InnOvaTioN Is tHe Key Of SucCesS

BOEING's CIO (SCOTT GRIFFIN) INTERVIEW

2008-12-19T23:08:00.000-08:00

MOST people think of commercial airplanes when they hear the name Boeing. But the era of a single manufacturer producing an entire airplane has come and gone, and Boeing has changed with the times.
Today, Boeing's capabilities extend beyond commercial airplanes to include integrated military platforms, advanced technology for defense systems, and even electronic enablement of airplanes. In other words, Boeing specializes in wireless connectivity on a grand scale, and technology so advanced as to be almost beyond recognition.

As Boeing's vice president and CIO, Scott Griffin bears responsibility for all I.T. strategy, systems, network operations, architecture, processes, and people.

Boeing is the world's leading aerospace company and the largest manufacturer of commercial jetliners, with capabilities in military aircraft, rotorcraft, missiles, satellites, launch vehicles, and advanced information and communication systems. Its reach extends to customers in 145 countries around the world.

Griffin began his career at Boeing in 1979 and has held a broad range of assignments throughout the company. He became VP and CIO of Commercial Airplanes in October 1997, a position he held until his promotion to Boeing CIO in October 1999. In addition to holding that title, Griffin chairs the company's Information Technology Process Council and is a member of the Boeing Engineering Council.

Born and raised in Fresno, California, Griffin earned an undergraduate degree from Fresno State University and a master's degree in business from the University of Puget Sound.

On the very day Boeing's latest pride and joy -- the Boeing 777-2000LR -- debuted and made a record nonstop flight from Hong Kong to London, Griffin spoke with CIO Today. Exuberant, intelligent, and gregarious, he was delighted to reveal that Boeing's aptitude is for more than just altitude.

CIO Today: What are your top concerns as CIO?

Griffin: Boeing is changing from a manufacturing company to a technology company. Historically, people have thought of Boeing as a manufacturer of aerospace platforms -- aircraft, missiles, spacecraft, and satellites.

But today, more and more of the fabrication of the parts for those products is being done by our partners, and we have become a large-scale systems integrator -- a company focused on integrating and assembling those parts.

Additionally, more and more of our products are services or systems. One example is the U.S. Army's Future Combat System, which will transform how soldiers use communication and information technology in the field to integrate the battlespace. It involves everything from radios to middleware. It's not a traditional manufacturing product, it's a "system of systems."

2008-12-19T23:05:00.000-08:00

INTERVIEW OF MICROSOFT's CIO (RON MARKEZICH)

2008-12-19T22:57:00.000-08:00

Has the I.T. environment changed from five years ago?

Markezich: Five years ago was kind of the tail-end of the bubble. Money was spent on I.T. just for the sake of spending it -- just not much thought was given to the outcome. After the bubble burst, budgets were slashed just as recklessly. Now we are in the healthiest state I.T. has ever been in. For the first time, I.T. is in a state of balance.

What was promised by the Internet five to seven years ago is finally coming true: the landscape becoming a reality through the low cost of bandwidth, connectivity, and a great deal of innovation. So, I think there is a big change in opportunity and how we think about I.T. overall.

And everything is much more complex than five years ago. The environments were built without a lot of thought around the architecture during the bubble, and now all I.T. departments have to work through that.

Elevating the level of technology to make it more easily searchable and accessible also makes it more complex for a CIO to manage. It used to be you could just lock down the network, but now it is hard to control the network because you want to use it with partners, customers, suppliers, and others. It is a much more complex trend and difficult to manage.

CIO Today: How have new legislative demands affected the I.T. department and the CIO in particular?

Markezich: That is another category of things that have radically changed. I think Sarbanes-Oxley regulation has been great for the industry and for us but it does require a huge time commitment. Even so, I am probably at an advantage because I have the resources to readily comply. It does give us internal controls and great feedback, but the actual scope of the requirement is difficult to nail down.

The biggest challenge is in handling all the different laws in different countries, and even in different regions of the same country. Many of those laws dictate where you can store company data or even employee information. That makes it hard. I.T. loves to standardize, but such a scattering of requirements makes it hard to standardize compliance. Plus, the rules are constantly changing.

At some point, many of us in I.T. would like to see some consistency for managing controls and privacy, like a standards board that sets the bar across industries -- something along the lines of what accounting has in the GAAP, or generally accepted accounting principles.

DESTRUCTIVE CULT

2008-11-14T22:01:00.000-08:00

OSHAMA BIN LADEN AS DESTRUCTIVE CULT LEADER

"Destructive cult" is a term used to refer to religions and other groups which have caused harm to their own members or to others. Some researchers define "harm" in this case with a narrow focus, specifically groups which have deliberately physically injured or killed other individuals, while others define the term more broadly and include emotional abuse among the types of harm inflicted. Use of the term has been criticized by some researchers, who assert that it is used to discredit the groups it is applied to, and unfairly compare them with historically more harmful groups and movements. Authors have also compared destructive cults with terrorism, and have used the term to characterize osama bin laden as a destructive cult leader.

Physical harm
"Destructive cult" as applied to physical abuse has generally referred to groups which have, through deliberate action, physically injured or killed members of their own group or other individuals. The ontario consultants on religious tolerence limit use of the term to specifically refer to religious groups that "have caused or are liable to cause loss of life among their membership or the general public."

Emotional harm
Some researchers describe the term "destructive cult" more broadly, and include emotional abuse along with physical abuse as a defining characteristic. Steven Hasan, author of the book Combatting Cult Mind Control, defines the term as such: "A destructive cult is a pyramid-shaped authoritarian regime with a person or group of people that have dictatorial control. It uses deception in recruiting new members (e.g. people are NOT told up front what the group is, what the group actually believes and what will be expected of them if they become members)." Psychologist Michael Langone, executive director of the International Cultic Studies Association, defines a destructive cult as "a highly manipulative group which exploits and sometimes physically and/or psychologically damages members and recruits." In the book Into the Rabbit Hole contributor Randall Waters cites psychiatrist Robert Lifton's Thought Reform and the Psychology of Totalism, specifically Lifton's "Eight Criteria for Thought Reform", as criteria to identify a destructive cult. In Perfected Mind Control - The Unauthorized Black Book of Hypnotic Mind Control author J. K. Ellis also cites Lifton's criteria, writing: "If most of Robert Lifton's eight point model of thought reform is being used in a cult organization, it is most likely a dangerous and destructive cult." In a statement which Congressman Leo J. Ryan later read into the Congressional Record, Dr. John Gordon Clark cited totalitarian systems of governance and an emphasis on money making as characteristics of a destructive cult. Dr. Clark later authored the work Destructive Cult Conversion: Theory, Research and Practice.

In their book Cult and Ritual Abuse, authors Noblitt and Perskin also include the characteristics of "trauma-induced dissociation and programming" in their definition of a destructive cult. In Cults and the Family the authors cite Shapiro, who defines a "destructive cultism" as a sociopathic syndrome, whose distinctive qualities include: "behavioral and personality changes, loss of personal identity, cessation of scholastic activities, estrangement from family, disinterest in society and pronounced mental control and enslavement by cult leaders." In The Ethics of Touch: The Hands-on Practitioner's Guide To Creating a Professional, Safe and Enduring Practice, the authors describe their version of destructive cult characteristics in a section on "Cult Mind Control Abuse." In the book, a destructive cult is seen as being either "religious, political, 'therapeutic' or business" and they state that it can cause trauma-related symptoms such as dissociative disorder. In Dr. Susan Gregg's The Complete Idiot's Guide to Spiritual Healing, she cites three main signs of a destructive cult, including giving up one's individuality, having their relationships with friends and family threatened, and being asked to donate large sums of money to the group. In his work Lethal Violence, the criteria of a destructive cult environment is compared to that of battered woman defence.

Criticism of the term
Some researchers have criticized the usage of the term "destructive cult", writing that it is used to describe groups which are not necessarily harmful in nature to themselves or others. In his book Understanding New Religious Movements, John A. Saliba writes that the term is overgeneralized and equated with the deaths of members of Peoples Temple at Jonestown.Saliba sees this as the "paradigm of a destructive cult," where those that use the term are implying that other new religious movements will have similar outcomes to those of the Peoples Temple at Jonestown. Writing in the book Misunderstanding Cults: Searching for Objectivity in a Controversial Field, contributor Julius H. Rubin complains that the term has been used to discredit certain groups in the court of public opinion.In his work Cults in Context author Lorne L. Dawson writes that though the Unification Church "has not been shown to be violent or volatile," it has been described as a destructive cult by "anticult crusaders."In 2002, the German government was held by Germany's Federal Constitutional Court to have defamed the Osho movement by referring to it, among other things, as a "destructive cult". The court decided that "destructive cult" and other expressions employed by the government to describe the group had no factual basis to justify their use.

Terrorism
In 1984, a group of followers of Osho (then known as Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh) carried out what has come to be known as the first bioterrorism attack in the United States. Over seven hundred and fifty individuals became ill from salmonella poisoning, after the group had deliberately contaminated the salad bars of ten restaurants. After epidemiological research, law enforcement isolated the source of the contamination as a clinical laboratory operated by members of the Rajneesh movement.They had intended to influence voter turnout in an upcoming election.The March 1995 sarin gas attack on the Tokyo subway by the Aum Shinrikyo movement, as well as their prior experiments with anthrax, were also seen as bioterrorism events.

Since the September 11, 2001 attacks and the prevalence of the War on Terrorism in society, researchers have begun to use the term "destructive cult" to compare and contrast certain characteristics of terrorist organizations with those of other religious groups previously characterized as such. In the book Jihad and Sacred Vengeance: Psychological Undercurrents of History, psychiatrist Peter A. Olsson compares Osama bin Laden to other religious leaders including Jim Jones, David Koresh, Shoko Asahara, Marshall Applewhite, Luc Jouret and Joseph Di Mambro, in a section of the book called: "The Psychology of Destructive Cult Leaders".Olsson asserts that each of these individuals fit at least eight of the nine criteria for Narcissistic Personality Disorder. Olsson goes into some of these issues in more depth in his work Malignant Pied Pipers of Our Time: A Psychological Study of Destructive Cult Leaders from Rev. Jim Jones to Osama bin Laden. In the book Seeking the Compassionate Life: The Moral Crisis for Psychotherapy and Society authors Goldberg and Crespo also refer to Osama bin Laden as a "destructive cult leader."

At a 2002 meeting of the American Psychological Association (APA), Steven Hassan asserted that Al Qaeda fulfills the characteristics of a destructive cult. Panelists at the convention asked the APA to investigate mind control among destructive cults.Hassan spoke of the commonalities between researching destructive cults, and the war on terrorism: "We need to apply what we know about destructive mind-control cults, and this should be a priority with the war on terrorism. We need to understand the psychological aspects of how people are recruited and indoctrinated so we can slow down recruitment. We need to help counsel former cult members and possibly use some of them in the war against terrorism."

In an article on Al Qaeda published in The Times, Mary Ann Sieghart wrote that al-Qaeda resembles a "classic cult", commenting: "Al-Qaeda fits all the official definitions of a cult. It indoctrinates its members; it forms a closed, totalitarian society; it has a self-appointed, messianic and charismatic leader; and it believes that the ends justify the means."A similar comparison was made by former UK Home Secretary Charles Clarke, as well as UK Home Secretary John Reid, who stated that "..fanatics are looking to groom and brainwash children, including your children, for suicide bombings, grooming them to kill themselves in order to murder others."

Although not specifically mentioning al Qaeda, former Mujaheddin member and now author and academic Dr. Masoud Banisadr stated in a May 2005 speech in Spain :

If you ask me: are all cults a terrorist organisation? My answer is no as there are many peaceful cults at present around the world and in the history of mankind. But if you ask me are all terrorist organisations, some sort of cult? my answer is yes. Even if they start as ordinary modern political party or organisation, to prepare and force their members to act without asking any moral question and act selflessly for the cause of the group and ignore all the ethical, cultural, moral or religious code of the society and humanity, those organisations have to change into a cult. Therefore to understand an extremist or a terrorist organisation one has to learn about a Cult.

ON DIWALI AND DHANTERAS

2008-10-23T02:24:00.000-07:00

MAY YOU BE BLESSED WITH SUCCESS,PROSPERITY,HAPPINESS AND WEALTH AS YOU JOURNEY TOWARDS GREATER SUCCESS !!!

!! SHUBH DIWALI AND DHANTERAS !!

BUSINESS ANALYTICS ??

2008-10-23T02:18:00.000-07:00

It has been suggested that Analytics be merged into this article or section.

Business analytics is how organizations gather and interpret data in order to make better business decisions and to optimize business processes. Analytical activities are expanding fast in businesses, government agencies and not-for-profit organizations.

Analytics are defined as the extensive use of data, statistical and quantitative analysis, explanatory and predictive modeling, and fact-based decision-making.
Analytics may be used as input for human decisions; however, in business there are also examples of fully automated decisions that require minimal human intervention. In businesses, analytics (alongside data access and reporting) represents a subset of business intelligence.

