Read the mini-case *BELOW* and answer the questions at the end: 1. Like many lea
ID: 2747520 • Letter: R
Question
Read the mini-case *BELOW* and answer the questions at the end:
1. Like many leaders, Marco has a team in place and does not have the luxury of building a new team to adapt to the changing business environment his firm now faces. Use the TLM to help Marco diagnose the problems faced by the firm and identify leverage points for change.
a. Consider the major functions of the TLM— input, process, and output. Where do most of the firm’s challenges fall?
b. What are the team’s goals for outputs?
2. Identify potential resources for Marco and his team in implementing a strategy to change the way they do business at Hernandez & Associates.
*TEXT BELOW*
Integrating Teams at Hernandez & Associates
Marco Hernandez is president of Hernandez & Associates Inc., a fullservice advertising agency with clients across North America. The company provides a variety of marketing services to support its diverse group of clients. Whether called on to generate a strategic plan, create interactive Web sites, or put together a full-blown media campaign, the team at Hernandez & Associates prides itself on creative solutions to its clients’ marketing challenges.
The firm was founded in 1990 with an emphasis in the real estate industry. It quickly expanded its client base to include health care, as well as food and consumer products. Like many small firms, the company grew quickly in the “high-flying” 1990s, but its administrative costs to obtain and serve businesses also skyrocketed. And, as with many businesses, the agency’s business was greatly affected by the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, and the economic downturn that followed. Clients’ shrinking budgets forced them to scale back their business with Hernandez & Associates, and staff cutbacks meant that clients needed more marketing support services as opposed to full-scale campaigns.
Hernandez & Associates now faced a challenge—to adapt its business to focus on what the clients were asking for. Specifically, clients, with their reduced staffs, were looking for help responding to their customers’ requests and looking for ways to make the most of their limited marketing budgets. Its small, cohesive staff of 20 employees needed to make some fast changes.
As president of Hernandez & Associates, Marco Hernandez knew his team was up for the challenge. He had worked hard to create an environment to support a successful team—he recruited people who had solid agency experience, and he consistently communicated the firm’s mission to his team. He made sure the team had all the resources it needed to succeed and constantly took stock of these resources. He had built his team as he built his business and knew the group would respond to his leadership. But where to start? Getting the team to understand that growth depended on a shift in how it served its clients was not difficult—each of the employees of the small firm had enough contact with the clients that they knew client needs were changing. But making significant changes to the status quo at Hernandez & Associates would be difficult. Group roles had to change—creative folks had to think about how to increase a client’s phone inquiries and Web site visits; account people needed a better understanding of the client’s desire for more agency leadership. And everyone needed a better sense of the costs involved. The company as a whole required a more integrated approach to serving clients if they hoped to survive. Marco needed a plan.
Explanation / Answer
1.The challenge faced by Marco is to bring about a paradigm shift in the mindset of his team about understanding and addressing client’s changing needs. While, earlier the team has been used to working on mega-budget specialized advertising campaigns, which involved more creative inputs than rigorous and monotonous activities required now by the clients. The rewards were higher as compared to now. With the changed market dynamics, resulting in changing needs of clients, roles of staff at the agency need to more labor intensive, than creativity oriented.
2.Potential resources required by Marco and team, are automated systems for customer relationship management and tools to help clients increase their customer acquisition rate. They need a strategic shift in the way they position themselves as marketing consultants, rather than a typical advertising agency. Clients are no longer going out with deep pockets looking for specialized advertising agencies to help them spend their money on best advertising media with the most creative eye-ball grabbing campaigns. So Marco and team need a strategic shift in becoming an integrated marketing consultant, who can help their clients reach out to their target customers in a more cost-effective and faster way. The strategic integrated approach requires Marco and his team to have a deeper and insightful understanding of the business environments their clients operate and come out with holistic marketing solutions, which are measurable in ROI terms and help clients generate more profitable revenue.
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