Bank of America 2004 Annual Report Download - page 10

THE KEY TO BANK OF AMERICA’S SUCCESSFUL EXECUTION OF ITS GROWTH STRATEGY IS CREATING CUSTOMER SATISFACTION.
The company achieves growth, CEO Ken Lewis says, “by satisfying so many customers so completely that they bring
us more of their business and recommend us to their neighbors, friends and family.”
Lewis adds, “To attain that level of satisfaction, and attract, retain and expand customer relationships, we know
we have to focus the energy and resources of the company on the basic work processes that drive every customer
experience.” It also is essential for all the bank’s diverse businesses and centers of expertise to be able to work together
effectively to ensure that the right resources, products and services are available everywhere to every customer.
The focus of the bank’s leaders and every associate, then, is clear: Consistent, enthusiastic execution and
teamwork produce customer satisfaction, which drives revenue growth.
Bank of America conducts its business around the clock, serving some 33 million households and more than
3 million businesses coast to coast and throughout the world, interacting with customers more than 400 times every
second. We’re there wherever and whenever the customer needs us: making an online transfer in the middle of the
night for a worried parent who needs to get money to a child at college; efficiently underwriting and marketing a multi-
billion-dollar bond issue to finance plant and equipment for a Fortune 1000 company; loaning on inventory to get a
small business over a temporary cash flow crisis; making an affordable mortgage available to a young family to finance
their first home; making it easy for recent immigrants to send money back to family in their old country; providing
investment advice so a hardworking couple in their 30s can retire in their 50s; helping a family transfer wealth from
one generation to the next. This—and much more—is what Bank of America does every minute of every day.
In a business this big and complex, “nothing can be left to chance,” says Milton Jones, the company’s quality
and productivity executive.
To deliver consistent, high-quality service, Bank of America has undertaken a pioneering effort to apply Six
Sigma process improvement discipline to virtually every facet of the company’s operations. Six Sigma is a sophisticated
set of fact-based tools and techniques that allows associates to identify the key drivers of a business process and
determine what should be changed in order to achieve the greatest possible improvement.
Since leadership made Six Sigma an integral part of the company’s culture in 2001, the resulting process
improvements have contributed to increases in revenue growth, operating efficiency and—perhaps most impor-
tantly—customer delight, which has increased 25%. The company considers customers “delighted” when they rate us
9 or 10 on a 10-point scale. Research shows that delighted customers are far more likely to stay with the company and
recommend us to others. Equally important, delighting customers is simply the right way to do business.
Six Sigma puts the customer at the center of the company’s thinking, so associates are viewing the world from the
outside in, designing processes that make a meaningful difference to customers. It’s changed the way individuals approach
their jobs, and it’s raised the confidence and enthusiasm of associates, who can clearly see their efforts bearing fruit.
In addition, an integrated business planning process ties each individual’s performance plan to the company’s
strategic objectives so that everybody is on the same team. The resulting teamwork, crossing traditional organizational
boundaries, enables Bank of America to deliver the full spectrum of the company’s broad capabilities to all its customers.
This annual report, Portrait of a Bank, shows how Bank of America’s leaders and associates are putting the
bank’s strategy into practice on behalf of customers to create value for shareholders.
Portrait of Leadership and Commitment
Customer focus and process discipline
produce breakthrough results.
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