The Scientific Study of Ecology Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

The Scientific Study of Ecology - Essay Example By addressing and discussing these three specific issues, not only will we be able to gain valuable information on these particular matters but on the subject of ecology as a whole. This is what will be dissertated in the following. In ecology terms, the carrying capacity of a population refers to the supportable population of an organism, and this is taking into consideration the vital factors such as food, habitat, water, and so on. There is strict mathematics involved with the carrying capacity issue, and depending on the particular situation, the impact of famine, for instance, could be quite moderate or extreme. In terms of what the possibilities are for the continued growth of a population once it has approached its carrying capacity, this really depends on the particular population being discussed, but it is very important either way here to understand that â€Å"Algorithms for estimating the carrying capacity of areas provide wildlife managers with important information for understanding and managing populations†¦The energy-based carrying capacity of an area varies with the energy required by a wildlife population and the energy available in foods in the area.† (29). In response to the issue of what process would be necessary in order to allow a population to be established and thrive in an ecological community, basically, there are several different factors that need to be taken into consideration here. In all reality, the most classical explanation is that all species are able to coexist, as long as they are â€Å"sufficiently different in their ‘niches’, the particular habitats or conditions in which they thrive or in the resources they exploit, and have corresponding weaknesses in other areas, so that no one species is able to out-compete the others.† (67).  

The Countrys Of Production Possibility Curve Economics Essay

The Countrys Of Production Possibility Curve Economics Essay (B) Assuming that the country is currently producing 40 units of goods and 70 units of services , what is opportunity cost of producing another 10 units of goods? 70-65=5units services opportunity cost (C)Explain how the figures illustrate the principle of increasing opportunity cost. Opportunity cost is the best alternative give up for the chosen option. This means without cost cannot make any decision. It also can describe as relation between choices and scarcity. The scarcity is come from factor of production is include labour, land capital and entrepreneur because it is limited resource. Therefore, we need make a choice to get a good product and giving up other product to fulfill. In the figure 1.1, company produces services and goods. In point A order to produce 80 units of services and the goods is 0 units, because the company must use all their resource in producing services. The company produces 10 units of goods and 79 units of services. The increase of goods is 10 units therefore company need to give up 1 unit of services to produce goods because no enough resource to make it. In point b, if the company wants to produce 40 unit of goods, the company could only produce 70 units of services due to the scarcity of resource. In point C, the company has already utilized all the resources in produce 100 units of goods, therefore, the company will have no other resource to produce services in the market. According to figure 1.1, point A, B, and C are the most efficiency allocation of resource in production possibility curve. Point G and F are not efficiency allocation of resource. Point G is the impossible points to produce the output, because the company didnt have enough resource such as labour, land, capital and entrepreneur to produce output. Point F is a wastage of resource, because the company no plan well. For example, Samsung Company produces LCD television and radio. When each additional produce LCD television, Samsung Company will give up produce radio and increase the sales of LCD television, because the resources are limited. When the Samsung Company used all resource to produce LCD television, Samsung Company fully give up produce radio. When increasing produce 10 units of LCD television, Samsung Company will decrease 10 units of radio for the additional producing 10 units of LCD television. So, the opportunity cost is 10 units of radio. (D)Now assume that technical progress leads to a per cent increase in the output of goods for any given amount of resources. Draw the new production possibility curve. How has the opportunity cost of producing extra units of services altered? Table goods and services: Units of goods 0 11 22 33 44 55 66 77 88 99 110 Units of services 80 79 77 74 70 65 58 48 35 19 0 In the figure 1.2, company increase 10 per cent in the output of goods. If the company utilized all the resources to produce goods, maximum units of goods can been produce increase to 110 units. When the company increases producing units of services from 0 to 19 units, units of goods can be produce decrease from 110 to 99 units. That means, the opportunity cost is 11 (110-99=11). While the company increases producing units of services from 19 to 35 units, units of goods can be produce decrease from 99 to 88 units because the resource not enough to produce more than that amount of goods and the rest. That means, opportunity cost is 11 (99-88=11). From the figure 1.2, the opportunity cost of producing extra units of services is constants at 11 units. Example, Sony Company produces camera and android hand phone. In long term, market have potential to increase the unit android phone ,therefore each additional produce android, Sony Company will give up produce camera and increase to produce of android hand phone , because the factor of production are limited. According to NEXUS PRO ECONOMI ASAS by Theng Kock Leing, the opportunity cost can be defined which 2 alternative goods and services when each goods produce must give up some services. 2(A) What are the equilibrium price and quantity? Equilibrium price: RM5 Equilibrium quantity: 12 millions (B)Assume that changes in fashion cause the demand for t-shirts to rise by 4 million at each price. What will be the new equilibrium price and quantity? Has equilibrium quantity risen as much the rise in demand? Explain why or why not. Demand is defined as a consumer desires to own and willingness to buy some goods and services at suitable price and time. Demand also can define as a consumer willing buy and pay for the goods and services. Willingness to get some goods and services without the ability to pay not defined as demand. For example, MR LEE want to buy Proton Saga but he dont have ability to pay the money therefore this is calling willingness not call demand. On the other hand, if MR LEE has the ability to pay the price of car then the willingness MR LEE will become demand. Supply is defined as quantity of goods and services willingness and ability to supply or produce by firm at a suitable price and time set by the consumer. Price will affect quantity supply by consumer because different price will supply different quantity. Supply goods and services will affect by certain period of time. When the changed of certain period of time, supply of goods and services will be changed. According to law of demand, while the price of goods and services increase will affect the quantity of demand decrease assume Ceteris Paribus. On the other hand, the price of goods and services decrease will affect the quantity of demand increase therefore the relationship of price and quantity is negative. According law of supply, while the price of goods and services increase will affect the quantity of supply decrease assume Ceteris Paribus. On the other hand, the price of goods and services decrease will affect the quantity of supply increase therefore the relationship of price is positive. When the demand for t-shirts rise by 4 million, the new equilibrium price is RM6 and the new equilibrium quantity are 14 units. The equilibrium quantity is rise to 14 units from 12 units as rise in demand. When quantity of demand t-shirts rise 4 million, the quantity demand curve shift to right with the quantity supply fix. With the increasing in quantity demand, quantity demand is more that quantity supply at the equilibrium price at RM5. The firm will increase the price of t-shirts from RM5 to RM6 to decrease the excess demand. The new equilibrium will achieve at price RM6 and quantity 14 units of t-shirts. With the quantity supply fix and the changing of quantity demand will make the price and quantity change. As the conclusion, the initial equilibrium price RM5 will change to RM6 and the equilibrium quantity increase from 12 units to 14 units as the increase quantity demand. (C) Now plot the data in the table and mark the equilibrium. Also plot the new data corresponding to (B) Price(RM) 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 Quantity demanded 6 8 10 12 14 16 18 20 Quantity supplied 18 16 14 12 10 8 6 4 New quantity of demand Price(RM) 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 Quantity demanded 10 12 14 16 18 20 22 24 Quantity supplied 18 16 14 12 10 8 6 4

Symbolism in the Loss of Light in Macbeth :: essays research papers

'Light' symbolizes truth, goodness, awareness, innocence and purity, everything linked to positive attributes. Light can represent anything Godly and saintly. ‘Darkness’ is the opposite of light. It symbolizes evil, unawareness, mischief, blindness and treachery. Firstly, both the murders of King Duncan and Banquo are committed at night, when the sun has set and darkness has fallen. Furthermore, when Lady Macbeth plots the murder of King Duncan she calls the â€Å"thick night† to â€Å"pall† â€Å"in the dunnest smoke of Hell† to hide her actions. She depends on the darkness to carry out the sinister deed. In addition, before and after the murder, there is much mention of nocturnal animals, for example, how the â€Å"owls shriek’d† and the â€Å"crickets cry†. Macbeth also tells the stars to â€Å"hide their fire†, which shows a reference to one of King Duncan’s lines when he mentions that â€Å"the signs of nobility are like stars†. Therefore Macbeth wants to hide the light when he does the deed. After the murder of King Duncan, Ross speaks to an old man about it, and of how the â€Å"dark Night strangles the traveling lamp†. He also mentions â€Å"Night’s predominance† over â€Å"the Day’s shame†. He probably thinks that the loss of Duncan equates to loss of everything ‘proper’, since he speaks of strange happenings, like horses eating their own kind. This displays a state of chaos and unawareness which is linked to darkness. Towards the end of Act 3 scene 2, Macbeth speaks of his plan to kill Banquo, and he then calls the â€Å"sealing Night (to) scarf up the tender eye of pitiful day†. He also mentions that the â€Å"Good things of day begin to droop and drowse / Whiles Night’s black agents to their preys do rouse†, which yet again makes a reference to nocturnal animals (preys). It also shows darkness taking over light, or in this case, Macbeth’s evil plot to get rid of the â€Å"worthy Banquo†.

