Problem Solution: Intersect Investment

Problem Solution: Intersect Investments

The financial services industry has not been the same since September 11, 2001. Many financial firms have struggled to retain clients and Wall Street's credibility. To be successful in the investment-industry, investment companies need to offer services that are competitive along with offering professional, skilled advice. Intersect Investment, a financial services company, has been struggling in the industry due to internal and external forces for change (Kinicki & Kreitner, 2003). Intersects' Chief Executive Officer, Frank Jeffers, has announced a new corporate vision to turn the organization around. The Intersect Investment Company is in a situation where it has seen decreased sales, and increased turnover in its employees and customers. Frank Jeffers vision is to move the company to a "customer intimacy" model of doing business. In order for Intersect Investment to be successful in a change initiative, leadership must analyze the situation, identify the problem, and envision the company's end state. Leadership must then determine and analyze alternative solutions, mitigate risks, chose and implement an optimal solution, then decide on the project's success by they end of one year.

Situation Analysis

Issue and Opportunity Identification

If it were not for preparations for Y2K, the financial industries would have suffered greatly do to the effects of the events of September 11, 2001. Although prepared to prevent the loss of data (Makinen, 2002), "many financial firms [are still] struggling to keep both their clients' trust and Wall Street's credibility" (University of Phoenix, 2006).

Over the span of Intersect Investment's history, there have been periods when the company has barley managed to stay solvent. In an effort to become more successful, Frank Jeffers has identified a new vision: "Provide a broad set of products and services to consumer and small business customers using a model of customer intimacy that will build long-term relationships based on trust and value to the customer" (University of Phoenix, 2006). The customer intimacy model of business "is based on getting to know what your customers want and then delivering" (Smith, n.d. ¶ 5)

In order to realize Frank's vision, there must be changes made within Insect Investment. Although there have been changes made, they were done haphazardly and without commitment by the senior management. If for Frank's vision is to come to fruition, there must be greater changes and a better implementation process set into place.

With change come resistance, Kinicki & Kreitner, (2004) suggest that "resistance to change is an emotional/behavioral response to real or imagined threats to an established work routine" (2004, p. 685).

At Intersect Investment there has been substantial resistance to the change initiative to the point that the Frank has replaced his Executive Vice President (EVP) of sales and marketing. The replacement was made because the previous EVP did not support Frank's new philosophy. Frank is presently asking the new EVP to consider letting other "key resistors" (University of Phoenix, 2006) go, including members of management which do not support the new vision. One of the key resistors includes the Vice President of Sales, Lyn Chen and a few of her subordinates. Lyn Chen and her subordinates are in disagreement with the new model because the present model has been successful in the past.

Although Frank is in favor of replacing Lyn, the new EVP, Janet Angelo is not. Janet believes that Lyn is brilliant and capable, and losing her would be counterproductive due to the loss of skills and knowledge in addition to the possibility of increasing the already poor morale. If Janet was to let Lyn and others go there may be cascade fallout of more employees further increasing the already high turnover rate.

With the power struggle between members of management over the implementation of the customer intimacy model there has been a faltering in the lines of communications. The poor lines of communication have in turn caused a failure of the new model from being performed by the sales consultants. Along with the failed lines of communication, Intersect Investment's sales staff does not "have access to the marketing Web site which describes all of these new products and services" (University of Phoenix, 2006) being offered. The lack of communication combined with not having access to the company's web site has resulted in a breach of trust with customers, several of which have chosen to move their business to competitors which provide a customer intimacy relationship.

Intersect Investment has a number of opportunities which will allow Janet Angelo to formulate solutions that will allow successful changes to be made. The first strength that Janet has is based upon her own experience as a transformational leader when she implemented the customer intimacy model at three other companies including a financial institution (University of Phoenix, 2006). The second strength Janet will be able to rely on is the strong leadership abilities of the management team and the trust bestowed upon them by the employees. Another item that Janet's team possesses is a wide range and high degree of skills in their respective fields. To further strengthen her ability to manage change at Intersect Investment, Janet Angelo will be able to count on a strong organizational culture which has allowed it to survive very tough economic times in the post September 11, 2001 era.

Stakeholder Perspectives/Ethical Dilemmas

Ethical dilemmas are unavoidable when a company introduces change at the level at which Intersect Investments is introducing. The key stakeholders in this situation include the company's chief executive officer, Janet Angelo, executive vice president, senior management, customers, and employees. The ethical dilemmas being faced by each of the stakeholder will include but are not limited to:

* Frank Jeffers Chief Executive Officer--needs to ensure an increase in customer satisfaction and confidence while improving brand image in order to gain Wall Street's trust (University of Phoenix, 2006).

o Replacing two or three of the key resistors.

* Janet Angelo, Executive Vice President--needs to determine the best way to change Intersect Investment's vision and culture.

o Replacing two or three of the key resistors

o Senior management--needs to increase customers and customer