critical thinking

Seeing the Big Picture

ReginaNick, this is the organizational consultant I was telling you about. This is Nicholas Anthony, from Corporate Ventures. Corporate Ventures is our venture partner in this merger and has provided us with the majority of the capital to make this thing happen. And Of course you remember Carl

CarlWell hello! I have not seen you since that marketing conference. That was quite the coffee meeting we had, huh? There I was, thinking that I was offering my old protégé Regina a job to help me develop these social marketing strategies. And instead she went and bought my company? I guess we underestimated our old friend Regina, huh?

ReginaWell, I am very excited about the opportunity to work with Carl again. I would also like to introduce you to Ravin James. She is our Director of Business Marketing.

RavinIt is SO nice to meet you. I am thrilled to hear your ideas about how to help RPZ Marketing maximize our market potential. I cannot say how excited I am about this merger!

ReginaRavin's enthusiasm is contagious.

ReginaWhat we are talking about today is developing an organizational structure for RPZ Marketing. As you know, it can be quite a challenge to merge together two existing companies. We are going to trying to do this in a way that capitalizes on the strengths of both of these companies. This is a big decision, and we have a had a lot of additional ideas about the best way to go about this.

CarlWell, in my mind it is pretty simple. You divide things up by account coverage. The new organizational structure needs to allow the account managers from the two organizations keep their accounts. That way the clients do not lose any continuity in coverage.

RavinThat is a good point, Carl. We do not want clients to lose confidence in us. But we also want to bring together the strengths of the two organizations. If everything stays the same, we lose that opportunity.

CarlI think you underestimate the importance of continuity for the clients. Long-term clients get nervous when there is a merger. We cannot undermine their trust.

RavinBut we cannot focus so hard on relationships that we fail to focus on the market. I think we need to organize the new company in ways that reflect industry needs and that take advantage of our internal areas of expertise

.NicholasI am in Ravin's camp on this one. We need to start bringing social marketing strategies right away to former Genaflek accounts, even if it means disrupting relationships. RPZ had huge revenue growth because clients need new strategies.

CarlI understand that Regina's company had huge revenue growth while our revenue was declining. But I would like to point out that Genaflek had more clients and was overall more profitable.

NicholasThat is absolutely true, Carl, and we absolutely appreciate that. And we appreciate your concern about maintaining client relationships. We know that your presence here will help give us market credibility and put your long term clients at ease.

ReginaI can see both sides. I think we need to continue to focus on our relationships with long-term clients. But we also need to focus on the needs of the market as a whole. We need to strike a balance here. So, what are your thoughts on restructuring?