Integrating teams at hernandez & associates

Need help with my Business question - I’m studying for my class.

The instructions...

Write a paper in response to the two questions at the end of the case, with a minimum of six citations from the assigned reading in the Hughes’ text. (Note: It is not necessary to do any outside research beyond the information in the Mini-case and the assigned reading.) Provide a detailed explanation for your evaluation that demonstrates clear, insightful critical thinking.
Your paper should be 500 to 600 words in length. Use proper spelling, grammar, and APA style in your paper and for any sources cited.

Integrating Teams at Hernandez & Associates

Marco Hernandez is president of Hernandez & Associates Inc., a full-service 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.