Sports Event in School

Sport events in our school Sports are very important in everyone’s life as they give pleasure, health, discipline, happiness, self-control and sporting spirit. Sports can learn students’ physical co-ordination and social lessons about winning and losing. There is a well-known proverb â€Å"All works and no play make Jack a dull boy†. It is full of wisdom. After the day’s work in class, students need some healthy recreation to refresh their minds. Education without sports is really incomplete. So, sports are important in every school for clever and healthy students.They are several kinds of sports some are outdoor and some are indoor. In our school, the schoolboys play football, volleyball, basketball, table -tennis, chess, and so on. The school playground is no less important than the school lessons. It is on the playground that we learn to face defeat with a smiling face. So, the school playground helps the students to fight the battle of life like brave soldiers and heroes. Our school has two playgrounds to play football and two for playing basketball. There will be tournaments to play football in every Grade from Grade-4 to Grade-11.There is an each team in every section and so if there are six sections in Grade-9, there will be six teams and a tournament is held until there are two teams to pay the final match. All schoolboys look active and alert with their team track-suit. There are also tournaments to play each sport. Teachers in charge will take care of their pupils in playground during tournament. They give them fresh limes and purified drinking water. The red-cross schoolboys and teachers are ready to help the injured players. The Headmaster will give the prize to the winners and the champion team who gets the first prize will take a group photograph.In January, there are interschool sports competitions that include track and field sports such as running, jumping and throwing events. The running events are sprints, middle d istance races, long distance races, hurdle and relay races. The jumping events are high jump and pole vault. The throwing events are short put, discus and javelin. Team sports can be played by two teams. A team has been organized with some players. They must have team-spirit and they fight the rival team collectively. Thus team sports make one less selfish. They know the value of team work and playing together makes them friendlier.A player must have stamina and be patient. He must not easily down-hearted. If the players of one team become excited, they may lose their chance. The carelessness of one may make the team defeated. So, players are inspired team-spirit by playing team sports. A true sportsman never thinks of winning the sports by hook or by crook. He never wins victory by foul play and we know that â€Å"Honesty is the best policy†. So team sports are essential to health, happiness, progress and unity. We gain a lot of benefits from playing sport events and student s should take part in these sport events.

Freedom of Speech: Abused from Abroad Essay

The constitution was designed to protect us from tyranny and abuse by government and dictators. Our policies need to protect us from those that would slander a segment or our population. Foreign hate groups direct their views to those protected by the same document that affords them their right to post. Freedom of Speech: Abused from Abroad The first amendment protects the rights of Americans to have free speech even if that speech is hate speech but it should not be used to protect foreign hate speech just because it is hosted on an American server. The First Amendment really does distinguish the U. S. not just from Canada but from the rest of the Western world. (Liptak, 2008) Given the nearly unanimous international institution of regulations restricting online hate speech, the United States stands alone in its support of free speech—including Internet hate speech. (Breckheimer, 2011) These are good examples of our first amendment and how it is perceived across the globe. We are known for our liberal view of free speech protections and based on our history of oppression by monarchs and the purpose for us to seek a new land to call our own it fits our nation well to have such an amendment in place to protect the rights of our citizens. I feel that this very right is being abused by foreign hate groups who not only direct their rhetoric towards others in their own countries but also towards U. S. Citizens who are being protected by the very document that allows them to be harassed from afar. Many countries that we consider our allies have laws that prohibit hate speech and they level severe penalties upon those who break these laws. I support the right to free speech for every American as accorded by the first amendment. I do not support providing that same right to those who are not Americans and do not hold themselves to the same values that we Americans hold ourselves to. Free speech is just one of the things that make Americans unique in the world. To claim the right of first amendment free speech you need to be an American citizen. Our first amendment was not meant to be used as a shield for foreign dissidents wishing to bypass their countries laws. As a world citizen the United States needs to make certain that we respect each country for it rules and regulations as we would wish them to respect ours. We need to change our foreign policy to reflect the fact that our constitution was meant for Americans and not for the world. To allow foreign groups to host their messages on our servers even if we agree with their message shows that we as a nation do not respect the governing body of the nation and it’s laws. We should be extra vigilant to protect our citizens from the ranting’s of foreign hate groups. The first amendment was meant to protect the citizens of the United States and not those wishing to belittle and malign its citizens. Paul Przybylski wrote that because many servers, and especially those that spread hate speech content, are stationed within the United States, any solution without U.

Abington School vs. Schempp essays

Abington School vs. Schempp essays Abington School District vs. Schempp In 1949, a state-wide law was passed in Pennsylvania that required public school students to read scriptures from the Bible and recite the Lords Prayer everyday in class. This law stayed intact until Edward Schempp challenged it nine years later. Pennsylvania wasnt the first or the only state to enforce law making it mandatory for students to read from the Bible during school. Twenty-five additional states had laws allowing optional reading for the Bible. But in eleven of the twenty-five states, courts had decided those laws were unconstitutional. Mr. Schempp took the case to court in to 1958, claiming that required reading for the Bible and recitation of the Lords Pray prohibited free exercise of religion for his children, and was therefore unconstitutional, under the First Amendment. Mr. Schempp son, Ellory, stated under oath, that he didnt not believe in Jesus Christ, or the Christian beliefs. He testified that ideas opposing to his were presented to him while he was at school in Abington High. He received punishment because he refused to stand at attention during the recitation of the Lords Prayer and when requested to leave during the exercise, his demands were denied. One of the greatest witnesses was Rabbi Dr. Solomon Grayzel. Dr. Grayzel explained the psychological harm that could come from reading the New Testament without explanation. The context of the New Testament, without explanation of the work, had caused grievances in Jewish children while in similar required situations. This also came to show that if a Jewish child could be offended and upset by the Bible reading, any child of a family rejecting the principles of the Trinity and Jesus Christ would be equally offended, to the point that reading the Bible could be considered blasphemous. In argument for the recitation of the Lords Prayer, they ...

Sample Letter of Recommendation for an Internal Promotion

Sample Letter of Recommendation for an Internal Promotion SAT / ACT Prep Online Guides and Tips Beyond helping someone get an initial hire, recommendation letters can also go a long way toward assisting someone with an internal promotion. If the promotion involves moving into a position of leadership, then a great rec letter from a supervisor or colleague can be useful in showing that the candidate's ready to move up. In this sample reference, a supervisor recommends that a Customer Experience Advisor at a glasses company move into the position of Team Lead. Read on to see how the supervisor frames her letter. Sample Letter #5: Written by a Supervisor for an Internal Promotion Zachary ParkerDirector of Customer RelationsLark Lenses102 Charles St.Boston, MA 02114 Dear Zachary Parker, It’s my pleasure to provide this recommendation for Alex as she pursues the Customer Experience Team Lead position with Lark Lenses. As her supervisor on the customer service team for the past three years, I’ve worked closely with Alex on a day-to-day basis. I'm confident that Alex is ready to transition into a leadership position. Please allow me to give three examples of Alex’s qualifications for this promotion. First, Alex embodies our â€Å"customer-centric† philosophy and delivers an extraordinary shopping and ownership experience to our clients. She has impressed me with her warmth, wisdom, and kindness online, over the phone, and in person. A few months ago, for example, she spent an hour consoling a woman who was going through a tough time. The customer has since bought several glasses from us and referred friends and family members who have done the same. Alex builds strong relationships with customers and strengthens our business in the long term. Outstanding support is a cornerstone of our business model, and Alex consistently provides that service as a Customer Experience Advisor. Second, Alex has an in-depth knowledge of our products and operating procedures. After three years on the support team, she’s dealt with a variety of issues and understands the day-to-day operations and big picture aims of our business. She can solve problems fast and has introduced several new initiatives for improvement. Recently, she began working on a new framework to facilitate communication between the support team and the product team. Alex is improving the delivery of case notes from support representatives to product designers. She uses her in-depth knowledge to drive innovation. Third, Alex has shown leadership skills throughout her time with Lark Lenses. Her colleagues recognize her as an expert in all things support, and they often go to her with questions. In the past year, she’s helped with the onboarding of several new employees, assisting with training and checking in weekly to discuss their progress. Since new employee onboarding will be a large part of her role as Customer Experience Team Lead, Alex has already proven her capability in this arena. I know that she has her colleagues’ support in stepping into the role of team leader. Alex has proven her expertise in customer relations time and time again, and she is ready to move into a position of team leadership. She is capable, confident, and committed to our mission of extraordinary support. I look forward to seeing her in the position of Customer Experience Team Lead with Lark Lenses. Thank you very much. Please feel free to get in touch with any questions. Sincerely, Lucie WarbyCustomer Experience ManagerLark Lenseslwarby@larklenses.com617-729-5555 // Based on this letter, Alex sounds like the kind of warm, understanding person who wouldn't judge you if you were shopping for eyeglasses for your dog. Recommendation Letter 5: The Breakdown While you may write a letter for someone seeking external employment, you might also get tasked with producing a letter in support of an employee seeking an internal promotion. In this case, you should focus on why the candidate is the right person to move up in the company. How has she proven her capabilities in terms of both her professional skills and connections with her coworkers? In this letter, Lucie Warby expresses her support for Alex’s promotion from Customer Experience Adviser to Customer Experience Team Lead. She focuses on three main strengths: Alex’s customer service, her knowledge and innovative ideas, and her leadership skills among her colleagues. Lucie discusses Alex’s success as a support representative and the reasons she’s ready to move into a position of leadership. To give a few specifics, Lucie mentions Alex’s supportive conversation with a distraught customer. She also talks about her project to deliver case notes from the support team to the design team. // Finally, Lucie mentions how Alex has helped train new employees, a responsibility that would be a large part of her job as team lead. From Lucie’s portrayal, it’s clear that Alex has already started to move beyond the parameters of her current job and take on a leadership role. As a supervisor within the same company, Lucie’s high opinion of Alex’s work would hold a lot of weight. She knows the company and can speak realistically to Alex’s fit with the new position. By stating that Alex already has the support of her team, Lucie further proves that Alex could be the right choice for Customer Experience Team Lead. This letter uses strong, positive language and specific examples to support Alex as she applies for an internal promotion with Lark Lenses. What's Next? Ready for another sample? Check out this letter written by a supervisor for a student intern! // Are you looking for even more samples of recommendation letters for jobs? Head over to our main article for eight more samples and tips on how to write great reference letters. Want to provide a strong recommendation for your employee, but don't have the time to craft the perfect letter? PrepScholar's new recommendation tool, SimpleRec, takes you from good intentions and a blank page to a fully written and formatted letter of recommendation in under 5 minutes. All you need to do is give us some simple pieces of information about your employee and your experience working with them, and we'll do the rest. Try out SimpleRec risk-free today:

Jellyfish Facts

Jellyfish Facts Among the most extraordinary animals on earth, jellyfish (Cnidarians, scyphozoans, cubozoans, and hydrozoans) are also some of the most ancient, with an evolutionary history stretching back for hundreds of millions of years. Found in all oceans of the world, jellies are made up of 90 to 95 percent water, compared to 60 percent for humans. Fast Facts: Jellyfish Scientific Name: Cnidarian; scyphozoan, cubozoan, and hydrozoanCommon Name: Jellyfish, jelliesBasic Animal Group: InvertebrateSize: Bell diameter of two-tenths of an inch to over six and a half feetWeight: Under an ounce to 440 poundsLifespan: Vary between a few hours to a few yearsDiet:  Carnivore, HerbivoreHabitat: Oceans throughout the worldPopulation: UnknownConservation Status: Not Evaluated Description Named after the Greek word for sea nettle, cnidarians are marine animals characterized by their jelly-like bodies, their radial symmetry, and their cnidocytes- cells on their tentacles that literally explode when stimulated by prey. There are about 10,000 cnidarian species, roughly half of which are anthozoans (a family that includes corals and sea anemones); the other half are scyphozoans, cubozoans, and hydrozoans (what most people refer to when they use the word jellyfish). Cnidarians are among the oldest animals on earth: Their fossil record stretches back for almost 600 million years. Jellyfish come in a wide variety of shapes and sizes. The largest is the lions mane jellyfish (Cyanea capillata), which can have a bell over six and a half feet in diameter and weigh up to 440 pounds; the smallest is the Irukandji jellyfish, several species of dangerous jellyfishes found in tropical waters, which measure only about two-tenths of an inch and weigh well under a tenth of an ounce. Jellyfish lack  a central nervous system, a circulatory system,  and a respiratory system. Compared to vertebrate animals, they are extremely simple organisms, characterized mainly by their undulating bells (which contain their stomachs) and their dangling, cnidocyte-spangled tentacles. Their nearly organless bodies consist of just three layers- the outer epidermis, the middle mesoglea, and the inner gastrodermis. Water makes up 95 to 98 percent of their total bulk, compared to about 60 percent for the average human being. Jellyfish are equipped with hydrostatic skeletons, which sound like they might have been invented by Iron Man, but are actually an innovation that evolution hit on hundreds of millions of years ago. Essentially, the bell of a jellyfish is a fluid-filled cavity surrounded by circular muscles; the jelly contracts its muscles, squirting water in the opposite direction from where it wishes to go. Jellyfish arent the only animals to possess hydrostatic skeletons; they can also be found in starfish, earthworms, and various other invertebrates. Jellies can also move along ocean currents, thus sparing themselves the effort of undulating their bells. Weirdly, box jellies, or cubozoans, are equipped with as many as two dozen eyes- not primitive, light-sensing patches of cells, as in some other marine invertebrates, but true eyeballs composed of lenses, retinas, and corneas. These eyes are paired around the circumference of their bells, one pointing upward,  one pointing downward- this gives some box jellies a 360-degree range of vision, the most sophisticated visual sensing apparatus in the animal kingdom. Of course, these eyes are used to detect prey and avoid predators, but their main function is to keep the box jelly properly oriented in the water. Wikimedia Commons Species Scyphozoans, or true jellies, and cubozoans, or box jellies, are the two classes of cnidarians comprising the classic jellyfish; the main difference between them is that cubozoans have boxier-looking bells than scyphozoans and are slightly faster. There are also hydrozoans (most species of which never got around to forming bells and instead remain in polyp form) and staurozoans, or stalked jellyfish, which are attached to the seafloor. (Scyphozoans, cubozoans, hydrozoans, and staurozoans are all classes of medusozoans, a clade of invertebrates directly under the cnidarian order.) Diet Most jellyfish eat fish eggs, plankton, and fish larvae, converting them to energy in an alarming pattern known as an energy-loss pathway. That kind of pathway consumes energy that would otherwise be used by forage fish who can be eaten by top-level consumers.  Instead, that energy is being communicated to animals which eat jellyfish, not part of the higher food chain. Other species, like upside-down jellies (Cassiopea species) and Australian Spotted Jellyfish (Phyllorhiza punctata), have symbiotic relationships with algae (zooxanthellae), and they obtain enough carbohydrates from them to not need additional food sources.   Lions mane jellyfish (Cyanea capillata) eating Sarsia tubulosa.   Cultura RF/Alexander Semenov/Getty Images Behavior Jellyfish practice what is called vertical migration, arising from the ocean depths to the surface in large aggregations known as blooms. In general, they bloom in the spring, reproduce in the summer, and die off in the fall. But different species have different patterns; some migrate once or twice a day, and some migrate horizontally following the sun. The jellies most injurious to humans, the Irukandji species, undergo seasonal migrations which bring them into contact with swimmers in the tropics. Jellyfish spend all of their time is seeking food, escaping predators, or finding a mate- some set a trap with their tentacles arranged in a spiral pattern, an impenetrable curtain for their prey, or array their tentacles in a big field around their bodies. Others simply drift or swim slowly, dragging their tentacles behind them like a trawler net.   Some species are pleustonic, meaning they live at the air/water interface year round. Those include the sailing jellies, like the Portuguese man-of-war, the Blue Bottle, and the By-the-Wind Sailor Jelly (Velella vellal), which has an oblong blue raft and a silvery vertical sail. Like most invertebrate animals, jellyfish have very short lifespans: Some small species live for only a few hours, while the largest varieties, like the lions mane jellyfish, may survive for a few years. Controversially, one Japanese scientist claims that the jellyfish species Turritopsis dornii is effectively immortal: Full-grown individuals have the ability to revert back to the polyp stage, and thus, theoretically, can cycle endlessly from adult to juvenile form. Unfortunately, this behavior has only been observed in the laboratory, and T. dornii can easily die in many other ways (such as being eaten by predators or washing up on the beach). Reproduction and Offspring Jellyfish hatch from eggs which are fertilized by males after females expel the eggs into the water. What emerges from the egg is a free-swimming planula, which looks a bit like a giant paramecium. The planula soon  attaches itself to a firm surface (the sea floor, a rock, even the side of a fish) and grows into a stalked polyp reminiscent of a scaled-down coral or anemone. Finally, after months or even years, the polyp launches itself off its perch and becomes an ephyra (for all intents and purposes, a juvenile jellyfish), and then grows to its full size as an adult jelly. Humans and Jellyfish People worry about black widow spiders and rattlesnakes, but pound for pound, the most dangerous animal on earth may be the sea wasp (Chironex fleckeri). The biggest of all box jellies- its bell is about the size of a basketball and its tentacles are up to 10 feet long- the sea wasp prowls the waters of Australia and southeast Asia, and its sting is known to have killed at least 60 people over the last century. Just grazing a sea wasps tentacles will produce excruciating pain, and if contact is widespread and prolonged, a human adult can die in as little as two to five minutes. Most poisonous animals deliver their venom by biting- but not jellyfish (and other cnidarians), which have evolved specialized structures called nematocysts. There are thousands of nematocysts in each of the thousands of cnidocytes on a jellyfishs tentacles; when stimulated, they build up an internal pressure of over 2,000 pounds per square inch and explode, piercing the skin of the unfortunate victim and delivering thousands of tiny doses of venom. So potent are nematocysts that they can  be activated even when a jellyfish is beached or dying, which accounts for incidents where dozens of people are stung by a single, seemingly expired jelly. Threats Jellyfish are prey for sea turtles, crabs, fish, dolphins, and terrestrial animals: There are some 124 fish species and 34 other species that are reported to feed either occasionally or mainly on jellyfish. Jellyfish often establish symbiotic or parasitic relationships with other species- the parasitic ones are almost always detrimental to the jellyfish. Many species- sea anemones, brittle stars, gooseneck barnacles, lobster larvae and fish- hitch rides on jellyfish, finding safety from predators in the folds. Octopuses are known to use jellyfish tentacle fragments on sucker arms as added defensive/offensive weaponry, and dolphins tend to treat some species like underwater frisbees. Jellyfish have been considered a delicacy for human diets since at least 300 CE in China. Today, fisheries raising jellyfish for food exist in 15 countries.   But jellyfish may have the last laugh. Far from being a threatened species, jellyfish are on the increase, moving into habitats that have been damaged or destroyed for other marine creatures. Increased blooms can have negative impacts on human economic activities, clogging cooling water intakes at coastal power plants, bursting fishing nets and contaminating catches, killing off fish farms, reducing commercial fish abundance through competition, and interfering with fisheries and tourism. The primary causes for habitat destruction are human over-fishing and climate change, so the reason for the uptick in jellyfish blooms can be assigned to human interference. Alastair Pollock Photography/Getty Images Sources Chiaverano, Luciano M., et al. Evaluating the Role of Large Jellyfish and Forage Fishes as Energy Pathways, and Their Interplay with Fisheries, in the Northern Humboldt Current System. Progress in Oceanography 164 (2018): 28–36. Print.Dong, Zhijun. Chapter 8 - Blooms of the Moon Jellyfish Aurelia: Causes, Consequences and Controls. World Seas: An Environmental Evaluation (Second Edition). Ed. Sheppard, Charles: Academic Press, 2019. 163–71. Print.Gershwin, Lisa-ann. Jellyfish: A Natural History.  Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2016.Hays, Graeme C., Thomas K. Doyle, and Jonathan D. R. Houghton. A Paradigm Shift in the Trophic Importance of Jellyfish? Trends in Ecology Evolution 33.11 (2018): 874–84. Print.Richardson, Anthony J., et al. The Jellyfish Joyride: Causes, Consequences and Management Responses to a More Gelatinous Future. Trends in Ecology Evolution 24.6 (2009): 312–22. Print.Shikina, Shinya, and Ching-Fong Chang. Cnidaria. Encyclopedia of Reproduction (Second Edition). Ed. Skinner, Michael K. Oxford: Academic Press, 2018. 491–97. Print.