The Age of Analytics may be thought of as a new subcategory of the Information Age,with the key difference that the early years of the Information Age were a time when information was a scarce resource, whereas today there is an abundance of information. The Age of Analytics therefore represents another way to think of the activities necessary for success in a knowledge economy or increasingly typical of a modern information society.
Contents

Application of analytics

Many organizations already use analytics in some form. Operating metrics and performance gauges such as the balanced scorecard are familiar to most managers. For instance, a manufacturer may track, interpret and use data to improve how it manages product quality, and a marketing group might base decisions on the long-term analysis of different customer segments. Businesses as diverse as global cement giant CEMEX, California winemaker E & J Gallo Winery, industrial equipment maker John Deere, retailer Tesco, and Bank of America are regularly applying analytics to achieve advantage. For example, Gallo, operating in a business built on using intuition to gauge unpredictable consumer preferences, now quantitatively analyzes and predicts the appeal of its wines. Between 2002 and 2005, John Deere saved more than $1 billion by employing a new analytical tool to better optimize inventory.
However, only a handful of companies are using analytics as a foundation for their business strategies. Capital One is among those full-fledged analytical competitors. The financial services provider is very open about its use of data analysis to differentiate among customers based on credit risk, usage and other characteristics, and to match customer characteristics with appropriate product offerings. Harrah’s, the world’s largest gaming firm, is another aggressive analytical competitor, particularly in the area of customer loyalty.
Research by global management consultancy Accenture found that high-performance businesses — those that substantially outperform competitors over the long term and across economic, industry and leadership cycles — are twice as likely to use analytics strategically compared with the overall sample, and five times more likely to do so than low performers.
Common to all those aspiring to that level of competitiveness is the need to focus on developing four fundamental assets:
Committed senior executives: Taking a broad analytical approach to business calls for big changes in culture, process, behavior and skills for many employees. Such changes must be spearheaded by senior executives who are passionate about analytics and fact-based decision-making.
A strong base of skills in use of data: It is very important to have a broad base of employees who are data-savvy — or who can quickly become data-savvy. This calls for hiring, training and rewarding for analytical skills, especially at management levels. It also highlights the need to understand where those skills matter most and where they will matter most in the future.
Fact-driven business processes: Analytical competitors begin with “a single version of the truth” — not the conflicting views of the same metrics that stymie other companies. What’s needed is an integrated, cross-enterprise view of the data — a state that may require business process redesign on a broad scale.
Technology to capture, sort, and make sense of the data: The processing power to support an analytics thrust is readily available. There is wider use of dedicated “business intelligence appliances” — supercomputer — like machines that can quickly find and sort data in large databases and analyses. Much of the necessary analytical software is also available. “Real-time BI,” in which automated decisions are embedded in operational business processes, is gaining ground.

Example

Netflix, the movie rental company, relies on analytics to drive its growth. At the heart of its business is a movie-recommendation “engine” based on proprietary software. Cinematch, as the tool is called, analyzes customers’ choices and feedback on the movies they have rented — more than a billion ratings of movies they have liked, loved, or hated — and then recommends movies in ways that optimize both the customer’s taste and Netflix’s inventory.
Analytics also help Netflix decide what to pay for the distribution rights to DVDs, essentially giving the company a powerful information advantage during negotiations. For example, when Netflix bought rights to Favela Rising, a documentary about Rio de Janeiro musicians, company executives knew that a million customers had rented 2003’s City of God, also set in Rio. About half a million had rented the Oscar-winning documentary Born Into Brothels, and 250,000 had seen both. So Netflix paid a fee based on 250,000 rentals. If it rents more than that number of copies of Favela Rising, the film’s producers and Netflix split the upside.

History

Data analysis has been used in business since the dawn of the industrial era — from the time management exercises initiated by Frederick Winslow Taylor in the late 19th century to the measured pacing of the mechanized assembly lines developed by Henry Ford. But it began to command more attention in the late 1960s when computers were used in experiments to aid decision-making. These earliest “decision support systems” addressed repetitive and non-strategic activities such as financial reporting. (One notable exception was at American Airlines, which depended on Sabre, its breakthrough yield management system, to beat its competitors.) Analysis of statistics became more routine in the 1970s with the arrival of packaged computer applications. But few executives embraced the strategic use of data; number-crunching was left largely to the statisticians.
Since then, analytics have evolved with the development of enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems, data warehouses, and a wide variety of other hardware and software tools and applications. But until recently, companies have focused on analyzing historical data rather than developing predictive analytics for decision-making.
Many companies today are collecting and storing a mind-boggling quantity of data. In just a few years, the common terminology for data volumes has grown from megabytes to gigabytes to terabytes (TB) — a trillion bytes. Some corporate databases are even approaching one petabyte — a quadrillion bytes — in size. The 583 TB in Wal-Mart’s data warehouse, for example, is far more than the digital capacity needed if all 17 million of the books in the U.S. Library of Congress were fully formatted. Gargantuan storage facilities are not the only technological frontier: statistical software, high-end 64-bit processors, and specialty “data appliances” can quickly churn through enormous amounts of data—and do so with greater sophistication.

Awareness of analytics

Executives are increasingly aware of the power of information technology to help make better decisions. More than 30 percent of senior managers polled in a 2006 study by Accenture said they use their enterprise systems for “significant decision support or analytical capability”; four years earlier, only 19 percent agreed with that statement.
There is also growing sensitivity among executives to the relevance and utility of business intelligence. A 2007 Gartner survey of chief information officers found that BI is the top technology priority for IT organizations for the second year in a row. Only 36 percent of CIOs surveyed by Gartner believe that management is using the right information to run the business.
Gartner has identified four strategies that CIOs should pursue: technical excellence; enterprise agility; information effectiveness; and innovation. The third strategy involves using analytics and applying information to how business decisions are made, rather than how information is moved around a company’s computer systems.
In most cases, the top performers have already mastered those strategies. As they develop their analytical capabilities further, they are increasingly migrating toward more powerful techniques such as predictive modeling, forecasting and optimization

Challenges of analytics

Analytics is dependent on data. If there is no data, there can be no analytics. However, if data is sparse or non-existent, an organization can conduct surveys or a census to obtain data. In many cases to save expenses, organizations can look for data obtained from situations that are similar but not quite meet the current requirements, and make minor modifications (i.e.,a company trying to introduce an energy drink for the first time in a town can use existing data from a survey of athletes that drink carbonated beverages). However, in these cases, businesses should be aware of the risks inherent in using data obtained in such manner.
For many organizations aspiring to be analytical competitors, the primary problem is not that they lack data. It is that they must contend with dirty data. The challenge is that they do not know which data is trustworthy — “clean” — and which contains duplicates, outdated records and erroneous data entries.
According to Gartner, an alarming proportion of all business data is inaccurate. The research firm estimates that at least 25 percent of critical data within Fortune 1,000 companies will continue to be inaccurate through 2007. In a separate study by a leading accounting firm, only a little more than a third of executives were “very confident” in the quality of their corporate data.
A company that finds it has poor-quality data should postpone any plans to compete on analytics and instead should fix its data first. UPS demonstrates the patience that is often necessary. Although the delivery company has been collecting customer information for more than five years, it took more than half that time to validate that data before it was usable.
Unlike mature economies, in some of the fastest growing developing economies, such as India and China, analytics has to contend with "noisy" data wherein the data is incomplete (e.g. credit rating of a customer) or suspect (e.g. demographic information of a mobile telecom customer) or plain missing. A new generation of analytical algorithms that compensates for this "noise" appropriately helps in deployment of analytics solutions without the need to rely on fixing data - something that may never be possible in the near future. Such innovative algorithms are an example of technology innovations in developing markets that promise to leapfrog existing methods that have been developed primarily for mature markets and not easily transposable given constraints such as data sanctity

Companies Providing Analytics Services

Providers of Analytics services are focused on extracting information by looking at the data in many different ways. Companies pay extra attention to results when they are supported by data. Data Analysis answers the "What happened?" but not the "Why did it happen" question. "What" question is answered by the experts within the industry who understand the data side as well the Business and Customer side. "Why" question is answered by talking to the customer.

BEHAVIORAL ECONOMICS AND FINANCE !!! ???

2008-10-23T02:08:00.000-07:00

Behavioral economics and behavioral finance are closely related fields which apply scientific research on human and social, cognitive and emotional factors to better understand economic decisions and how they affect market prices, returns and the allocation of resources. The fields are primarily concerned with the bounds of rationality (selfishness, self-control) of economic agents. Behavioral models typically integrate insights from psychology with neo-classical economic theory.
Academics are divided between considering Behavioral Finance as supporting some tools of technical analysis by explaining market trends, and considering some aspects of technical analysis as behavioral biases (representativeness heuristic, self fulfilling prophecy).[1]
Behavioral analysts are mostly concerned with the effects of market decisions, but also those of public choice, another source of economic decisions with some similar biases.
Contents

History

During the classical period, economics had a close link with psychology. For example, Adam Smith wrote The Theory of Moral Sentiments, an important text describing psychological principles of individual behavior; and Jeremy Bentham wrote extensively on the psychological underpinnings of utility. Economists began to distance themselves from psychology during the development of neo-classical economics as they sought to reshape the discipline as a natural science, with explanations of economic behavior deduced from assumptions about the nature of economic agents. The concept of homo economicus was developed, and the psychology of this entity was fundamentally rational. Nevertheless, psychological explanations continued to inform the analysis of many important figures in the development of neo-classical economics such as Francis Edgeworth, Vilfredo Pareto, Irving Fisher and John Maynard Keynes.
Although psychology had nearly disappeared from economic discussions by the mid 20th century, it somehow managed to stage a resurgence, and certain factors were responsible for this resurgence in the continued development of behavioral economics. Expected utility and discounted utility models began to gain wide acceptance, generating testable hypotheses about decision making under uncertainty and intertemporal consumption respectively. Soon a number of observed and repeatable anomalies challenged those hypotheses. Furthermore, during the 1960s cognitive psychology had begun to shed more light on the brain as an information processing device (in contrast to behaviorist models). Psychologists in this field such as Ward Edwards,[2] Amos Tversky and Daniel Kahneman began to compare their cognitive models of decision making under risk and uncertainty to economic models of rational behavior. In Mathematical psychology, there is a longstanding interest in the transitivity of preference and what kind of measurement scale utility constitutes (Luce, 2000).[3]
An important paper in the development of the behavioral finance and economics fields was written by Kahneman and Tversky in 1979. This paper, 'Prospect theory: An Analysis of Decision Under Risk', used cognitive psychological techniques to explain a number of documented divergences of economic decision making from neo-classical theory. Over time many other psychological effects have been incorporated into behavioral finance, such as overconfidence and the effects of limited attention. Further milestones in the development of the field include a well attended and diverse conference at the University of Chicago,[4] a special 1997 edition of the Quarterly Journal of Economics ('In Memory of Amos Tversky') devoted to the topic of behavioral economics and the award of the Nobel prize to Daniel Kahneman in 2002 "for having integrated insights from psychological research into economic science, especially concerning human judgment and decision-making under uncertainty".[5]
Prospect theory is an example of generalized expected utility theory. Although not commonly included in discussions of the field of behavioral economics, generalized expected utility theory is similarly motivated by concerns about the descriptive inaccuracy of expected utility theory.
Behavioral economics has also been applied to problems of intertemporal choice. The most prominent idea is that of hyperbolic discounting, proposed by George Ainslie (1975), in which a high rate of discount is used between the present and the near future, and a lower rate between the near future and the far future. This pattern of discounting is dynamically inconsistent (or time-inconsistent), and therefore inconsistent with some models of rational choice, since the rate of discount between time t and t+1 will be low at time t-1, when t is the near future, but high at time t when t is the present and time t+1 the near future. As part of the discussion of hypberbolic discounting, has been animal and human work on Melioration theory and Matching Law of Richard Herrnstein. They suggest that behavior is not based on expected utility rather it is based on previous reinforcement experience.

Methodology

At the outset behavioral economics and finance theories had been developed almost exclusively from experimental observations and survey responses, although in more recent times real world data have taken a more prominent position. Functional magnetic resonance imaging fMRI has complemented this effort through its use in determining which areas of the brain are active during various steps of economic decision making. Experiments simulating market situations such as stock market trading and auctions are seen as particularly useful as they can be used to isolate the effect of a particular bias upon behavior; observed market behavior can typically be explained in a number of ways, carefully designed experiments can help narrow the range of plausible explanations. Experiments are designed to be incentive-compatible, with binding transactions involving real money being the "norm".

