Locating bank branch becoming an art

Stand at the intersection of Trumbull and Asylum streets in downtown Hartford and you’ll bear witness to a sea of bank branches.

Now TD Bank plans to join the crowd,Where to buy or purchase plasticmoulds for precast and wetcast concrete? with its recent decision to open a regional headquarters in Hartford 21, in what may be one of the most visible retail spots downtown has to offer.

With six banks located next door to each other, it raises an interesting question: Is downtown Hartford overbanked?

At least one industry official who has studied the downtown market says it’s not. With a strong presence of professional service firms, corporations and small businesses, there is still enough business to go around, at least for now, for bank’s looking to enter the market, experts say.

“If you want to be a statewide bank, you really should have a presence in the Capital City,” said Michael Goman, a real estate consultant whose company Accubranch, works with banks to find new branch locations. “You are getting exposure to a great customer base in terms of law firms and other major businesses. There is a lot of value from a public relations and marketing stand point.”

Goman said existing downtown Hartford branches are doing a good volume of business, but their focus is less on individual consumers and more on commercial and government banking. Even though there is decent foot traffic from people working downtown during the week, the real focus for banks downtown is to hang their shingle in front of professional service firms and corporations that demand a greater volume of business.

That is what attracted TD Bank to expand its Hartford presence and make the city one of its four regional hubs in Connecticut, said Michael LaBella, TD’s Connecticut market president.A wireless indoortracking system is described in this paper.

LaBella said the bank has been considering a downtown Hartford expansion for years,There are 240 distinct solutions of the Soma cubepuzzle, and is attracted to the city because it still has a strong core of insurance and professional services companies.

“The Capital City is where we want to expand,” LaBella said. “Visibility wise, this is the spot we have been looking at for quite awhile.”

Currently, the bank has about 10 people working in its downtown Hartford branch at 280 Trumbull St.

He said the bank will grow its downtown Hartford workforce to 40 people focused on commercial and real estate lending, cash management, trade finance, and government banking.

TD Bank has signed a 10-year lease to occupy 10,000 square feet of space on the ground and second floors of the 39-story residential-retail tower. They will open a 3,000 square foot retail branch in the glass-lined corner space fronting Trumbull and Asylum streets.

Directly above that space, on the second floor, the bank says it will occupy 6,600 square feet for its business operations.

Goman, the real estate consultant, said there is a sea change in the way banks target new branch locations, and they are taking a page out of the retail industry’s playbook.

No longer is picking a branch location at random, or even basing a decision off demographic analysis, a viable business option, particularly at a time when capital remains precious.

When banks consider branch locations they must consider basic demographics as well as psychographic or socio-economic indicators that identify likely consumer behaviors,Aeroscout rtls provides a complete solution for wireless asset tracking. Goman said. So it’s not just enough to place a branch in a high traffic area.Welcome to projectorlamp. It must be in a spot where consumers in the area also have similar lifestyle and spending habits.

Goman said the productivity of a given branch will be dramatically affected by being even 100 yards off from the ideal location. He estimates at least 10 percent of branches are opened in locations that are completely unsuitable and many of them end up having to be closed.

In downtown Hartford, the fact there a large number of branches located next to each other is actually a positive indicator because it shows there is “bank synergy.” It also offers the opportunity to grow market share be stealing customers from a competitor.

Car-care product jargon doesn't really talk to me

'Ladiesssssss, are you tired of buying eye liner, lipstick and so-called miracle creams that don't live up to their promises? Have you had it with harsh abrasives that leave marks and discolouration?"

Me, too, which is why I've dreamed up a line of cosmetics that's "strong enough for a muscle car, but made for a woman's wheels".

All right, so I haven't actually tacked my name onto a successful line of car-care products that talks directly to women in a language we can all understand, just yet ... but I could. If I'm any example, there's definitely a market for it.

