Mba 530 Interclean Solution

Introduction

InterClean Incorporated is a company that specializes in the institutional and industrial sanitation industry and in the changing climate of the competitive business field, InterClean must change their business model to keep up with the changing times. InterClean feels very strongly that by changing their business model from a products selling model to a full service turn key company by combining product sales and service that they will become the industry leader, become more profitable and potentially tap into new markets.

Currently the sales force does very well at demonstrating and selling product, however the new trend will require a sales force that can not only sell the products but sell the service along with those products in a package deal tailored to individual companies. The new direction will be called the solutions/service model.

In order to switch the focus to a solutions/service model, InterClean will merge with a company called EnviroTech which is a service based company in the institutional and industrial sanitation industry. InterClean’s goal for this merger is to combine the knowledge of their sales force in product selling and couple that with the knowledge of EnviroTech’s employees which have the service experience. By merging the two companies and their workforces, InterClean can become a true industry leader.

The purpose of this paper is to identify where InterClean would like to be and how the company can get there. We will examine the major stakeholders involved, the challenges involved with merging two very different workforces, not to mention some alternative solutions that InterClean can explore. We will then wrap this paper up by giving our optimal solution for a smooth merger of InterClean and EnviroTech along with the best method for training of the two workforces. Next we will dive right into the issue and opportunity identification section.

Issue and Opportunity Identification

In order to adapt to the emerging customer needs InterClean must change their business model from a product selling sales model to turn key solution provider. In making that transition several issues are presenting themselves.

The first major issue facing InterClean is how to tackle the problem of merging to workforces, one that specializes in product knowledge and the other that is fluent on the service side. The opportunity would be if this can be done effectively InterClean will be an industry leader for their product solution service sales model.

The merging of these two diverse workforces will have several challenges. Lead sales positions will have to be figured out along with how to train two workforces with different business languages into one cohesive unit and one business language. Seniority of the employees may be another major issue in bringing these two companies together. Lastly, the employees will have to work as one team therefore employee teams will be formed as a way to facilitate a team working environment.

Another issue facing InterClean is growing concern by the current employees of potential job loss. Water color talk is at an all time high with employees talking about needing to find new customers and potential other employees giving notices. Employee morale continues to decline on a daily basis and this could be a major issue if good employee fear for their job and leave the company. InterClean has a opportunity to inform their employees about the day to day happenings with the merger, why they are seeking to merge and where the employees fit into the new company plan. InterClean also has a tremendous opportunity to celebrate the merger with EnviroTech and engage all employees into that celebration.

Stakeholder Perspectives/Ethical Dilemmas

InterClean is a fairly large company who affects the lives of many people and those people who have a vested interest in the company would be the stakeholders. According to Wikipedia a stakeholder is classified as “a party who affects, or can be affected by, the company's actions.” The first major stakeholder would be the upper management team for both InterClean and EnviroTech. Other stake holders in the company would be the customers, suppliers and certainly the employees of both companies.

The upper management team for InterClean has the right to make decisions for the betterment of the company which will strengthen the bottom line and sometimes those same decisions can lead to potential problems which employees and ethical behavior. Employees would be another stakeholder, employees have a right to work for a company who is honest and values hardworking people. Employees are interested in a company who will provide them with long-term job stability and a company who care about there overall well being.

The third major stakeholder would be the customers; they have a right to patronize a company that can offer them what they need. Customers increasingly want turn key solutions or a one stop shopping experience. They are interested in a company who provides what they need and they value customer service and knowledge of products. There are several stakeholders in this company and the successful merger and training of the sales teams will be vital to their new company direction.

Problem Statement

InterClean has a future vision of becoming an industry leader by providing their customer which a product solution based selling model. This idea of offering a turn key solution for their customers will need to set in motion in and ready to go in 90 to 180 days. InterClean has decided to merge with a company called EnviroTech to provide the expertise in the service side of the sanitation business to go along with their expertise in product selling. The merging of very diverse workforces will be a major challenge not to mention implementing a plan that will assess every employee’s knowledge of products, services and technology.

InterClean will become the industry leader in cleaning products and service solutions by creating a plan that will assess the decreases in sales, employee knowledge in products, services along with technology and train new employees on the new solution based selling model.

End-State Vision

InterClean is in the midst of a major undertaking and it has to be complete in the next 90 to 180 days. InterClean has a goal of becoming an industry leader with the eventual goal of expanding the company into new markets. To become the industry leader and eventually expand into those new markets the company will have to successfully merge two workforces and train them both a new sales approach. The company will turn to