Key observations

There are three main themes in behavioral finance and economics:[6]
Heuristics: People often make decisions based on approximate rules of thumb, not strictly rational analysis. See also cognitive biases and bounded rationality.
Framing: The way a problem or decision is presented to the decision maker will affect his action.
Market inefficiencies: There are explanations for observed market outcomes that are contrary to rational expectations and market efficiency. These include mis-pricings, non-rational decision making, and return anomalies. Richard Thaler, in particular, has described specific market anomalies from a behavioral perspective.
Recently, Barberis, Shleifer, and Vishny (1998),[7] as well as Daniel, Hirshleifer, and Subrahmanyam (1998)[citation needed] have built models based on extrapolation (seeing patterns in random sequences) and overconfidence to explain security market over- and underreactions, though such models have not been used in the money management industry. These models assume that errors or biases are correlated across agents so that they do not cancel out in aggregate. This would be the case if a large fraction of agents look at the same signal (such as the advice of an analyst) or have a common bias.
More generally, cognitive biases may also have strong anomalous effects in the aggregate if there is a social contamination with a strong emotional content (collective greed or fear), leading to more widespread phenomena such as herding and groupthink. Behavioral finance and economics rests as much on social psychology within large groups as on individual psychology. However, some behavioral models explicitly demonstrate that a small but significant anomalous group can also have market-wide effects (eg. Fehr and Schmidt, 1999).[citation needed]

Behavioral finance topics

Some central issues in behavioral finance include "Why investors and managers (lenders and borrowers as well) make systematic errors". It shows how those errors affect prices and returns (creating market inefficiencies). It also shows what managers of firms, other institutions and financial players might do to take advantage of market inefficiencies (arbitrage behavior).
Behavioral finance highlights certain inefficiencies and among these inefficiencies are underreactions or overreactions to information, as causes of market trends and in extreme cases of bubbles and crashes). Such misreactions have been attributed to limited investor attention, overconfidence / overoptimism, and mimicry (herding instinct) and noise trading.
Other key observations made in behavioral finance literature include the lack of symmetry (disymmetry) between decisions to acquire or keep resources, called colloquially the "bird in the bush" paradox, and the strong loss aversion or regret attached to any decision where some emotionally valued resources (e.g. a home) might be totally lost. Loss aversion appears to manifest itself in investor behavior as an unwillingness to sell shares or other equity, if doing so would force the trader to realise a nominal loss (Genesove & Mayer, 2001). It may also help explain why housing market prices do not adjust downwards to market clearing levels during periods of low demand.
Benartzi and Thaler (1995), applying a version of prospect theory, claim to have solved the equity premium puzzle, something conventional finance models have been unable to do so far.
Some current researchers in experimental finance use the experimental method, e.g. creating an artificial market by some kind of simulation software to study people's decision-making process and behavior in financial markets.

Behavioral finance models

Some financial models used in money management and asset valuation use behavioral finance parameters, for example:
Thaler's model of price reactions to information, with three phases, underreaction-adjustment-overreaction, creating a price trend
One characteristic of overreaction is that the average return of asset prices following a series of announcements of good news is lower than the average return following a series of bad announcements. In other words, overreaction occurs if the market reacts too strongly or for too long (persistent trend) to news that it subsequently needs to be compensated in the opposite direction. As a result, assets that were winners in the past should not be seen as an indication to invest in as their risk adjusted returns in the future are relatively low compared to stocks that were defined as losers in the past.
The stock image coefficient
[edit]Criticisms of behavioral finance
Critics of behavioral finance, such as Eugene Fama, typically support the efficient market theory (though Fama may have reversed his position in recent years). They contend that behavioral finance is more a collection of anomalies than a true branch of finance and that these anomalies will eventually be priced out of the market or explained by appealing to market microstructure arguments. However, a distinction should be noted between individual biases and social biases; the former can be averaged out by the market, while the other can create feedback loops that drive the market further and further from the equilibrium of the "fair price".
A specific example of this criticism is found in some attempted explanations of the equity premium puzzle. It is argued that the puzzle simply arises due to entry barriers (both practical and psychological) which have traditionally impeded entry by individuals into the stock market, and that returns between stocks and bonds should stabilize as electronic resources open up the stock market to a greater number of traders (See Freeman, 2004 for a review). In reply, others contend that most personal investment funds are managed through superannuation funds, so the effect of these putative barriers to entry would be minimal. In addition, professional investors and fund managers seem to hold more bonds than one would expect given return differentials.

Quantitative behavioral finance

Quantitative behavioral finance is a new discipline that uses mathematical and statistical methodology to understand behavioral biases in conjunction with valuation. Some of this endeavor has been lead by Gunduz Caginalp (Professor of Mathematics and Editor of Journal of Behavioral Finance during 2001-2004) and collaborators including Vernon Smith (2002 Nobel Laureate in Economics), David Porter, Don Balenovich,[8] Vladimira Ilieva, Ahmet Duran,[9] Huseyin Merdan). Studies by Jeff Madura,[10] Ray Sturm[11] and others have demonstrated significant behavioral effects in stocks and exchange traded funds.
The research can be grouped into the following areas:
Empirical studies that demonstrate significant deviations from classical theories
Modeling using the concepts of behavioral effects together with the non-classical assumption of the finiteness of assets
Forecasting based on these methods
Studies of experimental asset markets and use of models to forecast experiment

Behavioral economics topics

Models in behavioral economics are typically addressed to a particular observed market anomaly and modify standard neo-classical models by describing decision makers as using heuristics and being affected by framing effects. In general, economics sits within the neoclassical framework, though the standard assumption of rational behaviour is often challenged.

SLEPT ANALYSIS ?

2008-10-23T02:01:00.000-07:00

SLEPT ANALYSIS is a tool used to analyse a business environment. It's PEST analysis with one aditional dimention. SLEPT stands for Social, Legal, Economic, Political and Technological factors. Social factors relate to the habits of the consumer, as well as the status of the general public (for example, the average age and income of people in a certain area). Legal factors refers to government legislation that places constraints or obligations upon a business; businesses must adapt to changes in the law quickly in order to avoid prosecution. Economic factors are often effected by social changes, for example through booms and slumps in the economy; in a boom most businesses benefit, whereas in a slump most businesses feel a negative effect. Other economic factors are tied in with legal issues, for example a change in the minimum wage. Political factors are similar to legal changes, except that this relates to changes in government influence in general; for example, businesses situated within the European Union have been affected by legislation passed by the EU and then implemented into the law of their own country. Technological factors play a particularly significant role in modern business, and businesses must be aware of new technology in order to keep up with the rapid changes that are occurring in this field.

DECISION MAKING

2008-10-23T01:44:00.000-07:00

Decision making can be regarded as an outcome of mental processes (cognitive process) leading to the selection of a course of action among several alternatives. Every decision making process produces a final choice.^[1] The output can be an action or an opinion of choice.

Overview

Human performance in decision making terms has been subject of active research from several perspectives. From a psychological perspective, it is necessary to examine individual decisions in the context of a set of needs, preferences an individual has and values he/she seeks. From a cognitive perspective, the decision making process must be regarded as a continuous process integrated in the interaction with the environment. From a normative perspective, the analysis of individual decisions is concerned with the logic of decision making and rationality and the invariant choice it leads to.^[2]

Yet, at another level, it might be regarded as a problem solving activity which is terminated when a satisfactory solution is found. Therefore, decision making is a reasoning or emotional process which can be rational or irrational, can be based on explicit assumptions or tacit assumptions.

Logical decision making is an important part of all science-based professions, where specialists apply their knowledge in a given area to making informed decisions. For example, medical decision making often involves making a diagnosis and selecting an appropriate treatment. Some research using naturalistic methods shows, however, that in situations with higher time pressure, higher stakes, or increased ambiguities, experts use intuitive decision making rather than structured approaches, following a recognition primed decision approach to fit a set of indicators into the expert's experience and immediately arrive at a satisfactory course of action without weighing alternatives. Also, recent robust decision efforts have formally integrateduncertainty into the decision making process.

[edit]Decision making processes topics

According to behavioralist Isabel Briggs Myers, a person's decision making process depends on a significant degree on their cognitive style.^[3] Myers developed a set of four bi-polar dimensions, called the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI). The terminal points on these dimensions are: thinking and feeling; extroversion and introversion; judgment and perception; andsensing and intuition. She claimed that a person's decision making style is based largely on how they score on these four dimensions. For example, someone who scored near the thinking, extroversion, sensing, and judgment ends of the dimensions would tend to have a logical, analytical, objective, critical, and empirical decision making style.

Other studies suggest that these national or cross-cultural differences exist across entire societies. For example, Maris Martinsons has found that American, Japanese and Chinese business leaders each exhibit a distinctive national style of decision making.^[4]

[edit]Cognitive and personal biases

Some of the decision making techniques that we use in everyday life include:

listing the advantages and disadvantages of each option, popularized by Plato and Benjamin Franklin
flipping a coin, cutting a deck of playing cards, and other random or coincidence methods
accepting the first option that seems like it might achieve the desired result
prayer, tarot cards, astrology, augurs, revelation, or other forms of divination
acquiesce to a person in authority or an "expert"
calculating the expected value or utility for each option.

For example, a person is considering two jobs. At the first job option the person has a 60% chance of getting a 30% raise in the first year. And at the second job option the person has an 80% chance of getting a 10% raise in the first year. The decision maker would calculate the expected value of each option, calculating the probability multiplied by the increase of value. (0.60*0.30=0.18 [option a] 0.80*0.10=0.08 [option b]) The person deciding on the job would chose the option with the highest expected value, in this example option number one. An alternative may be to apply one of the processes described below, in particular in the Business and Management section.

Biases can creep into our decision making processes. Many different people have made a decision about the same question (e.g. "Should I have a doctor look at this troubling breast cancer symptom I've discovered?" "Why did I ignore the evidence that the project was going over budget?") and then craft potential cognitive interventions aimed at improving decision making outcomes.

Below is a list of some of the more commonly debated cognitive biases.

Selective search for evidence (a.k.a. Confirmation bias in psychology) (Scott Plous, 1993) - We tend to be willing to gather facts that support certain conclusions but disregard other facts that support different conclusions.
Premature termination of search for evidence - We tend to accept the first alternative that looks like it might work.
Inertia - Unwillingness to change thought patterns that we have used in the past in the face of new circumstances.
Selective perception - We actively screen-out information that we do not think is salient. (See prejudice.)

Wishful thinking or optimism bias - We tend to want to see things in a positive light and this can distort our perception and thinking.
Choice-supportive bias occurs when we distort our memories of chosen and rejected options to make the chosen options seem relatively more attractive.
Recency - We tend to place more attention on more recent information and either ignore or forget more distant information. (See semantic priming.) The opposite effect in the first set of data or other information is termed Primacy effect (Plous, 1993).
Repetition bias - A willingness to believe what we have been told most often and by the greatest number of different of sources.
Anchoring and adjustment - Decisions are unduly influenced by initial information that shapes our view of subsequent information.
Group think - Peer pressure to conform to the opinions held by the group.
Source credibility bias - We reject something if we have a bias against the person, organization, or group to which the person belongs: We are inclined to accept a statement by someone we like. (See prejudice.)
Incremental decision making and escalating commitment - We look at a decision as a small step in a process and this tends to perpetuate a series of similar decisions. This can be contrasted with zero-based decision making. (See slippery slope.)

Attribution asymmetry - We tend to attribute our success to our abilities and talents, but we attribute our failures to bad luck and external factors. We attribute other's success to good luck, and their failures to their mistakes.
Role fulfillment (Self Fulfilling Prophecy) - We conform to the decision making expectations that others have of someone in our position.
Underestimating uncertainty and the illusion of control - We tend to underestimate future uncertainty because we tend to believe we have more control over events than we really do. We believe we have control to minimize potential problems in our decisions.

[edit]Neuroscience perspective

The anterior cingulate cortex (ACC) and orbitofrontal cortex are brain regions involved in decision making processes. A recent neuroimaging study, Interactions between decision making and performance monitoring within prefrontal cortex, found distinctive patterns of neural activation in these regions depending on whether decisions were made on the basis of personalvolition or following directions from someone else.

Another recent study by Kennerly, et al. (2006) found that lesions to the ACC in the macaque resulted in impaired decision making in the long run of reinforcement guided tasks suggesting that the ACC is responsible for evaluating past reinforcement information and guiding future action.

Emotion appears to aid the decision making process:

Decision making often occurs in the face of uncertainty about whether one's choices will lead to benefit or harm (see also Risk). The somatic-marker hypothesis is a neurobiological theory of how decisions are made in the face of uncertain outcome. This theory holds that such decisions are aided by emotions, in the form of bodily states, that are elicited during the deliberation of future consequences and that mark different options for behavior as being advantageous or disadvantageous. This process involves an interplay between neural systems that elicit emotional/bodily states and neural systems that map these emotional/bodily states. [http://www.blackwell-synergy.com/doi/abs/10.1111/j.1467-8721.2006.00448.x?cookieSet=1&journalCode=cdir

[edit]Styles and methods of decision making

Styles and methods of decision making were elaborated by the founder of Predispositioning Theory, Aron Katsenelinboigen. In his analysis on styles and methods Katsenelinboigen referred to the game of chess, saying that “chess does disclose various methods of operation, notably the creation of predisposition—methods which may be applicable to other, more complex systems.”^[5]

In his book Katsenelinboigen states that apart from the methods (reactive and selective) and sub-methods (randomization, predispositioning, programming), there are two major styles – positional and combinational. Both styles are utilized in the game of chess. According to Katsenelinboigen, the two styles reflect two basic approaches to the uncertainty: deterministic (combinational style) and indeterministic (positional style). Katsenelinboigen’s definition of the two styles are the following.