I came to this conclusion when instead of investing in a box of hair colour, I spent the cash on some car polish that promised to "breathe life into my old finish." How could I resist? So I tried in on one of the guys' cars in the parking lot here at work.

Well, believe it or not, the stuff removed so much of chalky-looking topcoat that the red primer underneath was showing through in spots. It was like a dye job gone horribly wrong. At least it was glistening.

It didn't "restore the lustre," like the label promised it would - unless the shine I was looking for was supposed to be that of bare metal.

When I related the story to one of the carguy columnists back at the office, he said that's what the product is supposed to do: remove the dull, old, oxidized paint to reveal the shine under the grime.

In girly-girl terms, it exfoliated the car. So why didn't the label just say that? (And why would I want to exfoliate my car in the first place?)

But just think of the gold mine in marketing car-care products in a femalefriendly way.

Women of the non-car-chick variety want to baby their cars as much as the next girl, right? Well, maybe not, but they might with the right spin on the merchandise.

After all, cosmetics is a multi-billion-dollar industry, so why isn't someone cashing in on this and offering polishes, waxes and glazes specifically geared to women, like me, who won't bat a perfectly curled eyelash at dropping $20 every other week for the new musthave shade of lip gloss or eye shadow?

Most women drop wads of money on things that make us look better. I guarantee we - OK, I - would invest a considerable chunk of change on things that would make our cars look just as good.

I'm not talking about reinventing the wheel - these products are already on the automotive department shelves - just package 'em so that we know what they're going to do for us ... er, um, I mean our cars.

Here's my idea for a shopping list:

- Autobody Wash: A fragrant soap that's gentle on cars, leaving dramatic colour and shine ... and is easy on manicured hands.

- Exfoliators: A strong, but safe product that removes dirt build-up that otherwise makes your car look tired, old and washedout.

- Autobody Lotion: A soothing, protective after-wash coating that prevents chipping, peeling and prohibits the formation of age spots. (Rust, which is not a good shade on anyone.)

The first three items on the list should be offered like any other cosmetic - in trialsize bottles packaged in, ahem, "useful" decorative bags. Maybe manufacturers could even throw in a bonus like ...

Frequently Asked Questions

Asbestos is the name given to a number of naturally occurring fibrous minerals with high tensile strength, the ability to be woven, and resistance to heat and most chemicals. Because of these properties, asbestos fibers have been used in a wide range of manufactured goods, including roofing shingles, ceiling and floor tiles, paper and cement products, textiles, coatings, and friction products such as automobile clutch, brake and transmission parts. The Toxic Substances Control Act defines asbestos as the asbestiform varieties of: chrysotile (serpentine); crocidolite (riebeckite); amosite (cummingtonite/grunerite); anthophyllite; tremolite; and actinolite.

Exposure to asbestos increases your risk of developing lung disease. That risk is made worse by smoking. In general, the greater the exposure to asbestos, the greater the chance of developing harmful health effects. Disease symptoms may take several years to develop following exposure. If you are concerned about possible exposure, consult a physician who specializes in lung diseases (pulmonologist).

Exposure to airborne friable asbestos may result in a potential health risk because persons breathing the air may breathe in asbestos fibers. Continued exposure can increase the amount of fibers that remain in the lung. Fibers embedded in lung tissue over time may cause serious lung diseases including asbestosis, lung cancer, or mesothelioma. Smoking increases the risk of developing illness from asbestos exposure

Asbestosis: Asbestosis is a serious, progressive, long-term non-cancer disease of the lungs. It is caused by inhaling asbestos fibers that irritate lung tissues and cause the tissues to scar. The scarring makes it hard for oxygen to get into the blood. Symptoms of asbestosis include shortness of breath and a dry, crackling sound in the lungs while inhaling. There is no effective treatment for asbestosis.

