The battle for Ken Lewis's job begins

Ken Lewis, who will retire as CEO of Bank of America (BAC) at the end of the year, oversaw the creation of one of the country's biggest banks over the last eight years. In hindsight, it looks like Bank of America's corporate strategy is deeply flawed, and in order to make the bank viable again, a CEO will need to come in who can make big changes.

During his tenure, Lewis, whose legal problems are likely to continue, oversaw the continued construction of a bad idea, the financial services one-stop shop. This is a bad idea because people do not want to do all their financial services business with a single supplier. If consumers get into trouble, they don't want to give the bank so much control over their financial lives. And if the bank gets into trouble, consumers don't want to go down with the bank.