The combinational style is characterized by

a very narrow, clearly defined, primarily material goal, and
a program that links the initial position with the final outcome.

In defining the combinational style in chess, Katsenelinboigen writes:

The combinational style features a clearly formulated limited objective, namely the capture of material (the main constituent element of a chess position). The objective is implemented via a well defined and in some cases in a unique sequence of moves aimed at reaching the set goal. As a rule, this sequence leaves no options for the opponent. Finding a combinational objective allows the player to focus all his energies on efficient execution, that is, the player’s analysis may be limited to the pieces directly partaking in the combination. This approach is the crux of the combination and the combinational style of play.^[5]

The positional style is distinguished by

a positional goal and
a formation of semi-complete linkages between the initial step and final outcome.

“Unlike the combinational player, the positional player is occupied, first and foremost, with the elaboration of the position that will allow him to develop in the unknown future. In playing the positional style, the player must evaluate relational and material parameters as independent variables. ( … ) The positional style gives the player the opportunity to develop a position until it becomes pregnant with a combination. However, the combination is not the final goal of the positional player—it helps him to achieve the desirable, keeping in mind a predisposition for the future development. The Pyrrhic victory is the best example of one’s inability to think positionally.”^[6]

The positional style serves to

a) create a predisposition to the future development of the position;
b) induce the environment in a certain way;
c) absorb an unexpected outcome in one’s favor;
d) avoid the negative aspects of unexpected outcomes.

The positional style gives the player the opportunity to develop a position until it becomes pregnant with a combination. Katsenelinboigen writes:
“As the game progressed and defense became more sophisticated the combinational style of play declined. . . . The positional style of chess does not eliminate the combinational one with its attempt to see the entire program of action in advance. The positional style merely prepares the transformation to a combination when the latter becomes feasible.”^[7]

^[7]

ORGANISING MODEL

2008-10-23T01:32:00.000-07:00

The organising model, as the term refers to trade unions (and sometimes other social-movement organisations), is a broad conception of how those organisations should recruit, operate and advance the interests of their members. It typically involves many full-time organisers, who work by building up confidence, strong networks and leaders within the workforce, and confrontational campaigns involving large numbers of union members. It is often contrasted with the Service model, and sometimes (see below) to a 'Rank-and-file' model. The Organising Model is strongly linked to Social Movement Unionism and Community Unionism. The prominence of the model, and the debate over its worth, is at varying stages in the United States, the United Kingdom, Ireland, Australia and New Zealand. The debate is important because the model is one of the more credible contributions to the discussion of how trade unions can reverse the trend of declining membership which they are experiencing in most 'advanced' industrial nations, and recapture some of the political power which the labour movement has lost over the past century

[hide] [hide]

1 Organising and the history of trade unions
2 Defining the Organising Model
3 Resurgence in America
4 Resurgence in the UK and Ireland
5 History in Australia
6 Criticisms
- 6.1 Criticisms from the Left
- 6.2 Criticisms from the Right
7 External links
8 See also
9 List of unions associated with the organising model

[edit]Organising and the history of trade unions

Trade unions originally existed to organise their members democratically, and during their early growth, they typically put a strong emphasis on active recruitment and militant rank and file action, including strikes. By no means did they always unambiguously act in the interests of their members, but they were perceived of as organisations which existed to struggle for collective action. Particularly since the end of World War II, however, the trade unions have tended more and more to act as service providers for their members: providing legal advice, training and so on; eschewing mass-based, militant action. During the '60s, '70s and onward, this trend deepened, with union density among the workforce falling all the while, until it could be measured at between 10% and 20% in many industrialised countries. In the context of this history, the organising model is in principle not so much a new conception, as an attempt to recapture the essence of the labour movement. However, the way in which it has been recaptured has been quite particular.

[edit]Defining the Organising Model

It is often claimed that the principle underlying the organising model is that of giving power directly to union members. While the practical exercise of the model sometimes leaves something to be desired in this respect (see below), its embodiment of a set of campaigning and organisational approaches is much less ambiguous. The organising model in its ideal type has these features:

Proactive recruitment drives.
Proactive campaigning, involving a large commitment of resources and large numbers of members.
Creative campaigning tactics - including demonstrations, street theatre, media stunts, direct action, civil disobedience, music etc.
Strong emphasis on the importance of personal contact in organising. Organisers will often put in long hours talking to workers about their situation, and what they believe the union can help them achieve. Visits to workers' homes will often be a component of this.
Acceptance of the view that workers need to take some appreciable responsibility for winning union struggles and making the union strong. Hence an attitude geared toward empowering workers.
As a central tool of both recruitment and campaigning, the identification and recruitment of leaders from among the workforce, to spread information about the union, and encourage others to join and take action.
These leaders working together in a campaign committee, to steer campaigns [1].
A conception of leadership in which leaders are those willing to take the initiative and contribute effort, rather than one based on authority. It will be hoped that leadership (as confidence to initiation organisation with others) will spread as broadly as possible.
Strong relationship (especially in America) to Social Movement Unionism and Community Unionism which (respectively) seek to ally the labour movement to broader social movements and to local community organisations - including for example, campaigns such as United Students Against Sweatshops and ACORN.
Employment of relatively large numbers of full-time staff union organizers and member organizers in order to facilitate the above.
In order to finance this, typically a relatively high level of membership dues (at least for industrial unions, as opposed to craft unions.)

Unions that employ the organizing model often try to apply the above tactics in "internal"/representational/bargaining campaigns, not just "external" organising/recruitment campaigns. Indeed, many unions that employ the organising model attempt to "bargain to organise" -- that is, win a greater right to organize non-union workers through pressuring an employer through using current members collective strength. In contrast, the service model focuses on the provision of services - such as legal advice, training, or even consumer discount programmes - to members. Practitioners of this model will generally avoid industrial, or direct, action of any kind, preferring to develop a 'good relationship' with employers. Typically, but not necessarily, service model unions will be less democratic in structure.

[edit]Resurgence in America

In the mid 1980s, the SEIU union found itself in a state of crisis. Dwindling membership threatened to finish it off entirely. A period of intense internal discussion gave rise to the view that a radical program was needed to rebuild the union, and make it relevant to current and potential members. The Justice for Janitors campaign was launched as the organizational spearhead of this realization; beginning in Denver, Colorado in 1985. Working along the lines described above, the SEIU experienced a huge growth in membership, and a significant number of high-profile public victories for workers. (Though some proportion of the SEIU's membership growth has resulted from mergers, such as with 1199). In 1988, an AFL-CIO organisedteleconference of trade unionists recognised the potential of the nascent organising model, gave it its name, and resolved to spread it throughout the trade-union movement - this was an element in the model's popularisation. The success of Justice for Janitors did not go unnoticed and other unions in America have increasingly used its tactics. In 1995, former SEIU President John Sweeney was elected president of the AFL-CIO on the New Voice slate, on a platform of spreading the organising model across the members of the federation. The extent of the success of this is disputed, with some suggesting that more rhetoric has changed than anything, but it did have at least some effect. The SEIU is currently the largest private-sector union in America, trailing only the public-sector NEA in active membership, and has received numerous plaudits for its victories. It should be noted that the tactics and strategies of the SEIU and Justice for Janitors go beyond the organising model which is, as has been described, an approach to local level organising and campaigning. It applies to a drive for recruitment of members and leaders on the level of a firm or city. Other aspects of the SEIU's strategies are national or international. For instance, the drive to gain industry-wide coverage across a large geographical base - i.e. to organise janitors not only within one building, but across a whole city, state and eventually all across the USA - or the advocacy of union mergers.

[edit]Resurgence in the UK and Ireland

The British Trades Union Congress (TUC) inaugurated an Organising Academy in 1998, to fulfill a similar role to that of the AFL-CIO's Organising Institute in the USA (or ACTU'sOrganising Works programme in Australia). Whilst the graduates of the Academy have produced positive results [2], in general the model has not been implemented in the UK with the same comprehensive commitment as it has been by some unions in the USA. There are questions raised by writers on Industrial Relations about whether the transfer of the SEIU's organising model has been faithful, or whether a watered down, less radical version has been instantiated. Sarah Oxenbridge [3], for example, writes "community organising and organising model methods provided the means by which Californian Unionists put their 'social movement unionism' philosophies and strategies into practice, on a daily basis (see Heery 1998). However, it may be that most British Trade Unionists will instead see the organising model as - more simply - a range of recruitment tactics, and will pick and choose from amongst these tactics." The Transport and General Workers Union (T&G) has begun to make some of the more serious moves of any of the larger British unions to learn from the SEIU's strategies - though some smaller unions (such as Community) have been applying the organising model for some years. In 2005, the T&G launched a Justice for Cleaners campaign, which has been organising workers in Canary Wharf, the Houses of Parliament, and, towards the end of the year, on the London Underground. In the former of these two, improvements in wages have been won by workers. The tactics of Social Movement Unionism have been utilised, insofar as the campaign organisers have worked closely with, for example, The East London Citizens Organisation (TELCO), which has brought in members of faith groups and other trade union branches. However, there remain concerns about the T&G's commitment to rank and file workers' action, considering how the union acted during the Gate Gourmet strike. The Irish general union SIPTU established an Organising Unit in 2004 and its president, Jack O'Connor, set as his objective the transformation of SIPTU - hitherto firmly committed to a servicing agenda - into an organising union. SIPTU is also seeking to learn from the experience of the SEIU. It remains to be seen how (and whether) a commitment to the organising model of trade unionism can be reconciled with the union's traditional support for national 'Social Partnership'.

[edit]History in Australia

Prior to the 1980s, the Australian labour movement did not explicitly conceptualise the relationship between the union hierarchy and the membership in terms of "organisation" or "services." Traditional distinctions, inherited from long-term conflict, between the "Groupers" (a branch of the a Catholic-oriented National Civic Council) on one hand and the Communist Party of Australia on the other, have dictated the terrain of membership/leadership relationships. These relationships were fundamentally those of small unions which catered to their members by combining elements of rank-and-file organising, hierarchical organising, and gaining benefits for members through industrial or non-industrial action. Successful unions met their members' demands for militancy, or anti-militancy, and for an internal union culture which developed a feeling of belonging. Both "right wing" and "left wing" unions could be bureaucratic, or member controlled, militant or anti-militant. However, after a wave of massive industrial unrest and unprecedented increases in wages and conditions during the 1970s, the union movement became more restrained in their demands, and part of the official apparatus of government during the ALP-led, neo-corporatist, Accord period (1983-96). While unions hadamalgamated prior to the Accord, and the Australian Council of Trade Unions had itself absorbed other lesser peak industrial councils, the accord period and the later enterprise bargainingperiod encouraged mergers into super unions. These super unions often obliterated previous small union identities and loyalties (on both the "left" and "right" of the trade union movement) and created unions with a relatively artificial internal culture. Often the largest union in the merger imposed its internal culture on the other divisions of the new union. Additionally, during the period of mergers, the traditional links between members, local organisers, industrial officers, branches and the peak leaderships of unions broke down. While the pre-1980s period of trade unionism in Australia was never characterised by deep links between leaderships and rank and file members, the structures within unions which allowed rank and file members to feel involved and this part of the union broke down. This presented a challenge to the union movement. Another key feature of the model in Australia is the Organising Works program which was established in 1994 to recruit organisers from union members and university students. Organising works is a relatively unique program in Australia, in that it combines explicit training in trade unionism with an apprenticeship system with specific trade unions. Generally, organising works has focused recruitment on university students rather than existing trade union members, and only a limited number of unions have participated in organising works.

[edit]Criticisms

Most practical criticism of the model has emerged as a criticism of the practice of the model by the SEIU and other organising unions, especially in America. Criticisms from the left generally contrast (explicitly or not) 'organising' to a 'rank and file' model, in which the confrontational style of organising, and broad-based member involvement in campaigning is supplemented by broad-based member power. Criticisms from the Right are either arguments in favour of service model unionism, or attacks on some of the trade union practices which are often involved in strikes.

[edit]Criticisms from the Left

There have been criticisms that the SEIU's practice in some ways has been antithetical to real internal democracy, and therefore antithetical to real worker confidence and power. There are a number of issues [4]. One is that the SEIU has compelled a number of its Locals to merge, and has placed others under centrally appointed trusteeship (rather than directly elected management), uprooting local democracy. Another is that the layer of professional organisers, many of whom are 'Anglo' college graduates and lifetime organisers, rather than poor immigrants with years spent in low-paid jobs, has assumed disproportionate power in the structures that do exist. Critics claim that the net function of these trends - centralising and an emphasis on paid staff organisers - has been to produce a certain distance between the membership and bureaucracy. There is an increasingly vocal layer of rank-and-file dissidents in the SEIU, over issues of democracy and unsatisfactory campaigning. In a few locals, the rank and file has even organised campaigns against union appointees, or set up alternative unions. There are also criticisms over the political stance taken by the SEIU in certain issues, which call into question the political honesty and pro-working-class credentials of elements of the leadership. For instance, in Los Angeles, the local SEIU acted against the local Bus Riders' Union (BRU), a community organisation; proposing a cut in public-transport funding in order to finance better health care system. A BRU organiser has suggested that the SEIU should instead have taken up the BRU's offer of a joint campaign for 'new taxes on corporations and a reduction in prison construction.' [5]

[edit]Criticisms from the Right

Critics argue that the Organising model is inappropriate to the task of unions in the modern global economy. They say that industrial disputes of the type that organising engenders are harmful to the national economies in which they occur: by increasing uncertainty and raising wages (labour costs), they will make economies less attractive to inward investment. Hence, working people will suffer in the long term, as the less investment there is, the less jobs there will be. The conclusion of those who take this line is that unions should emphasise their service aspects, particularly those that contribute toward the well-being of the employer as well as the employee. An example of an argument of this form can be found in the pamphlet co-written by British Labour MP John Healey and published by the TUC [6], which emphasizes how unions can grow, and serve the business interests of employers by taking on the role of training their members. In addition, there are the criticisms levelled by the anti-union Right, who often associate collective action with the tyranny of 'Big labour', contrasted to the free operation of the capitalist labour market. Characteristic examples of this type of criticism can be found in public statements of the anti-union National Right to Work Legal Defense Foundation [7].

