Intersect Investments: Problem Solutions

Running head: PROBLEM SOLUTION: INTERSECT INVESTMENTS

Problem Solution: Intersect Investments

Jack Flaherty

University of Phoenix

Problem Solution: Intersect Investments

Intersect Investments is presented with a dilemma. Their company is ranked near the bottom of a very unstable environment in the investment services industry. Intersect Investments feels that moving upward is the only way to go. The company is at the point where it needs to, "get busy liv'in or get busy die'in".

Intersect Investment's CEO, Frank Jeffers, has decided to completely revamp its stance on customer service. Jeffers has recently fired the EVP of marketing and sales and then hired a new EVP, Janet Angelo. He has decided that the company's numbers had better increase in twelve months. This may not seem like an easy task for Angelo, and she also has other fires to put out. The sales department is having problems with labor, not to mention a salty upper management team, and a lack of communication problem throughout the company.

Situation Analysis

Issue and Opportunity Identification

There are several events that led to Intersect Investments' current situation in this scenario. The first and main reason for hurdles in the company is that the CEO, Frank Jeffers, came to the decision that revolutionary changes would be made to the company, mainly to the sales and marketing department, because Intersect Investment is struggling. The second problem is that the turnover rate for the sales reps is extremely high which is costing the company not only time, but money. The third problem for the company is that the newly hired EVP of sales and marketing is not receiving support from all the members of the upper management. The next reason is the riddle of how to increase customer intimacy while increasing productivity by decreasing call time.

The current issues and opportunities in front of the company are, where does Intersect Investments want to be in 12 months, how does Intersect Investments get to that end-state, and how is Intersect Investments going to examine the situation, then develop solutions to these problems.

Stakeholder Perspectives/Ethical Dilemmas

There are two major stakeholders in this scenario, the upper management and the team members. By team members I mean, the sales representatives; the individuals on the phones making sales and making Intersect Investments money.

The upper management's position in this scenario is marked differently from the sales reps. The upper management has an interest in seeing the company climb to the top of the investment services industry. They also want to have a reputation as being a leader in that industry.

The team members' interests are simple. These are people just like most of the Americans in this country. They are all out there working to try to find that little slice of the American Dream. All they want is a job with the possibility of promotion, etc. They also want a job that is not a large cause of stress. These sales reps want to be able to do their jobs well, this requires information. Right now, these individuals are not receiving the full amount of information that they feel they have a right to, also they need to fully complete their jobs. The sales reps come with the principles and ideas of middle class Americans. With these principles come values. They value a hard day's work and they believe in truly

the only rule that can encompass all rules, the Golden Rule. They feel that if they work hard for their management, the management should work just as hard for them.

Problem Statement

Intersect Investments will be a leader in the investment industry by establishing long-term customer relationships and improving its brand image. To do this, the company is going to have to make revolutionary changes to the company, particularly in sales, align staff with new strategy, and address the issues of building customer intimacy and the turnover rate in the sales department.

When examining the current problems at Intersect, I believe they overlap. One problem may intern, may be associated with the symptoms of the other problems. I would address the problem with the staff not accepting the new strategy first. The company does not have a very long timeline for these changes to take affect and for positive results to start to appear, so having problems with staff members not accepting new policies is a major problem.

The next problem is, in a very short amount of time, the sales department needs to implement a new policy on customer relations. The CEO has made the decision that the company will improve its customer service. Right now, the sales department has a policy of keeping calls to a minimum in order to maximize productivity; however, this does not help with customer service. Not to mention, it does not do anything to improve customer intimacy.

Along with the other problems in the sales department, a problem that I see as one that needs to be addressed in order to meet the CEO's expectations of the company is that the salespeople do not feel they are receiving necessary information about the company to fully do their jobs, while also attempting to improve customer service.

The last problem for the company is the incredible turnover rate for sales. It is difficult to employ a knowledgeable sales staff if they can not hold onto them for any significant amount of time. Perhaps Intersect Investments could benchmark companies that may have had problems similar to theirs and evaluate solutions that could fix their current troubles.

There are quite a few opportunities and problems facing Intersect Investments at this time. However, along with benchmarking, the company's problem-solving has to be adaptive, flexible, and creative. Management needs to be able to state what the problems are, address ways that solutions have been achieved in the past, decide what actions are best, and develop a strategy that will fit into their future.