Intersect Investments
Transformational Leadership

Problem Solution: Intersect Investments Since September 11, 2001, financial service organizations have struggled to maintain existing clientele and gain additional customers. Intersect Investment Services is no exception. The rapidly changing climate has left Intersect Financial Services, CEO Frank Jeffers with an immediate decision to transform the financial institution. Through the volatile climate changes Intersect has managed slightly to survive and has resisted change the last four years. Jeffers realizes he must make some dramatic changes if the organization is to regain its competitive status in the market place. In this paper the subject matter will identify the organization’s decision, goals, opportunities, alternatives, risks, and optimal solution.

Situation Analysis
Issue and Opportunity Identification The company’s CEO, Frank Jeffers has strong convictions that the company must move in a different direction by broadening its products and services to consumers. Jeffers plans to implement a customer intimacy model to provide more value, increase customer’s trust and enhance relationships. The sales and marketing executive team has an opportunity to embrace the vision that can increase profitability and the company’s clientele base. Team members, employees resistance to change, lack of stakeholders feedback, misaligned values, and beliefs among stakeholders are factors that could prevent the chosen vision in becoming a reality. The concept to reduce call time while increasing productivity worked well for the sales team the last three years; however, in the most recent year the company has failed to meet sales goals. The organization has also experienced a loss in customer retention and the employee turnover rate has increased by 25%. According to CEO, Frank Jeffers customers are seeking a more trusted financial advisor.

Stakeholder Perspectives/Ethical Dilemmas Janet Angelo, is the new Executive Vice President of Marketing and Sales hired by CEO, Frank Jeffers to implement his new customer centric vision. Jeffers released the old Vice President of Marketing and Sales for failure to meet consistent objectives. Jeffers is a 25- year- old veteran of Intersect and highly respected by peers for his knowledge, capabilities, and fairness. Janet Angelo has been successful in using the customer intimacy model at previous companies. Jeffers hopes Angelo can implement the changes needed to catapult the organization as one of the top three financial institutions within a 12- month time frame. To achieve this goal Janet needs the support, ideas, and flexibility of her team. Janet appears to be ready for the challenge and the opportunity to work with such a talented team. Senior Vice President of Human Resources, Thomas Hardy quickly embraces Janet and believes she has the skill and expertise to implement transformational changes. Angelo’s smooth transition is met with some dissension during her meeting with other team members. Director of Sales Operations, Annie Sorrento is skeptical about the new vision. She has seen many plans implemented and failed. She is also concerned about the excessive employee turnover rate, lack of communication among leadership and subordinates, and the decline in customer retention. Sorrento believes strong leadership conviction can lead the organization in the right direction. Vice President of Marketing Joel Contino, believes in the customer intimacy model. He has experienced the positive effects of the model at previous companies. Joel believes through hard work the new vision can come together, create customer value and coin the company as a trusted financial advisor. Vice President of sales, Lyn Chen opposes any new changes and believes the changes will not make a difference. Chen is content with her current sales tactics and feels there is no need to revise current methods. She attributes her successes to the old way of doing things, increasing number of calls and reducing call times. . The new vision calls for increased call time. Chen is unclear about how employees can spend additional phone time and still increase sales; she believes longer call time will decrease amount of calls made and thus limit sales opportunities. As the team prepares to take steps to implement the plan, Lynn remains adamant about the vision. Janet has a challenging task in changing the behavior and attitudes of her management team and the organization employees. Janet has the confidence in her capabilities to turn the organization around. Janet must become a transformational leader by changing beliefs, attitudes, and behaviors of team members and employees. Angelo understands there are always positives and negatives of success. Angelo has a talented management team very knowledgeable about the financial industry. Lyn Chen, Vice President of Sales appears to be a negative influencer who has displayed consistent resistance to change. To achieve major company success, Janet must be willing to take risks.

Problem Statement Intersect Investment services will develop employee goals and objectives closely aligned with its proposed customer intimacy plan.

End-State Vision Customer Intimacy is the future company focus and vision. To accomplish the company’s end state vision the organization must overcome several issues and challenges. The organization must address retention of employees and customers.

