Discussion Post: The Merger
It's been several months since you had coffee with Carl and Regina and listened to them discuss their differing approaches to marketing. Now you realize that conversation was just the first of many. Since then, Regina's company, RPZ Social Media Analytics, has acquired Carl's company, Genaflek Marketing. The new company that resulted from the acquisition is called RPZ Marketing.
As the companies merge, they need to figure out how to combine expertise, keep their old clients happy while expanding into new markets, and create an organization nimble enough to respond to changing dynamics while remaining reassuringly stable.
RPZ Marketing has brought you in as a consultant to help them with the restructuring. Where do you begin?
In the past, large organizations tended to be organized as fixed hierarchies with top-down control viewed as the best approach to build sustainable institutions. Successful companies today are more fluid, and frequent restructuring is used as a primary means to keep the company competitive and responsive to the marketplace.
In this activities, you'll look at the big picture of organizational structure-the system an organization uses to assign, coordinate, and control roles and responsibilities-and how information flows through a company.
1) What You Need To Know: Explore various types of organizational structures and discover how organizational structure can either support or pose obstacles to business success. Learn details about the history and focus of RPZ Marketing by watching two scenarios in the videos provided.
2) Discussion: Participate in the weekly discussion activity in Yellowdig.
3) Prepare: Take an analytical reading skills self-assessment and identify strategies for areas where you can improve. Set up your account with The Wall Street Journal so you can begin accessing articles.
4) Prepare: Explore resources explaining the importance of academic honesty, and learn what plagiarism is and strategies to avoid it in your writing.
The response should include a reference list. Using one-inch margins, Times New Roman 12 pnt font, double-space and APA style of writing and citations.