Executives Transition Management and Succession Planning of Non-profit Coursework

Executives Transition Management and Succession Planning of Non-profit Organizations - Coursework Example Starting from planning for the departure of an executive to the entry of a new leader, ETM encompasses three phases that include Prepare, Pivot as well as Thrive. On the other hand, Succession Planning entails the practice of preparing an organization for a leadership change regardless of whether it is planned or unplanned. One of the major aspects that makes Succession Planning an effective strategy is that it entails developing a board succession policy that is essential in providing tactics for enhancing leadership. In addition, as companies emulate the culture of succession planning, they create an important base through which the firm initiates talent development and leadership development. As stipulated by Tom Adams, nonprofits organizations highly value improving leadership through talent management are leadership management. Executives Transition Management in the article by Tom Adams is depicted in one of the food banks in the Midwest. Having been under the leadership of a female CEO whose performance was remarkable; the food bank experienced an expansive growth. When the CEO decided to retire, the board was very worried since they saw high chances of failure. However, through the guidance of the board chairman, the organization sought the help of a local banker who was exposed to ETM (Adams, 2009). This also entailed hiring of an ETM consultant and the formation of a Transition Committee to oversee the implementation of ETM policy. In this regard, the board of directors hired a new executive who was aimed at enhancing the activities of the food bank in its endeavor to fight hunger. As a result of the adoption of the ETM, the organization experienced various benefits. First, it helped in the exit of the founder and the hiring of new executives. In this way, the continuity of the organization activities was achieved.     

Anne Boykin and Savina O. Schoenhofer's Nursing as Caring Theory Assignment

Anne Boykin and Savina O. Schoenhofer's Nursing as Caring Theory - Assignment Example The authors specifically state that nursing is not only a profession but also a discipline. Boykin and Schoenhofer (2010) claim that the Nursing as Caring Theory is a better framework to improve an individual’s understanding of caring as it particularly emphasizes the need of nursing knowledge to increase the care quality and patient safety (p.371). Since this knowledge comes from situations, the Anne Boykin and Savina O. Schoenhofer consider nursing situation as a key concept of the theory. In actual practice, this theory makes significant contributions to nursing practice, nursing administration, nursing education, and nursing research and development. The Nursing as Caring theory enhances nurses’ knowledge about caring their clients in creative and individualized ways in a situation-specific environment. In addition, as Purnell (2013) purports, this framework assists nursing administrators to develop and implement policies within the organization in order to improve operational efficiency and thereby to achieve higher degree of patient safety (p.371). Evid ently, a clear understanding of personhood contributes notably to nursing knowledge and education. This theoretical framework can be better used by researchers to explore the patterns of caring personality and improve the quality of the care delivered. Since Nursing as Caring is a grand theory, it can be applied to real life situations in collaboration with other nursing theories like Watsons theory of nursing or Orems theory of nursing. Today the growing number of clinical errors becomes a great threat to the medical field, and in most cases the issue is caused by the negligence of caring staff. Here the theory of Nursing as Caring can be applied to improve the situation because this theory greatly emphasizes the virtue of humanness in a caring environment. When humanness is valued greatly and considerable importance is given to care

Write an academic report that is clear,concise & cohesive on the topic Essay

Write an academic report that is clear,concise & cohesive on the topic of THE IMPORTANCE OF LANGUAGE - Essay Example In most instances, language is defined as verbal behavior, including body movements and gestures (Campbell & Green, 2006). Language is an integral constituent of the human activity playing a central part in the experiences and events of daily life of humans. This essay explains the meaning of language, importance of language in communication, the importance of language in civilization and the importance of language to culture. Oral language is a skill acquired naturally by small children. However, early childhood development cannot be overstressed, but it is a platform, which enables children to read and write. Assigning a meaning to sentences and words involves interpretation, which is mainly influenced by an individual’s attitudes, topic knowledge and experiences. Therefore, during communication individuals arrive at different meanings during a conversation. The principal means of communication in any society is spoken language although written communication also plays a vital role (Fellowes & Oakley, 2010).Language can be expressed orally through a generation of speech, which facilitates speech through an employment of signs systematically. It is a complex physical process, which involves the use of the vocal tract in controlling and shaping moving air in various ways in order to produce sounds. A speech comprises of fluency, voice and articulation. Language is extremely an important way used by human beings to interact. Language is used to express the needs of individuals and ask others questions. Language is modified in every situation, for instance, the tone used to address children at home is different from the tone used in business meetings. In order to communicate effectively, individuals send a message comprising actions, words and gestures. Therefore, communication is two-way since the recipient is as important as the sender is (Gee & Hayes, 2011). Through language,

The English Reformation Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

The English Reformation - Essay Example This paragraph will examine the role of Martin Luther in the reformation of Western Civilization. Church has been dominating force in Western Civilization and over the period of time, it assumed the central role across different Regions because of the Catholic majority. What is, however, critical to note that many people actually considered Pope and Church involved in the worldly affairs and distracting from the original mandate of the same. Martin Luther was the person who basically called for the reformation of the Catholic Church and set the foundation for Protestant movement. By presenting his 95 theses he called for the full reforms of the Church and set forth the chain reaction which actually ensured personal freedom and proved as a move towards more liberal and open society in Western civilization. (Mullett) This will discuss the role of John Calvin in the reformation of the Western Civilization and how his theology challenged the Catholic Church. John Calvin played even a bigger role in the reformation process and his achievements are considered as even better than that of Martin Luther. Probably his greatest achievement in terms of the Reformation was further solidification of Protestant ideology and the flourishing of the Protestant churches across Europe. Though he and Luther shared the same theology, however, his influence in Germany proved as one of the deciding factors in terms of the spread of Protestantism across the region. The birth of Puritans, therefore, proved as a vital development which challenged the position of the established Catholic Church and appointed their own ministers without reporting to the Church. Calvin, therefore, was instrumental in founding what is now called Calvinism and was an important figure in reformation.  

PRESENTATION REPORT Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words - 1

PRESENTATION REPORT - Essay Example History proves that the Gospel of John was written on the polite demand of the Bishops of Asia so that the history of Jesus remains alive in the eyes of Christian people. His writing also proves that it is solely for the Greek readers (Smith 1988, p. 433). John describes the whole story and shows the different viewpoint as compared to previous writers. The purpose of the writing of the Gospel of John was not to add materials in the previous Gospels. For that reason, he added authentic information in the fourth Gospel. His purpose of writing was also not to negate the Cerinthian heresy. In his writing, he just stated the truth in a different or unique way. He also not intended to resolve the problems of the harsh parties by giving them a lesson of unity, just like the Tubingen school did not disapprove Jewish opposition and criticism. This viewpoint is so much famous among scholars (Von Wahlde 1995, p. 381) The purpose of writing the fourth Gospel is to prove that Jesus is the Christ and he is the son of God and one should have a spiritual association with him. He also explains that he has a close relationship with his father. In this case, any other person who is spiritually close to Jesus is automatically close to God. In that time period, Cerinthian heresy was famous among Christians, but because of the Gospel of John, Christians were again attracted towards their own religion and followings. The author of the fourth Gospel was a Palestinian Jew. In his writing he shows that he is closely attached and follows the Jewish customs. He knew the Jews religious customs and followership entirely (De Jonge, 1993, p. 349). He also knew, it is entirely an illegal and non-religious thing to alter the pious book and he could face the bad circumstances. He knew there were strict thoughts and rules, that were followed in the Jewish world and it was unlawful to change the Sabbath, 5: 1 ff.; 9:14 ff. He knew the hopes of Jewish

