Napoleon Bonapartes Position as a Great Man - 764 Words

People need leader, despite the fact that they will not mentioned in the history, who can direct, guide and motivate them to achieve greatness out of ordinary life. History has witnessed many great men who rose above their ordinary life and filled this position such as Napoleon Bonaparte. On June 18th 1815 in the town of Waterloo, Belgium, the Anglo-Allied forces and French army demonstrated their power under the command of Duke of Wellington and with leadership from Napoleon Bonaparte known as the Battle of Waterloo. After his return to France, Bonaparte assembled his infamous French army 72 000 men and proceed to attack the Anglo-Allied Forces of 118 000 under the command of The Duke of Wellington and Gebhard von Blà ¼cher. Against all odds and unfavorable circumstances, the French emperor marched onwards with an intention of preventing Anglo-Allied Forces advancing to Brussels. After attempting many of his acclaimed war tactics and strategies, Bonaparte’s strong effort and unfaltering eagerness were proven futile. By underestimating the strength of the Anglo-Allies, Bonaparte’s aspiration of a unified European nation was washed away with heavy rain and buried under the muddy ground of Waterloo. The strategic and tactful leader abdicated after witnes sing the scattered and dead army on June 21st 1815. Later, he was captured and exiled to the South Atlantic island of St Helena, where he died on May 5th 1821. When the British overcame the French forces, it stamped anShow MoreRelatedAnalysis of the Text  «the Man of Destiny » by George Bernard Shaw1271 Words   |  6 Pagesdialogues, full of witty paradoxes and often bitterly satirical. He was a friend of the Soviet Union which he visit in 1931. The Man of Destiny is an 1897 play by George Bernard Shaw. It was published as a part of Plays Pleasant, which also included Arms and the Man, Candida and You Never Can Tell. It is based on an historic incident at the early stage of Napoleon Bonapartes military career following upon his advancement to General. This text is written in a form of play. The style is informal, withRead MoreHow Was Political Grandeur And Dignity Articulated Through Early 19th Century Architecture?1286 Words   |  6 Pagespolitical grandeur and dignity both clearly and creatively, influencing how the reigning regime was received by French society and the rest of the world with the hopes of avoiding another revolution. Napoleon Bonaparte’s articulation of political grandeur through neoclassical architecture, Napoleon III’s articulation through the transformation of Paris and the Third Republics articulation through international exhibitions will each be discussed in this paper, with specific examples of Parisian civilRead MoreCode Napoleon  and â€Å"Declaration of the Rights of Man† Comparison1068 Words   |  5 PagesCode Napoleon  and â€Å"Declaration of the Rights of Man† Comparison The longest lasting effect of Napoleon Bonapartes rule over France was his overseeing the implementation of a series of national laws collectively known as the Civil Code, or Code Napoleon. Code Napoleon was the successor to the idea’s stated in The Declaration of the Rights of Man and Citizen, While at first, Napoleon generally adhered to the philosophies of the French Revolutionist as created in The Declaration of the RightsRead MoreAnalysis Of The Count Of Monte Cristo780 Words   |  4 Pagesdid not. The novel takes place during the Bourbon restoration, the period between Napoleon Bonapartes reign and that of his nephew Napoleon III, a time in which the revolutionists and the royalists fought quite frequently and created a national divide between the people of opposing factions. The country as a whole lay in a disastrous state having been passed from emperor to monarch, then a brief return from Napoleon and back to monarch (Pike). This historical conflict and national ins tability isRead Moredomestic and foreign policies of Napoleon Bonaparte1431 Words   |  6 PagesNancy Tomka Napoleon’s Domestic and Foreign Policies Prior to the 1700s, King Louis XVI got in power. He married Maria Antoinette. She is the daughter of Katherine the Great from Russia. While the king and the queen were enjoying their life in the palace of Versailles, people outside the palace had difficulties finding bread. The French Revolution took place with the lead of Robespierre. During the French Revolution, the French got fed up with outrageous taxes the monarchy made. It was so badRead MoreThrough Separate Publications, Geoffrey Parker And Victor1689 Words   |  7 Pagesfoundations by Parker and the prominent element by Hanson, while insightful, only delineate a single type of warfare that was used by the armies of Europe and the United States, however they fail to capitalize on the basis of their argument because neither man legitimately compares that type of warfare to any other method of fighting that was used, or is currently used, by other nations around the world. Hence, there is no Western Way of War; there is onl y the War of Adaptation. The War of Adaptation isRead MoreThe Mysterious Great Sphinx of Giza Essay1359 Words   |  6 PagesI Thought There Would Be Answers: The Mysterious Great Sphinx of Giza At the request of Napoleon Bonaparte in the early 1800’s Dominique Vivant Baron Denon French artist and diplomat was to record the exploits and accomplishments of Bonaparte’s Egyptian campaign. In 1802, he published his travels. â€Å"The perfection given by the Egyptians to the representations of their animals proves that they were not without an idea of that bold style which expresses much character in a few lines, and their executionRead MoreHow Far Does Luck Explain the Rise and Fall of Napoleon Bonaparte?3147 Words   |  13 PagesHow far does luck explain the rise and fall of Napoleon Bonaparte? Napoleon Bonaparte like many others rose to prominence during the turbulent times of the French revolution- he was therefore lucky to have been born at such a time in to justify his advancing position. However his reputation as a skilled tactician and strategist enabled him to initially capitalize on the reforms of the French Revolution to improve the lives of French citizens. Napoleon Bonaparte emerged as an important figure for re-establishingRead MoreNapoleon Bonaparte Essay1928 Words   |  8 PagesNapoleon Bonaparte One of the most brilliant individuals in history, Napoleon Bonaparte was a masterful soldier, and a superb administrator. He was also utterly ruthless, a dictator and, later in his career, thought he could do no wrong. Not a Frenchman by birth, Napoleon Bonaparte was born at Ajaccio on Corsica only just sold to France by the Italian state of Genoa on August 15, 1769.He attended French at the school of Autun and later the military academy at Brienne. He never fully mastered FrenchRead MoreEssay Napoleon2888 Words   |  12 Pagesthink of Napoleon Bonaparte they think of either a tyrant emperor or a brilliant war strategist. Maybe both are right but in whatever conclusion any person comes to, they will know he was a small man who accomplished many great things. Napoleon conquered countries and developed a mass empire, which led to his celebrity like fame. He was a man that respected cultures and every religion and even cried when his men died on the battlefield. Bonaparte was an ama zing person who drove himself with great ambition

Senses Are Important For Everyday Life Essay - 1316 Words

Senses are important for human s everyday life. They allow us to experience the world we live in and are used every second of the day. Importantly, many industries have been built off senses, such as radio with hearing, cooking with taste, fragrance with smell, and television with vision and hearing. Five senses range from vision, hearing, taste, touch, smell. Our world would be a different place if we could not experience everything it has to offer with our senses. Sensation, or the study of our senses, is considered an important part of psychology because it is a major element that makes consciousness possible (WC #6). For some people their senses can become unified in a way and are able to experience the world very differently than the average person. Those people have a condition called synesthesia. The word synesthesia means union of the senses (WC #4). Synesthesia is a condition where one sense is perceived simultaneously with another sense. It can involve any of the senses, and can join objects such as letters, shapes and numbers with a sense perception such as color, taste, or smell (WC #1). Synesthesia is not a perception that happens only one way. In can vary in many different forms; it involves many different parts of the human brain (WC #8). In this research paper I will be exploring the characteristics, different types and variations of synesthesia, the popularity, and if it is more common among artists and musicians. I will also explore how synesthesiaShow MoreRelatedRule of Thirds1283 Words   |  6 Pages1) In everyday life, work is still at the center of things; along with love, it is the most important element of a satisfying and happy life. In ordinary life, the ideal of â€Å"meaningful work,† or work that has sufficient scope for self-direction, complexity, and consequential effects to support pride and a sense of purpose, is more relevant than ever. Few still believe that a different economic and political order can bring a fundamental improvement to the human condition. Good purposesRead MoreGift Giving A Social Phenomenon780 Words   |  4 Pagesdifferent rituals because it is part of our society. Gift giving started before the eighteenth century and now it is very important action in this century. Berking shows that gift giving is a cultural practice in our society and do not rely on economic or politic action. The cultural practice of gift giving is part of framing society and it is different situation. Indeed, it is very important in individual in this modern society we living in. Gifts may be given in Christmas or birthdays and each celebrationRead More Uses of a College Education Essay801 Words   |  4 Pagesreally a difference between common sense and book sense? In general, common sense is that sixth sense or that survival intuition that has been given to every animal on earth. Therefore, common sense is literally an instinct or an advanced understanding about one’s surroundings. Many people think of common sense as intuition or wisdom that comes from living a life that exposes one to many different experiences and circumstances. On the other hand, book sense can be derived from the same experiencesRead MoreSpirituality Through A Basic Spiritual Assessment And The Impact On My Life And Care For Future Patients927 Words   |  4 PagesSpirituality. Beyond being a term that generally conjures up vague images of religion and contemplation, what exactly does it mean and why is it important? First, spirituality is not equivalent to religion. It can be connected to religion and religious beliefs, but it is much broader in scope, including a sense of meaning, purpose, and belonging. It is the core of one’s being and it affects, connects, and transcends all aspects of being. Therefore, spirituality has a profound impact on everyone’sRead MoreCulture Is The Umbrella Of Many Multifaceted Parts That Come Together Underneath It1635 Words   |  7 Pagesof the minor league hockey community is everyday living; nothin g out of the ordinary for the people that have been a costumed to the experience. It is full of traditions and rituals that impact everyone involved. Inglis stated â€Å"at a more concrete level, we can look at how being part of a social class, an ethnic group, a professional grouping and the other sorts of social belonging and affiliation can have ramifications for how people operate in their everyday affairs, as each of these sorts of socialRead MoreCatholic Palm Sunday Service1669 Words   |  7 Pagesto what extent academic literature differs or is similar to what I observed in the performance of the Palm Sunday service. Celebration is important for both individuals and for communities. They provide an escape from the everyday activities of human life. (Smith-Shank, 2002: 57)They are events of fun, reward, hope and order. Without and celebration, life would be repetitive and dull. While looking forward to celebrations in the future, we remember those of the past and sources which help to triggerRead MoreHelen Keller : Being Blind And Deaf1589 Words   |  7 Pagesin their everyday lives. Many do not know what it is like to lose something or have so little so they do not appreciate the small gifts and opportunities in life that can easily be taken away. â€Å"The things we take for granted, someone else is praying for.† This quote is explains how the food fortunate people eat every day, the clothes bought regularly, and cars people ride in each day, other people yearn for. Helen Keller was not only blind, but also deaf and for a good part of her life, she did notRead MoreOn Habit By Alain De Botton1323 Words   |  6 PagesIn daily life, we must be able to filter out the multitude of distractions which any physical environment can impose upon our senses. By creating a tunneled vision approach to moving about the environments which are a part of our everyday existence, we can more efficiently complete the tasks which are required of us in our various roles in society. In his essay â€Å"On Habit,† Alain de Botton, writes that people have become habituated in their own daily lives. In his first section he details himselfRead MoreHow Do My Social Interactions and Relations Shape My Sense of â€Å"Here and Now†?1105 Words   |  5 PagesHow do my social interactions and relations shape my sense of â€Å"here and now†? My social interactions and relations have been shaped by space and time in many ways. Events and standard time are a major factor in structuring my time. Interactions with groups and people help shape my sense of space and are connected to different dominant institutions. Previous interactions and relations have helped unify my sense of time and space. Also, my social interactions and relations have changed my ideasRead More Metaphysics Essay705 Words   |  3 Pagesdefined as what we can detect from our five senses. This type of philosophy is called empiricism, which is the idea that all knowledge comes from our senses. An empiricist must therefore believe that what we can see, touch, taste, smell, and hear must be real and that if we can not in fact see, touch, taste, smell, or hear something, it is definitely not real. However, this is a problem because there are things that are real that cannot be detected by our senses. Feelings and thoughts can not be detected