Lung Cancer: Lung cancer causes the largest number of deaths related to asbestos exposure. People who work in the mining, milling, manufacturing of asbestos, and those who use asbestos and its products are more likely to develop lung cancer than the general population. The most common symptoms of lung cancer are coughing and a change in breathing. Other symptoms include shortness of breath, persistent chest pains, hoarseness, and anemia.

Mesothelioma: Mesothelioma is a rare form of cancer that is found in the thin lining (membrane) of the lung, chest, abdomen, and heart and almost all cases are linked to exposure to asbestos. This disease may not show up until many years after asbestos exposure. This is why great efforts are being made to prevent school children from being exposed.

Tiny technology is one of 3M's biggest assets

3M makes more than 50,000 products, but one technology is at the core of a wide range of products, including road signs, grinders, and overhead projectors.

One of 3M's most important secrets is a technology the company calls "microreplication." It involves covering large sheets of plastic or other surfaces with precisely-sculpted microscopic shapes, thousands of them per square inch, in unending uniformity.

"Imagine pyramids, even like Egyptian pyramids," said Ken Smith, a scientist in 3M's traffic safety division. "It's that kind of structure on a very small scale, all over a plastic film."

The pyramids, ridges and other shapes 3M produces alters the physical, chemical and optical properties of surfaces. A sheet of microscopic pyramids can make road signs brighter because of the way they reflect light, Smith said.

"Those kinds of structures are more efficient at returning the light from your headlights, right back to you as a driver in car," he said. "They return about two-thirds of the light that falls on them back towards the car."

The technology dates to the 1960s, when it was used to make inexpensive overhead projectors for schools and offices. But microreplication has spread across 3M's businesses. The company adapted the technology to improve the performance of everyday items from sandpaper and golf gloves to grinders and cell phones. The technology touches tens of thousands of 3M's products and is critical to the company's innovation, said Ernie Gundling, leadership consultant.

"It's one of 3M's core technology platforms," he said.

Gundling studied 3M for his book, The 3M Way to Innovation. Microreplication has given new life to old products, he said.

"They've been able to reinvent some of their oldest businesses, including the sandpaper business, as well as come up with very unique applications in new areas," he said.

3M guards its microreplication secrets closely.

One microreplication machine could fill a medium-size house and costs more than $1 million, according to 3M. However, no one outside the company, and even most 3M employees are allowed to see a microreplication machine. The machine melts plastic pellets and squeezes them into rolls of film.

There's a good chance you see 3M's microreplication technology at work on your TV, cell phone or computer screen. The technology produces sheets of optical film that make those screens as much as three times brighter. The film improves energy efficiency in display screens, helping extend battery life in laptops, tablet computers and cell phones.

You'll find all manner of dismembered TVs in the lab of 3M researcher Dave Lamb. He spends a lot of time tearing down TVs that don't use 3M's film, and then puts 3M film on them.

"You can see the area where the film was applied is brighter than the area where the film is not applied," he said.

The image is brighter because the microscopic structures on the film's surface reflects light that would otherwise be directed toward the ceiling or floor instead toward where people will most likely watch the set.

But microreplication can also be used to modify something as solid as steel, and has revolutionized the abrasives business that got 3M started about a century ago.

Microreplication allowed 3M to develop abrasives with identical self-sharpening grains. They cut about five times as fast as traditional abrasives and last about seven times as long. They can quickly scour away steel and other metals.

And now microreplication is showing up in 3M's health care business.

Kris Hansen of 3M is working with drug companies on ways to use a patch to deliver vaccines and other drugs, quickly, painlessly and effectively with a skin patch that could replace hypodermic needles. The patch delivers medication or vaccination through tiny structures about 1/25th of an inch long.

"It's got about 1,300 little tiny microneedles on it," she said. "We put the drug or vaccine on the very tip of the microneedle and put that into the skin. And what the patient wears something that is about the size of the quarter and they wear it for maybe ten seconds, or ten minutes. And when they take it off the vaccine has been delivered into the skin."

