Provide recommendations on this case study     Cadmium is a medium sized, bespoke digital marke4ng company. The company was founded in 2007 by four former execu4ves of larger firms, looking to strike out focus on the digital space. It currently employs 45 marketers and marke4ng assistants at various levels, alongside 22 support staff.
During the company’s rapid growth, its opera4ng approach has shiIed significantly. Early on, it recruited a few, highly experienced marketers. Each reported to one of the founding partners when working with a specific client but oIen worked with different partners simultaneously on different accounts. These marketers were involved in all aspects of campaign development and implementa4on. The company prided itself on its collegiate approach and flexibility. This extended to both teams management and working condi4ons; the company was founded with a focus on “modern” flexible working prac4ces and has allowed flexible and remote working for all non-admin staff, since its incep4on.
Since it was founded, Cadmium has expanded. The expansion has seen a driI toward more formalised teams, with the founding partners taking an increasingly hands off approach to account management. Addi4onally, many of the company’s original marketers rose to become junior partners and head up teams working on specific accounts. Teams have also become increasingly specialised, both in terms of the types of accounts each works on, and the work that specific marketers undertake.
The company has also taken on staff with a greater range of experience levels, including crea4ng a graduate development scheme. The firm also became reliant on outsourcing some of the more repe44ve aspects of the marke4ng process, par4cularly copywri4ng, graphic design, and affiliate development to other firms and freelance contractors. These changes have been largely unplanned, but generally well received, with employees expressing sa4sfac4on with their work and the company having a reputa4on as a good employer, with commensurately low turnover.
ShiIs in the wider sector have caused issues with its present model. In response to changes in opera4on, brought about by the pandemic, several key compe4tors have begun decreasing their pricing, causing Cadmium to appear uncompe44ve. Compe4tors have achieved this through implemen4ng flexible and remote working prac4ces. Cadmium cannot replicate these savings as they already adopted these prac4ces prior to the pandemic.
 
There has also been a no4ceable decrease in the quality of freelance copywri4ng, with several projects being delayed by the need to offer out the same jobs mul4ple 4mes, aIer copy has failed to meet requirements; this despite the cost of such services con4nuing to climb.
In response, the team leaders have sought to expand the amount and type of work that teams undertake in-house, looking to their own marketers for copywri4ng, design, and affiliate recruitment, and have encouraged their team members to become involved in more varied aspects of campaign design and implementa4on, looking to become more flexible whilst reducing outsourcing costs.
This change has caused fric4on within the organisa4on with many staff dissa4sfied with the new approach and the manner of introduc4on. Many of the younger/more junior staff say they lack experience with many of the tasks they are now asked to undertake, with most having joined the firm as recent graduates, developing their skills and working knowledge under the company’s previous specialist structure. Currently managers are relying on more experienced staff for tasks such as copywri4ng, leading to resentment from many who see this as something they had “moved beyond” in their careers. Some indicate that they accepted roles at the firm to “get away” from those types of tasks. Remote working has also been curtailed as team leaders seek to maintain greater contact with team members undertaking new roles, leading to further resentment.
Recently there has been an increase in staff-turnover, with two senior marketers, three juniors, and a recently joined marke4ng assistant leaving in the past six months. Exit interviews indicate that the recent changes, and the atmosphere that they have brought, are responsible. Comments suggest the company is no longer “a fun place to be”. Leavers have also highlighted that the company’s reputa4on and the experience in specialist areas its workers develop, has made them aYrac4ve hires for larger firms, where they will be able to focus on careers as specialists.
Team leaders have also expressed frustra4on. Poin4ng out that the firm is simply moving closer to its original approach, which generated its success, whilst making necessary savings to keep it compe44ve. They also highlight that all the marke4ng employees were hired based on job descrip4ons and person specifica4ons which outlined a broad set of tasks and responsibili4es, including wri4ng and edi4ng copy (the firm only has one job descrip4on for marketers at each level, assistant, junior and senior), and that staff are knowingly contracted to undertake such work. There have also been complaints that the senior partners have been distant during this period leaving much of the decision making to the team leaders as a collec4ve.
The senior partners are concerned by the current issues but unable to decide a clear direc4on. They have resisted hiring replacements for the recent departures un4l a clearer direc4on for the firm is established, but this cannot be maintained for long as it only adds to the strain on each team. They have sought bids for tender from a range of management consultancies to address the issues the company faces. Given that costs are a key factor, and the increasingly uncertain financial posi4on of the company, they are not looking for a solu4on for every issue. Instead, they want to know which issues they should tackle first and how. The 4meline of implemen4ng any changes and the prac4cal implica4ons and costs of each will be key.