Bank of America Increases Health Care Benefits For Employees!

April 10, 2008

Ashok Business Leave a comment

I had to pinch myself before I could believe it – that a large, US-based employer is actually increasing health care benefits to their employees! Bank of America did the unthinkable, according to this post.

That seems like such an out-of-ordinary thing these days. The cost of health care has been steadily increasing over the years, and most employers have been either cutting down on benefits, or shifting more of the cost to employees, or both! But Bank of America did the exact opposite now, apparently by consolidating most of their health plans with one insurance provider (Aetna), there by passing the cost savings to their employees as additional benefits.

Here’re some of the goodies available to Bank of America’s employees from next year:

- $600 to $1200 in additional health care account contributions by the bank for employees making less than $100,000 a year
- Increased duration of maternity/paternity leave
- Additional money for childcare
- Additional tuition reimbursements

Could other employers, especially the larger ones, do the same?? Is it as simple as consolidating under a single provider or is there more to it? And what happens if that one provider wants to raise the costs, perhaps unreasonably, later on?

Too Much Of Ads In Life

June 25, 2007

Ashok Business, Online Rants Leave a comment

Did you ever wish for the electricity to go out when you’re in an elevator? Or ever felt like running away from your car when filling up gas?

It seems to me that advertisement-supported/enhanced business models are pushing the line a bit too far. Almost to the point of no concern for consumer’s privacy and choice. I had a couple of experiences recently that bugged me to no end.

One of them happened today at the Shell gas station in Mountain View, near El Camino Real and 85 North intersection. They recently installed video screens on gas pumps that are showing ads (with very loud volume) the moment I started filling the gas. As if I am not already paying a fortune for the gas, I didn’t have a choice to _not_hear_ those annoying ads. They promptly stopped as soon as I was done filling up the gas.

The other incident was when I visited a friend at his office in San Jose downtown the other day. He works on the 7th floor of his office building, so I took the elevator to get there. And there was a monitor in the elevator that started showing me ads about some hotel/resort chain. You can’t do anything but watch those ads in the elevator.

As brilliant as these “business ideas” might be, I didn’t like the fact that there was no choice for me to avoid those ads. I felt trapped between my necessity and someone else’s greed. So for the gas station, I decided to do the ultimate thing I could as a consumer – I will not go to them again until they stop forcing ads on me. Now, that’s easier than convincing my friend to quit his job and join some company on his office building’s first floor!!

Tata Steel’s Bid For Glory

October 20, 2006

Ashok Business, India 5 Comments

Finally, Globalization is a 2-way road for Indian companies!

Tata Steel’s $8 billion purchase of its Anglo-Dutch rival Corus would mean a lot to the Indian companies. After years of being at the receiving end of Globalization and fighting to survive and improve their competitiveness, they are slowly beginning to open up. This deal is by far the biggest overseas acquisition by an Indian company and is a sure sign of things to come!

According to this article in Economist, the combined company is likely to be the sixth largest steel manufacturer in the world, catapulting Tata Steel from its current 56th position.

It’d be interesting to see if Mittal would be interested in buying Tata Steel at some point!