Problem Solution: Intersect Investments

Problem Solution: Intersect Investments

Throughout the United States and probably the whole world the financial services industry has been in a state of mayhem since September 11, 2001. Many of the leading companies or firms in the financial industry have been struggling to survive in the economy due to the events that took place almost eight years ago. Most companies in the industry tried to maintain both clients trust as well as keeping good standing with Wall Street. The company that I will be discussing is a company by the name of Intersect. This company has been very successful over the years, but within the year this article takes place some problems have been raised. The CEO of Intersect, Frank Jeffers has a new vision that he believes will transform the company overall. The vision he wants to introduce is to have the salespeople become a trusted advisor to the customers, by providing exceptional service and providing services that add value to the current and future customers; which is called customer intimacy. Overall, the CEO of Intersect expects this vision to improve the brand image of current products or services and hopefully, begin to establish long-term customer relationships. This paper will consist of information pertaining to the problems or the gaps within the organization. Majority of the management team do not agree with this new concept of a model which has caused several problems within the organization. The company is faced with issues such as feedback, communication barriers, and employees receiving mixed messages. If the management team and the organization as whole can understand and promote this new model then Frank Jeffers vision can be successful and achieve the profitable the company once had.

Situation Analysis

Issue and Opportunity Identification

The CEO wants to transform the company by using the new vision the he has identified. With new ideas of change the majority of employees may believe that they do not possess the knowledge desired to see the goal through. The management team and Janet Angelo, the Executive Vice President of Marketing and Sales, will need to educate the employees through having a communication of providing them with some type of feedback. Many people say that feedback can be instructional and motivational when people receive it. “Feedback instructs when it clarifies roles or teaches new behavior (Kreitner & Kinicki, 2004, Ch.10 p.14).” The necessary precautions are needed for Intersects management team to translate the role or the vision for each employee to understand. This is needed to allow the employees to understand how their acceptance of this concept will impact the change of how the new direction of the company is moving towards. 360-degree feedback will enable the company to determine whether or not they are on the right path for change. For example, in the scenario for Intersect the employees voiced their options on how the management team expects them to have a personal relationship with the customers while still maintaining their sales and meeting the call handling time. EVP Janet Angelo needs that feedback from the employees in order to come up with solutions for the problems and meet the overall goal of the company.

Along with feedback the management team had some issues with the way things were being communicated throughout the organization. The lack of communication between the CEO and the management team created a big problem. CEO Frank Jeffers had the vision but did not want to see the vision through. He just put all the responsible on Janet and wanted her to obtain the goal. There was a lack of communication between the management team and employees. The employees had no idea why the change was needed because they felt like the current state of the company was satisfactory. When company’s have communication barriers within an organization it can cause chaos and resistance among employees. Employees can receive the message has being negative and may believe that the change was because of what they were doing or what they weren’t doing which may lead to resistance. Adam Festinger’s Equity Theory states,” people are motivated to maintain consistency between their cognitive beliefs and their behavior (Kreitner & Kinicki, 2004, Ch. 9 p.7”). That being said if employers motivated their employees in different areas then maybe they would become more acceptable to accept change.

The management team for Intersect also had issues with mixed messages being perceived. Many of the employees and department leaders did not understand why the company was changing as a whole. They believed that things were fine just the way they were. Employees had mixed messages in the forms have what goal should be followed, our departmental goal of increasing our