Gap Analysis: Intersect Investments

Gap Analysis: Intersect Investments

In late 2001, the financial services industry started facing problems due to external forces which were out of control from companies’ managers who can not control the social and political pressures the market is receiving from customers and Wall Street. Leaders needed to develop strategies to be able to maintain the companies competitive in the new external scenario the industry was having. Intersect Investment is a company which was not exempt of this situation and leaders of the company had to take action on how to recover the lost trust from base customers and have a profitable company in the market. Frank Jeffers, CEO of Intersect Investment, developed a new company vision which was not supported by all staff members as the companies’ organizational culture was not faced on the customer needs. The new vision required a change to focus on the customer and not the sale numbers, situation which cause some employees to show resistance to the change. The Executive Vice President of Marketing and Sales was not supportive on the new philosophy, so CEO using his legitimate power had to let go the manager from the company. “Legitimate power is an agreement among organizational members that people in certain roles can request certain behaviors of others” (McShane & Von Glinow, 2005, p. 360) CEO needed a new manager which believed in the new vision and Janet Angelo was hired to help Frank Jeffers implement the customer intimacy model at Intersect Investment.

Due to the resistance, CEO had to let go from the company the Executive Vice President of Marketing and Sales as this person was not supportive on the new vision and CEO using his legitimate power decided for the best of the company.

Situation Analysis

Issue and Opportunity Identification

Intersect Investment is facing several internal problems which were originated by the implementation of the new vision CEO proposed. The new vision is to "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, 2008). One of the issues which Intersect Investment can transform into an opportunity is to implement an adaptive culture among employees as staff at Intersect is working just to meet goals set up for sales but are not taking into consideration the needs of the customers. This sales methodology might have worked in the past, but now with the new industry environment where clients need to trust the financial advisors they have to focus on the customer needs and beliefs. If Intersect Investment is able to take this opportunity, the sales account will reflect an increment as customers will start trusting the company and this will generate to have a stable growing customer base. Another opportunity Intersect Investment has with this issue is to be able to develop training techniques and communication channels which will help pass to all staffing levels the ideas and goals that senior management has for the company. Senior leaders have to shape the employees ideas on the new vision and how to treat customers in order to achieve to the desired state goals. The company needs to provide information to employees on why the change is needed and how the employees would be benefited if Intersect Investment becomes a successful business by different incentives based on the sales goals. “Employees accept and support organizational change when they believe it is implemented fairly and when it produces equitable outcomes” (Kreitner & Kinicki, 2004, p. 297). In order to have full support from employees, Janet Angelo needs to develop a strategic plan for this new vision which will contain the action items needed to achieve to the end of state goals. The plan will include as an outcome all the profits, sales, employee turnover, customer satisfaction and quality service expectations CEO has from the new culture and how those outcomes will be measured.

Stakeholder Perspectives/Ethical Dilemmas

Intersect Investment has some stakeholder members which are having conflicts as not all share the idea of implementing a new culture at Intersect Investment causing not all members being supportive of the upcoming changes. The first stakeholder as mention on Table 2 is Frank Jeffers, CEO of the company, who is the person responsible of the new vision the company is implementing. Jeffers main interest is focused on new customer intimacy culture which is supported by Janet Angelo who was hired specifically to help implement the new strategy at Intersect Investment due to her wide experience on customer intimacy at previous jobs. Conflict is created