Summative Reflection Management Free Sample

Question: 1. Demonstrate a critical understanding of the unique roles that health and social care professionals and providers have across a variety of care settings?2. Evaluate the importance of inter-professional collaborative working involving people, families and carers to achieve optimal care and service outcomes?3. Evaluate appropriate evidence based nursing interventions, in a variety of settings, to promote the person's maximum health potential and independence? Answer: The roles and the duties of the health care professionals are very crucial as they maintain the health of the common people and keeps them fit. It is very essential to evaluate the desired roles of the health care professionals. According to Gibbs reflective cycle, the principles of nursing can be, executed to provide better health care services to people. The six stages of Gibbs reflective cycle are: Description Feelings Evaluation Conclusion Action Analysis The MDT team in the meeting formed the group of members for the evaluation of the work. There were six people in the group two males and four females. A female was, admitted to the hospital and our responsibility was to take care of her health and make her cure. I was one of the adult nurses there, so I became the team leader. I guided the other members of the group to execute the work properly. The facilities provided, were quite satisfied that were applicable to the patient. Some of the important tools were require for the proper evaluation of the health of the patient. The roles were very suitable to everyone within the project. The good thing about the experience was the cooperation from the team members, they were helpful but the bas experience was that there was lack in some of the techniques for managing of the proper health of the patient. The two roles to nursing are to maintain the responsibility regarding the health care of the patient and to evaluate the proper treatment given to the concerned people. The health care professionals should take proper initiatives for the welfare of the people, as this would help people to get cure from their problems or the related issues. Collaborative working is very essential for the proper evaluation of the health of the people. From my point of view, I would like to implement new advanced methods that will help in executing the processes of proper nursing to the people especially to the patients. There are several types of the health care of the services as well as there are many of the different social care professionals help the people to keep themselves healthy and fit. Home care faculty and services are, provided by many of the social care facilities (Amatayakul and Amatayakul, 2009). Doctors are the main professionals that help in suggesting the best health care facilities to the common people for the evaluation of the proper health. GP is the local doctor available for taking care of the health of common pe ople. The crucial role for the professionals is the suitable amount of diagnosis related to the health issues of the people. The execution of the work carried out by the professionals should be, done well in time. There are many of the professionals related to the health care, which are available all over the country, so there should be, a variety of health clinics, which will help to suggest proper healthy diet and medicines for the illness of the common people (Darley et al., 2007). The role of the consultants is also very crucial for the proper evaluation of the health of the common people. They help to guide the people for their proper diet related to their health fitness (Brunner, Suddarth and Smeltzer, 2008). Doctors are very crucial as they suggest proper medicine after the completion of their diagnosis. Nurses are one of the major parts of the health care professionals that takes care of every movement of the patients. Their hard work, dedication to the patients is exception al. There was collaboration in the working styles of the people residing at their homes, especially the collaboration should be between the family members, as this will help to cure the patients as soon as possible. They perform a variety of roles in the evaluation of the health of the patients as well as the common people. The role of the health care professionals should be, properly understood. They need to support the patients relating to their illness as well as they should take proper care of them. Health care professionals need to support the community; services related to the reaching of the hospitals well in time should be, provided for the common people. Nursing is very important for the patients as it helps to suggest and evaluate proper health care facilities to the people. It is evident to know, that there are some of the basic and fundamental steps of nursing than people can try at their home also. The collaborative working styles of the common people at their homes wil l help to achieve the optimal care as well as the desired services required to cure the patients. Finally, the working together of the people as well as the health care professionals will help to bring out the best possible and positive results for the patients (Eyles, 2005). the duties of the people especially the roles of the health care professionals and the social health care professionals is to be executed properly as this would help in appropriate health care for the patients and for the common people. Proper training as well as desired skills is very important for the professionals, as this would help them in provisioning resolution to the patients and the common people who suffer from their illness. Proper diet is very crucial for reaching the maximum potential of health care services as well as desired facilities to the patients. The professionals related to the different health care servicers should promote better health care facilities for the people. There should be prom otion as well as development of the desired skills for the students so that they should understand their roles and responsibilities towards the patients. Adult nursing is very crucial for the evaluation and execution of proper health of the common people by the experienced professionals. Professional practice like an adult nursing was, executed between the team members for the establishment of the professional identity. There should be promotion for high order thinking skills related to the adult nursing (Heath and White, 2008). The development should be, related to the critical reflection on knowledge as well as on the desired experience of the professionals of the health care services. Practicing the desired skills of the adult nursing will help to enhance the work of the health care professionals (Heath, 2010). The social as well as economic issues related to the health care services of the people belonging to the community should be reduced, there should not be any of the diffic ulty for the people suffering from illness as complete nursing facilities should be, provided by the health care professionals to the people. The experience suggests that the role as well as the responsibilities of the health care professionals should be, properly understand and evaluated. There should be evaluation of the principles of the professional practice for the complete adult nursing for the welfare of the common people. Social and economic issues should be, reduced, as this would affect the health care, lifestyle and the welfare of the people. Thus, it should be, reduced up to a larger extent for the development of the proper health of the people residing within the community. People should experience the multi-professional work from the team (Hodgson and Kizior, 2010). Collaborative practice of working helps to enhance the health care of the common people and keeps them fit and healthy. Proper training related to the development of the skills for the nurses, the heath car e professionals are very crucial, and it should be, provided for the enhancement of the health of the people residing in the community. Opportunities should be, provided for the promotion of health and well-being of the respective patients. Doctors play a vital role in suggesting the proper diet to the people. They are the one who helps the patients top get complete free from the diseases after complete diagnosis of the diseases. People residing in the community should take advice from the doctors related to their health, as this would help them to keep themselves healthy as well as fit (Le Navenec and Bridges, 2005). Working together in groups, especially the collaboration helps to enhance the idea about the particular disease of the patients and thus, the discussion between the professionals of the health care will help the patients to get cure immediately (Nugent, Green and Hellmer Saul, 2012). The ability of the undresses as well as the professionals should be, properly enhanced by suitable methods of knowledge as well as by providing desired skills to make the patients fit and healthy (Schick and Windle, 2010). Thus, it is evident from the study of the chapter that adult nursing plays an important role in the curing of the patients from illness and as above-mentioned, there are some of the easier steps that could be, practiced by the people at their homes for maintaining a healthy and fit lifestyle. Thus, practicing should be, done by the health care professionals as well as by the nurses as this will help to enhance the desired skills of them. References Amatayakul, M. and Amatayakul, M. (2009).Electronic health records. Chicago, IL: American Health Information Management Association. Brunner, L., Suddarth, D. and Smeltzer, S. (2008).Brunner Suddarth's textbook of medical-surgical nursing. Philadelphia: Lippincott Williams Wilkins. Darley, S., Heath, W., Darley, M. and Cohen, G. (2007).The expressive arts activity book. London: Jessica Kingsley Publishers. Eyles, M. (2005).Mosby's comprehensive review of practical nursing for the NCLEX-PN examination. St. Louis: Mosby. Heath, H. and White, I. (2008).The Challenge of Sexuality in Health Care. Chichester: John Wiley Sons. Heath, L. (2010).Engaging the community. Salisbury South, S.A.: Cooperative Research Centre for Contamination Assessment and Remediation of the Environment. Hodgson, B. and Kizior, R. (2010).Saunders nursing drug handbook 2010. St. Louis, Mo.: Saunders/Elsevier. Le Navenec, C. and Bridges, L. (2005).Creating connections between nursing care and the creative arts therapies. Springfield, Ill., U.S.A.: Charles C. Thomas Publisher. Nugent, P., Green, J. and Hellmer Saul, M. (2012).Mosby's comprehensive review of nursing for the NCLEX-RN examination. St. Louis, Mo.: Elsevier/Mosby. Schick, L. and Windle, P. (2010).Perianesthesia nursing core curriculum. St. Louis, Mo.: Saunders. Appendix The MDT team in the meeting formed the group of members for the evaluation of the work. There were six people in the group two males and four females. The six stages of Gibbs reflective cycle are Description, Feelings, Evaluation, Conclusion, Action, and Analysis. A female was, admitted to the hospital and our responsibility was to take care of her health and make her cure. I was one of the adult nurses there, so I became the team leader. The execution of the work carried out by the professionals should be, done well in time. There are many of the professionals related to the health care, which are available all over the country, so there should be, a variety of health clinics, which will help to suggest proper healthy diet and medicines for the illness of the common people (Darley et al., 2007). The role of the consultants is also very crucial for the proper evaluation of the health of the common people. They help to guide the people for their proper diet related to their health fit ness (Brunner, Suddarth and Smeltzer, 2008).