Alternative Solutions Intersect may consider developing an effective plan to communicate its vision to stakeholders. This alternative solution is an effective method to convey the company’s vision and rates 5 in relative importance. The communications plan should explain reasons for making changes. The company should also create immediate timelines to create a since of urgency for the change. Companies often fail to meet objectives because of their refusal to convey the need to implement change initiatives immediately. A clear message should be sent to employees indicating current approaches are no longer working and action needs to be taken immediately to avoid client loss. The organization should also consider a goal setting/reward strategy to improve employee morale and increase motivation. Goal setting works by placing standards of performance and expectations in place, and thus encourages action. (Kreitner & Kinicki, 2004). The goal setting alternative rates a 5 in relative importance. The company should also implement a feedback program to encourage employee and customers to express concerns and suggestions. A consistent feedback process maintains company vision, encourages participation and can assist in combating change resistance. An effective feedback process also rates high at 5 in relative importance.

Analysis of Alternative Solutions The customer intimacy process requires several changes to occur within the sales and marketing departments of Intersect. All alternatives involve team participation, buy-in and effective communication. Senior leadership will have to implement proposed alternatives quickly and all at once, as each solution is equally important. Completion of each solution is critical if the company is to realize its goal of establishing its vision to become a trusted financial advisor.

Risk Assessment and Mitigation Techniques Implementing alternative solutions to resolve the problem does not come without risks. The following risks and mitigation techniques are as follows: Implementing a communication plan to convey and increase stakeholders acceptance to vision is the first alternative. According to Kreitner and Kinicki (2004), failure to communicate the vision effectively is one reason organizations change initiatives fail. Intersect should ensure that all stakeholders receive the communication plan well to minimize resistance. If resistance continues from key players like Lyn Chen, releasing Lyn may be inevitable. Implementing a feedback process is important to ensure focus of the end state vision. Conducting a series of meetings with feedback recipients to ensure action is taken can serve as a mitigation tactic and lower risks.

Optimal Solution Frank Jeffers wants a new vision of customer intimacy to be implemented. Janet Angelo, has be hired as the new Executive Vice President of Marketing and Sales to implement this new model within the next 12 months so that customer loyalty, trust, and retention is restored. Intersect can facilitate change toward the customer intimacy model by bench marking companies that have achieved success through use of the model. Angelo must ensure that Vice President of Sales Lyn Chen complies with the chosen strategy. If Lyn fails to comply Angelo should prepare to release her. If Angelo releases Lynn, Angelo must emphasize to employees and management that non-compliance is unacceptable. An effective communication plan is essential to overcoming resistance, motivating, and retaining employees. Angelo should ensure the carefully constructed plan is well executed. A consistent feedback process is an important solution for the company to remain focused on its vision.

Implementation Plan To reach end state goals, Intersect will have to develop an implementation plan. Intersect should deliver the communication plan immediately to avoid resistance toward change initiatives. After delivery of the communication plan, the company should implement a goal setting strategy. Implementing a computerized-based system to maintain customer feedback and activities will enable the organization to manage customer relationships in a more organized fashion. The organization can use the system to send out electronic surveys to customers.

Evaluation of Results By implementing an effective communication plan immediately, change resistance has potential of reducing to almost zero within three months. Implementation of a goal setting/employee rewards system should improve employee motivation within 12 months. The number of awards granted to employees is 40 and that number has the potential to double within 24 months. Employee retention should also be improved by receiving continual feedback. The computerized system can be used to store employee feedback. As a result of engaging employees, employee turnover should decrease to 15% within 12 months and 8% within 24 months. Customer retention should improve by implanting computerized customer surveys to gain customer feedback. Customer satisfaction ratings should improve to over 5% within a year.

Conclusion Intersect Financial Services faces many challenges that it must conquer successfully to implement its customer intimacy model. Janet Angelo, new Executive Vice President of Marketing and Sales has to demonstrate effective transformational leadership skills to overcome present resistance and gain buy in of set vision.

