Met Life had many strategic problems, which allowed for the impending issue. In the 10 years that Rick Urso ran the Tampa office branch of Met Life, the company experienced its worst blunder of unethical practices to date. The issue was initially eclipsed by the success of the company's most successful branch. Many factors allowed for these questionable ethics used by Rick Urso in his sales tactics. We will review what Met Life's strategic problem was that allowed for these incidents, analyze the threats of the present ethical culture and control systems, and finally some corrective actions Met Life might take to prevent the reoccurrence of any ethically questionable procedures.
Many of Met Life's strategically problems were from a de-centralization in company policy and management, as well as no specific ethical procedure outlined by top management. Rick, being a smart innovator and successful sales manager, was left in charge to set many of his own policies without much interference from above. Rick discovered a great way to keep his superiors happy, and how to keep money in his own his employees" pockets. Rick devised a plan to target nurses for life insurance policies. He thought they would be particularly vulnerable in always seeing death. He would sell these policies under a "retirement savings policy," which is what these nurses believed they were getting. It was this very term that caught the attention of regulators like the Texas Insurance Commissioner who first issued a complaint to the Tampa office in 1990. They warned it was deceiving and fraudulent. In addition they questioned the position of a "nursing representative on Urso's sales staff. What drove Urso to engage in practices like these; to show his sales staff how to cover up the words "life insurance" on their contracts? What it always is; money. The company's commission for a life insurance policy was 55% within the first year, compared to 2% for annuities.