Please help me write this. Unit 2 Assignment 1 Critical Thinking in a Business Decision Carl, the president of the company acquired by RPZ Marketing, has agreed to be interviewed by the business columnist of the local newspaper on the topic of the decision to sell the company to RPZ. For this assignment, imagine that you are Carl, preparing for this interview. The columnist has provided Carl with a list of questions he should be prepared to address. Based on the two videos about the case study, respond to the following interview questions from Carl's perspective, as if you were Carl. Keep in mind that the story that results from this interview will be featured in the business section of the local newspaper, and that Carl will continue to serve as one of the division heads of the new combined company. How would you describe your company's competitive position prior to the merger? When you were faced with this opportunity, what did you see as the most important facts that you needed to address? What assumptions, guesses, or predictions did you make about your customers? What alternative approaches did you consider, and how did you assess the advantages and disadvantages of each? How did you present the decision to sell Genaflek Marketing to your board of directors? Your interview responses should show a logical consideration of the case, and the likely assumptions and concerns of an executive like Carl. In addition, your responses should be communicated using a positive, tactful attitude, appropriate for a business executive communicating in a public forum. Write your responses in either first person or third person. Submission Requirements Written communication:

Communication should be clear, well-organized, and support a central idea, with no technical writing errors, as expected of a business professional. Length of paper: Approximately 23 typed, double-spaced pages. Font and font size: Times New Roman, 12 point. RPZ MARKETING: THE BACKGROUND Narrator It is several months after Carl

Genaflek met with his old employee, Regina Poincy Zimmerman. Since then, Regina's company, RPZ Social Media Analytics, has acquired Carl's company, Genaflek Marketing. The new company that resulted from the acquisition is called RPZ Marketing. The following video appears on the About Us page on the RPZ Marketing website. Ravin Welcome! My name is Ravin James, and am the Director of Business Development here at RPZ Marketing. I am here to tell you about the exciting new developments at RPZ Marketing, and to tell you about how RPZ can help your business maximize its marketing strategy. RPZ Marketing is a new company that resulted from the exciting merger between RPZ Social Media Analytics and Genaflek Marketing. What Genaflek Marketing brings to the table is thirty years of experience as a pioneering leader in the marketing industry! What RPZ Social Media Analytics brings to the table is expertise in contemporary social media marketing strategies, like search engine optimization. With the combined expertise, we will be able to serve your diverse media needs better than anyone else in the industry! Carl Hello, I am Carl Genaflek, the founder of Genaflek Marketing. I am excited to be part of this new partnership. Both our old and our new clients will benefit by the combined expertise of these two companies. I will be leaving to day-to-day running of this business to spend more time with my family, but I will continue to play an active role in the company. Ravin In today's business, there are no one-size-fits-all solution for your marketing needs. Here at RPZ Marketing, we will be able to create individualized service packages that leverage traditional marketing strategies and innovative new ones that reflect the dynamic world of social media. Josh I have been a proud part of the Genaflek family for about 10 years, and I am really excited about the opportunities that come with this merge. I look forward to working with old clients to develop groundbreaking new social media strategies. And I look forward to working with new clients to develop comprehensive strategies from the ground up.

Regina Hi! I am Regina Poincy Zimmerman, CEO of RPZ Marketing. We are thrilled to have the opportunity to serve your differentiated marketing needs. Ravin All of us at RPZ Marketing look forward to working with you, our clients, in new and innovative ways. SEEING THE BIG PICTURE REGINA Nick, this is the organizational consultant I was telling you about. This is Nicholas Anthony, from Corporate Ventures. Corporate Ventures is our venture partner in this merger and has provided us with the majority of the capital to make this thing happen. And Of course you remember Carl.

CARL Well hello! I have not seen you since that marketing conference. That was quite the coffee meeting we had, huh? There I was, thinking that I was offering my old protg Regina a job to help me develop these social marketing strategies. And instead she went and bought my company? I guess we underestimated our old friend Regina, huh

REGINA Well, I am very excited about the opportunity to work with Carl again. I would also like to introduce you to Ravin James. She is our Director of Business Marketing.

RAVIN It is SO nice to meet you. I am thrilled to hear your ideas about how to help RPZ Marketing maximize our market potential. I cannot say how excited I am about this merger!

REGINA Ravin's enthusiasm is contagious.

REGINA What we are talking about today is developing an organizational structure for RPZ Marketing. As you know, it can be quite a challenge to merge together two existing companies. We are going to trying to do this in a way that capitalizes on the strengths of both of these companies. This is a big decision, and we have a had a lot of additional ideas about the best way to go about this.

CARL Well, in my mind it is pretty simple. You divide things up by account coverage. The new organizational structure needs to allow the account managers from the two organizations keep their accounts. That way the clients do not lose any continuity in coverage.

RAVIN That is a good point, Carl. We do not want clients to lose confidence in us. But we also want to bring together the strengths of the two organizations. If everything stays the same, we lose that opportunity.

CARL I think you underestimate the importance of continuity for the clients. Long-term clients get nervous when there is a merger. We cannot undermine their trust.

RAVIN But we cannot focus so hard on relationships that we fail to focus on the market. I think we need to organize the new company in ways that reflect industry needs and that take advantage of our internal areas of expertise.

NICHOLAS I am in Ravin's camp on this one. We need to start bringing social marketing strategies right away to former Genaflek accounts, even if it means disrupting relationships. RPZ had huge revenue growth because clients need new strategies.

CARL I understand that Regina's company had huge revenue growth while our revenue was declining. But I would like to point out that Genaflek had more clients and was overall more profitable.

NICHOLAS That is absolutely true, Carl, and we absolutely appreciate that. And we appreciate your concern about maintaining client relationships. We know that your presence here will help give us market credibility and put your long term clients at ease.

REGINA I can see both sides. I think we need to continue to focus on our relationships with long-term clients. But we also need to focus on the needs of the market as a whole. We need to strike a balance here. So, what are your thoughts on restructuring?