Established in 1998, Bank of America is the result of the merger between two banks – California-based Bank of America and NationsBank of North Carolina. The competitive U.S. banking industry experienced a tremendous consolidation by the end of the 20th century where Bank of America became the second-largest national bank with nearly 4,500 banking centers in 21 states serving 27 million households and two million business processing about 3.8 million transactions daily – more than the Federal Reserve System –. Such consolidation also demonstrated that even though the banking service was local, products offered were national. A high level of product commoditization was helped by customers’ low expectations for banks.
The next century would bring a new way of doing banking; growth will become organic rather than by acquisition. The organic growth will be created by generation of a continuous stream of new products and services. Innovation in banking will be required to adapt to the new realm. Major shift in predefined models is needed, where technology should be view under a new light; IT departments should not continue to be used only as primary support for ongoing operations and infrastructure changes in technology and software. Internet removed geographic boundaries allowing customers to converge in their transactions regardless of their location. In this new realm, banks need to realize that value creation had to be based on the voice of the customer to grow revenue and deepen customer relationships.
Amy Brady, in the late 1990s you have been appointed to lead the Innovation and Development team (I&D team) for product and service development. You successfully created a process for product and service innovation in which the team:
• Accepts, implements, and ...