References
Kinicki&Kreitner, 2004, Organizational Behavior, retrieved from University of Phoenix
Table 1
Issue and Opportunity Identification
|Issue |Opportunity |Reference to Specific |Concept |
| | |Course Concept | |
| | |(Include citation) | |
|Intersects Sales department has not bought into the chosen |The sales department |Intersect has to come up with |Emotional Behavioral|
|company vision of a customer intimacy model. Vice President|can embrace the change |reasons for employee resistance|Response |
|of Sales Lynn Chen is very opposed to the change and |and potentially |and implement strategies to | |
|believes the sales department has been successful using |increase customer trust|overcome the resistance. | |
|their current model of increased number of calls, and |and value through |“Organizations encounter many | |
|reduced call time. |implantation of the |different forces for change. | |
| |model |These forces come from external| |
| | |and internal sources” | |
| | |(Kreitner&Kinicki,2004). | |
| | | | |
| | | | |
| | | | |
| | | | |

Table 2
Stakeholder Perspectives
|Stakeholder Perspectives |
| | |
|Stakeholder Groups |The Interests, Rights, and |
| |Values of Each Group |
|CEO, Frank Jeffers |Loyal, fair, and has a strong conviction about direction of the company. |
|Executive Vice President of Marketing and Sales, Janet Angelo |Knowledge of the customer intimacy model, experienced in organizational |
| |transformations. Very committed to gaining team’s respect, and feedback. |
|Lynn Chen |Talented, not flexible, unwilling to embrace change. |

Table 3

Analysis of Alternative Solutions

Table 4
Risk Assessment and Mitigation Techniques
|Risk Assessment and Mitigation Techniques |
|Alternative Solution |Risks and Probability |Consequence and Severity |Mitigation Techniques |
|Through a communication plan |Do receive buy in from stake |When implementing a new vision it|Release employees that refuse to get |
|convey vision to stakeholders |holders involved. |is difficult to please everyone. |on board with the new process. |
| |Probability is high |The time table of 12 months is |Encourage consistent participation |
| | |not enough time to achieve this |from all stakeholders involved to |
| | |huge undertaking. High Severity |maintain company vision focus and |
| | | |gain buy-in. Deliverance of the new|
| | | |vision repeated by Senior management |
| | | |to gain buy-in. |
| | | | |
| | | | |
|A consistent feedback process |Feedback not implemented | Feedback not being administered |Conduct a series of meetings to |
|should be implemented to |immediately and administered the |correctly, causes loss time and |discuss how to use feedback and put |
|ensure customer direction. |right way. Severity is high. |money |that feedback into action. |
| | | | |
| | | | |
| | | | |
| | | | |
| | | | |

Table 5
Optimal Solution Implementation Plan
|Deliverable |Timeline |Who is Responsible |
|Communication Plan |Within 30 days |Executive VP of Mktg &Sales |
|Strategy outlining goals |Within 4 months |Janet |
|Surveys |Within 1 month |Janet, Senior mgmt team |
| | | |
| | | |
| | | |
| | | |

Table 6
Evaluation of Results
|End-State Goals |Metrics |Target |
|Combat change resistance |Employees, leadership |Within 90 days gain total buy-in from all |
| | |stakeholders |
|Implement rewards system to increase |Employees |Issuance of 40 awards within 12 months and |
|employee motivation | |double that amount in 24 months. |
|Retain employees |Employees |Reduce employee turnover |
| | | |
| | | |

-----------------------
A)

5.0

B)

5.0

C)

5.0

-

-

-

-

-

3 = Middle

2 = Low to Middle

1 = Low

SCALE==>

5 = High

Alternative Solution Evaluation Matrix

GOALS

Secondary Alternative Solutions

Primary Alternative Solutions

AL
T
ERNAT
I
VE

SOLUT
I
ONS

Final

Rating

4 = Middle to High

Develop a communications plan-Rating 5

5

5

5

Implement goal/reward strategy plan-Rating 5

Implement a feedback process—Rating 5

Relative Importance (Weight)==>

Goal A

Become a trusted Financial Advisor

Goal B

Maintain existing clientele expand customer base