Huck Finn Themes free essay sample

Huck Finn Essays In the book Huckleberry Finn, Mark Twain deals with three different themes throughout the story. He uses these themes to show you the growth and development not only in a young boy in but also society as a whole. The themes shown all through this book include: conflict between society and individuals, Huck’s death and rebirth, and loneliness and isolation. Conflict between society and individuals, was something that could be found anywhere in this story. One situation that comes to the mind right away is the way that everyone looked upon the African Americans as a whole. At the beginning of this story Huck and Tom Sawyer decided to play a trick on Jim, (who happens to be a slave) and use Jim’s strong belief in superstitions against him. They decided to tie him up and tell him that witches came, all the while both children are laughing at what they had done to this â€Å"stupid† slave. We will write a custom essay sample on Huck Finn Themes or any similar topic specifically for you Do Not WasteYour Time HIRE WRITER Only 13.90 / page Another thing that comes to my mind is just the fact that Huck had to lie everywhere they went in order for Jim not to be taken away and sent back to Miss Watson. Even until the end Huck was lying to society to keep Jim with him and get him to freedom. Those two examples, best illustrate the conflict between society and individuals in this story. The death and rebirth of Huck is another theme that is shown in this book. Through the entire book Huck grows not only physically but mentally as well. I think the death that Twain was showing was in the beginning of the story when Huck seemed to be so unhappy and things only got worse for him. After being unhappy but grateful for Miss Watson and Widow Douglas, Huck is taken away and goes to live with his father. The way that his father treated him when they were together was horrible and Huck might have been better off dead. I think that is where Huck died on the inside, he lost hope of ever getting away for his Pap. I think his rebirth was when he was on his journey, the minute he got away was when his rebirth began. On this trip he would not only learn to fend for himself but also, he would become a new person completely. Huck’s death and rebirth was an important theme in this book. Loneliness and isolation is the third theme of this book, and one in which I feel is hard to find inner mix in the story. The loneliness I feel that is shown in this book would be Huck’s overall feeling about live. His father was a drunk and he had to be taken in by a new family. I think that when Huck is with his Pap in the cabin is when the loneliness is the strongest for Huck. Day in and day out he was left all alone and locked in a cabin, and sometimes he was locked up for days, only to find his Pap would come home drunk and usually became abusive to his son. Isolation I think is a little bit harder to find in this book, I guess the one situation that sticks out most in my mind right now would be all the times when Jim was left by himself, waiting for Huck to come back. I think that, even though it was never really said, that Jim had to have felt isolated by his color. Because of this he would have to stay behind on their raft, while Huck went out into the towns. There is no doubt in my mind that he didn’t feel this isolation and wish he could change it or do something about it. Although not as strong of a theme as the first two, I still can see this theme in Huckleberry Finn. After reading this book I feel that Mark Twain was concerned with these issues because they were important issues of the time of this book. The isolation, and conflict that there was for blacks, I think was big deal to Twain, not only because they were important at the time, but because it was something that was not right and should have never taken place. I think he wants us to see the wrong in doing such things in hopes that we can change what will happen in the future and not to have history repeat itself. I think that Huck’s death and rebirth is important because he was showing how Huck changed his views on life and the people around him for the better. I think that the loneliness also ties in with isolation and conflict because it was also something that was felt by most blacks and once again was something that should not have taken place. This is why I feel that Mark Twain chose these themes for his book. Overall I think that Twain, showed his themes throughout this book wonderfully. He got his point across and somehow ended up with a great adventure story.

Mr. Bennet from Pride and Prejudice free essay sample

Character analysis of Mr. Bennet in Jane Austens novel Pride and Prejudice. This essay presents a character analysis of the Jane Austen character, Mr. Bennet. The author analyzes his role in the story by looking at the events of his life that occurred both during the story, and prior to the outset, his methods of dealing with problems, and his personality and sense of humor.

high court of australia essays

high court of australia essays ita) How has the high court of Australia changed the balance of power between the commonwealth and the states? The High Court of Australia has the authority to decide matters relating to the Australian Constitution, that is it interprates the meanings of constitution when used in legal cases, and in using this power has influenced the balance of power between the states and the Commonwealth. Cases in which the High Court has exercised the power of interpreting the Constitution include the Uniform Tax Case in 1942, the Koowarta Case in 1982, and the Franklin Dam Case in 1983. Prior to the uniform tax case in 1942 income tax was payable to the Commonwealth and State Governments. In 1942, the Commonwealth Government passed a law assuming exclusive control over income taxes. The scheme had two main points: The use of Commonwealth taxing power to impose an income tax at a rate equal to the previous total of State and Commonwealth income taxes combined. The second, was the use of the grants power contained in Section 96 of the Constitution. Each State was to be granted an amount of money approximately equal to that which it would have raised through the imposition of its own income tax, but on the condition that the State itself imposed no such tax. The States challenged the Commonwealth and lost. The court upheld a Commonwealth legislative scheme that had the practical effect of excluding the States entirely from income tax. It was the greatest blow to the States' economic independence since Federation, creating the situation of vertical fiscal imbalance, whereby the States are financially dependent on the Commonwealth to carry out their constitutional responsibilities. So in this example the high court took away the states power to collect revenue on income tax instead the Commonwealth may make grants to the States in any manner it sees fit. It may attach almost any conditions it likes to thes...

Post Modern Preaching Term Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Post Modern Preaching - Term Paper Example In words by Allen religion significance has declined over the years (78). The author further argues that this is attributed to the fact that preachers and religious institutions have lost touch with the modern generation. Most preachers still use the old ways of passing the message to the audience. As much as these methods are pure and original, their impact in the modern society has been diminished. The modern society needs something that connects with them with the current emerging trends- a message that may help them go through modern society challenges. This is one factor that preachers have failed to achieve in preaching. This has made most religious institution lose touch with the society. According to Allen just like we embrace technology and globalization in our societies, preachers should embrace the use of the same in delivering sermons (29). However, many religious practices have been able to adjust to these changes and still hold much significance in the society. They are referred to the igeneration preachers. They believe in preaching the word in the most appropriate way in the perspective of their audience. This includes use of modern tools and instruments, applying of global trending society topics and accepting the fact that exposure level of the modern spiritual is deep and the approach should be the same. The growth of the church has been significant throughout the centuries. In the ancient religious settings, preachers or religious leaders did not have a tiring task of passing the message to the audience. This is attributed to the fact the audience has so much believe in religion and they were not exposed to technological trends. LaRue argues life was simpler and less complicated to believe in (112). People in the ancient centuries did not have much of tasks and factors distracting them from adhering to the gospel. This scenario has completely changed in the modern generation. Hilliard argues that the modern society is exposed to less spiritu ality and more of economic or social activities (98). This creates the gap between the modern society and religion. Preachers have to develop ways to reach out to the occupied generation (Allen 85). It has ceased to be an obligation that people have to attend religious services like people used to in the back days. For the modern society to be inclined to religious activities, there must that outstanding factor driving this objective. In words by Arendell for preachers to remain significant in what they do, they must be able to advance to the same level as the social trends have (211). This may include using the most common tool to reach out the modern generation: the social network (Hilliard 90). The growth of the church in the African American perspective displays the same results. The ancient African American church was known for its significance in society. The church was a spiritual hub for all ages. It was a compulsory function in the whole society as parents exposed their chi ldren to spirituality at a tender age. This practice created a long line of spiritual generations. In words by Arendell the African American society was one of the most religious societies in the United States (145). The author further argues that this was attributed to the fact the passing down of religious beliefs in the society was effective. As generations passed, this fact slowly changed. One religious practice that was first to be rejected was the door to door preaching. It faced great

What does The Walt Disney Company do related to anthropocene, Research Paper

What does The Walt Disney Company do related to anthropocene, environment and ecosystem - Research Paper Example icated the actions of man from the time of earlier development to late on the environment, the company Walt Disney has focused some of their returns and activities to promote environmental conservation aspects. The study focuses on the different contributions that the company has made to this regard. Based on this, the thesis of the study is the fact that the Walt Disney Company does not only concern on their financial aspects that focus on their profits and business development, but also the different environmental concerns. As such, it considers all anthropocenic aspects that have generated different environmental effects leading to extinction of other species and a negative effect to the environment. The study focuses on the different efforts that the company has put in the achievement of environmental goals and supporting the environment, the reasons as to why the company engages in environmental aspects, and the targets that the company aimed for in developing the Disney Worldwide Conservation Fund. The reflection of the different themes in the movies developed by the company all symbolize the commitment that the company has over the environmental effects. These aspects are all discussed in the work below: Walt Disney Company does numerous activities to promote ecosystem and environmental aspects that range from the development of advocacy aspects. The development of the Disney Worldwide Conservation Fund and the development of property that is curved to the environmental aspects. Through these, programs such as sustainable tourism have come to start. Sustainable tourism refers to tourism activities that encourage the tourism aspects that protect the environment, the inclusion of different economic activities cultures that promote local experiences in improving the environment. Walt Disney Company has developed solid conservation aspects through policies and practices that have put the company on top in relation to environmental aspects. The leadership of

Statistics project Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Statistics Project Example In order to achieve such economic growth in the Chinese economy, it is essential to focus on improving the major industries, such as the telecommunication industry. However, this cannot be achieved without solving the challenges hampering it from achieving the desired growth rate. The motive of this study is to establish and define challenges facing the Chinese telecom firms in their expansion strategies. The study will achieve this by examining the current market situation to identify the main challenges that firms in this industry are facing from a marketing perspective. The study will also attempt to suggest solutions that the Chinese telecommunication industry could adopt to solve these problems by assessing the solutions that have been employed in other countries. This study is intended to give a clear understanding of the challenges facing the Chinese telecommunication sector. It will focus on establishing why the telecommunication sector in China is growing at a lower rate compared to telecommunication sectors of other economies, such as United States and India. Through this research, the management of firms in the Chinese telecommunication sector will understand better the challenges that are limiting their expansion strategies from a different perspective. This will enable them devise better ways of dealing with these challenges in the future and ultimately boost the growth of the telecommunication sector. The hypotheses for this study are: The alternative hypothesis-: H1-Chinese firms do not exhibit a slow growth rate due to industrial nor customer based challenges. These hypotheses enhance the empirical testing of the outcome of the research. Some of the challenges that will be looked at are the customer based challenges. The biggest concern for many businesses regards the criteria through which customer loyalty is measured. Several techniques