3M is seeking regulatory approval for the patch. Hansen said the microneedles may soon deliver vaccines and some large selling drugs she can't name. It'll be another case of one half-century old idea, giving rise to yet another product.

Jaton's new PPE and workwear range is more comprehensive and diverse

At more than double the size of Owlett-Jaton’s original personal protective equipment (PPE) and workwear portfolio, Owlett-Jaton's new range of PPE and workwear offers customers more choice, flexibility and competitive prices when it comes to meeting their health and safety requirements.

The brand new and improved range features over 500 product lines from world-leading brands including 3M, Ansell, DeWalt and Uvex. As part of Owlett-Jaton’s service promise, the range is available via next day delivery with no minimum order restrictions.

To celebrate the new range, Owlett-Jaton is launching a dedicated PPE and workwear product guide. As well as product showcases, the guide highlights Owlett-Jaton’s popular product branding service, where customers can follow three simple steps to add a company logo and personalise the product they are ordering quickly, and cost effectively. It is now possible for customers to create a bespoke product guide from the Owlett-Jaton master catalogue.

Tony Williams, national sales manager (Jaton), explained: “As part of our dedication to being a ‘one-stop-shop’ it is crucial for us to continually develop our product range, offering customers more choice and flexibility. Over the past 12 months we have added some widely used and respected lines to our portfolio, including abrasives, sealants and adhesives, and ACE clamping products; we now have over 30,000 products available – our biggest ever offering. It’s our intention to continue with new product introduction over the coming months.

“The new PPE and workwear range is far more comprehensive and diverse than we’ve seen before. There are different levels of product available, from the cost-effective basic kit needed for one-off and low risk jobs, to high quality specialist gear that offers additional style and comfort features – something that may need to be considered if it is going to be worn over a long period.”

“By personalising the catalogue and distributing it under their own contact details, customers can maintain an identity and relationship with their customers while benefiting from the security and added value that comes from purchasing product from one of Europe’s leading suppliers,” Tony added.

The range is available via Owlett-Jaton’s online trading portal, OJ Trade, where visitors can view product without obligation, and account holders can access instant quotes and stock availability at the click of a button.

A growing economy provides fresh means of illegal gain

Tihar jail today has the largest collection of charged or convicted top officials, a powerful ex-minister, sundry politicians and officials. Maharashtra had a teflon-coated chief minister who was ‘sacked’ to a cabinet post in Delhi after being long untouched by many scandals. Another just exited. A former Jharkhand chief minister is in jail on charges of looting his state treasury and accumulating funds abroad. The powerful founder of the Nationalist Congress Party has now been repeatedly named in connection with major corruption — the real estate firm connected with the 2G scam, the horse breeder charged with being the biggest conduit to overseas bank accounts, the ills of the aviation sector including poor pilot training, the collapse of the nationalized airlines and so on. There is a sea change in public attitudes to high-level corruption in government and therefore to how at least some are punished.

A wave of disgust at the sleaze and shamelessness of government officials including politicians has swept the public. Anna Hazare tapped into this wave of revulsion. The Lok Pal was his first answer to dealing with such corrupt officials and their political bosses. Many other actions are necessary and the National Advisory Council seems seized with them. But this revulsion may not influence elections because of the presence of corrupt politicians in all parties.

Indira Gandhi famously excused corruption, saying it is a global phenomenon. Some of our corrupt achievements: the purchase of aeroplanes; the transfer of Air India and Indian Airlines routes to foreign and domestic private airlines for personal consideration; the purchase of defence equipment; other public sector purchases of machinery and materials; the blatant Commonwealth Games thefts; the suspicion of organized diversion of government funds in the many social sector programmes like the public distribution system, the national rural employment guarantee scheme and so on, which miss many of the deserving, or from commissions on infrastructure contracts.

