Gap Analysis: Intersect Investments

Running head: GAP ANALYSIS: INTERSECT INVESTMENTS

Gap Analysis: Intersect Investments

University of Phoenix

Gap Analysis: Intersect Investments

The financial and investment industries are facing tough competition and companies like Intersect Investments are feeling its wrath. In order to stay competitive, Intersect is faced with a decision to implement a new company vision that creates organizational conflict. This paper will outline events leading up to the decision made by Intersect Investment to implement this new company vision, the issues and opportunities that Intersect faces, the stakeholders perspectives and ethical dilemmas, an end-state vision and a gap analysis that shows where Intersect Investments is to date and the steps they should take to get to the end-state vision.

Situation Analysis

Issue and Opportunity Identification

Intersect Investment is in the midst of a fluctuating industry and the need for an “ever-expanding array of up-to-minute products coupled with expert advice” (Intersect Scenario, 2008, P. 1) couldn’t be greater. Intersect has barely survived the last few years and have fought the need for change; however, the time has come and Intersect’s CEO Frank Jeffers realizes that without change, Intersect won’t survive.

About a year ago, Frank Jeffers proposed a new company vision that would make Intersect the trusted advisor for their clients by “providing 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…“ (Intersect Scenario, 2007, p.1). The new vision will lead a way for Intersect to gain Wall Street recognition and trust which will ultimately effect how the customer and public view Intersect’s ethics. Proposing this new vision hasn’t been easy and unfortunately it has felt much resistance. Frank recently replaced the previous Executive VP of Marketing and Sales due to a lack of support and a failure to lead an organizational change within the company.

Several issues stand in the way of Intersect’s successful implementation of this new vision, including lack of support from senior management and employees, a weak organizational culture due to a lack of communication, a decline in customer satisfaction, high employee dissatisfaction and turnover rates, and resistance and uncertainty of new leadership.

There are many member of senior management, including the VP of Sales who lacks confidence in the new strategy that the company is trying to implement. The VP of Sales has doubts about the success that the new vision will produce for both her and her department and believes that implementing a “customer advisor” sales technique will only increase time per call and not revenue. “Valence refers to the positive or negative value people put on outcomes. Valence mirrors personal preference,” (Kreitner & Kinicki, 2003, p. 300). Due to her success in the past, she lacks the motivation to change from her ways of the past. “Motivation is affected by an individual’s expectation that a certain level of effort will produce the intended performance goal,” (Kreitner & Kinicki, 2003, p. 298). This directly effects the motivation and trust that her employees put into the new strategy.

Several employees see the resistance from their leadership teams and in response are unsure of the strategy. This is causing a sense of chaos