BIO-GRAPHY OF ETTORE BUGATTI

2008-10-13T21:25:00.001-07:00

Ettore Bugatti

Ettore Arco Isidoro Bugatti

BORN:-(September 15, 1881, Milan, died on August 21, 1947) was an Italian automobile designer and manufacturer.

He came from a notably artistic family with its roots in Milan. He was the elder son of Teresa Lorioli and her husband Carlo Bugatti (1856–1940), an important Art Nouveau furniture and jewelry designer. His younger brother was a renowned animal sculptor, Rembrandt Bugatti (1884–1916), his aunt, Luigia Bugatti, was the wife of the painter Giovanni Segantini, and his paternal grandfather, Giovanni Luigi Bugatti, was an architect and sculptor.

Before founding his own automobile company, Ettore designed a number of engines and vehicles for others. Prinetti & Stucchi produced his 1898 Type 1. From 1902 through 1904, Dietrich built his Type 3/4 and Type 5/6/7 under the Dietrich-Bugatti marque. In 1907, Bugatti went to work for the Deutz Gasmotoren Fabrik, designing the Type 8/9.

On his own time, Bugatti developed the Type 2 (in 1900 and 1901), and the 1903 Type 5. While at Deutz, Bugatti built his Type 10 in the basement of his home. In 1913, Bugatti designed a small car for Peugeot, the Type 19 "Bébé".

Although born in Italy, Bugatti's eponymous automobile company was set up in Molsheim in the Alsace region, now part of France. Ettore Bugatti was its technical innovator, developing a number of engines and chassis for the numerous models produced over the next three decades. The company was known for the advanced engineering in its premium road cars and its success in early Grand Prix motor racing, a Bugatti winning the first ever Monaco Grand Prix.

Bugatti Type 59 Grand Prix

Ettore Bugatti also designed a successful motorized railcar, the Autorail, and an airplane, though this never flew. His son, Jean Bugatti, was killed on August 11, 1939 at the age of 30, while testing a Type 57 tank-bodied race car near the Molsheim factory. After that, the company's fortunes began to decline. World War II ruined the factory in Molsheim, and the company lost control of the property. During the war, Bugatti planned a new factory at Levallois in Paris and designed a series of new cars.

Ettore Bugatti was buried in the Bugatti family plot at the municipal cemetery in Dorlisheim near Molsheim in the Bas-Rhin département of the Alsace region of France.

[hide] v • d • e Bugatti car timeline, 1910–present – a marque of the Volkswagen Group since 1998
Type	1910s										1920s										1930s										1940s										1950s										1960s			1963–86	1980s			1990s										2000s
Type	0	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	0	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	0	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	0	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	0	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	0	1	2		7	8	9	0	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	0	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9
Company	Bugatti																																																						Bugatti Automobili S.p.A											Bugatti Automobiles S.A.S.
Owner	Ettore Bugatti / Roland Bugatti																																																						Romano Artioli											Volkswagen AG
Touring car													Type 30 / Type 49													Type 57
Touring car																				Type 46
Limousine																		Type 41 Royale
Roadster											Type 13 / Brescia Tourer												Type 55
Coupé																																										Type 101
Sports car	Type 13		Type 18 Garros

HISTORY OF BANK OF AMERICA

2008-10-04T05:28:00.000-07:00

Bank of America

Bank of America Corporation

Type
Public (NYSE: BAC TYO: 8648)
Founded
(as "Bank of Italy")
San Francisco, California (1928)
(acquiring banks)
Charlotte, North Carolina (NationsBank) (1874)Boston, Massachusetts (FleetBoston) (1784)
Headquarters
Charlotte, North Carolina, United States
Key people
Kenneth D. Lewis, Chairman/CEOJ. Steele Alphin, CAOJoe L. Price, CFOAmy Woods Brinkley, Chief Risk Officer
Industry
Banking
Products
Financial services
Revenue
▲ $119.19 billion (2007)[1]
Net income
▲ $14.98 billion (2007)[1]
Total assets
$1.72 trillion (2007)[1]
Employees
210,000 (2007)[2]
Website
http://www.bankofamerica.com/ http://www.bofa.com/
Bank of America (NYSE: BAC TYO: 8648) is the largest commercial bank in the United States by deposits and market capitalization.[3][4]
It is a member of Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC).
Contents[hide]
1 Corporate history
1.1 Bank of Italy
1.2 Growth in California
1.3 Expansion outside of California
1.4 Merger of NationsBank and BankAmerica
1.5 History since 1998
1.5.1 Acquisition of National Processing Company
1.5.2 FleetBoston Financial merger
1.5.3 Purchase of MBNA
1.5.4 Divestiture of operations in Brazil, Chile and Uruguay
1.5.5 Purchase of US Trust
1.5.6 Acquisition of ABN AMRO North America and LaSalle Bank
1.5.7 Acquisition of Countrywide Financial
1.5.8 Acquisition of Merrill Lynch
2 Bank of America divisions
2.1 Consumer
2.2 Corporate
2.3 Investment management
2.4 International operations
3 Corporate governance
3.1 Directors
4 Social responsibility
4.1 Diversity and inclusion
4.2 Environmental record
4.3 Student Leader
5 Controversies
6 Bank of America corporate buildings
7 Major sponsorships
7.1 Sports
7.2 Corporate sponsorships
7.3 Regional sponsorships:
7.3.1 Arts and culture
7.3.2 Baseball
7.3.3 Basketball
7.3.4 American Football
7.3.5 Soccer
7.3.6 NASCAR, International Speedway Corp. (ISC) and Speedway Motorsports, Inc. (SMI)
7.3.7 Golf
8 See also
9 References
10 Further reading
11 External links
//

[edit] Corporate history
Before 1998, the Bank of America organization that exists today was known as NationsBank and was previously known in earlier years as North Carolina National Bank before being abbreviated to "NCNB" as it branched out of its home base of Charlotte, North Carolina. In 1998, NationsBank acquired San Francisco-based BankAmerica and renamed the corporation "Bank of America".

[edit] Bank of Italy
Many historical banks across the United States have been consolidated into the Bank of America. The most prominent is the Bank of Italy, founded in San Francisco by Amadeo Giannini in 1904 based on catering to immigrants. Amedeo was raised by the Fava/Stanghellini family when his father was shot while trying to collect on a $10.00 debt. When the 1906 San Francisco earthquake struck, Giannini was able to get all of the deposits out of the bank building and away from the fires.
In the late 1920s, Giannini approached Orra E. Monnette, President and founder of Bank of America, Los Angeles, about a merger between the two entities. The Los Angeles based bank had exhibited strong growth throughout the 1920s, due in part to its success in developing an advanced branch banking system. The merger was completed in early 1929 and took the name Bank America. The combined company was headed by Giannini with Monnette serving as co-Chair.

[edit] Growth in California
Giannini sought to build a national bank, expanding into most of the western states as well as into the insurance industry, under the aegis of his holding company, Transamerica Corporation. The passage of the Bank Holding Company Act of 1956, prohibited banks from owning non-banking subsidiaries such as insurance companies. Bank of America and Transamerica were separated, with the latter company continuing in the insurance business. However, federal banking regulators prohibited Bank of America's interstate banking activity, and Bank of America's domestic banks outside California were forced into a separate company that eventually became First Interstate Bancorp, which was acquired by Wells Fargo and Company in 1996. It was not until the 1980s with a change in federal banking legislation and regulation that Bank of America was again able to expand its domestic consumer banking activity outside California.
These technologies also enabled credit cards to be linked directly to individual bank accounts. In 1958, the bank introduced the BankAmericard, which changed its name to VISA in 1975.[5] A consortium of other California banks came up with Master Charge (now MasterCard) in order to compete with BankAmericard.

[edit] Expansion outside of California

Bank of America Corporate Center, located in the center of uptown Charlotte, North Carolina.
Following the passage of the Bank Holding Company Act of 1967, BankAmerica Corporation was established for the purpose of owning Bank of America and its subsidiaries.
BankAmerica expanded outside California in 1983 with its acquisition of Seafirst Corporation of Seattle, Washington, and its wholly owned banking subsidiary, Seattle-First National Bank. Seafirst was at risk of seizure by the federal government after becoming insolvent due to a series of bad loans to the oil industry. BankAmerica continued to operate its new subsidiary as Seafirst rather than Bank of America until the 1998 merger with NationsBank.
BankAmerica was dealt huge losses in 1986 and 1987 by the placement of a series of bad loans in the Third World, particularly in Latin America. The company fired its CEO, Sam Armacost. Though Armacost blamed the problems on his predecessor, A.W. (Tom) Clausen, Clausen was appointed to replace Armacost. The losses resulted in a huge decline of BankAmerica stock, making it vulnerable to a hostile takeover. First Interstate Bancorp of Los Angeles (which had originated from banks once owned by BankAmerica), launched such a bid in the fall of 1986, although BankAmerica rebuffed it, mostly by selling its FinanceAmerica subsidiary to Chrysler, and by selling the brokerage firm Charles Schwab and Co. back to Mr. Schwab. By the time of the 1987 stock market crash, BankAmerica's share price had fallen to $8, but by 1992 it had rebounded mightily to become one of the biggest gainers of that half-decade.
BankAmerica's next big acquisition came in 1992. The company acquired its California rival, Security Pacific Corporation and its subsidiary Security Pacific National Bank in California and other banks in Arizona, Idaho, Oregon and Washington (which Security Pacific had acquired in a series of acquisitions in the late 1980s). This was, at the time, the largest bank acquisition in history. Federal regulators, however, forced the sale of Security Pacific's Washington subsidiary, Rainier Bank, as the combination of Seafirst and Rainier would have given BankAmerica too large a share of the market in that state. Later that year, BankAmerica expanded into Nevada by acquiring Valley Bank of Nevada.
In 1994, BankAmerica acquired the Continental Illinois National Bank and Trust Co. of Chicago, which had become federally owned as part of the same oil industry debacle emanating from Oklahoma City's Penn Square Bank, that had brought down numerous financial institutions including Seafirst. At the time, no bank had the resources to bail out Continental, so the federal government operated the bank for nearly a decade. Illinois at that time regulated branch banking extremely heavily, so Bank of America Illinois was a single-unit bank until the 21st century. BankAmerica moved its national lending department to Chicago in an effort to establish a financial beachhead in the region.
These mergers helped BankAmerica Corporation to once again become the largest U.S. bank holding company in terms of deposits, but the company fell to second place in 1997 behind fast-growing NationsBank Corporation, and to third in 1998 behind North Carolina's First Union Corp. In 1998, BankAmerica was purchased by North Carolina-based NationsBank, and changed the headquarters to Charlotte, North Carolina.

[edit] Merger of NationsBank and BankAmerica

Bank of America Corporate Center building in the background, the tallest skyscraper between Philadelphia and Atlanta.
In 1997, BankAmerica lent D. E. Shaw & Co., a large hedge fund, $1.4bn so that the hedge fund would run various businesses for the bank. However, D.E. Shaw suffered significant loss after the 1998 Russia bond default. BankAmerica was acquired by NationsBank later that year.
The purchase of BankAmerica Corp. by the NationsBank Corporation was the largest bank acquisition in history at that time. While the deal was technically a purchase of BankAmerica Corporation by NationsBank, the deal was structured as merger with NationsBank renamed to Bank of America Corporation, and Bank of America NT&SA, changing its name to Bank of America, N.A. as the remaining legal bank entity. The bank still operates under Federal Charter 13044 which was granted to Giannini's Bank of Italy on March 1, 1927. However, SEC filings before 1998 are listed under NationsBank, not BankAmerica.
Following the US$64.8 billion acquisition of BankAmerica by NationsBank, the resulting Bank of America had combined assets of US$570 billion, as well as 4,800 branches in 22 states. Despite the mammoth size of the two companies, federal regulators insisted only upon the divestiture of 13 branches in New Mexico, in towns that would be left with only a single bank following the combination. This is because branch divestitures are only required if the combined company will have a larger than 25 percent FDIC deposit market share in a particular state or 10 percent deposit market share overall.

