Reflection #2: Recent Developments at SimpsonScarborough

I am very lucky to be interning at Simpson Scarborough at a time when the company is in a state of transition. The company is growing, hiring more employees and expanding its reach in the field of higher education marketing. Last week, the higher ups at the company (who usually work from home) came into the office to discuss with the employees how things are run. The interns were lucky enough to be able to sit in on a few of these meanings, so I was able to hear from the employees what was working and what wasn’t. Many of the concerns raised were problems I had already started to notice. For context, Simpson Scarborough does market research and marketing strategy for higher education institutions. For each client, there is a project lead and an account executive. (I am an account executive intern.) These two employees work with a client to conduct research, asses the client’s brand, and present a cohesive marketing strategy. Analysts assist in the analysis of data – mostly the quantitative data, while the account executives take on a large portion of the qualitative research. Many of the problems brought up by employees at the company meeting last week had to do with this structure. In short, there was no streamlined way to get work done. Account executives were being pulled in multiple directions, and the work flow didn’t make sense. Employees also expressed a concern about a lack of collaboration, expressing a desire to increase collaboration among employees and across projects.

Today, I was able to see how the leadership of the company will start to go about addressing these concerns. In a meeting I attended earlier today, a new organizational structure was proposed in which project leads and account executives form teams, fostering communication and collaboration within the team, streamlining the workflow, and defining more clearly the roles of each position. The leaders of the company clearly took what the employees said to heart and devised a solution that will help address those problems without completely rearranging the company’s structure. The new structure also accounts for the company’s state of growth, allowing for easier integration of new employees into the company. Although these potential changes are still in the early phases, I am excited to see how the company decides to go about this restructuring.