Mba 520 - Transformational Leadership

Problem Solution: Intersect Investment Services

Describe the Situation

Intersect Investment Services has barely managed in the volatile climate of the financial services industry. Intersect’s CEO, Frank Jeffers has for 25 years, managed to successfully lead the company through several restructuring efforts, however the company as it stands today, is losing pace with the competition and is not keeping up with the demand of the economy. Frank has decided to completely change the business model in which it will effect the way the company does business; however, many inside the company are unwilling to part with the traditional practices they are accustomed to. Frank has already had to fire the executive vice president of marketing and sales because of his unsucess to implement Frank’s new vision.

The staff at Intersect is frustrated at receiving contradictory business objectives from upper management, therefore Frank and Intersect has the opportunity to craft from the very top of the organization, a vision statement for communication to the corporation in order to galvanize the organization into one consolidated business objective.

Intersect customers are losing confidence in the ability of the company to provide the services required. This is an opportunity for the entire organization to project a professional image and for the company to precisely convey to their customers the superior methods that products and services are to be offered in the future.

Issue and Opportunity Identification

Intersect has many issues such as the company is increasing revenue by decreasing call time and increasing calls which is causing some concerns with customer service and the employee job performance, Intersects customers are losing confidence in the ability of the company to provide the services required, the company has a 25% increase in employee turnover because they don’t understand the company’s direction and they are not getting the information they need to do their jobs and the biggest issue for Intersect is that the CEO of Intersect wants to change the company’s business model which will lead the company to a transformational change.

The opportunities to these issues is the company can increase sales by providing and understanding the customers needs and wants and establish a trust advisor relationship for the customers instead of decreasing the customers call time. Another opportunity is the company can enhance their services by providing training for their employees in order to enhance their customer service. Also the company can communicate to the employees about the company’s vision and goals program in order for the employees to know the company’s expectations. And Intersect investment services has the opportunity to use a model of “customer intimacy” if they develop a transformational leadership plan.

Stakeholder Perspectives/Ethical Dilemmas

The stakeholders of Intersect is Frank Jeffers the CEO of the company, Janet Angelo the new Marketing vice President and the employees. Each stakeholder has their perspectives on the company’s new business model in which there are some ethical dilemma’s that may arise.

Mr. Jeffers wants to use a model of “customer intimacy” in order to provide a broad set of products and services to consumers and small business. The ethical dilemma on his new business model is Intersect Investment Services has not developed a formal change plan. This could affect its ability to realize the change effort because there will not be a clear set of steps with goals.

Mrs. Angelo feels that the company does not have an alignment with their “customer intimacy” vision in which she wants to leverage the company’s strengths in a way that serves the company’s vision. Her job is to align all employees and senior management to the new business model but making that change may lead to frustration of employees and senior leadership.

The employees wants to become the trusted advisor for their clients, but they are getting mixed messages from upper management to make sales by meeting with more small business customers everyday and then management tells them they need to be trusted advisors and spend time with the clients to establish a relationship. The ethical dilemma is the company can experience high employee turnover because the employee does not understand the company’s direction, the employees do not believe upper management has the ability to pull off the new strategy and they are not getting the information they need to do their jobs.

Frame the “Right” Problem

Intersect has many problems, but the main problem to Intersect