Commercialization Plan Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Commercialization Plan - Essay Example The Sweet Cat center provides safe and secure daycare for children aged up to 7 years. Market research helps in gathering valuable information from the customers (Klopper, 2000). The Sweet Cat center will carry out market research to gauge the level of customer satisfaction. Improvements and modifications in its services will be carried out accordingly. The center also plans to gather information on the unmet needs of the customers and devise appropriate strategies to satisfy those needs. The Sweet Cat centre will strive to provide top-notch day care services. Since the company operates in the services sector, it will pay due attention to all the 7 Ps of services; product, place, price, promotion, physical evidence, processes and people (Khan, 2014). Sweet Cat will provide close personal attention to each child. The centre will provide a combination of educational and recreational services to ensure holistic development of the children. Sweet Cat has a vast repertoire of toys and games for children. The company will continue to add on to its existing collection of toys and books. At the same time, we will dispose of old worn out and out-dated material. The walls of the Sweet Cat center will have pictures of various cartoon characters. This will ensure that the overall ambience of the centre remains lively and vibrant where children can relax and enjoy. The appropriate physical evidence is bound to attract the target market (Buttle, 1994). Our center recognizes the fact that infants require special care. Therefore we will have a dedicated team of employees to cater to this segment. The center will offer some water-based activities to add to the fun quotient. It will also have kitchen facility to prepare food for the children. We, at Sweet Cat center are committed to providing top notch services to our clients. It will be mandatory for all employees of the center to undergo periodic training programs. This training will be arranged by the

PRESENTATION REPORT Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words - 1

PRESENTATION REPORT - Essay Example History proves that the Gospel of John was written on the polite demand of the Bishops of Asia so that the history of Jesus remains alive in the eyes of Christian people. His writing also proves that it is solely for the Greek readers (Smith 1988, p. 433). John describes the whole story and shows the different viewpoint as compared to previous writers. The purpose of the writing of the Gospel of John was not to add materials in the previous Gospels. For that reason, he added authentic information in the fourth Gospel. His purpose of writing was also not to negate the Cerinthian heresy. In his writing, he just stated the truth in a different or unique way. He also not intended to resolve the problems of the harsh parties by giving them a lesson of unity, just like the Tubingen school did not disapprove Jewish opposition and criticism. This viewpoint is so much famous among scholars (Von Wahlde 1995, p. 381) The purpose of writing the fourth Gospel is to prove that Jesus is the Christ and he is the son of God and one should have a spiritual association with him. He also explains that he has a close relationship with his father. In this case, any other person who is spiritually close to Jesus is automatically close to God. In that time period, Cerinthian heresy was famous among Christians, but because of the Gospel of John, Christians were again attracted towards their own religion and followings. The author of the fourth Gospel was a Palestinian Jew. In his writing he shows that he is closely attached and follows the Jewish customs. He knew the Jews religious customs and followership entirely (De Jonge, 1993, p. 349). He also knew, it is entirely an illegal and non-religious thing to alter the pious book and he could face the bad circumstances. He knew there were strict thoughts and rules, that were followed in the Jewish world and it was unlawful to change the Sabbath, 5: 1 ff.; 9:14 ff. He knew the hopes of Jewish

Administrative Law Rev Essay Example for Free

Administrative Law Rev Essay Freedom of Information Act 1982 is entirely in the interest of public who can have access to various documents of government of Victoria and its public agencies for verification or for any other useful purpose.   The sole objective of FOI Act is to bring awareness among public whether the functioning and operations of government are in order   and how public analyze the same. Section 22 provides about the charges to be paid for having access to specific documents.   The section provides technical details of payment of fee that is calculated with time that is taken for search of documents.    This is particularly due to the fact that   the time taken for search of documents may vary depending on the date of publication of document. This is also in order to reduce the payment of fee to be paid by public.   All sectors of public may not afford to pay high rate of fees for having access to government documents.   In view of such as these reasons, hourly rate and time taken for search of documents has been included in this section. The section also covers transcription (h)   and routine requests (g)   and in case of inspection of documents no charge shall be calculated (f) in pursuance of Section 8(1) or 11(1). Section 27 clearly states about reasons of refusal of documents by a Minister of state to that effect, applicant shall be informed about the reasons in writing.   This section is somewhat complicated with the fact that a minister or a government official is a servant of public and with that motive, public must be provided access to the documents which is the sole purpose of FOI Act. This section is likely to give rise to conflicts between and may bring a deep dissatisfaction to public. Some of the documents that contain health information are also restricted with the provisions of Health   Records Act 2001, which of these reasons are also to be stated to applicant.   Although there are clauses for applying of review of decisions, launch complain to Ombudsmen, it is both time consuming and   undecisive for applicants to move further with such grievances. Section 50 deals with applications for review which would be pending with Tribunal for decisions.   This may pertain to a request for document, charge made, decision for access, or any other specific request regarding information under FOI Act.  Ã‚  Ã‚   The Tribunal in all respects has to deal with each individual case, giving its due importance of provisions along with genuine reasons. This section is in favor of public, as Tribunal shall reconsiders and reviews the decisions and grants permissions to public in various aspects that are relevant to FOI Act. The Tribunal may refuse the decision of Minister or agency and give an order in favor of public. Those issues or requests for documents which were not considered by Minister, are very well resolved at Tribunal by applicants. Section 51 states that an applicant may apply to Principal officer or Minister for review of decision, which was given in the deemed absence within 28 days   for review of decision or refusing to give access to health documents as per Section 36 of Health Records Act 2001. This section offers powers and opportunities to public   for   reconsideration of requests for having access to documents.   Applicants have to be excessively vigilant in deriving the maximum benefit from the government bodies and officials.  Ã‚  Ã‚   This section is both useful for public and for principal officers to check the veracity of facts in all respects. Section 51A  Ã‚  Ã‚   deals with conciliation of Health Service Commissioner   which state that issues that were deferring in Section 50 and 51 in the matters of health documents, may suitably be taken up by applicant with this section and apply for Health Service Commissioner’s decision.   In case Health Service Commissioner fails to conciliate a request, to that effect an notice in writing must be issued to both applicant and Principal Officer. This appears as a last resort for applicant as the decision of Health Service Commissioner is the final approach for an applicant. Conclusion The enactment of FOI is made with a view of regularizing the functioning and to increase the   working efficiency of governments.   Apart from this fact, the public are also provided an in-depth knowledge about information and working status of governments. Although there are many technicalities involved in FOI Act, each section, sub-section and clause, a significance of reason is attached to it for the benefit of both public and governing bodies.