[edit] History since 1998
In 2001, Bank of America CEO and chairman Hugh McColl stepped down and named Ken Lewis as his successor. Lewis's greater focus on financial discipline and efficiency contrasted greatly with the expansionary mergers and acquisition strategy of his predecessor.

[edit] Acquisition of National Processing Company
In 2004, Bank of America purchased Louisville, Kentucky-based National Processing Company for $1.4 billion from National City Corp. The company was renamed BA Merchant Services. The company provides financial solutions for travel and healthcare companies. BA Merchant Services is headquartered in Louisville, with a call center in El Paso, Texas.

[edit] FleetBoston Financial merger
Also in 2004, Bank of America acquired Boston, Massachusetts-based FleetBoston Financial for $47 billion in an all-stock deal to solidify Bank of America's position as the bank with the largest FDIC-rated deposit market share in the United States with $513 billion in deposits, well ahead of the number two bank holding company, newly-merged JPMorgan Chase-Bank One with $353 billion in deposits and number three Wells Fargo & Co. with $228 billion (as of 30 June 2003). This acquisition gave Bank of America access to the northeastern market.

Bank of America branch location in Lowell, MA; formerly a FleetBoston location.

[edit] Purchase of MBNA
On 30 June 2005, Bank of America announced it would purchase credit card giant MBNA for $35 billion in cash and stock. The Federal Reserve Board gave final approval to the merger on 15 December 2005, and the merger closed on 1 January 2006. The acquisition of MBNA provided Bank of America a leading credit card issuer at home and abroad. The combined Bank of America Card Services organization, including the former MBNA—had more than 40 million U.S. accounts and nearly $140 billion in outstanding balances.

[edit] Divestiture of operations in Brazil, Chile and Uruguay
In May 2006, Bank of America and Banco Itaú (Investimentos Ita S.A.) entered into an acquisition agreement through which Itaú agreed to acquire BankBoston's operations in Brazil and was granted an exclusive right to purchase Bank of America's operations in Chile and Uruguay. A deal was signed in August 2006 under which Itaú agreed to purchase Bank of America's operations in Chile and Uruguay. Prior to the transaction, BankBoston's Brazilian operations included asset management, private banking, a credit card portfolio, and small, middle-market, and large corporate segments. It had 66 branches and 203,000 clients in Brazil. BankBoston in Chile had 44 branches and 58,000 clients and in Uruguay it had 15 branches. In addition, there was a credit card company, OCA, in Uruguay, which had 23 branches. BankBoston N.A. in Uruguay, together with OCA, jointly served 372,000 clients. While the BankBoston name and trademarks were not part of the transaction, as part of the sale agreement, they cannot be used by Bank of America in Brazil, Chile or Uruguay following the transactions. Hence, the BankBoston name has disappeared from Brazil, Chile and Uruguay. The Itaú stock received by Bank of America in the transactions has allowed Bank of America's stake in Itaú to reach 11.51%. Banco Boston do Brazil had been founded in 1947.

[edit] Purchase of US Trust
On 20 November 2006, Bank of America announced the purchase of The United States Trust Company for $3.3 billion, from the Charles Schwab Corporation. US Trust had about $100 billion of Assets Under Management and over 150 years of experience. The deal closed 1 July 2007.[6]

[edit] Acquisition of ABN AMRO North America and LaSalle Bank
On September 14, 2007, Bank of America won approval from the Federal Reserve to acquire ABN AMRO North America, LaSalle Bank Corporation and LaSalle Corporate Finance from ABN AMRO for $21 billion. With this combination Bank of America will have 1.7 trillion in assets. A Dutch court blocked the sale until it was later approved in July. The acquisition was completed on October 1, 2007.
The deal increased Bank of America's presence in Illinois, Michigan, and Indiana by 411 branches, 17,000 commercial bank clients, 1.4 million retail customers and 1,500 ATMs. Bank of America has become the largest bank in the Chicago market with 197 offices and 14% of the deposit share, passing up JPMorgan Chase.
LaSalle Bank and LaSalle Bank Midwest branches adopted the Bank of America name on 5 May 2008.[7]

[edit] Acquisition of Countrywide Financial
On August 23, 2007 the company announced a $2 billion repurchase agreement for Countrywide Financial. This purchase of preferred stock was arranged to provide a return on investment of 7.25% per annum and provided the option to purchase common stock at a price of $18 per share.[8]
Following that initial investment, on January 11, 2008, Bank of America announced that they would buy Countrywide Financial for $4.1 billion.[9] This acquisition, which closed on July 1, 2008, gave the bank a substantial market share of the mortgage business, and access to Countrywide's expertise, technology, and employees for servicing mortgages.[10] The acquisition was seen as preventing the potential of bankruptcy for Countrywide. Countrywide denied that it was close to bankruptcy. Countrywide provides mortgage servicing for nine million mortgages valued at $1.4 trillion USD as of December 31, 2007.[11] However, Countrywide is under FBI investigation due to possible fraud in home loans and mortages, therefore Bank of America states that by 2009 they will be "officially" affiliated to Countrywide.[12]
On July 1, 2008, Bank of America Corporation completed its purchase of Countrywide Financial Corporation, which makes the corporation the nation's leading mortgage originator and servicer controlling between 20 to 25 percent of the home loan market.[13] The deal was structured to merge Countrywide with the Red Oak Merger Corporation, which Bank of America created as an independent subsidiary. It has been speculated that the deal was structured this way to prevent a potential bankruptcy stemming from large losses in Countrywide to hurt the parent organization by keeping Countrywide bankruptcy remote.[14]

[edit] Acquisition of Merrill Lynch
The Wall Street Journal reported September 15, 2008, that Merrill Lynch will be sold to Bank of America for about US$50 billion or about $29 per share.[15] This will make Bank of America the largest financial services company in the world. [16]

[edit] Bank of America divisions

Bank of America ATM

Typical Bank of America local office
Bank of America generates 90% of its revenues in its domestic market and continues to buy businesses in the US. The core of Bank of America's strategy is to be the number one bank in its domestic market. It has achieved this through key acquisitions.[17]

[edit] Consumer
Global Consumer and Small Business Banking (GC&SBB) is the largest division in the company, and deals primarily with consumer banking and credit card issuance. The acquisition of FleetBoston and MBNA significantly expanded its size and range of services, resulting in about 51% of the company's total revenue in 2005. It competes directly with the retail banking divisions of Citigroup and JPMorgan Chase. The GC&SBB organization includes over 5,700 retail branches and over 17,000 ATMs across the United States.
Bank of America is a member of the Global ATM Alliance, a joint venture of several major international banks that allows customers of the banks to use their ATM card or check card at another bank within the Global ATM Alliance with no fees when traveling internationally. Other participating banks are Barclays (United Kingdom), BNP Paribas (France), China Construction Bank (China), Deutsche Bank (Germany), Santander Serfin (Mexico), Scotiabank (Canada) and Westpac (Australia and New Zealand).[18] This however does not include cash advances or any of their credit card services which when used abroad deduct a 3% transaction fee and a 3% cash advance fee on top of the currency transaction fee. Unfortunately, most USA customers traveling in France will be unable to use their ATM cards at BNP Paribas kiosks because they only accept ATM cards which contain computer chips (Smart Card).
Bank of America, N.A is a nationally chartered bank, regulated by the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, Department of the Treasury.

[edit] Corporate
Global Corporate and Investment Banking (GCIB), also known as Banc of America Securities LLC, provides mergers and acquisitions advisory, underwriting, capital markets, as well as sales & trading in fixed income and equities markets. Its strongest groups include Leveraged Finance, Syndicated Loans, and mortgage-backed securities. It also has one of the largest research teams on Wall Street. Banc of America Securities LLC is based in New York City, with major offices also located in Charlotte, Chicago, San Francisco, Tokyo, Frankfurt, London, and Mumbai. Ken Lewis, the ambitious chief executive who masterminded the bank's expansion into exotic new businesses including GCIB, bluntly ruled out any further acquisitions in its investment banking division. "I've had all of the fun I can stand in investment banking at the moment," he told analysts.

[edit] Investment management
Global Wealth and Investment Management manages assets of institutions and individuals. It is among the 10 largest U.S. wealth managers (ranked by private banking assets under management in accounts of $1 million or more as of June 30, 2005). In July 2006, Chairman Ken Lewis announced that GWIM's total assets under management exceeded $500 billion. GWIM has five primary lines of business: Premier Banking & Investments (including Bank of America Investment Services, Inc.), The Private Bank, Family Wealth Advisors, Columbia Management Group, and Banc of America Specialist.
Bank of America has recently spent $675 million building its US investment banking business and is looking to become one of the top five investment banks worldwide. "Bank of America already has excellent relationships with the corporate and financial institutions world. Its clients include 98% of the Fortune 500 companies in the US and 79% of the Global Fortune 500. These relationships, as well as a balance sheet that most banks would kill for, are the foundations for a lofty ambition."[19]
Bank of America is currently constructing a massive new headquarters for its New York City operations. The skyscaper will be located on 42nd Street and Avenue of the Americas, at Bryant Park, and will feature state of the art, environmentally-friendly technology throughout its 1.2 million square feet (111,484 m²) of office space. The building will be the headquarters for the company's investment banking division, and will also host most of Bank of America's New York-based staff.

[edit] International operations
In 2005, Bank of America acquired a 9% stake in China Construction Bank, China's second largest bank, for $3 billion.[20] It represented the company's largest foray into China's growing banking sector. Bank of America currently has offices in Hong Kong, Shanghai, and Guangzhou and is looking to greatly expand its Chinese business as a result of this deal.
Bank of America has invested in India as an emerging market. Currently, Bank of America maintains branches in Mumbai, Chennai, Calcutta, New Delhi and Bangalore. For the fiscal year ending March 31, 2006 Bank of America reported an 80% increase in net profit.[21]
Bank of America operated under the name BankBoston in many other Latin American countries, including Brazil. In 2006, Bank of America sold all BankBoston's operations to Brazilian bank Banco Itaú, in exchange for Itaú shares. The BankBoston name and trademarks were not part of the transaction and, as part of the sale agreement, cannot be used by Bank of America. (That meant the extinction of the BankBoston brand.)
Bank of America's Global Corporate and Investment Banking spans the Globe with divisions in United States, Europe and Asia. The U.S. headquarters are located in New York, European headquarters are based in London and Asia's headquarters are split between Singapore & Hong Kong.

BY:-ANAND SHANKAR

HISTORY OF AMERICAN EXPRESS

2008-10-04T05:18:00.000-07:00

American Express

American Express Company

Type
Public (NYSE: AXP)
Founded
1850
Founder
Henry Wells William Fargo John Butterfield
Headquarters
New York, NY, USA
Area served
Worldwide
Key people
Kenneth Chenault(Chairman) & (CEO)
Industry
Finance and Insurance, Travel agencies
Products
Financial services, Travel Services
Market cap
US$ 41.13 billion (2008)
Revenue
▲ US$ 31.557 billion (2007)
Operating income
▲ US$ 5.566 billion (2007)
Net income
▲ US$ 4.012 billion (2007)
Total assets
▲ US$ 149.830 billion (2007)
Total equity
▲ US$ 11.029 billion (2007)
Employees
67,700 (2008)
Website
AmericanExpress.com
American Express (NYSE: AXP), sometimes known as "AmEx" or "Amex", is a diversified global financial services company, headquartered in New York City. The company also has major offices in Fort Lauderdale, FL; Salt Lake City, UT; and Phoenix, AZ. The company is best known for its credit card, charge card and traveler's cheque businesses.
The company's common stock trades on the New York Stock Exchange under the ticker symbol "AXP." It is one of the 30 stocks that comprise the Dow Jones Industrial Average. In 2007, BusinessWeek and Interbrand ranked American Express as the 14th most valuable brand in the world, estimating the brand to be worth US$20.87 billion.[1]
The current CEO is Kenneth Chenault, who took over in 2001.
Contents[hide]
1 History
1.1 Early history
1.1.1 American Express buildings
1.1.2 Nationwide expansion
1.1.3 Financial services
1.1.4 Loss of railroad express business
1.1.5 Company role in Cable TV
2 American Express today
2.1 Travel Division
2.2 Charge card services history
2.3 The "Boston Fee Party"
2.4 Financial services history
3 Advertising
4 Workplace
4.1 Offices
4.2 Diversity
4.3 Acquisition of American Express Bank Ltd. by Standard Chartered plc
5 Management and corporate governance
6 References
7 External links
//

[edit] History

[edit] Early history
American Express was founded in 1850, in Buffalo, New York, as a joint stock corporation that was a merger of the express mail companies owned by Henry Wells (Wells & Company), William Fargo (Livingston, Fargo & Company), and John Butterfield (Wells, Butterfield & Company, the successor earlier in 1850 of Butterfield, Wasson & Company), as an express business.[2] [3] The same founders also started Wells Fargo & Co. in 1852 when Butterfield and other directors objected to the proposal that American Express extend its operations to distant California. American Express first established its headquarters in a building at the intersection of Jay Street and Hudson Street in what was later called the TriBeCa section of Manhattan, and enjoyed a virtual monopoly on the movement of express shipments (Goods, Securities, Currency, etc.) throughout New York State. In 1874, American Express moved its headquarters to 65 Broadway in what was becoming the Financial District of Manhattan, a location it was to retain through two buildings.[4]

