Intuit Ceo Steve Bennet

Kowshik Dhev Mathiazhagan

ENTP 6378

1.In many ways, Intuit was a classic entrepreneurial success story. Seventeen years after its founding, the company reached $1 billion in sales, was solidly profitable, and its stock price was 40 times FY 2000 earnings. Evaluate the state of Intuit’s development prior to Bennett’s arrival in early 2000 using the frameworks described in Models of Organizational Growth and Evolution (stages of organizational growth; pyramid of organizational development, the eight hurdles model). What hurdles have they successfully cleared? Where have they stumbled?

Using the pyramid of organizational development, the state of Intuit before Steve Bennett’s arrival can be understood.

• The conceptual foundation for the business was not strong. The core strategy (the central theme around which the company plans to achieve its strategic mission revolved around the company vision to solve customers’ problems.
•  The business Idea and the concept was very clearly defined. The firm had a working product that solved a pain point for its customers, what it lacked was the strategic focus. It had no concrete plans on how it could grow what would be its strategic mission.
• The firm was able to acquire resources as and when needed. It was able to retain its employees and create a culture that was liked by all. The firm was a closely-knit community of people who were highly supportive of each other. The firm also effectively used these resources to help create better products and services for its customers.
• Intuit, however lacked in creating operating and management systems. It was not able to complete its transition from a small startup to a professionally run organization. The firm had both operational and management systems implemented but it revolved around the interests of its people. The firm believed in consensus based decision making, that made it slow and the firm had lots of layers of bureaucracy.
• The culture of the firm remained engrained in the systems it had created. The firm’s culture was more customer and employee centric. This was good for the firm as it had lower than the industry turnover rate and also it made Intuit one of the best places to work. This culture that the company had built over the years had to change. It needed to become more professional in its operations without losing its entrepreneurship appeal.

Intuit needed a lot of changes to become more professional in its operations but it’s founders cleared a lot of hurdles to get the company to where they are currently. Using the framework provided by Dr. Hicken’s we can analyze the hurdles crossed by Intuit.

• Setting a direction and sticking to it: The firm developed a coming of age personal finance solution that was a pain point for many customers. They built on their products and improved its product road map through acquisitions and in-house engineering. Intuit crossed this hurdle by setting a direction for the firm initially but it lacked a long term strategic focus in its current stage. It needs to rethink its business model and refine its culture.
• Intuit positioned its products distinctively from its competitors. It’s products were easy to use and were readily available to its customers through its proper distribution channels. The company crossed this hurdle with regards to product positioning in an expanded market.
• Intuit was always a customer centric organization. All its efforts were in order to improve a customer’s experience. It cleared the third hurdle of maintaining customer and market focus.
• Intuit had a sound management team who from their initial days have contributed towards the success of the firm. They were able to ramp up sales in their growth faces and demonstrated ability to have the right people to manage their operations at all times. They cleared their fourth hurdle by building an efficient management team.
• Intuit has a long way to go in terms of creating effective infrastructures. This draws back to the lack of strategic focus on the company’s long-term goals. It needs to develop effective infrastructure to support its long-term growth. This should not be a tough goal for the firm as it has the financial capabilities to achieve them. The firm had remained profitable and has a good market sentiment. Trading 40 times over earnings, the firm clears the sixth hurdle mentioned by Pickens in having the financial capabilities.
• Intuit has not cleared the last two hurdles mentioned by Dr. Pickens. The firm is yet ot develop and nurture its culture to a professional organization. It also has to have effective systems in place to manage risks and vulnerabilities.

2.Some have argued that there is a qualitative difference between an entrepreneurship and a

professionally - managed firm regardless of size. Would you characterize Intuit as a billion-dollar entrepreneurship or a professionally - managed firm, or somewhere in between a t the time of Bennett’s arrival in early 2000? Provide specific examples to support your conclusions.