OLAP Multidimensional Database Concept

OLAP Multidimensional Database Concept CHAPTER 2 LITERATURE REVIEW 2.1 INTRODUCTION This chapter is designed to provide background information and reviewing the characteristics of data warehouse, OLAP multidimensional database Concept, data mining model and the application of data mining. Within this research, the concept, design and implementation approaches in developing a complete data warehouse technology framework for deploying a successful model with the integration of OLAP Multidimensional Database and data mining model. Section 2.2 discussed about the fundamental of data warehouse, data warehouse model and also the Extract, Transform and Loading (ETL) of raw database to data warehouse. It includes research and study on existing data warehouse models authored by William Inmon, Ralph Kimball and various scholars venturing into data warehouse models. Section 2.3 introduces background information of OLAP. It includes the studies and research on various OLAP models, OLAP architecture and concept on processing multidimensional databases, multidimensional database schemas design and implementation in this research. It includes studies and research on schema design and implementation. Section 2.4 introduces fundamental information of data mining. It includes studies and research on the available techniques, method and process for OLAP Data Mining. Section 2.5 discussed the product comparisons for data warehouse, data mining and OLAP by Mitch Kramer. It includes the reason why Microsoft is used to design and implement the new proposed model. In this literature review, introduction to the relationships between data warehouse, OLAP multidimensional database and data mining model for deploying four experimental applications for benchmarking. This research also proves that the â€Å"new proposed model† data warehouse technology framework is ready to transform any type of raw data into useful information. It will also help us to review the new proposed model of each existing data warehouse OLAP Multidimensional database framework. 2.2 DATA WAREHOUSE According to William Inmon (1999), known as the â€Å"Father of Data Warehousing†, data warehouse is a subject-oriented, integrated, time-variant, and non-volatile collection of data in support of the managements decision-making process. Data warehouse is a database containing data that usually represents the business history of an organization. This historical data is used for analysis that supports business decisions at many levels, from strategic planning to performance evaluation of a discrete organizational unit. Data Warehouse is a type of database system aimed at effective integration of operational databases into an environment that enables strategic use of data (G. Zhou et al., 1995). These technologies include relational and multidimensional database management systems, client/server architecture, meta-data modelling and repositories, graphical user interface and much more (J. Hammer et al., 1995; V. Harinarayan et al., 1996). Data warehouse currently are much a subject of researched is not only commonly used in business or finance sector but can be applied appropriately in various sectors. Data warehouse are designed for analyzing or processing of data into useful information using data mining tools for critical decision-making. Data warehouse provides access to difficult environments of an enterprise data In these literature studies, two important authors are identified as the main contributors and co-founder in the area of Data Warehouse, William Inmon (1999; 2005) and Ralph Kimball (1996, 2000). Both author perceptions on data warehouse design and architecture differ from one another. According to Inmon (1996), data warehouse is a dependent data mart structure, whereas Kimball (1999) defined data warehouse as a bus structure which is a combination of data mart populated together as a data warehouse. Table 2.1 discussed the differences in data warehouse ideology between William Inmon and Ralph Kimball. Table 2.1 William Inmon and Ralph Kimball Data Warehouse Differences William Inmon Ralph Kimball Paradigm Inmons Paradigm: An enterprise has one data warehouse, and data marts source their information from the data warehouse. Information is stored in 3rd normal form. Kimballs Paradigm: Data warehouse is the collection of heterogeneous data marts within the enterprise. Information is always stored in the dimensional model. Architecture Architecture: Using TOP-DOWN approach Architecture: Using Bottom-up approach Concept Datas integration from various systems to centralized repository Concept of dimensional modelling (Bridging between Relational and multidimensional DB) Design The design pattern dependent on 3rd normalization form, purpose is for data granularity. Datas marts are connected in a bus structure. Datas marts are the union of data warehouse. This approach is known also as Virtual Data Warehouse. ETL Methods Datas extraction from operational data sources. Data are feed in staging database area. Data are then transformed, integrate, and consolidate and transfer to Operational Data Store database. Data are then load to data mart. Data extracted from legacy system and then consolidated and verified in staging database. Data feed into ODS and more data us added/updated. Operational Data Store contains fresh copy data that is integrated and transformed to the data mart structure. Data mart Data Marts are available as a subset of the data warehouse. Data Marts can be placed at different at different servers or in geographical locations. Based on this Data Warehouse literature, both Inmon (2005) and Kimball (2000) have different philosophies, but they do have similar agreement on a successful design and implementation of data warehouse and data marts are mainly depending on the effective collection of operational data and validation of data mart. Both approaches having the same database staging concepts and ETL process of data from a database source. They also have a common understanding that independent data marts or data warehouses cannot fulfil the requirements of end users on an enterprise level for precise, timed and relevant data. 2.2.1 DATA WAREHOUSE ARCHITECTURE Data warehouse architecture is a wide research area. It has many different sub-areas and it can be treated with different approaches in terms or analysis, design and implementation by different enterprise. In this research studies, the aim is to provide a complete view on data warehouse architecture. Two important scholars Thilini (2005) and Eckerson (2003) from TDWI will discussed in more details on the topic on data warehouse architecture. According to Eckerson (2003), before implementing a successful business intelligence systems where users can use programs like specialized reporting tools, OLAP tools and data mining tools upfront, a data warehouse architecture model mainly concentrate on the database staging process from different integrated OLTP systems is responsible for the ETL to the whole process workable. Thilini (2005) conducted a two phase study survey on investigating which factors may influence the selection of data warehouse architecture. In Thilini literature study, there are five data warehouse architectures that are practice today as shown in Table 2.2. Table 2.2 Data Warehouse Architectures (Adapted from Thilini, 2005) Data Warehouse Architecture Independent Data Marts Independent data marts also known as localized and small sized data warehouses. It is mainly used by departments, divisions or regions of company to provide own operational databases. The data marts are different as the structures are different from different location with inconsistent database design which makes it difficult to analyze across the data marts. Thilini (2005) cited the work of Winsberg (1996) and Hoss (2002) that It is common for organizational units to develop their own data marts. Data marts are best used as a prototype for adhoc data warehouse and as for evaluation before building a real data warehouse. Data Mart Bus Architecture Kimball (1996) pioneered the designed and architecture of data warehouse with unions of data marts which are known as the bus architecture. Bus architecture Data Warehouse is derived from the unions of the data marts which are also known as Virtual Data Warehouse. Bus architecture allows data marts not only located in one server but it can be also being located on different server. This allows the data warehouse to functions more as virtual reality mode and gathered all data marts and process as one data warehouse. Hub-and-spoke architecture Inmon (2005) developed Hub and Spoke architecture. The hub is the central server taking care of information exchange and the spoke handle data transformation for all regional operation data stores. Hub and Spoke mainly focused on building a scalable and maintainable infrastructure for data warehouse. Centralized Data Warehouse Architecture Central data warehouse architecture almost similar to hub-and-spoke architecture without the dependent data marts. This architecture copies and stores heterogeneous operational and external data to a single and consistent data warehouse. This architecture has only one data model which are consistent and complete from all data sources. According to Inmon (1999) and Kimball (2000), central data warehouse should have Database staging or known as Operational Data Store as an intermediate stage for operational processing of data integration before transform into the data warehouse. Federated Architecture According to Hackney (2000), Federated Data Warehouse is a integration of multiple heterogeneous data marts, database staging or Operational data store, combination of analytical application and reporting systems. The concept of federated focus on framework of integration to make data warehouse as greatest as possible. Jindal (2004) conclude that federated data warehouse approach are a practical approach for a data warehouse architecture as it is focus on higher reliability and provide excellent value if it is well defined, documented and integrated business rules. Thilini (2005) conclude that hub and spoke and centralized data warehouse architectures are similar and the survey scores are almost the same. Hub and spoke is faster and easier to implement because no data mart are required. For centralized data warehouse architecture scored higher than hub and spoke as for urgency needs for relatively fast implementation approach. A data warehouse is a read-only data source where end-users are not allow to change the values or data elements. Inmons (1999) data warehouse architecture strategy are different from Kimballs (1996). Inmons data warehouse model splits data marts as a copy and distributed as an interface between data warehouse and end users. Kimballs views data warehouse as a unions of data marts. The data warehouse is the collections of data marts combine into one central repository. Diagram 2.1 illustrates the differences between Inmons and Kimballs data warehouse architecture adapted from Mailvaganam, H. (2007) Diagram 2.1 Inmons and Kimballs Data Warehouse Architecture (adapted from Mailvaganam, 2007) In this work, it is very important to identify which data warehouse architecture that is robust and scalable in terms of building and deploying enterprise wide systems. According to Laney (2000) and Watson, H. (2005), it is important to understand and select the appropriate data warehouse architecture and â€Å"the success of the various architectures† acclaimed by Watson. Analysis of this research proved that the most popular data warehouse architecture is hub-and-spoke proposed by Inmon as it is a centralized data warehouse with dependant data marts and second is the data mart bus architecture with dimensional data marts proposed by Kimball. The selection of the new proposed model will use the combination data warehouse architecture of hub-and-spoke and data mart bus architecture as the new proposed model data warehouse architecture are designed with centralized data warehouse and with data marts that can are used for multidimensional database modelling. 2.2.2 DATA WAREHOUSE EXTRACT, TRANSFORM, LOADING Data warehouse architecture begins with extract, transform, loading (ETL) process to ensure the data passes the quality threshold. According to Evin (2001), it is essential that right data are important and critical for the success on an enterprise. ETL are an important tool in data warehouse environment to ensure data in the data warehouse are cleansed from various systems and locations. ETLs are also responsible for running scheduled tasks that extract data from OLTPs. Typically, a data warehouse is populated with historical information from within a particular organization (Bunger, C. J et al., 2001). The complete process descriptions of ETL are discussed in table 2.3. Table 2.3 Extract, Transform, and Load Process in Data Warehouse architecture Process Descriptions Extract Extract are the first process which involve in moving data from operational databases into database staging area or operational data store before populating into the data warehouse. In this stage, operational databases data need to be examined by extracting into the staging area for handling exceptions and fix all errors before it enters into data warehouse as this will save lots of time when loading into the data warehouse. Transform In completion of data extraction in database staging area, it is then transform to ensure data integrity within the data warehouse. Transformation of data can be done in several methods such as filed mapping and algorithm comparisons. Load After extract and transform of data, it is finally loaded into data warehouse (in Inmons model) or into data marts (in Kimballs model). Data loaded into data warehouse are quality data after the process of extraction where erroneous data are removed and data are transform to ensure integrity of the data. Calvanese, D. et al. (2001) highlight an enterprise data warehouse database tables may be populated with a wide variety of data sources from different locations and often including data providing information concerning a competitor business. Collecting all the different data and storing it in one central location is an extremely challenging task where ETL can make it possible. ETL process as depicts in Diagram 2.2 begins with data extract from operational databases where data cleansing and scrubbing are done, to ensure all datas are validated. Then it is transformed to meet the data warehouse standards before it is loaded into data warehouse. Diagram 2.2Extract, Transport, Load Process G. Zhou et al.