Bank of America 2005 Annual Report Download - page 11

t Bank of America, developing current leaders and planning for future talent
needs are essential components of how we grow. Strengthening our emerging
talent with solid leadership and management skills is critical to the execution of
our profitable growth strategies in the rapidly evolving global economy.
Talent planning drives executive development at Bank of America, and that focus keeps a
steady influx of exceptional candidates flowing to our leadership team. On a daily basis, senior
A
How We Grow: Operating Excellence
Developing world-class leaders
Recruiting and training best-in-class talent keeps our competitive advantage strong
executives manage assignments, deliver candid feedback
and coaching, and arrange opportunities such as member-
ship on cross-organizational teams focused on critical
business issues. Five principles guide our talent planning
and leadership development:
• Attract, develop, retain and reward the best talent
• Regularly recruit top talent from all industries
• Ensure that leaders give all associates candid
feedback
• Monitor leadership performance to ensure that
top performers are in business-critical roles
• Execute processes and programs that encourage
diversity in leadership
More than 1,000 of our top performers annually partici-
pate in Leadership Forums designed to address some of our
most critical business issues. Bank of America chairman,
CEO and president Ken Lewis and his senior management
team lead these important development opportunities and
use them to identify and assess emerging talent.
What does it take to be a leader at Bank of America? We
look for and develop leaders who have the ability to be cata-
lysts of change. We expect all leaders to grow our businesses,
lead our associates to perform, drive consistent execution
and sustain intensity and optimism. When top performers
possess these core skills, it creates an essential consistency
among our leadership team while also providing the flexibility
in leadership styles that is required for different businesses.
We also respect and value diversity not only in race, gen-
der, ethnicity, age, disability and sexual orientation, but also
in viewpoints, experiences, talents and ideas. We strive to
empower all associates to excel on the job and reach their
full potential. We reward and recognize associates based
on performance and the results they achieve for customers,
shareholders and the communities where we do business.
Strategy alone doesn’t win in the marketplace. Top
leaders executing sound strategy with outstanding man-
agement skills do. It’s a competitive advantage we have—
and intend to keep.
10 Bank of America 2005
How we grow through operating excellence
Operating excellence is at the core of our
strengths and is a key part of our growth.
At Bank of America, operating excellence
means continuously striving to flawlessly
and efficiently execute our business plans
in order to create shareholder value.
Setting and reaching new standards
for excellence helps us deliver consistent,
stable and profitable long-term growth in
an increasingly competitive global market-
place. This is key to our ability to rapidly
develop and market new products to meet
our customers’ changing needs and mea-
sure their satisfaction with our offerings—
like the online collections Web site and the
Keep the Change™ program we developed
in response to customer feedback, both of
which have proven to be clear successes.
Our operating excellence also allows
full, efficient use of our unique national
footprint and gives us the ability to
integrate new enterprises seamlessly, as
evidenced by our near flawless execution
of the Fleet merger.