[edit] American Express buildings
In 1854, the American Express Co. purchased a lot on Vesey Street in New York City as the site for its stables. The company's first New York headquarters were in an impressive marble Italianate palazzo at 55-61 Hudson Street between Thomas Street and Jay Street (1857-58, John Warren Ritch), which had a busy freight depot on the ground story with a spur line from the Hudson River Railroad. A stable was constructed nearby at 4-8 Hubert Street, between Hudson Street and Collister Street (1866-67, Ritch & Griffiths), five blocks north of the Hudson Street building.
The company prospered sufficiently that headquarters were moved in 1874 from the wholesale shipping district to the budding Financial District, and into rented offices in two five-story brownstone commercial buildings at 63 and 65 Broadway, between Exchange Alley and Rector Street, and between Broadway and Trinity Place that were owned by the Harmony family.[5]
In 1880, American Express built a new warehouse behind the Broadway Building at 46 Trinity Place, between Exchange Alley and Rector Street. The designer is unknown, but it has a façade of brick arches that are redolent of pre-skyscraper New York. American Express has long been out of this building, but it still bears a terra cotta seal with the American Express Eagle.[6] In 1890-91 the company constructed a new ten-story building by Edward H. Kendall on the site of its former headquarters on Hudson Street.
By 1903, the company had assets of some $28 million, second only to the National City Bank of New York among financial institutions in the city.[citation needed] To reflect this, the company purchased the Broadway buildings and site.[citation needed]
At the end of the Wells-Fargo reign in 1914, an aggressive new president, George Chadbourne Taylor (1868-1923), who had worked his way up through the company over the previous thirty years, decided to build a new headquarters. The old buildings, dubbed by the New York Times as "among the ancient landmarks" of lower Broadway, were inadequate for such a rapidly expanding concern. In March 1914, Renwick, Aspinwall & Tucker filed for the construction of a 32-story concrete-and steel-framed office tower in which all of the company's operations, then in four separate buildings, were to be consolidated. The building proposal of 1914 was abandoned, probably due to the war in Europe, but was resurrected two years later in a reduced form, at an estimated cost of $1 million.[5]

65 Broadway
The 21-story (plus basement), neo-classical, American Express Co. Building, was constructed in 1916-17 to the design of James L. Aspinwall, of the firm of Renwick, Aspinwall & Tucker, the successor to the architectural practice of the eminent James Renwick, Jr.. The building consolidated the two lots of the former buildings with a single address: 65 Broadway. This building was part of the "Express Row" section of lower Broadway at the time. The concrete-and-steel-framed building has an H-shaped plan with tall slender wings arranged around central light courts, a type of plan employed from the 1880s through the 1910s to provide offices with maximum light and air. Faced in white brick and terra cotta above a granite base, both facades employ the tripartite composition of base-shaft-capital then popular for the articulation of skyscrapers, with a colonnaded base and upper portion. The famous American Express Eagle adorns the building twice: there is an asymmetric eagle on the lower arch, while a symmetric eagle adorns the arch atop the building. The Broadway entrance features a double-story Corinthian colonnade with large arched windows. The building completed the continuous masonry wall of its block-front and assisted in transforming Broadway into the "canyon" of neo-classical masonry office towers familiar to this day[7]
American Express sold this building in 1975, but retained travel services here. The building was also the headquarters over the years of other prominent firms, including investment bankers J.& W. Seligman & Co. (1940-74), the American Bureau of Shipping, a maritime concern (1977-86), and currently J.J. Kenny, and Standard & Poors, who has renamed the building for itself[5][7]

[edit] Nationwide expansion
American Express extended its reach nationwide by arranging affiliations with other express companies (including Wells Fargo – the replacement for the two former companies that merged to form American Express), railroads, and steamship companies.[4]

[edit] Financial services
In 1882, American Express started its expansion in the area of financial services by launching a money order business[4] to compete with the US Post Office's money orders.
Sometime between 1888 and 1890, J.C. Fargo took a trip to Europe and returned frustrated and infuriated. Despite the fact that he was president of American Express and that he carried with him traditional letters of credit, he found it difficult to obtain cash anywhere except in major cities. Mr. Fargo went to Marcellus Flemming Berry and asked him to create a better solution than the traditional letter of credit. Mr. Berry introduced the American Express Traveler's Cheque which was launched in 1891 in denominations of $10, $20, $50, and $100.[8]
Traveler's cheques established American Express as a truly international company. In 1914, at the outbreak of the First World War, American Express offices in Europe were among the few companies to honor the letters of credit (issued by various banks) held by Americans in Europe, despite other financial institutions having refused to assist these stranded travellers.

[edit] Loss of railroad express business
American Express became one of the monopolies that President Theodore Roosevelt had the Interstate Commerce Commission investigate during his administration. The interest of the ICC was drawn to its strict control of the railroad express business. However, the solution did not come immediately to hand.[4] The solution to this problem came as a coincidence to other problems during World War I.
During the winter of 1917, the US suffered a severe coal shortage and on December 26 President Woodrow Wilson commandeered the railroads on behalf of the US government to move US troops, their supplies, and coal. Treasury Secretary William Gibbs McAdoo was assigned the task of consolidating the railway lines for the war effort. All contracts between express companies and railroads were nullified and McAdoo proposed that all existing express companies be consolidated into a single company to serve the country's needs. This ended American Express's express business, and removed them from the ICC’s radar. The result was a new company called the American Railway Express Agency company formed in July 1918. The new entity took custody of all the pooled equipment and property of existing express companies (the largest share of which, 40%, came from American Express, who had owned the rights to the express business over 71,280 miles of railroad lines, and had 10,000 offices, with over 30,000 employees).

[edit] Company role in Cable TV
American Express formed a joint venture with Warner Communications in 1979 called Warner-Amex Satellite Entertainment, which created MTV, Nickelodeon and The Movie Channel. The partnership only lasted until 1984. The properties were sold to Viacom soon after.

[edit] American Express today
Current CEO Kenneth Chenault took over leadership of American Express from Harvey Golub, CEO from 1993 till present. Prior to that, it was headed by James D. Robinson III from 1977 to 1993.

[edit] Travel Division
American Express established a Travel Division in 1915 that tied together all of the earlier efforts at making travel easier, and soon established its first travel agencies.

[edit] Charge card services history

This article or section may contain an inappropriate mixture of prose and timeline.Please help convert this timeline into prose or, if necessary, a list.
American Express executives discussed the possibility of launching a travel charge card as early as 1946, but it was not until Diners Club launched their own card in March 1950 that American Express began to consider seriously the possibility. At the end of 1957, American Express CEO Ralph Reed decided to get into the card business, and by the launch date of October 1, 1958 public interest had become so significant that they actually issued 250,000 cards prior to the official launch date. The card was launched with an annual fee of $6, $1 higher than Diners Club, to be seen as a premium product. The first cards were paper, with the account number and cardmember's name typed. It was not until 1959 that American Express began issuing embossed ISO 7810 plastic cards, an industry first.
In 1966, American Express introduced the Gold Card and in 1984 the Platinum Card, clearly defining different market segments within its own business, a practice that has proliferated across a broad array of industries. The Platinum Card was billed as super-exclusive and had a $250 annual fee (it is currently $450). It was offered by invitation only to American Express customers with at least 2 years of tenure, significant spending, and excellent payment history.
In 1987, American Express introduced the Optima card, their first credit card product. Previously, all American Express cards had to be paid in full each month, but Optima allowed customers to carry a balance (the charge cards also now allow extended payment options on qualifying charges based on credit availability). Although Optima is no longer heavily promoted, Optima and Optima Platinum cards are still available on the American Express website. Today American Express offers a wide range of other credit card products including co-branded cards like the JetBlue Card and the Starwood Preferred Guest Card, as well as other credit cards promoting customer rewards like the Blue from American Express Card and the Blue Cash Rebate Card.
In 1994, the Optima True Grace card was introduced. The card was unique in that it offered a grace period on all purchases whether a balance was carried on the card or not (as opposed to traditional revolving credit cards which charge interest on new purchases if so much as $1 was carried over.) The card was discontinued a few years later; however, the currently-available One from American Express card offers a similar feature called "Interest Protection."
In 1999, American Express introduced the Centurion Card which is often referred to as the "black card," catering to an even more affluent and elite customer segment. The card charged a $1,000 annual fee at the time of its introduction (today, it is $2,500 with an additional one-time initiation fee of $5000) and offered (and continues to offer) a variety of exclusive benefits. There have always been rumors of a super-exclusive card that gives American Express' richest and most powerful customers special perks. It was this rumor that caused Amex to profit off the word-of-mouth and sparked the launch of Centurion.[9]
The company made another addition to its products in 1999 by introducing Blue from American Express, which quickly became a popular card among young adults due to an appealing marketing campaign directed towards a youthful demographic. Based on a successful product for the European market, Blue had no annual fee, a rewards program, and a multi-functional onboard chip. A cashback version, "Blue Cash", quickly followed.
American Express also launched an exclusive agreement with Costco in 1999, replacing an earlier agreement with Discover Card. Under the agreement, American Express cards replaced Discover as the only credit/charge card accepted at the warehouse club in the US, and American Express became the first and only credit/charge card accepted at Costco's locations outside the US. To introduce Costco members to American Express, a co-branded cashback credit card was also introduced with no annual fee with a valid Costco membership. An added benefit of the agreement is that Costco membership fees can also be paid for with the card. At present, the consumer version of the card offers 3% back on gasoline & dining out, 2% on travel, and 1% on other charges. Business versions of the card offer similar benefits, with the gasoline benefit earning 5% back instead of 3%. The cash back rebate is issued annually as part of the February statement in the form of a rebate check which must be redeemed at a Costco location. The rebate check can be redeemed for cash, merchandise, or any combination thereof. The agreement was highly successful[citation needed]l and was renewed in 2004 for an additional 10 years.
As of 2005, the US Centurion card has a $2500 annual fee, while other American Express cards range between no annual fee (for Blue and many other consumer and business cards) and a $450 annual fee (for the Platinum Card.) Annual fees for the Green card start at $95, while Gold card annual fees start at $125.
In 2005, American Express introduced Clear, advertised as the first credit card with no fees of any kind. It also incorporates the ExpressPay technology premiered with the Blue card. Also in 2005, American Express introduced One, a credit card with a "Savings Accelerator Plan" that contributes 1% of eligible purchases into an FDIC-insured High-Yield Savings Account. Other cards introduced in 2005 included "The Knot" and "The Nest" Credit Cards from American Express, co-branded cards developed with the wedding planning website theknot.com. They have also introduced City Reward Cards that earn INSIDE Rewards points to eat, drink, and play at New York, Chicago and LA hot spots. American Express began phasing out the INSIDE cards in mid-2008, with no new applications being taken as of July 2008.
Also in 2005, American Express introduced ExpressPay, a MasterCard PayPass clone, based on a wireless RFID payment method, that requires a card to simply be waved in front of a special reader and not swiped. This technology replaced the smart chip on the Blue card. Many US merchant and restaurant partners including 7-Eleven, CVS/pharmacy, McDonald's, Regal Entertainment Group, and Ritz Camera, now offer ExpressPay at most or all of their locations. The technology was tested on the ski bus from Salt Lake City to local resorts.
In 2006, the UK division of American Express licensed the Product Red brand and began to issue a Red Card. With each card member purchase the company contributes to good causes through The Global Fund to help African women and children suffering from HIV/AIDS, malaria and other diseases.
In 2007, American Express again raised the annual fee for their American Platinum charge cards, moving the Personal cards fee to $450, and the Business division to $395. With the increase, customers now receive four complimentary companion coach tickets per calendar year. Additionally, a long rumored "relationship" fee of $5,000 to establish a Centurion card was added. The annual fee of $2,500 remains the same, however. In late 2007, they announced their new Plum Card as the latest addition to their card line for small business owners. The card provides a 2% early pay discount or up to two months defer pay on purchases. However, the 2% discount is only available for billing periods where you spend at least $5,000. The first 10,000 cards began to be issued to members on December 16, 2007.[10]
Features: Some versions of the card include various features such as Damage waiver on cars rented with the card, and accident insurance during travel bought with the card.

