Aquarius Advertising

Aquarius Advertising

“Aquarius Advertising Agency”

Issues

The Aquarius Advertising Agency case contains many issues that stem from the structural organization of the company.   One of the issues at the firm is that the account executives are sometimes bypassed by specialists at the agency in communication with the clients.   It is the account executives job to be the liaison between the agency and the clients however the specialists often set up meetings with the clients and discuss important topics related to the account without the executive’s knowledge or presence at these meetings.   The most crucial and detrimental topic discussed at these meeting is the various commitments made by the agency specialists to the client regarding certain courses of action to be taken on the account.   When commitments are made to the client they need to be approved by the account executive but this is not happening.   Consequently this lack of communication and cooperation has led to frustrated account executives whose power and authority is being undermined.
The changes in the external environment led to rapid turnovers of the major accounts handled by the agency and this issue stressed another need for reorganization of the company.   Consumers are constantly changing their preferences and lifestyles which cause advertising agencies to often have no advance warning when they will lose or gain clients.   Aquarius is not structured in a way that is suited for this quick turnover of clients and they need to be better equipped to shorten their response time the changing environment.  

The Main Issue

The main issue in this case is the need for reorganization and reengineering of the structure of the company.   The hierarchal schema and lack of horizontal cooperation has caused the company personnel to have conflicts with each other and thus their business is suffering.   Aquarius Advertising needs a structural framework that encourages employees to engage in horizontal information sharing...