State governments are the breeding grounds for lessons on ways to accumulate illegal wealth. Spending on many government purchases and contracts, ongoing scandals for many years in both the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam and the All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam governments, unresolved issues relating to the Lalu Prasad animal husbandry scandal, the decades-long deprivation of development expenditure in the north-eastern states because of the diversion of Central development funds for the purchase of private real estate in Delhi and elsewhere by ruling politicians, the amassing of huge rupee and foreign currency fortunes by a Jharkhand chief minister during a brief time in office, the land scandals when Nariman Point was reclaimed and the recent land grab for special economic zones are a few examples.

In the command and control economy till 1985, industrial success depended on who you knew in government and how much you were willing to pay. Payment was for industrial licences to start factories, import licences for forbidden materials, export licences to allow exports of items scarce in India, and contracts to do things for governments or supply goods and services. At lower levels of the administration, there were and continue to be, permits to build, violate building norms, pollute the neighbourhood without fear, employ child labour and for excessive hours, change contractual government terms and so on.

Liberalization and the spread of information technology closed some sources of corruption (like railway and air tickets), but new ones emerged or old ones became much bigger (for example, small payoffs for industrial licences versus huge ones for telecommunications spectrum sales). With economic growth and increased government revenues, there is huge spending on infrastructure and social schemes to encourage “inclusive growth”. There are now larger opportunities to divert government funds meant for benefiting society and the poor and vulnerable. Corruption in all political parties for funds to fight elections, maintain ‘volunteers’ in normal times, and create extra incomes and wealth for politicians is blatant and shameless. None of it is possible without bureaucrats assisting and benefiting from it.

The weakness of our governance — its institutions, systems and rules — is reflected in the loot of funds for services meant for the poor, martyrs and infrastructure. The Global Financial Integrity report in the latest estimate of such funds abroad says that between 1948 and 2008, $462 billion from drug and human trafficking, corruption, fraud and currency counterfeiting was sent out by private companies and individuals.

The rule of law in India is slow and weak. Every government creates the environment for black money. Weak penal powers are rarely exercised. The good news is that some exposures are leading to action because of competitive media, growing middle-class awareness, the Right to Information Act and the recent activism of the Supreme Court.

These, and a Lok Pal with prosecuting powers, are only touching different aspects of the elephant that is corruption. The system has to reform as in the 1990s when extortionate personal and corporate income tax rates were reduced, foreign exchange allowances and remittances made generous, imports opened up with much lower duties. But under-invoicing of exports and over-invoicing of imports continue, with illegal drugs and arms trades. Illegal pickings are large in a growing economy. Politicians and the bureaucracy have created a further enabler by emphasizing foreign institutional investment over direct investment. The continuation of anonymous investments in the stock market through participatory notes and exempting FIIs from short-term capital-gains tax are government-created enablers for money to enter India by hawala, be invested, make a profit and go back overseas as ‘clean’ money.

The government owns many scarce resources like land, mineral, air waves and spectrum worth huge amounts; these are sources of large illegal earnings. The acquisition and allocation of resources, price determination of valuable resources like oil and gas, the exploitation of valuable minerals in forest and tribal lands, allocation of spectrum are new and massive opportunities for corruption. So is the procurement of defence equipment, railway engines, aeroplanes and so on. Government spending on physical and social infrastructures and social welfare schemes are new sources for politicians and bureaucrats to divert funds for personal use.

These thefts occur despite the many investigatory agencies — police, the Central Vigilance Commission, the comptroller and auditor general, the Central Bureau of Investigation, Serious Fraud Office, enforcement directorate, Lok Ayuktas in some states, apart from the judiciary and the media. They have not halted or rolled back this flood of corruption and theft. There are many reasons — a lack of talent for investigation, poor follow-up and no support after initial investigatory enthusiasm, the slow and cumbersome process of framing charges, getting government permission to prosecute bureaucrats and ministers, bringing people to trial, the slow judicial process with time-consuming appellate processes, and the absence of severe punishment for anyone found guilty.