[edit] The "Boston Fee Party"
From the early 1980s until the early 1990s, American Express was known for cutting its merchant fees (also known as a "discount rate") to merchants and restaurants if they accepted only American Express and no other credit or charge cards. This prompted competitors such as Visa and MasterCard to cry foul for a while as the tactics "locked" restaurants into American Express.
However, in 1991, several restaurants in Boston started accepting and encouraging the use of Visa and MasterCard because of their far lower fees as compared to American Express's fees at the time (which were about 4% for each transaction versus around 1.2% at the time for Visa and MasterCard). A few even stopped accepting American Express credit and charge cards. The revolt, known as the "Boston Fee Party" in reference to the Boston Tea Party, quickly spread nationwide to over 250 restaurants across the US, including restaurants in other cities such as New York City, Chicago, and Los Angeles. In response, American Express decided to reduce its discount rate gradually to compete more effectively and add new merchants to its network such as supermarkets and drugstores. Many elements of the exclusive acceptance program were also phased out so American Express could effectively encourage businesses to add American Express cards to their existing list of payment options.
Currently, American Express' average US merchant rate is about 2.5%, while the average Visa/MasterCard credit card US merchant rate is about 2% (Visa/MasterCard signature debit cards are at 1.7%). Some merchant sectors, such as quick-service restaurants including McDonald's, have special reduced rates to accommodate business needs and profit margins.
Not all the changes from 1991 have taken wind: A very small number of restaurants in major cities still exclusively accept American Express because the vast majority of their customers primarily use Amex cards.[citation needed] Costco also has an exclusivity agreement with American Express; however, Costco's agreement with Amex was the result of a long negotiation process for exclusive acceptance with multiple parties that also included Visa, MasterCard, and Discover.

[edit] Financial services history
During the 1980s, American Express embarked on its dream to become a financial services supercompany. In mid-1981 it purchased Shearson Loeb Rhoades Inc the second largest securities firm in the US. In 1984 it purchased the 90-year old Investors Diversified Services, bringing with it a fleet of financial advisors and investment products. Also in 1984, American Express acquired the investment banking and trading firm, Lehman Brothers Kuhn Loeb, and added it to the Shearson family, creating Shearson Lehman/American Express. In 1988, the Firm acquired E.F. Hutton, forming Shearson Lehman Hutton until 1990, when the Firm's name became Shearson Lehman Brothers. When Harvey Golub took the reins in 1993 he negotiated the sale of Shearson's retail brokerage and asset management business to Primerica and in following year, spun-off of the remaining investment banking and institutional businesses as Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc.
In April 1992, American Express spun off its subsidiary, First Data Corp., in an IPO. Then, in October 1996, the company distributed the remaining majority of its holdings in First Data Corp., reducing its ownership to less than 5%.
In December 2000, American Express agreed to acquire the credit card portfolio of Bank of Hawaii, then a division of Pacific Century Financial Corp. In January 2006, American Express sold its Bank of Hawaii card portfolio to Bank of America (MBNA). Bank of America will issue Visa and American Express cards under the Bank of Hawaii name.
Until 2004, Visa and MasterCard rules prohibited issuers of their cards from issuing American Express cards in the United States. This meant, as a practical matter, that U.S. banks could not issue American Express cards. These rules were struck down as a result of antitrust litigation brought by the U.S. Department of Justice, and are no longer in effect. In January 2004, American Express reached a deal to have its cards issued by a U.S. bank, MBNA America. Initially decried by MasterCard executives as nothing but an "experiment", these cards were released in October of 2004. Some said that the relationship was going to be threatened by MBNA's merger with Bank of America, a major Visa issuer and original developer of VISA. However, an agreement was reached between American Express and Bank of America on December 21, 2005. Under the terms of the agreement, Bank of America will own the customer loans and American Express will process the transactions. Also, American Express will dismiss Bank of America from its antitrust litigation against Visa, MasterCard and a number of U.S. banks. Finally, both Bank of America and American Express also said an existing card-issuing partnership between MBNA and American Express will continue after the Bank of America-MBNA merger. The first card from the partnership, the no-annual-fee Bank of America Rewards American Express card, was released on June 30, 2006.
Since then, Citibank, GE Money, and USAA have also started issuing American Express cards. Citibank currently issues several American Express cards including an American Airlines AAdvantage co-branded card, while GE is currently issuing a co-branded card for Dillard's. HSBC Bank USA is currently testing both HSBC-branded and Neiman Marcus co-branded American Express rewards credit cards, with a full rollout scheduled for late 2007 or early 2008. Also, UBS launched its Resource Card program for US Wealth Management clients issuing Visa Signature credit cards and American Express charge cards linked to their customers accounts and employing a single rewards program for the two cards.
In 2005, American Express released the American Express Travelers Cheque Card, a stored-value card that serves the same purposes as a traveler's cheque, but can be used in stores like a credit card. The card has since been discontinued as of October 31, 2007, due to "changing market conditions". All cardholders were issued refund checks for the remaining balances.
On 30 September 2005, American Express spun off its American Express Financial Advisors unit as a publicly traded company, Ameriprise Financial, Inc.. Due to this, American Express revenues for 2005 are down around $5 billion, however, like-for-like they are up 10.5% in 2005. Also, on September 30, 2005, RSM McGladrey acquired American Express Tax & Business Services (TBS).

[edit] Advertising
In 1975, David Ogilvy of Ogilvy & Mather developed the highly successful "Don't Leave Home Without It" ad campaign for American Express Traveler's Cheques, featuring Oscar-award-winning actor Karl Malden. Karl Malden served as the public face of American Express Travelers Cheques for twenty-five years. His television ads were a combination of suspense, excitement, news, and a compelling call to action. First, you would see a thief stealing money from some poor unsuspecting tourist's wallet or beach bag or hotel room. Then Karl would arrive on the scene looking like the cop he played in the famous television series, Streets of San Francisco. He would say, "This could happen to you!" And then the call to action: "Don't let a thief spoil your vacation. Get American Express Travelers Cheques. Don't leave home without them." After Karl Malden's departure, and the card was promoted over the traveller's cheques, American Express continued to use celebrities. A typical ad for the American Express Card began with a celebrity asking viewers: "Do you know me?" Although he/she gave hints to his/her identity, the star's name was never mentioned except as imprinted on an American Express Card; after which announcer Peter Thomas told viewers how to apply for it. Each ad concluded with the celebrity reminding viewers: "Don't Leave Home Without It." The "Don't Leave Home Without It" slogan was revived in 2005 for the prepaid American Express Travelers Cheque Card.
The long-running PBS children's TV series, "Sesame Street" parodied the "Do you know me?/Don't Leave Home Without It" ad campaigns with three skits involving a Muppet Character holding a Grown-Up Friend's Hand while crossing the street. One skit featured Forgetful Jones (performed by Richard Hunt) with Olivia (Alaina Reed Hall) as his Grown-Up Friend, a second featured Bert and Ernie (Frank Oz and Jim Henson respectively) with Gordon (Roscoe Orman) as their Grown-Up Friend, and the third featured Big Bird (Carroll Spinney) with Bob (Bob McGrath) as his Grown-Up Friend. All three skits ended with their names being embossed at the bottom of a card looking like an American Express Card that had a big human left hand in the middle with the words "Grown-Up Friend's Hand" above it, and a voiceover saying "A Grown-Up Friend's Hand. Don't cross the street without it."
Another parody was seen on an episode of the CBS game show, "Press Your Luck," when the animated "Whammy Character" would give the "Do you know me?" tag line, followed by the display of an AmEx card-parody, which then had "WHAMMY" typed in on the bottom line of the card.
The 1989 movie, Major League also parodied the campaign. In one scene, in which every player is dressed in a tuxedo, the Cleveland Indians tell viewers of the film why every player carries the American Express Card with much of the explanation done one line at a time by players Jake Taylor (Tom Berenger), Eddie Harris (Chelcie Ross), Rick "Wild Thing" Vaughn (Charlie Sheen), Pedro Cerrano (Dennis Haysbert), and Roger Dorn (Corbin Bernsen), and Manager Lou Brown (James Gammon). The scene ends with Willie "Mays" Hayes (a tuxedo-clad Wesley Snipes) sliding into home plate in front of the rest of the team, holding up his card and saying to the viewers: "The American Express Card. Don't steal home without it."

The Adventures of Seinfeld & Superman
To this day, American Express continues to use celebrities in their ads. Some notable examples include a late 1990s ad campaign with comedian Jerry Seinfeld, including the two 2004 webisodes in a series entitled "The Adventures of Seinfeld and Superman." In late 2004, American Express launched the "My life. My card." brand campaign (also by Ogilvy & Mather) featuring famous American Express cardmembers talking about their life. The ads have featured actors Kate Winslet, Robert De Niro, Ken Watanabe and Tina Fey, Duke University basketball coach Mike Krzyzewski, fashion designer Collette Dinnigan, comedian and talk show hostess Ellen DeGeneres, golfer Tiger Woods, professional snowboarder Shaun White, tennis pros Venus Williams and Andy Roddick, Chelsea Football Club manager José Mourinho, and film directors Martin Scorsese, Wes Anderson, M. Night Shyamalan and most recently singer Beyonce Knowles. In 2007, a two-minute black-and-white ad entitled "Animals" starring Ellen DeGeneres won the Emmy Award for Outstanding Commercial.

[edit] Workplace

[edit] Offices

Two rescue workers entering the American Express Tower following September 11th terrorist attack on World Trade Center.

American Express Tower (tallest, left) in New York City
In April 1986 American Express moved its headquarters to the 51-story Three World Financial Center in New York City. After the events of September 11, 2001, American Express had to leave its headquarters temporarily as it was located directly opposite to the World Trade Center and was damaged during the fall of the towers. The company began gradually moving back into its rehabilitated building in 2002.
The company also has major offices in Fort Lauderdale, FL; Salt Lake City, UT; Greensboro, NC and Phoenix, AZ. The main data center is located in Phoenix, with a secondary back-up facility in the Boston area.
Amex Canada is based just north of Toronto, in the Town of Markham.
American Express has an 8-storey European Service Center, known as Amex House in Brighton, England. It is a large 1970s-built white tower block, surrounded by several other smaller offices around the city. Amex House deals with card servicing, sales, fraud and merchant servicing. The official UK HQ is located in London at Belgrave House on Buckingham Palace Road, SW1; other UK offices are based in Sussex at Burgess Hill.
The Asia-Pacific Headquarters is located in Singapore, at 16 Collyer Quay.
The headquarters of the Latin America & Caribbean division is in Miami.
The headquarters of the Australian division is in Sydney's King Street Wharf area, with the new state-of-the-art building receiving greenhouse status due to the environmentally friendly workspace that it provides.

[edit] Diversity
American Express was named one of the 100 Best Companies for Working Mothers living in the U.S. in 2006 and 2007 by U.S. based Working Mothers magazine.

[edit] Acquisition of American Express Bank Ltd. by Standard Chartered plc
On 18 September 2007, it was announced that Standard Chartered plc agreed to acquire American Express Bank Ltd, a commercial bank, from American Express Co, for an estimated $1.1 billion, through a friendly divestiture process. The transaction is currently subject to regulatory approvals. Lehman Brothers is advising American Express in this deal.

PRESENTED BY:- ANAND SHANKAR

"Stardom- Success"

2008-09-29T22:49:00.000-07:00

When a star gets down from a car by opening his door by keeping his left leg on the floor and raising behind the door with a smile or with a proud expression, people will be shouting loudly and few may have a fast heart beat which says about the eagerness that they are showing towards the star and the position which they've given to him, they call him star in a powerful voice as if they have achieved success. That is the power of stardom, it may be a film actor or a successful business magnet or a powerful politician whatever he is, he is successful in his work and he made a successful approach towards people whom he's facing, and people literally behave like slaves and carve for his shakehand or autograph and several say I wanna become like him.In what way stars are different from us are they gods or alliens? Definately, no they are common human beings like us, then what made the difference?One never thinks in this way and no one looks himself in a successful way and no one wants himself to be a role model and he never knows that no other person on earth can be his role model when compared to him. No one is born intelligent and no one born successful. When we speak about success, people think success is winning but success starts from the next second when we start giving our own definition for it like for a goldsmith success is getting gold at a cheaper price for an actor success is fame in such a way each of has our own ways of success. It is a known fact that we all know about these things earlier but we don't follow them. Instead of cursing ourselves lets look at the way how successful people are making difference.If there is a challenge of makinis g or creating a new idea in ten minutes, first of all what runs in our mind is time, and secondly we will go through our past experiences for presenting the same, thirdly we will be looking here and there for searching for our fellow friends who are not working or thinking, if possible as we don't have any idea we'll spoil other's ideas. Where successful people will differ from others,they will be concentrated towards their work and will present in a fabulous way so that they will be the dictators at that event and no one can compete them, what matters in success is using common sense instead of using our technical and other tough skills which will actually ruin our job.Success people are really one step behind when compared to a follower in terms of knowledge and experience, but what makes them to stand in that position is implementing or using the knowledge which they are possessing, in general a common person after fetching some knowledge forgets about that but successful makes use of it and explores that in a deeper sense where in they create ideas and gains more experience. So Read learn and unlearn will the basic principle of successful people."Success is a factor which never comes in a day, for success one has to put his efforts extensively or else one has to do smartwork at right time." Everyone knows this and everyone uses this sentence extensively but no one implements but the one who implements it will leave a new statement to the world which world keeps on using for generations.Stars are really common people they keep their effort completely to become successful and after become successful, the fools or followers behind them makes them to stand as stars and they run behind them as if they are demi gods. So instead of keeping some person as ideal model its better to see yourselves in a better position. Follow this one day or the other you can see people running behind you and shouting for you. Because followers exist forever..........
As said by anirudh in www.anirudhthedawn.blogspot.com