Strategic Management Approaches of McDonalds

Strategic Management Approaches of McDonalds My research topic deals with one of the most profitable societies of the world, The McDonalds. It underlines the strategic management approaches adapted by McDonalds that helped it to grow from a small business to one of the most successful corporations. McDonalds is the leading fast food service organization in the world. The story of McDonalds started way back in 1954 when, Raymond Kroc its founder envisioned a nationwide fast food chain upon seeing a hamburger stall in San Bernardino, California. By revolutionizing the American Restaurant Industry, Kroc proved himself as the pioneer. Today McDonald is one of the most valuable brands globally, worth more than $25billion. It is number one fast food chain stores with about 40 million customers visiting it per day. The Golden Arches and its mascot Ronald McDonald have gained universal recognition. Though the company has its roots in the U.S., McDonalds today has become an accepted citizen of the world. The main focus is on the strategic evolution of this corporation. The strengths and weaknesses are highlighted which throws light on how McDonalds has survived in the competition. Keywords: strategic management approaches, Raymond Kroc, strategic management approaches How McDonalds has maintained its position? McDonalds has been able to maintain its competitive advantage by constantly adding new items in its menu. This means that an analyzer type of strategy is followed by McDonalds, i.e. introducing new items and defending the existing ones. In Strategic Management, developing a mission and vision statement is the primary step. It reflects the managements aspirations for the organization and its business providing a panoramic view to customers and giving specifics about future business plans. How McDonalds has defined its MISSION AND VISION: McDonaldS MISSION AND VISION: To serve quality food, fast and also at low cost. The vision of McDonalds is to dominate the food-service industry at global level. Global dominance means to set up standards of performance for customer satisfaction and increase market share and profitability by implementing values and execution strategies (Flack, 2008). What is the companys strengths? Strength can be described as a distinctive competence that gives the firm a competitive advantage in market. For example image, market leadership, buyer supplier relations, financial resources, etc. McDonalds strength lies in creating an image in the peoples minds and introducing them to a new culture of fast food. Customer care, delivery, speed and cleanliness are its core strengths that lead to its expansion. They were successful in creating a corporate symbol and its advertisement campaigns established its brand image in the minds of millions of people. McDonalds identified two main competitors i.e. the Burger King and KFC. The marketing strategy of McDonalds is concerned with internal resources, external environment, and its competencies. McDonalds product value is its strength. Customers know what to expect when they enter into McDonalds. It gives emphasis to human resources by satisfying its employees and customers both. Next comes the innovation aspect. In order to serve the new tastes and trends of people, new products are launched. Its diversity into new businesses can also be considered as its strengths. The question arises is how much effective are the above strengths in the long run of the company? McDonalds today is not as amendable as it was during its inception. So what are the driving factors which have resulted in its decline in sales and services? In order to analyze this factor we have to identify the weaknesses in the companys business and marketing strategy. The factors that are considered as strengths become a weakness if it blocks the performance of the company. Customer choices and trends change. Generally, people get tired of their old brands which they had been using over the years. When they do not get a product with the expected innovation they switch to new brands. With so many outlets, people find McDonalds everywhere. This over exposure can also be a reason for abstinence. Then maintaining standards of a huge chain is difficult and if there is lack of quality or service in any one outlet, then the brand as a whole gets affected. Reaching the target audience is the secret of any marketing strategy. So the target audience should be chosen carefully. It is very crucial for an organizations success, that its customers attain satisfaction level. Earlier McDonalds targeted mostly the young person, which has changed now. Now McDonalds has turned into a more general kind of market i.e. it now concentrates on families also. They started targeting diverse market which comprises of elderly people to children, by launching products such as the Happy Meal for children and Egg McMuffin for the elder ones. With the changing lifestyle, the demand for healthier food has increased and also ever changing demographic group demands fast, low in calories quality food. McDonalds responds to this kind of opportunity by introducing new and innovative products. Earlier, they had introduced a new product which was a regular hamburger and tasted like the real one but was made of Soya beans, a plant material. This product was also used to target another demographic group, i.e. vegetarians. McDonalds generally uses psychographic segmentation by which it targets the middle and working classes. These type people are more susceptible to enter fast food restaurants because they lead a fast and busy life and therefore require some fast meal. In short McDonalds customers belong to all age groups and classes, but comprises mainly of working and middle class people. (Kroc, 2001). The above factors point out key strengths and weaknesses at the external level. There are some internal factors also which affects the performance of the company. One major factor is the relationship between the franchise dealers and the management. Organizational strength is the back bone of any business and once it begins to shake the whole system can collapse. But slowly McDonald is recovering from all these weaknesses. Through latest technological developments it has become easy for its brand managers to communicate, compare and improve the services. They can also use internet in order to improve, motivate and compare performances of other centers. The analysis of all the external as well as internal strengths and weaknesses of the company should be done so that a sustainable plan for the further improvements in the company can be drafted. For any kind of improvement or expansion the availability of internal resources is a must. By analyzing this aspect, a modified strategy can be formed to suit the companys vision. Hence with the use of all the core competencies, the corporation can successfully grow and sustain in the competitive market (Richard Whittington, 1993) In 2003 the change in the top managerial level created a new wave in the performance of the corporation and also some major changes were incorporated to retain and sustain the quality and innovation aspect of the brand. Now let us understand the sustainable competitive advantage of McDonalds. What is meant by sustainable competitive advantage? How is it significant to McDonalds? SCA is the advantage a firm has which is very difficult or mostly impossible for competitors to possess or break through. It can be either brand, cost structure, dynamic customer care, or any kind of patents. The advantage should be either proprietary or distinctive in order to be considered as sustainable. Other than this, three different aspects have been identified that helps in SCA. First, there should be a good integration and coordination between the organizational and managerial processes. Therefore the much needed value is created when every employee in the organization strives to work for one common goal. The organization should learn to be flexible and change as per the needs in the environment such as customer trends, government restriction or innovations in technology. Nowadays McDonalds is focusing on organizational behavior as well as managerial expertise. Earlier it was ignored because the organization was more involved in establishing its outlets everywhere than strengthening its core competency. As a result the revenue did not increase much inspite of newer outlets being opened. The firm suffered a huge loss for the first time since their inceptions which ultimately lead to changes in the managerial strategies. Second, structural, financial assets and technology aspects of any firm are excellent market position which helps in building SCA. No doubt McDonalds is abundant in aspects such as structure, technology and finance. All that is needed is to identify and incorporate these assets in the right direction towards the improvement of the company. From 2003 onwards the company has really started to concentrate on its competencies. Third, the greatest advantage is the vision of the company with which it started. Sustaining this dream over the passing years is any companies greatest advantage. A company usually revolves around its vision statement, so sustaining this vision and working in accordance with it, is a great SCA. McDonalds was started to help people who were too busy and had little time to cook. The vision was to provide value, customer care, quality and cleanliness. Keeping its vision in mind, the corporation which slackened a bit earlier because of its incompetent franchise holders is being weeded and new and better people are put in this place. Thus, SCA means implementing the best value based strategies using all the unique advantages of the company which cannot be replicated by the competitors. In todays scenario, everything is outsourced from employee appointment to customer care. No organization is efficient enough to handle all kinds of work. It is not possible for big corporations like McDonalds to concentrate on every small detail. But core competences of the company should not be outsourced. Mostly companies concentrate on their core competencies whereas outsource its remaining operation. McDonald has recently tested its drive by order facility. Outsourcing is therefore helpful in the increasing external suppliers and overcomes the difficulties faced due to lack of latest technologies and other innovations. So what makes McDonalds still strong and maintain its rank as one of the leading business. The answer is its core competences and the internal as well as external sustainable competitive advantages. Of course, to keep up with the changing business environment, the company has also begun to outsource, but then it should not be carried away by the outsourcing mania. This company has recently started to go back to its golden era because of large scale revamping of its structural and organizational changes being incorporated (C K Prahalad and G Hamel 1990). Strategic Allies: A strategic allys means an organization is working together in a joint venture or a similar arrangement with one or more organizations. McDonalds is in strategic alliance with: Wal-Mart, Chevron, Amoco, Disney and Coca-Cola. Wal-Mart, the largest retail chain in U.S. and several neighboring countries, is symbiotically allied with McDonalds. In each Wal-Mart stores, there are McDonalds restaurants. Thereby it offers its customers excellent low cost fast food in a convenient way. Chevron and Amoco are two petrol pumps with which McDonalds is in alliance with. This alliance represents ultimate convenience. Nothing can be more convenient than filling the car with as well as getting a meal, that too all in one stop. Another important alliance of the company is with Disney. Sole right has been granted to McDonalds to sell fast food in Disneys theme parks around US and at other Disney spots in the world. As per the terms of the agreement, McDonalds will operate as restaurants and Disney wil l promote its films through McDonalds. CONCLUSION: As such there is no particular competitive strategy that guarantees to achieve success each time. Risk attitudes change due to industrial volatility, environmental uncertainty and several internal conditions might also be involved. Since the marketing function is consumer oriented, customer needs should be identified and then strategies should be designed to meet those needs. The distribution system brings the product or service to the place where in can best fill customer needs. Since every product requires support from distribution channels, so the right choice of distributors and wholesalers is very important. Promotion of products is more important than advertising. The location, size and nature of markets defined by business strategy will indicate the content of promotional material as well as it will guide the promotion mix decisions. Pricing is another complex issue which is used as a competitive weapon because it is related to cost, volume, tradeoffs etc. Changes in pricing p olicy are likely to provoke competitors response. Marketing has received increasingly greater attention in the competitive business since the early modern era. The old marketing concept focused on selling of the existing products of the firm and promoting it to maximize sales to attain profits, but now the new concept focuses on the potential customers of the firm and seeks to earn profit by customer satisfaction with an integrated marketing program.

(Written in Outline Format) Computers: A Necessary Evil :: Technology

COMPUTERS AS A NECESSARY EVIL DEFINITION: First of all NECESSARY EVILS means that though a particular subject or issue that affects human life might contain some disadvantages to it that does not rule out the fact that its advantages have a much stronger basis for it to be utilized. INTRODUCTION: In this modern day and age, the Computer era has seemed to revolutionize the concept of Industrialization thus affecting all humans in one way or another. Without them modern man would have had to evolve at a much slower pace since with the aid of computers certain aspects of work can be completed with precise accuracy. To maximize the benefits and minimize the harms those making decisions about the implementation of computer systems must be sensitive to the problems as the advantages. â€Å"It has a colossal qualitative defect that springs directly from its quantitative virtues. It increases probability and it decreases possibility† -Lewis Mumford EFFECTS IMPACT OF COMPUTER ON PEOPLE 1) POSITIVE IMPLICATIONS a) Job opportunities in areas of programming, computer operations and information system management. b) Greater job satisfaction, this is done by tackling of interesting problems that seemed impossible until the dawn of the computer era. c) Businesses today rely on computer technology to assist them in almost every area of corporate life. Computers have invaded grocery stores, fast food restaurants, big businesses and small offices. They process data, store information, work out complex mathematical problems, track inventory, and even control temperature and lighting in office buildings. Reliance on the high-speed digital computer is so complete that the world of commerce would break up to a sudden stop if computers were removed. d) Use by Public Organizations, through avoiding waste and improving efficiency in government agencies, school districts and hospital units can also result in better services and a reduced tax burden for citizens. e) Home use, it’s used in entertainment and hobby purposes, for educational uses, for family financial applications and for countless other tasks. 2) Potential problems a) Threat of unemployment - The greater efficiency made possible by the computer usage can result in job obsolescence and displacement for some workers who are not in any way learned in the computer usage. b) Use of questionable data processing practices -Input data about individuals are routinely captured by many organizations, are entered into computer processed files. Inaccurate and incomplete data about people have been placed in files. c) WINNERS OF INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY AREA AFFECTED HOW AFFECTED Financial institutions More free-based consumer and business services Programming Industry Proliferation of new packaged programs Larger Universities Programmed education opportunities Insurance Industry Lower life/ health/ property claims cost

