1. Analyze Aquarius with respect to the five contextual variables. How would you describe the environment, goals, culture, size, and technology for Aquarius? Aquarius is a middle-sized firm that operates its business under a relatively unstable environment. This is because of the nature of the advertising industry where it is quite common for turnover of clients, whether it be gaining or losing them on a regular basis. The turnover in this environment is mostly due to consumer behaviour changes and continued product innovation. The goals of the company is to innovate and be creative when designing and marketing their products.
They also need to be resourceful, efficient, but also original to satisfy customers by bringing in something that is both attractive and unique. By doing this Aquarius will bring in more consumers and create a legitimate name for themselves to the public. The culture of Aquarius seems to very hierarchically organized, showing a set organizational chart with the various branches of the agency set up. There is a very informative culture with plenty of communication both within Aquarius and to and from its respective clients. Shown through a wide range of interactions such as meetings, calls, emails, and so on.
Creativity seems to also be in abundance in Aquarius’ culture. The size is large, as shown in Exhibit 3.21 organizational chart consisting of hierarchical systems operated within different departments including Accounts, Marketing and Operations. Technology is mostly non-routine because of the emphasis on creativity and art.
2. Design a new organization structure that takes into consideration the contextual variables in the case and the information flows For the most part I would stay consistent with the organizational structure shown in the exhibit, however there are a few things that I would change to make it more effective.
The new approach to organizational structure that I would suggest is to have account managers be treated as project managers. This would lead to them being in charge of individual clients, also having the account executives report to them. Each department, including Research, Media, Merchandising, Copy, Art, and other media outlet departments should also report to their specific account executive to ensure thorough innovation and development. The functional VPs and heads would still report to the President/Board of Directors for mostly legal advice, financial logistics and personnel inquires. This structure would allow for the agency to easily adapt to the constantly changing consumer preferences.
3. Would a matrix structure be feasible for Aquarius? Why or why not? A matrix structure could be feasible for Aquarius Advertising Agency making its organizational structure multi-focused to excel in product innovation and meeting consumer and organizational goals. Due to the nature of the advertising industry, there is rapid environmental change as well as uncertainties. The matrix structure will help ease this and make the business more creative in a creativity demanding industry. This matrix structure will only be valuable when the experienced managers are willing to be team players and not violate their authority functional or product violation unity of command that occurs by design. Without these crucial steps, the matrix structure could harm the organization instead of assist. The company should also reinforce the integrative functions of their account executives to manage each project and client effectively.
