a quarter of their time in special training sessions, not to mention alternate time working as hosts, an experiment that yielded no bonus points.The staff, thus, began feeling disadvantaged by their rewards as hosts, since they faced the same monthly quota of points despite having less time with customers as part of an actual selling activity. For some, however, being part of the experiment proved reward in itself. I would not go back to my old job, said one associate who looked forward to working every morning. It would be like stepping several years back in terms of technology and service. Annual Bank of America Spirit motivational sessions with vibrant music and motivational speakers reinforced this sense of exclusivity.Yet cracks in the prevailing incentive scheme began showing. Lets be realistic, one sales associate admitted, you cant be happy all day long sometimes you have to fake it. In January 2001, senior management switched associates in all 25 branches to f ixed-incentive compensation. Most of them welcomed the change, which added to the feeling of being special. It also represented a commitment from top management to the experimentation process. But not all staff thrived under the new fixed incentives.One executive complained that those in the I&D Market branches now thought they didnt have to chin to the same level as others. Another manager had to reassign an associate since that person now sat passively at a desk the team mentality of working for the customer proved foreign to her. With all the attention and resources dedicated to the I&D Team, some senior executives echoed a growing impatience that it was time to pay the piper. Resentment from personnel in other conventional branches might also have fueled this feeling.The group already enjoyed more resources than other branches, and there was a fear that different incentive schemes would remove them further from the daily realities of banking. There was also uncertainty whethe r the concepts tested in prototype form would work nationally because of different market conditions. As Allen Jones, a regional executive, pointed out, If a test is successful only under fixed-incentive schemes, then we cant roll it out elsewhere. With growing discomfort, senior management switched the staff back to the old point-based incentive system after just a six-month trial.Not surprisingly, with this about-face the behavior of the staff reverted as well. Hosts, for instance, became reluctant to send customers over to insurance agents because they got no points for such referrals. On two occasions, in fact, supervisors witnessed a host undertake entire transactions just to make his points quota rather than direct customers to associates. The about-face also led one staff member to question Brady about senior managements commitment to the I&D Market vision. What concerned Brady and Butler the most, however, was the impact of incentives on the learning and quality of in-branc h experiments. 1 603-022 Bank of America (A) First-Year Performance I see the following challenges for the I&D Market ownership, evaluation, and continued support in a changing environment. The solution is to highlight successes, have a good batting average, rapid experimentation cycles, and maintain awareness at senior management level. Milton Jones, president, Georgia Banking Group By traditional banking measures, the I&D Market performance appeared less than stellar. Overall deposit growth in 2001 stood at just 0. 5%, compared with 3. 7% growth in other Atlanta branches.In terms of revenue, however, I&D branches did about 10% better than traditional branches. Some experiments proved quite effective for instance, a loan solutions experiment generated an extra $700,000 in the first quarter in all 15 participating I&D branches combined. With all additional costs factored in, however, the I&D Market was not, at least on a pilot scale, a amiable proposition. The team therefore wonde red about how senior management would react to its performance in an environment where many programs throughout the bank were being axed.Were comparisons with traditional benchmarks fair, given its mission of being the banks product and service development laboratory? Despite just a slight rise in customer volume, many associates observed a larger spike in customer satisfaction, with some customers now coming from longer distances just to bank at the new branches. Another promising trend not captured by traditional measures involved personnel turnover. Except for an initial turnover spike, annual teller turnover had dropped from 50% over the past three years to 28%.In the last quarter of 2001, annualized teller turnover had dropped to as low as 20%, but it was unreadable how much of this stemmed from employment uncertainties in the aftermath of the terrorist attacks on September 11, 2001. At the same time, some senior executives viewed the I&D Market as the crown jewels of the Atlan ta branches. The bank offered tours of its gleaming prototype facilities to customers, Bank of America executives, visitors from other industries, and even competing banks. Everyones eyes are on us, admitted Allen Jones. Just last week, one of the banks top executives visited us. In 2001 the I&D Team received an additional five branches as part of a corporate reorganization that would increase each regional managers branch portfolio. While these measures increased operating budgets, they did not boost the research budget for experimentation and testing. Brady and Butler wondered how to deal with the unexpected reward. Some people even suggested leaving these five new branches untouched to serve as additional experimental controls. Ultimately, the five branches joined the ongoing experimental portfolio, speech the total to 25. The new branches added much-needed experimentation capacity.Operationally, however, taking on additional branches stretched the teams efforts thin, since it r equired staff retrain and the setup of additional