Playing monopoly Essay

Pretend to embrace a technology and become the major source for that technology like buy out the competitors. Declare it obsolete because your original way is better. Wait long enough for a technique or idea to be forgotten by the majority of people or just long enough that the majority of your followers are naive newbies. Bring out the old idea and present it as a new invention. For example, many things in Visual Studio . Net are presented as new ideas even though they have existed in RAD tools like Delphi for over a decade. Why this works? because the majority of new software geeks have no idea what Delphi is and didn’t know that you could do everything exactly the way Microsoft claims you can in their â€Å"new† invention. It is very much clear about incidences that Microsoft has been unethical in its approaches. Rather that applying their own thoughts, most of the products they have released by copying ideas unethically from other competitor’s products. Rather than having the fair competition in the market Gates always tried to monopolize the market. Though all the monopoly has brought him profit but ethically Microsoft didn’t 2. Some of the characteristics of the market that created monopoly market that Microsoft’s operating system enjoyed are as follows: Incorporation of various Microsoft applications like Windows Digital Media Player and Internet Explorer in 1995 with its operating system gave an advantage to the company as this monopoly worked out for them. Users using Windows didn’t want themselves to get into trouble of purchasing a different browser and different Media Payer. Users were also not ready to pay extra money for buying other companies’ applications, as all those applications were readily available with Microsoft’s operating system. Every company was releasing their applications and operating systems in the market and every time Microsoft was able to know their programs. Using those programs Microsoft created monopoly in the market by releasing advanced version of competitors’ products. As when Navigator came in 1994, Microsoft launched Internet Explorer which was borrowed from Spyglass Inc. and made it similar to Navigator. It incorporated Internet Explorer with Windows. Media player was also incorporated in Windows. Sun Microsystems’s Java was also licensed to Microsoft first and then Microsoft built its own Microsoft java permitting Windows Users to be compatible with it. In the software industry users did not want to shift to new products or applications until proper training and workshops are organized. Microsoft’s used good PLAYING MONOPOLY: MICROSOFT Javier Ian Gonzalez Lopez – 1449556 – 9zi strategies for training users. With the Installation disk, a proper tour of Windows is provided to facilitate user. Attorney General Janet Reno filed an antitrust suit against Microsoft in the court of Judge Thomas Jackson. Microsoft made the computer companies using Windows as their operating system not to license, distribute or promote competitive software products of other companies. It embedded Internet Explorer with Windows and thus demolished consumer freedom to go for any other Browser plus it also degraded windows performance. In the agreements with computer companies those using Windows, Microsoft wanted them to leave Internet Explorer as the default Web–Browser and didn’t allow installation of any other browser. The judge was having complete authority to take hard actions against Microsoft’s unethical business strategies. As per the case study it is evident that Microsoft has used various unethical business strategies to make their business profitable. Microsoft copied the copyright of Apple’s OS/2 and developed its own operating system on the same line. Moreover they forced users to use its Internet Explorer and digital media player. They suppressed the platform independent functionality of Sun’s Java by releasing Microsoft’s Java and making it cross platform language. In my view, government should not have sued Microsoft. Consumers were well satisfied by Windows which was evident from the market share of its use. So signing of agreement involves approval of computer companies and Microsoft and if computer companies have signed that agreement that means they weren’t having any problems and neither consumers upon implementing the agreement. So Microsoft just used a marketing strategy over here. Judge Jackson’s order was fair for the competitors as well as for the software industry because Microsoft has really invoked the monopoly situation in the market. It was essential to have fair competition in the market. As an operating system and applications are totally two different aspects and Microsoft should not club these two aspects. This order would have helped competitors and users to choose their favorite applications. From Microsoft’s point of view it was not the fair decision, as they never wish to separate their business into two domains. It was a marketing strategy adopted by Microsoft so that it can withstand with the PLAYING MONOPOLY: MICROSOFT Javier Ian Gonzalez Lopez – 1449556 – 9zi competition. According to them it also facilitated consumers for not spending their money in buying other corresponding software and also playing a risk of installing and uninstalling. According to the settlement between Microsoft and DOJ, Microsoft was asked to share its application programming interface with other software rivals and to allow users to hide Internet Explorer icon from the screen. It was asked not to prevent other competitors programs to install on its operating system and not to retaliate against computer makers in releasing their products. This settlement was officially approved by Judge Kollar-Kotelly on November 1, 2003. The decision was really fair for the competitors as well as users. The decision has created free competitive market in the software industry. It allows users to use other available applications and allow them to hide icons which they do not want to use. From competitors point of view market became much more open to release more products with advanced technologies. This move also helped people to think out of Microsoft’s box and helped to showcase their technical skills. As a result various new operating systems with better performance than Windows like Linux, Suse, Monopoly of Microsoft’s operating system has harmed everyone from users to computer producers. Due to unavailability of fair market the users were bound to use Microsoft’s operating system and applications. They were unable to hide icons of the Microsoft’s applications from their operating system. From producer’s point of view, they were not free to launch Windows compatible applications due to unavailability of Windows application programming interface in the market. The competition became minimal in the market due to monopoly enjoyed by Microsoft. Due to monopoly in the market one single company Microsoft was holding maximum market share. It hampered the technical advancement and innovation in the market as well. Some of the following public policies could be used to deal with monopoly †¢Government should issue some standards for a given technology/system/product which should be followed by everyone in the industry. †¢Anti-monopoly law can be created to prevent monopoly to occur in the market. †¢Some policies can be incorporated in the system to motivate and encourage newly launched companies to increase the innovation in the market. PLAYING MONOPOLY: MICROSOFT Javier Ian Gonzalez Lopez – 1449556 – 9zi †¢Some policies should be made to share information among the companies whose applications are inter dependant.

Free Essays on Comparing Ethan Frome To The Scarlet Letter

â€Å"Ethan Frome† by Edith Wharton is about a man named Ethan and his struggle to find happiness. He lives in a run down farm with his wife Zeena who thinks that she is sick. After Taking care of Zeena for six years they hire Mattie to help around the house, Ethan falls in love with her and they have a relationship suspicious to Zeena. This novel is quite similar to â€Å"The Scarlet Letter† by Nathanial Hawthorne. Some of the main similarities are, affairs outside their marriages and physical memories resulting from them as well as unhappy endings. With Ethan’s mother very sick, his cousin Zeena came to relieve Ethan and become her aunts nurse. Ethan’s mother died and after the funeral after moving out Ethan asked Zeena to marry her out of his fear of being alone in the farm house. After the marriage Zeena became sick and nobody knew with what and when Mattie came to help around the house. Ethan fell in love with her having another relationship while he was married. In the Scarlet Letter, Hester Prynne had an arranged marriage with Roger Chillingworth who sent her to a colony in Massachusetts before him. After two years of not seeing her husband she had an affair with her minister Reverend Dimmsdale, while she was married. After some time Zeena became suspicious of Mattie and Ethan and sent Mattie away, saying she needed hired help. Ethan confessed his love to Mattie who felt the same way. They wanted to run away together but Ethan was a poor man and could not afford a train ticket, suicide seemed to be the only solution of getting away from Zeena. Ethan and Mattie planed on crashing their sled into a tree suspecting it would kill them, but it only left Mattie Crippled from the neck down and Ethan with a horrible limp. In Hester’s case the result of her affair was a child, Pearl. Both these were a constant memory of what they had done. Ethan wanted to spend the rest of his life with Mattie, and he got his wish... Free Essays on Comparing Ethan Frome To The Scarlet Letter Free Essays on Comparing Ethan Frome To The Scarlet Letter â€Å"Ethan Frome† by Edith Wharton is about a man named Ethan and his struggle to find happiness. He lives in a run down farm with his wife Zeena who thinks that she is sick. After Taking care of Zeena for six years they hire Mattie to help around the house, Ethan falls in love with her and they have a relationship suspicious to Zeena. This novel is quite similar to â€Å"The Scarlet Letter† by Nathanial Hawthorne. Some of the main similarities are, affairs outside their marriages and physical memories resulting from them as well as unhappy endings. With Ethan’s mother very sick, his cousin Zeena came to relieve Ethan and become her aunts nurse. Ethan’s mother died and after the funeral after moving out Ethan asked Zeena to marry her out of his fear of being alone in the farm house. After the marriage Zeena became sick and nobody knew with what and when Mattie came to help around the house. Ethan fell in love with her having another relationship while he was married. In the Scarlet Letter, Hester Prynne had an arranged marriage with Roger Chillingworth who sent her to a colony in Massachusetts before him. After two years of not seeing her husband she had an affair with her minister Reverend Dimmsdale, while she was married. After some time Zeena became suspicious of Mattie and Ethan and sent Mattie away, saying she needed hired help. Ethan confessed his love to Mattie who felt the same way. They wanted to run away together but Ethan was a poor man and could not afford a train ticket, suicide seemed to be the only solution of getting away from Zeena. Ethan and Mattie planed on crashing their sled into a tree suspecting it would kill them, but it only left Mattie Crippled from the neck down and Ethan with a horrible limp. In Hester’s case the result of her affair was a child, Pearl. Both these were a constant memory of what they had done. Ethan wanted to spend the rest of his life with Mattie, and he got his wish...

Free Essays on Henry Ford Revolution

The Ford Revolution Henry Ford was born July 30, 1863. He was raised on a farm in Deadborn, near Detroit, Michigan. His Father William was a prosperous farmer. Herny would show his interest in mechanics at an early age. Tinkering with anything he could get his hands on. Ford would begin to see that the horseless carriage was his calling in his early years. Henry Ford would go on create the Ford Motor Company where his innovative ideas for mass producing cars would redefine the way all other industries manufactured their products. In 1893 Henry Ford had successfully built his first gasoline engine. Ford had begun as an apprentice in a machine shop in, Detroit. During his apprentice period he opened his own machine shop; where he repaired portable engines for a harvesting company. When Ford’s employer sent him to a demonstration of an internal combustion engine in 1890 he got the idea to build a car. By 1896 Ford had built his first gasoline buggy, which was given a public trial and reached speeds up to 25mph. After building his buggy he decided to expand his ideas. Ford resigned from the Edison Company where he had been the chief engineer. Ford would start two car manufacturing companies before starting the Ford Motor Company in 1903. He had first begun the Detroit Automobile Co. in 1899 and then the Henry Ford Co. which both failed. As a result of several business disagreements with his partners; Ford started the Ford Motor Company in 1903. Ford started his new car company with partners Alexander Malcomson and James Couzens. By 1907 Ford purchased most of the stock in the company and from then on out it was controlled by the Ford family. In 1908 Henry Ford guided his chief engineer Harold Wills in the design of the Model-T. Ford amazed his colleagues with the things he could not do or even comprehend. He could not, for example, make or read blueprints, and even though he could he never worked with his h... Free Essays on Henry Ford Revolution Free Essays on Henry Ford Revolution The Ford Revolution Henry Ford was born July 30, 1863. He was raised on a farm in Deadborn, near Detroit, Michigan. His Father William was a prosperous farmer. Herny would show his interest in mechanics at an early age. Tinkering with anything he could get his hands on. Ford would begin to see that the horseless carriage was his calling in his early years. Henry Ford would go on create the Ford Motor Company where his innovative ideas for mass producing cars would redefine the way all other industries manufactured their products. In 1893 Henry Ford had successfully built his first gasoline engine. Ford had begun as an apprentice in a machine shop in, Detroit. During his apprentice period he opened his own machine shop; where he repaired portable engines for a harvesting company. When Ford’s employer sent him to a demonstration of an internal combustion engine in 1890 he got the idea to build a car. By 1896 Ford had built his first gasoline buggy, which was given a public trial and reached speeds up to 25mph. After building his buggy he decided to expand his ideas. Ford resigned from the Edison Company where he had been the chief engineer. Ford would start two car manufacturing companies before starting the Ford Motor Company in 1903. He had first begun the Detroit Automobile Co. in 1899 and then the Henry Ford Co. which both failed. As a result of several business disagreements with his partners; Ford started the Ford Motor Company in 1903. Ford started his new car company with partners Alexander Malcomson and James Couzens. By 1907 Ford purchased most of the stock in the company and from then on out it was controlled by the Ford family. In 1908 Henry Ford guided his chief engineer Harold Wills in the design of the Model-T. Ford amazed his colleagues with the things he could not do or even comprehend. He could not, for example, make or read blueprints, and even though he could he never worked with his h...