(1995) emphasise on data integration in data warehousing stress that ETL can assist in import and export of operational data between heterogeneous data sources using OLE-DB (Object linking and embedding database) based architecture where the data are transform to populate all quality data into data warehouse. This is important to ensure that there are no restrictions on the size of the data warehouse with this approach. In Kimball (2000) data warehouse architecture model depict in Diagram 2.3, the model focus in two important modules, â€Å"the back room† â€Å"presentation server† and â€Å"the front room†. In the back room process, where the data staging services in charge of gathering all source systems operational databases to perform extraction of data from source systems from different file format from different systems and platforms. Second step is to run the transformation process to ensure all inconsistency are removed to ensure data integrity. Finally, it is loaded into data marts. The ETL processes are commonly executed from a job control via scheduling task. The presentation server is the data warehouse where data marts are stored and process here. Data stored in star schema consist of dimension and fact tables. This is where data are then process of in the front room where it is access by query services such as reporting tools, desktop tools, OLAP and data mining to ols. Diagram 2.3 Data Warehouse Architecture (adapted from Kimball, 2000) Nicola, M (2000) explains the process of retrieving data from the warehouse can vary greatly depending on the desired results. There are many form of possible retrieval from a data warehouses and it is flexibility that will drive how this retrieving process can be implemented. There are many tools for retrieving the data warehouse, such as building simple query and reporting through SQL statements. The tools may expand to OLAP and data mining, where the structure includes many more third party tools. There are many inherent problems associated with data, which includes the limited amount of portability, and the often-vast amount of data that must be sifted through for each query. Essentially, ETL are mandatory for data warehouse to ensure data integrity. There are many factors to be considered such as complexity and scalability are among the two major issues that most enterprise faces by integrating information from different sources in order to have a clean and reliable source of data for mission critical business decisions. One way to achieve a scalable, non-complex solution is to adopt a â€Å"hub-and-spoke† architecture for the ETL process. According to Evin (2001), ETL best operates in hub-and-spoke architecture because of its flexibility and efficiency. Because of its centralized data warehouse design, it can influence the maintaining full access control of ETL processes. Also, empowers the usage of analytical and data mining tools by knowledge workers. In this study on ETL for effective data warehouse architecture, it is known that Hub-and-spoke is best for data integration as it has the similarity in Inmon and Kimball architecture. The hub is the data warehouse after processing data from operational database to staging database and the spoke(s) are the data marts for distributing data. Inmon and Kimball also recommend same ETL processes to enable hub-and-spoke architecture. Sherman, R (2005) state that hub-and-spoke approach uses one-to-many interfaces from Data warehouse to many data marts. One-to-many are simpler to implement, cost effective in a long run and ensure consistent dimensions. Compared to many-to-many approach it is more complicated and costly. In this work on the new proposed model, hub-and-spoke architecture are use as â€Å"Central repository service†, as many scholars including Inmon, Kimball, Evin, Sherman and Nicola adopt to this data warehouse architecture. This approach allows locating the hub (data warehouse) and spokes (data marts) centrally and can be distributed across local or wide area network depending on business requirement. In designing the new proposed model, the hub-and-spoke architecture clearly identifies six important data warehouse components that a data warehouse should have, which includes ETL, Staging Database or operational database store, Data marts, multidimensional database, OLAP and data mining end users applications such as Data query, reporting, analysis, statistical tools. However, this process may differ from organization to organization. Depending on the ETL setup, some data warehouse may overwrite old data with new data and in some data warehouse may only maintain history and aud it trial of all changes of the data. Diagram 2.4 depicts the concept of the new proposed model data warehouse architecture. Diagram 2.4 New Proposed Model Data Warehouse Architecture 2.2.3 DATA WAREHOUSE FAILURE AND SUCCESS FACTORS Building a data warehouse is indeed challenging as data warehouse project inheriting a unique characteristic that may impact the overall setup if the analysis, design and implementation phase are not properly done. In this research effort, it discusses the studies on failure and success factors in data warehouse project. Section 2.2.3.1 focuses on the investigation on data warehouse project failure and section 2.2.3.2 discuss and investigate mainly on the success factors by implementing the correct model to support a successful data warehouse project implementation. 2.2.3.1 DATA WAREHOUSE FAILURE FACTORS Hayen, R.L. (2007) studies shows that implementing a data warehouse project is costly and risky as a data warehouse project can cost over $1 million in the first year. It is estimated that one-half ad two-thirds of the effort of setting up the data warehouse projects attempt will fail eventually. Hayen R.L. (2007) citied on the work of Briggs (2002) and noticed three factors for the failure of data warehouse project that is Environment, Project and Technical factors as shown in Diagram 2.5 and table 2.4 discussed the factors in more details. Diagram 2.5 Factors for Data Warehouse Failures (adapted from Briggs, 2002) Table 2.4 Factors for Data Warehouse Failures (adapted from Briggs, 2002) Factors Descriptions Environment This leads to organization changes in business, politics, mergers, takeovers and lack of top management support. Also, including human error, corporate culture, decision making and change management. Technical Technical factors of a data warehouse project complexity and workload are taken too lightly where high expenses involving in hardware/software and people. Problems occurred when assigning a Project manager with lack of knowledge and project experience in data warehouse costing may lead to impediment of quantifying the return on investment (ROI). Also, failure of managing a data warehouse projects also includes:  · Challenge in setting up a competent operational and development team plus not having a data warehouse manager or expert that is politically sound.  · Having an extended timeframe for development and delivery of data warehouse system may due to lack of experience and knowledge for selection of data warehouse products and end-user tools. * Failure to manage the scope of data warehouse project. Project Poor knowledge on the requirements of data definitions and data quality on different organization business departments. Also, Running a data warehouse projects with incompetent and insufficient knowledge in what technology to use may lead into problems later on data integration, data warehouse model and data warehouse applications. Vassiliadis (2004) studies shows that data warehouse project failures are an enormous threat and threatened by factors such as design, technical, procedural and socio-technical as illustrated in Diagram 2.6. These factors of failures are vital in finding any unwanted action for success. Each factor group is described in table 2.5. Diagram 2.6 Factors for Data Warehouse Failures (adapted from Vassiliadis, 2007) Table 2.5 Factors for Data Warehouse Failures (adapted from Vassiliadis, 2007) Factors Descriptions Design Design factors in data warehouse project can put up with No Standard techniques or design methodologies. A data warehouse project when doing the analysis and design phase may accept ideas on metadata techniques or languages and data engineering techniques. Also, a proprietary solutions and also recommendations from vendors or in-house experts may define the design of the data warehouse blueprint landscape. Technical Technical factors associate to the lack of know-how experience in evaluation and choices of hardware setup for data warehouse systems Procedural Procedural factors concerning on the imperfection of data warehouse deployment. This factor focuses on training the end-users extensively on the new technology and the design of data warehouse which are completely different than the conventional IT solutions. users communities plays a vital role and are crucial in this factor. Socio-Technical Socio-technical factors in a data warehouse project may lead into problems on violation of organization modus operandi where the data warehouse systems will lead into restructuring or reorganization on the way organization operates by introducing changes to the user community. According to Vassiliadis (2007) also, another potential factors for the failure of data warehouse projects are the â€Å"data ownership and access†. This is considered vulnerable within the organization and one mustnt share nor acquire someone else data as this is comparable with losing authority on the data ownership and access. Also, restrict any departmental declaration or request to own a total ownership of pure clean and error free data as this might cause potential problem on ownership data rights. Watson (2004) stress that the general factors for the failures in data warehouse project success comprises of â€Å"weak sponsorship† and top management support, inadequate funding and users participation and organizational politic. 2.2.3.2 DATA WAREHOUSE SUCCESS FACTORS Data Warehouse Failures can lead into disastrous implementation if careful factors or measures are not taken into serious considerations as discussed in section 2.2.3.1 based on Briggs (2002) and Vassiliadis (2004) studies that may lead into data warehouse failures. According to Hwang M.I. (2007), data warehouse implementations are an important area of research and industrial practices but only few researches made an assessment in the critical success factors for data warehouse implementations. No doubt there is procedure for data warehouse design and implementation but only certain guidelines are subjected for experimental testing. So, it is best to decide and choose the proper data warehouse model for implementation success. In this study on identifying and filling the gap analysis of the data warehouse success factors, a number of success factors are gathered from data warehouse scholars and professionals (Watson Haley, 1997; Chen et al., 2000; Wixom Watson, 2001; Watson et al., 2001; Hwang Cappel, 2002; Shin, 2003) to validate their experimental work and research strength individually on various characteristics of data warehouse success. This study beneficial in planning and implementing data warehouse projects and direct into the success of designing and implementing the new proposed model in this research. There are several success factors in designing and implementing data warehouse solutions and the most important success factors depend on the data warehouse model selection, as different organization may have different scope and road maps in the development of data warehouse. The results of building a successful data warehouse are then used to quantify the factors that are used and also prioritize those factors that are beneficial for continued research purpose to improve and enhanced the data warehouse model success. According to Hayen, R.L. (2007), data warehouse is a complex system which can complicate business procedures. The complexity of data warehouse prevents companies from changing data or transaction which are necessary. It is important then to analyze on which data warehouse model to be used for such complex systems that are sound critical to an organization. Hwang M.I. (2007) conducted a study on data warehousing model and success factors as a critical area of practice and research but only a few studies have been accomplish to measure the data warehouse projects and success factors. Many scholars had conducted a profound research in the area of data warehouse and may have succeeded or failed due to possible reasons based on each scholars outcomes on the research. It is useful inspect a few case studies on a selected companied data warehouse implementation and to experiment the failure and success factors through survey. (Winter, 2001; Watson et al., 2004) Hwang M. I. (2007) conducted a survey study on six data warehouse scholars (Watson Haley, 1997; Chen et al., 2000; Wixom Watson, 2001; Watson et al., 2001; Hwang Cappel, 2002; Shin, 2003) on the success factors in a data warehouse project. Each scholar has different success factors that are measures in a project. Table 2.6 shows the mentioned six scholars survey study on data warehouse, Watson (1997) measures data warehouse success factors, Chen et al. (2000), Watson et al. (2001) and Shin (2003) measures data warehouse implementation factors and Hwang (2002) measures through development and management practices. Only Wixom (2001) as shown in diagram 2.7 measures both Data warehouse implementation and success factors which can be used as a model for a successful data warehouse implementation. Study shown in all 6 scholars review, without having data warehouse implementation and success factors, the consequences of any factors on a data warehouse success cannot be validated. Table 2.6 Factors for Data Warehouse Success (adapted from Hwang M.I., 2007) Study Data Warehouse Success Factors Data Warehouse Implementation Factors Results Reported Watson Haley (1997) Focus on user involvement and support by having a clear and understandable business needs. Using methodology and modelling methods in data warehouse by targeting on clean data. Thus, support from upper management to contribute on the success. N/A Ordered list of success Chen et al. (2000) N/A Focused on exactness and preciseness of User satisfaction by Support and realization of end users needs. Support for end users affects user satisfaction Wixom Watson (2001) Implementation factors include management support, resources, User participation, team skills, Source systems aand development technology which contribute to the implementatio