experiments, let alone all the minor logistics of managing branches that literally involved running among them all day long. With the potential drag of these branches on overall portfolio performance, the team also worried about increased corporate pressure for positive results. A Vote of Confidence? We had a good first year, Brady said as the last of the small group took their seats at the conference table overlooking downtown Atlanta. The year 2001 was our year to prove the I&D Team vision 2002 is our year to grow up. At the end of this year I will have to restate our case, but 12 Bank of America (A) 603-022 hopefully to double funding. The I&D Team had been one of the few projects to survive companywide cuts, albeit with a smaller budget. We still make a small profit in our branches, Brady added, and potentially, this could cover our salaries, but it is too early to say. Next, Brady explained how the banks senior leadership had offered the group yet another reward of additional branches across the country.These branches could expand experimentation capacity by some 40%60% and take the strain off the 25 branches that were piling up so many experiments. But only about half the team responded to the news with smilesjust as Brady and Butler had expected. The team had debated almost since inception the use of external control branches from North Carolina or even other Mid-Atlantic or East Coast regions. Some felt that geography did not matter in this Internet age, as long as demographics, customer profiles, and size of banking centers were comparable.Others, such as Stanwick, disagreed The prospect of using, say, North Carolina branches as controls for our Atlanta Innovation and Development Market scares me to death. Those in favor of taking on the new branches pointed to the limited experimentation capacity and the increasing testing backlog. In 2002 alone, 26 new experiments were added to about 25 on-going t ests carried over from 2001, bringing the number of active experiments to more than 50 (see Exhibit 8a for the groups growing idea pipeline).They argued that more experimentation capacity allowed for faster evaluation of ideas through the running of more tests simultaneously and reduced feedback times because of potentially lower capacity utilization (see Exhibit 8b). Alternatively, the bank could run fewer simultaneous experiments and declare cleaner and more reliable results. They further noted that the team by now had gained much experience in running experiments. In any case, it took the same time to design concepts for one center as for 10.Having a larger portfolio of branches might also make scale-up and national rollout of successful concepts easier and quicker. By making a big splash within the corporation, the I&D Team could win greater prominence. Because the offered branches were underperfomers, the team would look good in case of turnarounds but lose little if these new branches failed. Those against taking on the additional branches argued that the current 25 branches (or even fewer) in the portfolio were optimal. Taking on five branches within Atlanta had been difficult enough.Ten additional branches would be difficult to manage even if they were all in Atlanta. How much harder would it be for Atlanta managers, who were already stretched thin, to simply march into another branch and say, Hi, were here to test. Specifically, some pointed out that associates in other states such as California appeared more individual than team oriented. Experience had also shown that associates would need to spend a quarter of their time undergoing additional training. In Atlanta, increased demands on tellers and associates had led to an initial rise in turnover (before eventually declining).Who could guess teller and associate turnover in a different geographic area? Some executives further noted that a larger I&D Market would increase the drag on the balance s heet, potentially stifling innovation. Too large a market might also confuse customers using more than one branch. Brady and Butler jotted down the rapidly flying ideas. Soon they would formulate a recommendation to the banks senior leadership about whether to accept new branches into its experimentation portfolio. One thing that stuck in both their minds was, ironically, failure. In particular, the need for failure so as to generate more learning. Failures had been few and far between so farindeed, the last failure was that of a mortgage loan experiment whose post-mortem analyses indicated red tape as the cause, that is, too much paperwork at the back end. Hardly a revolutionary experiment, thought Brady hardly somethingeven if it had workedremarkable. For both Brady and Butler, the words of their superior, Jones, an enthusiastic champion of their efforts, rang loud So far, most of our experiments have been successful.Perhaps we dont fail often enough. 13 603-022 -14- Exhibit 1 Ex amples of Selected Experiments in Atlantas Buckhead Financial Center Media Wall briny Stock Ticker Assisted Work Station Self-Service Internet Tool Host Station come Bank of America. 603-022 -15- Exhibit 2 Bank of Americas Regional Deposit Market Position and Share (consumer and commercial banking) Source Bank of America Web site, . Deposits are as of June 2001. 603-022 Bank of America (A) Exhibit 3 Selected Financials and in operation(p) Data (dollars in millions, except per-share data)Bank of America Year Cost of goods sold Selling and administrative expenses Research and development expenses ROA ROE Market value Total interest income Total interest expenses Net interest income Provision for loan losses Net interest income after provision for loan losses Other Income Salaries, occupancy, and equipment Depreciation Total other expenses Pre-tax income Income taxes Income before extraordinary Items & discontinued operations Earnings per share basic from operations Earnings per shar e diluted from operations 2001 22,290 12,718 n. a. 1. 