Element of Literature Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words

Element of Literature - Essay Example These mothers are somehow estranged with their daughters and disappointed by how they have grown up. Secondly, unbeknown to these mothers, they play a significant role in their children’s becoming. It shows clearly in the manner they care for and love their daughters, which, though done in good faith, have caused them to behave differently instead. Dee, Emily and the girl in the poem may have just been products of the way their mothers have treated them. Mama, the narrator in â€Å"Everyday Use,† is particularly troubled over her eldest daughter’s behavior. Comparing her two daughters, she finds her traditional ways and principles as part of the rift between her and Dee, who is more flashy, modern, materialistic and confident. Mama â€Å"often †¦ fought off the temptation to shake her† (Walker, 1973, p. 745). Her other daughter Maggie is homely, biddable, compassionate and â€Å"used to never winning anything, or having anything reserved for her† (Walker, 1973, p. 745). Yet as a woman making ends meet for both daughters, even so far as doing strenuous manly activities, Maggie’s everyday presence matters more to her than Dee’s capable but absent self. In fact, between the two, only Dee has gone to college while Maggie stays home. Indeed, there is a measure of estrangement between Mama and Dee. This particular passage speaks of how much Mama is estranged from her eldest daughter: Sometimes I dream a dream in which Dee and I are suddenly brought together on a TV program of this sort †¦ Then we are on the stage and Dee is embracing me with tears in her eyes. She pins on my dress a large orchid, even though she has told me once that she thinks orchids are tacky flowers. (Walker, 1973, pp. 743-744) Certain passages in the short story also prove how although she has an affection for the elder Dee, she is disappointed in her ways and her views in life. When Mama refuses to give Dee the quilts, she looks at her â€Å"with hatred,† saying, "You just

Biological differences between different populations. What kinds of Essay

Biological differences between different populations. What kinds of biological differences exist between contemporary humans - Essay Example Following a discussion about origins of biological differences, an account of the various differences observed among different populations is given. The work concludes by highlighting the importance of further research that is required to explore the mechanisms of biological differences further. Key words: differences, populations, biological Introduction If we take a closer look at the anatomical, psychological, behavioral and other aspects of the lives of people around the globe, it becomes clear that there are quite obvious differences that exist among populations. The blacks are well known for their stronger physique while the Asians are considered to have a comparatively higher IQ than other populations in general. Similarly, there are a number of diseases which are more prevalent among certain populations and totally non-existent in others. In terms of social behavior, people from certain populations are known for the aggressiveness while other are noted for being cool minded. These visibly apparent differences raise a number of questions regarding their true origins. Although, a simple approach would be to look for the causes in the political, social and religious spheres of life; yet a truly scientific approach would not miss the option of looking into the biological basis of such manifestations. Such queries may be directed towards delineating macroscopic differences in some cases; while in others the orientation of this quest should be towards exploring the microscopic explanations. Whether microscopic or macroscopic, the biological basis provides a rather novel explanation of the differences observed among various populations of the world as we shall see in the following lines. Discussion The origin of biological differences Human beings as a species have a history which is very rich in events of migration. Whether this migration was for the purpose of survival or for improvement of life standards, the ultimate result was a better adaptation of this species to the various environmental conditions of the planet. Exposure to new lands not only opened doors of opportunity to the migrated, but also provided them a means of intermingling with other population groups, thereby ensuring mating. Although various social and cultural hindrances limited such reproductive encounters; yet the biological aspect has always been favorable for them. In recent times, the promotion of concepts like 'globalization' and 'global village' have removed the remaining barriers to an extent where intermingling of genetic pools of different populations have become easier (Hagen). The basis of biological variation is genetic variation that not only exists among different species but is also observable within species. The basic code that determines the genotype and ultimately the phenotype of an organism is present in the cells of organisms in the form of DNA. The deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) possesses specialized sequences of genetic information which are te rmed genes; the genes code for specialized proteins which are formed within cells and later perform dedicated functions. The transmission of genetic information from a generation to the next is by means of a specialized method of cell reproduction that is termed meiosis. Crossing-over that occurs between chromosomes during meiotic process ensures shuffling of genetic material; the shuffled genetic code is presented for genetic coding purposes to the next generation. Other methods of alteration in genetic code may include processes like mutations due to radiation or mediation etc. It is obvious from this discussion that transmission of genetic information is a random process, and the genetic pool of a given population is vibrant enough to bring about detectable

Olympic Promoters Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 5250 words

Olympic Promoters - Essay Example The promoters have now become one of the most aspects of any brand event, product or service. It is actually the promoters positioning strategies which contribute to the success or the failure of it. The following pages will examine a lot more of the same segment. Promoters, Olympic Games, Sponsorship patterns and a lot are discussed to be able to answer our basic investigation question: CAN TODAY'S OLYMPICS PROMOTERS UTILISE THE ONE-BRAND POSITIONING STRATEGIES TO INCREASE CONSUMER INTEREST The element of Sponsorship has been explained by lots, but for the most part the connotation can be driven from Meenaghan (1983). A sponsor plays a role in of an investor, investing through money or else kind to some kind of spare time activity, any sport or else Arts linked. Moreover, the sponsored event is not a facet of the key saleable task of the sponsor or else it becomes advertising, relatively than sponsorship plus the sponsor assumes a revisit with reference to promotion. Busby (1997) viewed sponsorship as a trade association amid the source of the means, wealth or services with a person, affair or else business. The source is given privileges and alliance with the character or incident in turn for the money, wares otherwise services that have been offered. With reference to the volume of the international outlay on sponsorship, most of the sponsoring agencies have displayed an enhancement in their expenses of an approximate16 percent in the year 1996, plus a 10 percent boost in 1997 (Busby, 1997). The causes for the increase in sponsorship during the earlier periods have been mainly owed to the legislative and profitable matters. A lot of countries have limited the publicity of specific goods considered as publicly unwanted, like alcohol, plus sponsorship has also turned into an unusual way of support. Additionaly , the fund cuts for the arts otherwise the sporting events have enforced these trades to look for viable support hold up in addition to sponsorship turning into a vital standard trait of the sporting occasion , particularly the Olympic Games, which would not be potential with no sponsorship. The additional issues cheering sponsorships consist of: tax settlements that have been instituted during the years permitting corporations to declare conclusions for sponsorship reserves (Wolton, 1988); augmented spare time guiding the way towards further happenings that the modes are willing to envelop plus corporations appreciating that the sponsorship of these proceedings is a n efficient means to get in touch with the clients during their spare time (Meenaghan, 1991). 1.2 The Efficacy of Sponsorships Sponsorship desires to be included with further matters of advertising communications plus advertising strategy. The researches that have been carried out during the past, hint towards the fact that major basis corporations grow to be implicated in sponsorship is to expand media reporting for the sponsor's corporation, artifact or else a meticulous brand. Sponsorship is now and then baffled with publicity however, as

Is Google Violating Users Privacy Essay Example for Free

Is Google Violating Users Privacy Essay Google Violating Users’ Privacy? The use of the Internet has become an indispensable tool for students, workers and people in general. Moreover, the use of search engines like Google is a daily routine activity when someone wants to inquire something. Google search engine is used to perform approximately two billion searches a day. Even though, it is a free services the rights of privacy can be compromised. According to the terms of use of the Google search engine, all the queries a user do can be stored for Google Company forever, although, after 18 months these queries become anonymized. According with these previous paragraphs, there are two points of view that we are going to discuss: 1. Google’s storage of user data is legitimate and does not constitute a violation of user privacy. 2. Google’s should not store user’s data as this data can be misused or accessed by the government. According with the policies and principles of Google web site, they can collect information in two ways: with your consent when you log in into Google with a user ID given them voluntarily your personal information. Also, they do collect information without your consent thru the anonymous mode. In both cases your IP address is taken, and in this mode much other information can be captured like the phone line you are using, the device specific information, and of course all the queries you do. In addition, according with these policies Google has the privileges to use this information collected with third parties. Actually there is a latent treat that stored information could be stole and used for incorrect purposes. Google index and encrypt all they stored information to prevent being stolen. However, there is no certainty on this. Personally I have to say that Google is my favorite search engine, is fast and most of the time give me the right information related with the topic I am searching for, also, they have the rights to store information that you give to them voluntarily or anonymously, and use it according with the policies they stand for. I agree with the government right to search for information in Google’s data base, as long as, it is used in the right path, for example to prevent terrorism, for national security, or to find sick people like rapist or any human rights violator.

The Case Against The Death Penalty :: essays research papers fc

THE CASE AGAINST THE DEATH PENALTY It's dark and cold, the fortress-like building has cinderblock walls, and death lurks around the perimeter. A man will die tonight. Under the blue sky, small black birds gather outside the fence that surrounds the building to flaunt their freedom. There is a gothic feel to the scene, as though you have stepped into a horror movie. Unfortunately, this is not a scene in a horror flick; these are the surroundings of an actual prison execution. As early as the founding of the United States, capital punishment has been a controversial and hotly debated public issue. The three most common forms of death penalties currently used in the United States are the gas chamber, electrocution, and lethal injection. The firing squad is an option in Idaho, Oklahoma, and Utah; and death by hanging still remains an option in New Hampshire and Washington state. There are major problems with our criminal justice system. In the last one hundred years, there have been more than 75 documented cases of wrongful conviction of criminal homicide. According to a 1987 Stanford University survey, at least 23 Americans have been wrongly executed in the 20th century. For this very reason, the State of Illinois imposed a moratorium on the state?s death penalty in 2000 when it was discovered that 13 inmates on its Death Row were wrongly convicted. Anthony Porter, one of the 13, spent 15 years on Death Row and was within two days of being executed, before a group of Northwestern journalism students uncovered evidence that was used to prove his innocence. In the United States there are currently 3,490 prisoners awaiting execution. Many of these prisoners are poor and are where they are because they could not afford good legal representation. Most of these prisoners are Black, and they have been arrested and incarcerated in southern states. According to the July 2004 Quarterly Report of the NAACP Criminal Justice Project, 52% of the inmates who currently sit on Death Row are Black or Hispanic. Another argument against capital punishment is that death sentences are not uniformly imposed as punishment in all cases where a heinous crime has been committed. In his book, Legal Lynching: Racism, Injustice and the Death Penalty, the Reverend Jesse Jackson basically argues that if you are a wealthy, White person, your odds of receiving the death penalty are low, but if you are a poor, African-American or other minority, your chances of receiving a death sentence for the same crime are much higher.