Spiritual Healing :: essays research papers fc

An Exploration of Spiritual Healing   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Throughout time, mankind has constantly been seeking ways to maintain their health and to cure those that had not been so fortunate in that task. Just about everything has been experimented with as a cure for some type of illness; whether physical or mental. There is also a third type of illness that can and is addressed, which is healing on the spiritual plan. According to research, most of the spiritual healers are concentrated in primitive societies and undeveloped areas of the world. However, there are still undertones of reliance on spiritual healing in modern medicine today and there are some in civilized, well developed parts of the world that have rejected modern medicine all together and adopted alternative healing methods. Even a person who does not believe in a higher being actually takes part in this type cure simply by allowing the chemical medicines in his/her body to mend what is wrong. No matter what class of society a person is in, no matter how a dvanced that particular country is, there will always be traces of spiritual healing if not all-out practicing of it; and it is and will continue to be a significant part of any healing process, large or small.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  There are numerous names for spiritual healers, but for simplicity’s sake and the fact that the concentration is on American Indian Medicine, all spiritual healers will be lumped together as ‘Shaman’ unless otherwise specified. This does not mean that all healers will hold the same beliefs, or that a particular belief is not even held by a group known as Shamans, but rather a different type of healer. The grouping is just so that a detailed and confusing explaination of all the subsections of healers. If necessary, there will be specifications. Again , for clarification, definitions are provided to clear up any confusion. A Shaman is a person anchored securely in both the physical world and the spiritual realm-- a mediator if you will(Shamanism 1). Therefore, Shamanism is a way of life revolving around interaction of the spiritual and physical worlds(Shamanism). The Shaman does not solely exist as other humans do; they lead a totally different life in conjunction with their earthly duties within their tribe. The two are not separate by any means; one has direct impact on the other, or so it is believed by those who study this form of healing.

Social Security Essays -- essays research papers

Title of Paper : Social Security Social security, created in 1935, is the most costly item in the federal budget. The program provides old age, survivors’ and disability insurance to a healthy portion of Americans. Workers and their employers fund the system by each paying payroll taxes. The Internal Revenue Service collects the taxes and deposits the money in government-administrated accounts known as the Old Age and Survivors and Disability Insurance Trust Funds(OASDI). The payroll tax revenues are used to pay benefits to those people currently collecting Social Security pensions. Social Security taxes also pay for Medicare, the national health program for the elderly. The huge problem with the current situation facing Social Security is the increasing deduction of workers in the work force paying for workers retired. â€Å"Due to the large number of aging baby boomers, American 65 and older are the fastest-growing segment of the population. The population growth of Americans age 65 and older is 112% in the years between 1995 and 2040. The population growth in age 20-64 is 24%. The population growth in ages under 20, is 5%.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  What these numbers essentially represent is a cause problem with age differences in the future. Soon, less workers will be in the job force trying to supply more retirees with Social Security. Currently, many ideas have been juggled around trying to find a sound and reasonable way to resolve this problem. Granted, the problem will not happen overnight, but rather over a long arduous duration of time.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  The question first arises, â€Å"Can the existing system survive without major reforms?† The early designers of Social Security and many Democrats are baffled at the recent proposals to change Social Security. Most believe that Social Security is still able to provide a safety net for retirees and their survivors if minor adjustments are made. â€Å"Occasionally raising payroll taxes or recalculating the way benefits are paid out.† Some Democrats look at major reform as a way of pitting war between generations. They stand on common beliefs that Social Security has worked for over 60 years by providing a steady stream of monthly payments that beneficiaries can rely on. Also, it has helped lift millions of seniors out of poverty. Democrats also criticize the Grand Old Party for â€Å"playing†... ...vatization of personal savings would be advantageous to the nation’s economy, delivering bigger pensions to workers and helping the economy grow faster. Some believe the emphasis on personal savings would give the added feature of encouraging more individual responsibility at a time when the nation prepares for a surge in its elderly population. Privatization would differ from Social Security in two important ways. First, the amount a worker receives at retirement depends solely on how much one contributes to savings and how well the investments perform. In simplified notation, those who set aside more and invest wisely enjoy more comfortable retirements. Secondly, pensions are paid out of an individual’s accumulated savings instead of financed by taxes on active workers. For example, Chile for a little less than two decades has replaced it’s system which was much like Social Security with a system incorporated around the idea of privately invested accounts. The results are astounding. The plan is relatively elementary because it focuses on workers placing 10 percent of their monthly income into a savings account. With this, government leaders boosted the national savings rate Social Security Essays -- essays research papers Title of Paper : Social Security Social security, created in 1935, is the most costly item in the federal budget. The program provides old age, survivors’ and disability insurance to a healthy portion of Americans. Workers and their employers fund the system by each paying payroll taxes. The Internal Revenue Service collects the taxes and deposits the money in government-administrated accounts known as the Old Age and Survivors and Disability Insurance Trust Funds(OASDI). The payroll tax revenues are used to pay benefits to those people currently collecting Social Security pensions. Social Security taxes also pay for Medicare, the national health program for the elderly. The huge problem with the current situation facing Social Security is the increasing deduction of workers in the work force paying for workers retired. â€Å"Due to the large number of aging baby boomers, American 65 and older are the fastest-growing segment of the population. The population growth of Americans age 65 and older is 112% in the years between 1995 and 2040. The population growth in age 20-64 is 24%. The population growth in ages under 20, is 5%.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  What these numbers essentially represent is a cause problem with age differences in the future. Soon, less workers will be in the job force trying to supply more retirees with Social Security. Currently, many ideas have been juggled around trying to find a sound and reasonable way to resolve this problem. Granted, the problem will not happen overnight, but rather over a long arduous duration of time.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  The question first arises, â€Å"Can the existing system survive without major reforms?† The early designers of Social Security and many Democrats are baffled at the recent proposals to change Social Security. Most believe that Social Security is still able to provide a safety net for retirees and their survivors if minor adjustments are made. â€Å"Occasionally raising payroll taxes or recalculating the way benefits are paid out.† Some Democrats look at major reform as a way of pitting war between generations. They stand on common beliefs that Social Security has worked for over 60 years by providing a steady stream of monthly payments that beneficiaries can rely on. Also, it has helped lift millions of seniors out of poverty. Democrats also criticize the Grand Old Party for â€Å"playing†... ...vatization of personal savings would be advantageous to the nation’s economy, delivering bigger pensions to workers and helping the economy grow faster. Some believe the emphasis on personal savings would give the added feature of encouraging more individual responsibility at a time when the nation prepares for a surge in its elderly population. Privatization would differ from Social Security in two important ways. First, the amount a worker receives at retirement depends solely on how much one contributes to savings and how well the investments perform. In simplified notation, those who set aside more and invest wisely enjoy more comfortable retirements. Secondly, pensions are paid out of an individual’s accumulated savings instead of financed by taxes on active workers. For example, Chile for a little less than two decades has replaced it’s system which was much like Social Security with a system incorporated around the idea of privately invested accounts. The results are astounding. The plan is relatively elementary because it focuses on workers placing 10 percent of their monthly income into a savings account. With this, government leaders boosted the national savings rate

Self-Employment Is the Best Way to Make Money

Ladies and gentlemen, I'd like to thank you for giving me the chance to make a presentation here. My name is Yan. Today, I’m going to talk about self-employment. I plan to be brief, and I want to proof that self-employment is the best way for people to make money. Please interrupt me if there’s something unclear so that I can explain it for you. OK, let's think about some questions. Have you ever thought about your job in the future? Do you admire those young and successful company owners because they have both money and good reputation [U]?And do you want to be self-employed as well? Maybe we can start with a simple definition. What is self-employment? Self-employment is working for oneself. Self-employed people are always divided into 2 kinds——freelancers and entrepreneurs. By the way, entrepreneur means people who have their own companies. Freelancer means people who work for themselves as writers, painters, actors, and so on. Both of them can decide th eir schedules and enjoy the freedom. And they could make more money than employees for they don’t have the stable salary.It’s a fact that most of the richest people in the world are also the founders of their own enterprises or brilliant freelancers, such as Bill Gates and J. K. Rowling. Besides a changeable schedule and a considerable income, self-employment can also be a good chance to improve working skills. It is true that working for oneself can have many difficulties. Employees can get payments by just finishing their simple assignments while employers have to control the whole project and make it be successful, so there’s no doubt that they can learn much more than those employees.That’s why common workers always buy the biographies written by great self-employed leaders to learn their experience. Furthermore, the governments have introduced many policies to encourage people to create their self-employed career. Let me show you some examples. In Ca nada, if you are a young person, aged 18 – 34, ready to start your own business, the Canadian Youth Business Foundation (CYBF) can provide courses, learning resources and business start-up loans. And self-employed Canadians can access Employment Insurance (EI) if they cannot work because they are pregnant or have to take care of their babies.It’s really helpful. As for old people, self-employment is the best way to make money after they retired. According to a market research, there will be 14 million full-time, home-based freelancers and independent contractors in America by 2015, up from 12 million in 2010. Between 2008 and 2011, the number of self-employed Americans from age 55 to 64 rose by 5 percent. (data) All those facts and data show that self-employment has been the best way to make money, so why not choose to be your own boss from now? That are all my ideas. Thanks for listening, and I hope you have found this useful.

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