14 98,158 38,293 18,003 20,290 4,287 16,003 8,564 12,718 1,732 14,450 10,117 3,325 6,792 4. 8 4. 71 2000 27,351 12,255 n. a. 1. 2 15. 8 74,025 43,258 24,816 18,442 2,535 15,907 9,920 12,255 1,784 14,039 11,788 4,271 7,517 4. 77 4. 72 1999 20,906 12,281 n. a. 1. 2 17. 8 84,179 37,588 19,086 18,237 1,820 16,417 9,996 12,281 1,917 14,198 12,215 4,333 7,882 4. 77 4. 68 Source Compustat. 16 603-022 -17- Exhibit 4 Section of Bank of Americas Organizational Chart Ken Lewis Chairman and CEO Consumer/ Commercial Bank Banking Center Channel Commercial ChannelSmall Business Banking Channel Premier Channel MiddleMarket Treasury Management Quality & Productivity (Milton Jones) Consumer & Commercial Bank Credit touch on Mid-South Banking Group Banking Center Channel Support Liability Risk Management Network Strategy / Location Planning Innovation & Development (Amy Brady) (Warren Butler) Source Bank of America. 603-022 Bank of America (A) Exh ibit 5 The I&D Markets Product and Service Innovation Process and Activities 2. Planning & Design 5. propose 1. inclination origination The Innovation Process 3.Implement 4. Test Accepts, implements, and tests ideas and concepts (experiments) Optimizes speed to market and cost Coordinates activities and decisions through stages Market Rollout = Go / No Go 1. Idea Conception Conceive Ideas remark Ideas/Info Output Updated Idea Queue Desired outcome Assess Ideas Input Updated Idea Queue Output Approved Ideas finding Ideas Input Approved Ideas Output List of Prioritized Ideas Success factors Key measures Desired outcome Success factors Key measures Desired outcome Success factors Key measuresInnovative ideas generated through internal and external sources Bank awareness and commitment of total ideas % of approved ideas Rapid design, build and rollout planning Minimal planning time Timing and quality of design Cycle time for design types Ratio of redesigns Successful implementa tion of ideas Successful integration Zero market overload Cycle time Market readiness On-time implementation Stable operating environment for testing of new concepts and ideas Fast feedback of results Meeting test and mkt. oals Test cycle 90 days Operating results Idea evaluation and national market rollout Quality recommendation package Cycle time Clarity/completeness 2. Planning and Design Assign and Scope Input Prioritized Ideas Output Design Needs Complete Design Input Design Needs Output Design Plan Build Rollout Plan Input particular proposition Design Output Rollout Plan 3. Implement Develop Test Plan Input Individual Rollout Plan Output Integrated Rollout Plan Implement Idea Input Integrated Rollout Plan Output Implemented Ideas 4. Test Manage the Market Monitor PerformanceInput Output Implemented Ideas Data Results Desired outcome Success factors Key measures Desired outcome Success factors Key measures Report Results Input Output Data/Research Test/Mkt Reports Conclusion s Improve I&D Process Input Process/Output Measures Output Enhancements 5. Recommend Complete testimonial Input Idea Test Results Output Recommendation Review/Approve Recommendation Input Recommendation Output Approval Communicate Recommendation Input Approval Output Communication Source Bank of America. 18 Bank of America (A) 603-022 Exhibit 6Banking Branches in the Innovation and Development Experimentation Portfolio Financial Centers (5) Provide ability to advise across product line with expanded people, technology, process, and environment capabilities convey Centers (5) Provide fast, friendly, convenient access for routine transactions with self-directed options and teller services Traditional Centers (15) Provide traditional banking products and services with enhanced processes and technology Source Bank of America. 19 603-022 Bank of America (A) Exhibit 7 Data from Transaction Zone Media (TZM) ExperimentThe TZM Experiment Flat-panel monitors above bank tellers broadcast ne ws for people waiting for service. Do such customers perceive shorter waiting times to service? Are such customers more satisfied with their banking experience? Actual versus Perceived delay Time (Customers who wait 5 minutes) D iffe re nce 8. 16 Pre-Tes t 6. 17 P erc eived Tim e A c tual Tim e Experimental grade 32% 7. 04 Post-Test 6. 14 Tim e (m in) 0 2 4 6 8 10 15% Prior to installation of TZM, customers who waited longer than five minutes significantly overestimated their waiting time (32%). After installation, overestimates for the same customer group dropped to 15%. Control Branch 8. 48 Pre-Tes t 7. 38 P erc eived Tim e A c tual Tim e 15% No experimental intervention was carried out during the observation period. Control branch had very similar customer demographics to experimental site. During the observation period, overestimates actually increased from 15% to 26%. 9. 27 Post-Test 7. 37 Tim e (m in) 0 2 4 6 8 10 26% Source Bank of America. 20 Bank of America (A) 603 -022 Exhibit 8a List of Product or Service Concepts Waiting to be TestedJanuary 13 (4) (10) 10 0 10 (7) -8 (7) -9 February 5 (1) (6) 6 0 6 (1) +29 March 27 4 (1) 1 0 1 (20) -21 April 3 0 (4) 4 0 4 (5) +16 May 27 0 (6) 6 0 6 (40) +7 Total 75 (1) (27) 27 0 27 Process Measure Inflow of new ideas before assessment* Ideas put on hold/reactivated Assessments completed recommended for design/testing not approved Ideas move to design/testing New ideas discontinued (before or during assessment) Change in idea backlog** * New ideas come from brainstorming workshops, employee input, etc. * The January 1, 2002, backlog of new ideas awaiting a decision (assessment or discontinuation) is about two months. Source Bank of America. Exhibit 8b Waiting Time Waiting for a Resource According to queuing theory, the waiting time for a resource increases gradually as more of the resource is used. But when the utilization passes 70%, delays increase dramatically. 0 40 50 70 80 90 100 60 Percent of Resour ce Utiliza tion Source S. Thomke, Enlightened Experimentation The New Imperative for Innovation, Harvard Business Review, February 2001. 21