Pickwick Papers :: Free Essays Online

Pickwick Papers Charles Dickens’ The Pickwick Papers Dickens’ first novel, originally titled The Posthumous Papers of the Pickwick Club, began as a concept first brought forth in the early part of the year 1836. It was at this time when Robert Seymour, an etcher and caricaturist of the day, approached publishers Chapman and Hall with his idea for a series of humorous sketches depicting the mannerisms and way of life of â€Å"Cockney amateurs on holiday in the field.† Seymour had already made a success of sketches that depicted similar subject matter, namely that of Cockney sports, and the follies of members of the fictional â€Å"Nimrod Club.† The publishers agreed to fund the project, under the condition that the sketches be accompanied by some literary commentary. Upon agreement, the publishers set out to find a writer and were turned down several times before they approached Charles Dickens, then a young journalist who had recently published a collection of his own called Sketches by Boz. His role , they informed him, would be to provide a text that was secondary and arising only from the sketches. At the time, Dickens, only twenty-three years old, was about to be married and was willing to take on the project as a means of earning some extra money. He showed his cunning even at that early age, though, when he convinced the publishers that there should be a shift in priorities, telling them that he believed that it would be â€Å"infinitely better for the plates to arise naturally out of the text† (Forster). He also informed the publishers that the original concept, which was to focus on Cockney Sportsmanship was a tired subject, that had been done all too often in the past, and he himself knew very little about the subject. Dickens then proposed to alter the concept and allow for a â€Å"freer range of English scenes and people – a panorama of rural England to complement his mainly urban Sketches by Boz† (Kinsley). On March 26, 1836, The Times announced that â€Å"on the 31st would be published the first shilling of the Posthumous Papers of the Pickwick Club, edited by Boz. Shortly after, that same publication announced that on April 2nd, Mr.

Stefan Thomke

9-603-022 REV: OCTOBER 28, 2002 STEFAN THOMKE Bank of America (A) The banking industry is ripe for innovation. We need to grow through value creation and excellent service that is appreciated by customers as opposed to price alone. — Milton Jones, president, Georgia Banking Group â€Å"I wonder if we’re being ‘overrewarded’! † exclaimed Warren Butler to Amy Brady, the executive responsible for Bank of America’s Innovation & Development (I&D) Team in Atlanta, Georgia.As an executive in the consumer bank’s quality and productivity group, Butler led innovation and process change in Brady’s group, which was responsible for testing new product and service concepts for the th bank’s branches. In the company’s elegant 55 floor conference room on a day in May 2002, the two prepared for a team meeting on an important strategic decision that would affect how experimentation would be done in the I&D Market. Seeds of change wer e in the air at Bank of America.Indeed, earlier in the day, Butler had escorted an astonished visitor, a European banking executive, on a tour of some two dozen real-life â€Å"laboratories† in Atlanta. Each was a fully operating banking branch, yet in every location new product and service concepts were being tested continuously. Experiments included â€Å"virtual tellers,† video monitors displaying financial and investment news, computer stations uploading images of personal checks, and â€Å"hosting stations. † (See Exhibit 1 for a selection of experiments carried 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 expand experimentation capacity by nearly 50%. This offer appeared a vindication of the I&D Market project, which had been launched as an experiment itself only two years earlier. This rewa rd posed some tough questions. Would increasing the size of its innovation laboratories aid or inhibit the group’s ability to develop new product and services? What would be the effect on the group itself?The issue of whether it was a dedicated research and development (R&D) operation or not had yet to be resolved. And, finally, what kinds of expectations would be placed on the group if its size were to increase so dramatically? ________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ Professor Stefan Thomke and Research Associate Ashok Nimgade prepared this case. HBS cases are developed solely 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 order copies or request permission to reproduce materials, call 1-800-545-7685, write Harvard Business School Publishing, Boston, MA 02163, or go to http://www. hbsp. harvard. edu. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, used in a spreadsheet, or transmitted in any form or by any means—electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise—without the permission of Harvard Business School. 603-022 Bank of America (A) Bank of America: A Pioneer in BankingMany innovative banks have gone out of business, often because they deviated from the â€Å"best practices† followed by most. — Rick Parsons, executive vice president, Strategic Projects When Bank of America was formed in 1998 through a merger between California-based Bank of America and NationsBank of North Carolina, it could be proud of a long and rich history that spanned more than 150 years. Under its last CEO, the colorful but controversial Hugh McColl, the company had gone on a three-decade-long acquisition binge that resulted in a truly nationwide bank.In the fitting end to an era of hunting, McColl left his last annual meeting 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 centers in 21 states, more than any other financial services company and with most of them in the high-growth belts of the South and the West Coast (see Exhibit 2 for a map of the bank’s regional market share). In the United States, the bank served 27 million households 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 billion in annual revenues, $360 billion in deposits, and some $600 billion in assets (see Exhibit 3 for key financial data). Yet, increasing competition ensured that Bank of America could not rest on its laurels. Like many of its successful peers, its growth had been driven by cost reduction a nd consolidation. From 1985 until 2000, the number of U. S. banks had dwindled from around 14,000 to about 7,000. These still large numbers—especially 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 focus. Driving consolidation had been a realization that while service was local, products were national. Despite this realization, however, banks continued viewing financial services as commodities, and this bottom-line orientation did not make for an industry rife with innovation. In the estimation of Butler, a senior vice president and industry veteran, â€Å"People’s expectations for banks are very low; in fact, they’re used to being treated badly by banks. To meet the challenges of an increasingly competitive environment, Bank of America had started decentralizing its national operations and encouraged branch managers to undertake more responsibili ties. According to reengineering expert Michael Hammer, however, the era of acquisitions had left the bank with â€Å"the loopiest organizational structure I’d ever seen†Ã¢â‚¬â€organized partly by customer, partly by geography, and partly by product (see Exhibit 4 for a section of the bank’s organization). As CEO Kenneth Lewis put it, â€Å"We’d talk about customer satisfaction, 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. â€Å"Organic growth† is the strategy, reduced earnings volatility and greater profitability the goals. The plan is to make more money from essentially the same customers by selling more services. In the huge Consumer & Commercial bank, which generated 65% of earnings, that means getting a bigger â€Å"share of wallet† by encouraging 1 T. A. Stewart, â€Å"BA: Where the Money Is,† Fortune, September 3, 2001. 2 B ank of America (A) 03-022 consumers to consolidate their banking and—the Holy Grail—bring 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 needed 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 traditional as well as experimental branches, sometimes directly across the street from Bank of America’s I&D Market branches. Taking a cue from retailers such as department stores as well as coffee retailer Starbucks, WAMU started its Occasi o pilot program. A concierge at the front entrance and several casually dressed roving sales representatives carrying mobile handheld computer devices answered customer questions.Several strategically placed teller stations replaced the traditional monolithic teller counter. Play areas for children also provided parents more time for banking. The first five Occasio branches opened in Las Vegas in April 2000, and customers opened checking accounts at twice the rate of regular branches. 3 For most banks, however, little sense of urgency existed. The State of Innovation in Banking Our banking branches haven’t really changed much in the last hundred years. If Jesse James brought his gang here, he’d still know where to go for the cash. Al Groover, senior process design consultant and I&D Team design lead One of the first actions Lewis took when becoming CEO was to consult several outside executives in areas from e-commerce to process management on what they considered to be â€Å"best management practice. † â€Å"Process 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 â€Å"banks are very good at being mediocre at a lot of different things. 4 Innovation, too, would require a revolution. That banks traditionally downplayed product and service development was reflected by a near universal lack of R&D departments. The comforting, stolid shadow of the three-piece-suited banker, after all, still loomed over most large banks. New 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 executive s 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 Web site at . 4 T. A. Stewart, â€Å"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.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 wa y to overcome geography. This led to a strategy of moving customers out of branches.As a result, according to Butler, â€Å"Sometimes we were downright rude in our attempts to get people out of our branches. But eventually we realized that people like dealing with people and therefore branches were our strongest base. † Frank Petrilli, president of TD Waterhouse, the country’s second-largest discount brokerage, also acknowledged that â€Å"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’ needs for a human touch with the bank’s desire for cost-efficient, high-technology-based transaction platforms. The strategists at Bank of America re alized that such a balance could not be found overnight; nor, in a world of changing technologies, could solutions ever prove permanent. A dynamic test bed for experimenting with new banking concepts had to be found. The Innovation & Development Team VisionThe Innovation and Development Market is a test bed for creative ideas to increase customer satisfaction and grow revenues. — Amy Brady, senior vice president, I&D Team executive Every day, Bank of America processed 3. 8 million transactions—including more checks than the entire Federal Reserve System. A typical noncommercial 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 â€Å"experiment† and â€Å"mistakes† would be considered synonymous. Yet i f consumers wanted Swiss-watch precision for their money, they also craved Mediterranean warmth for their service experiences. At about 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 dimension of its bank branches as well as the human-technology interfaces.To reduce risks of large-scale failure, the bank confined its experimentation to a set of bank branches eventually called the â€Å"I&D Market. † In the controlled environment of these laboratory branches, routine transactions could be handled efficiently while customers’ wishes for a good experience could be studied and experimented with. The bank could explore myriad questions: Could people’s waiting 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, à ¢â‚¬Å"BA: Where the Money Is,† Fortune, September 3, 2001. 4 Bank of America (A) 603-022 using keyboards and other devices? How best could staff members coach 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 given 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. â€Å"What was trickier were issues such as execution and budgeting of the project. For execution-level leadership, we assigned Amy Brady, Rob Johnson, and Warren Butler, all managers with good track records of getting results on a day-to-day basis. † The team sought 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 few ideas that made it through this â€Å"filter,† experiments would be designed and planned for the I&D Market branches. Successful experiments—determined on the basis of consumer satisfaction or revenue growth—could 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 team’s experiments. Management considered this allocation generous, even for a company with $8 billion in revenues. The company’s senior leadership resisted any attempts to carve out a â€Å"president-level† special budget for the innovation and pr ocess change team, arguing that, instead of enabling it to become another cost center, the group’s funding should be tied directly to the performance of the 25 I&D banking centers.These branches also â€Å"brought their own checkbook† and paid for part of the experiments themselves. Intensive initial debates had centered on whether the new group should operate as a stand-alone R&D center. Those in favor argued that a specific budget for new products and service development would protect the team from the day-to-day responsibilities of running a bank. Without such protection, the risk always existed that short-term market pressure would stifle long-term 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 custom er 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 tinker 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 â€Å"too hypothetical and impractical. † Some feared that results from the I&D Market might then not prove duplicable elsewhere. Marrying experiments with real-world banking facilities would thus decrease cycle time for rollout. As Jones reflected on the thinking of the bank’s senior leadership: â€Å"We were really looking at being able to execute fast—so making a separate R&D center is harder. Furthermore, ideas in some R&D centers never get a chance 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, â €Å"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: Atlanta’s 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 â€Å"stable† market, with the bank’s last major acquisition there in 1996. Finally, Atlanta lay a stone’s throw from the bank’s 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 proved 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 à ¢â‚¬Å"one size fits all† mentality with three different types of branches configured to satisfy varying customer needs: â€Å"express centers,† where consumers could quickly perform routine transactions; â€Å"financial centers,† where consumers could access more complex technologies and more highly trained associates for a wider range of services; and â€Å"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 branch—a financial center—in 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 door—an idea taken from department and clothing stores. Customers no longer needed to sign in to see bank officers.At freestanding low kiosks, associates stood ready to perform transactions such as opening accounts, creating loans, retrieving copies of old checks, or, in some instances, even selling stocks and mutual funds. None of these associates had private offices. Customers could visit an â€Å"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 minutes in line watching television news monitors above the tellers’ desks or observing electronic stock tickers running along another wall.Some branches featured â€Å"investment centers† where customers, sipping complimentary coffee, could lounge on couches reading magazines, newspapers, or financial journals or hook up their personal computers. All these nontraditional items w ere, in fact, experiments. The flat-panel monitors above the tellers, for instance, represented part of the â€Å"Transaction Zone Media† experiment (detailed in a later section); the instant retrieval of old checks comprised the â€Å"ImageView† experiment; the investment centers and complimentary coffee, too, came under experimental scrutiny.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 â€Å"prototype center† in Charlotte, North Carolina, people acted out how the host would behave 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 cu stomer 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 â€Å"living laboratory. † The Walt Disney Company designed and taught them a â€Å"Bank of America Spirit† program—demonstrated in theme parks and taught through seminars as a service approach to other industries—which was a principal motivator of the team. 6 Bank of America (A) 603-022The staff at local branches put the â€Å"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: â€Å"One customer had been boycotting our branch for the past three months because of poor service; now he swears he won’t go anywhere else. † The host, a key figure who guided customers as they entere d the branch toward appropriate services, became a great success story, though at the outset the role confused some customers, particularly those with complex transactions. â€Å"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 host’s role as follows: I spend up to five minutes probing customer needs. I also intercept people going toward the old-fashioned tellers and usher them toward our innovative stations [where â€Å"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 knowing what’s 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 drop to about 25%). On one occasion, a fill-in teller, providing temporary coverage during one of the meetings, mistakenly gave a customer a â€Å"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. â€Å"This is so cool! cried out one fireman before opening an account. Experimentation, Learning, and Measurement At the end of the day, the most critical aspect of experimentation and learning is measurement. Measurements will defend you if done right; otherwise they will inhibit you. — Milton Jones, president, Georgia Banking Group Of the many difficulties the team faced, one of the thorniest was resolving â€Å"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: â€Å"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, â€Å"Even top-priority experiments need prioritization. As a result, the team started assigning priorities (high, medium, or low) based on the assumed impact 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 measured, and 20 were recommended or had been already rolled out nationally. Only four experiments eventually failed—and one of these became a â€Å"redefined† concept. 7 603-022 Bank of America (A)Central to the team’s 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 learning. High-fidelity experiments The team sought to ensure that its experiments mirrored reality, or possessed high â€Å"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 teller’s counter, for instance, would likely work just as well in regular branches as in I&D Market branches. But not all innovations might transfer 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 team’s learning. Minimize the effect of noise Isolating the effect of a particular experiment on a bank branch’s performance meant being clear on what that effect was in itself, minus â€Å"noise† factors. Such noise could arise from a variety of sources such as seasonal p erformance 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 given concept would not rely on factors unique to a given branch. Second, pairing up two similar branches, one with an experiment (the â€Å"intervention†) and the other running under normal conditions (the â€Å"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 like ly 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, â€Å"We are spoiled.We get special corporate shirts, we get parties; every quarter we have special ‘let’s talk’ sessions. We associates can even contact the regional manager if we need. Other associates envy us. So we had better do well. † Rapid feedback The cycle time for any given experiment carried out by the I&D Team was specified at 90 days. This did not include a preliminary â€Å"washout† period of a couple of weeks during which the novelty for both staff and customers hopefully subsided. Obviously, shorter turnaround 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 flop 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 team 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 experimen ts in a single branch, it would be hard to analyze the contribution of each individual experiment—another 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, â€Å"We often worry about changing too many chemicals in the mix and wonder about which one made it explode. As bankers, we’re not experts at this type of measurement. † The team planned to bring in a statistics expert to help sort out the effects of multiple variables.One of the bank’s 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 perce ntage higher than in traditional bank branches, some felt that capacity still remained for assessing additional experiments. In any case, Arcure warned that â€Å"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 up 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, â€Å"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 Spirit—technologically, 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, â€Å"We’re trying to sell ourselves to the bank. If we have too many failures, we just won’t be accepted.Currently, we may have failure within concepts, but not failure in concepts. † â€Å"We might tweak a process, but everything conforms to the status quo,† observed Wells Stanwick, Bank of America manager of channel strategy. â€Å"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: â€Å"Let’s do something really i nnovative, such as trying out loan machines similar to automatic teller machines like they do in Japan.When I mention this, some people aren’t 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 â€Å"breakthrough† product should be measured through its degree of innovation or through financial payback or both. According to Brady, â€Å"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 â€Å"mobile teller† to a technophobe, might prove less radical from a purely technical standpoint. Nor did the innovation team take financial performance into account, largely because of an anticipated lag of 18 months to 2 yea rs 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, â€Å"I believe we’re 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) â€Å"You can’t chase two rabbits at the same time. † Some team members pointed to WAMU as a possible benchmark, for it was â€Å"a competitor willing to change and willing to raise the bar. † The Transaction Zone Media Experiment A good example of the bank’s new innovation process at work was the Transaction Zone Media (TZM) experiment. Internal researchers, who â€Å"intercepted† some 1,000 customers at bank lines, noted that after about three minutes the gap between actual and perceived wait time rose exponential ly.Two focus groups with sales associates and a formal analysis by the Gallup organization provided further corroboration—and the TZM experiment was born. The team speculated, based on published psychology literature, that â€Å"entertaining† clients through television monitors above the lobby tellers would reduce perceived wait times by at least 15%. The team chose one enhanced â€Å"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 week’s 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 this 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 corporate bottom line.To do so, the team relied on a model that used the easily measurable â€Å"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 Atlanta’s I&D Market and in the high 70s to low 80s nationally. The team me asured an overall 1. 7% increase after installation of the TZM monitors. Sufficiently encouraged, it entered a second phase, to study and optimize the impact of more varied 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 â€Å"how to† issue the team faced was how to motivate its staff. Could—and should—the 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 te ller was sales associate; people in this job helped 10 Bank of America (A) 603-022 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 hosts—making many decisions without bringing in the branch manager. Some 30%–50% of associates’ compensation derived from performance bonuses based on a decade-old point system that used sales quotas—where 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,† said an internal financial consultant. For the first several months, the I&D Market maintained the conventional incentive s cheme. 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 â€Å"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. â€Å"I would not go back to my old job,† said one associate who looked forward to working every morning. â€Å"It would be like stepping several years back in terms of technology and service. † Annual â€Å"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. â€Å" Let’s be realistic,† one sales associate admitted, â€Å"you can’t be happy all day long; sometimes you have to fake it. † In January 2001, senior management switched associates in all 25 branches to fixed-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 â€Å"those in the I&D Market branches now thought they didn’t have to chin to the same level as others. † Another manager had to reassign an associate â€Å"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 â€Å"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 whether the concepts tested in prototype form would work nationally because of different market conditions. As Allen Jones, a regional executive, pointed out, â€Å"If a test is successful only under fixed-incentive schemes, then we can’t 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 management’s 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-branch 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 ex periments proved quite effective; for instance, a â€Å"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 winning proposition. The team therefore wondered 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 bank’s 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 th ree years to 28%.In the last quarter of 2001, annualized teller turnover had dropped to as low as 20%, but it was unclear 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 Atlanta branches. The bank offered tours of its gleaming prototype facilities to customers, Bank of America executives, visitors from other industries, and even competing banks. â€Å"Everyone’s eyes are on us,† admitted Allen Jones. â€Å"Just last week, one of the bank’s 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 manager’s 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 unexpect ed â€Å"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, bringing the total to 25. The new branches added much-needed experimentation capacity.Operationally, however, taking on additional branches stretched the team’s efforts thin, since it required staff retraining 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? â€Å"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. â€Å"We still make a small profit in our branches,† Brady added, â€Å"and potentially, this could cover our salaries, but it is too early to say. † Next, Brady explained how the bank’s senior leadership had offered the group yet another â€Å"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 smiles—just 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 geo graphy 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: â€Å"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 tests carried over from 2001, bringing the number of active experiments to more than 50 (see Exhibit 8a for the group’s 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 obtain cleaner and more reliable re sults. 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, â€Å"Hi, we’re here to test. † Sp ecifically, 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 predict 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 sheet, 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 bank’s senior leadership about whether to accept new branches into its experimentation portfolio. One thing that stuck in both their minds was, ironically, â€Å"failure. In particular, the need for failure so as to generate m ore learning. Failures had been few and far between so far—indeed, the last failure was that of a mortgage loan experiment whose post-mortem analyses indicated â€Å"red tape† as the cause, that is, too much paperwork at the back end. Hardly a â€Å"revolutionary† experiment, thought Brady; hardly something—even if it had worked—remarkable. For both Brady and Butler, the words of their superior, Jones, an enthusiastic champion of their efforts, rang loud: â€Å"So far, most of our experiments have been successful.Perhaps we don’t fail often enough. † 13 603-022 -14- Exhibit 1 Examples of Selected Experiments in Atlanta’s Buckhead Financial Center Media Wall Main Stock Ticker Assisted Work Station Self-Service Internet Tool Host Station Source: Bank of America. 603-022 -15- Exhibit 2 Bank of America’s 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 Operating 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 share 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 America’s 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 Processing 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) Exhibit 5 The I&D Market’s Product and Service Innovation Process and Activities 2. Planning & Design 5. Recommend 1. Idea Conception The Innovation Process 3.Implement 4. Test ! Accepts, implements, and tests ideas and concepts (â€Å"experiments†) ! Optimizes speed to market and cost ! Coordinates activities and decisions thro ugh stages Market Rollout = Go / No Go 1. Idea Conception Conceive Ideas Input: Ideas/Info Output: Updated Idea Queue Desired outcome Assess Ideas Input: Updated Idea Queue Output: Approved Ideas Decision 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 implementation 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 r ecommendation 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: Detail 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 Conclusions Improve I&D Process Input: Process/Output Measures Output: Enhancements 5. Recommend Complete Recommendation Input: Idea Test Results Output: Recommendation Review/Approve Recommendation Input: Recommendation Output: Approval Communicate Recommendation Input: Approval Output: Communication Source: Bank of America. 18 B ank 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 Express 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 news 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 Waiting 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 E xperimental Site: 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 be fore assessment* Ideas put on hold/reactivated Assessments completed — recommended for design/testing — not approved Ideas moved 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 Resource Utiliza tion Source: S. Thomke, â€Å"Enlightened Experimentation: The New Imperative for Innovation,† Harvard Business Review, February 2001. 21