Marcum & CBIZ Merger

The combined Creative function would be approximately twice the size of Marcum’s, but it needed to support a business and Marketing organization roughly three times larger.

Designing the future organization

During the initial integration period, the direction was to maintain business as usual. I worked with senior Marketing leaders to identify where the Marcum team could provide immediate support while prioritizing the conversion of legacy materials to the new CBIZ brand.

Within a few months, I was asked to design the future Creative organization from a blank sheet. The exercise began with the roles and capabilities the firm required rather than the people already available.

Three problems shaped the model.

First, a shared queue would not scale effectively. It made workload visibility, equitable distribution, project continuity, and assignment by experience difficult.

Second, increased demand could not be solved through headcount alone. The organization needed more efficient workflows and greater use of templates and self-service tools.

Third, expanding self-service introduced additional governance requirements. Creative needed operational capacity for intake, templates, digital assets, reporting, reviews, and vendor coordination.

I designed an initial structure with three groups:

• A primary intake team for routine, high-volume work
• A senior design team for campaigns, events, and complex assignments
• A Creative Operations team supporting workflow, governance, templates, assets, and vendors

The intent was to streamline routine production while protecting experienced creative capacity for higher-value work.

Building the team from existing talent

Because hiring was unavailable, the organization had to be built through talent assessment, negotiated transfers, promotions, and development.

I assigned leadership and team responsibilities based on individual strengths rather than legacy-company affiliation. Staffing required negotiation across Marketing because some employees combined design with broader marketing responsibilities.

As experienced designers moved into management, I also accelerated senior-level development to preserve creative review and leadership coverage. Over time, internal promotions strengthened both the design and Creative Operations functions.

I owned the organizational structure and professional-development model. Workflow decisions were developed collaboratively with the managers, although I retained final accountability when there was disagreement.

Developing a functioning management layer

The new managers were adjusting to unfamiliar expectations, greater accountability, and changed relationships with former peers. Some employees were also joining a dedicated Creative function for the first time after working in hybrid roles.

I supported the managers through frequent early touchpoints, weekly operating meetings, and recurring leadership-development discussions. Topics included difficult decisions, manager-versus-director responsibilities, confidence, performance management, and the development of strategic initiatives.

Managers were also included in broader discussions so they could understand how budgets, stakeholder interests, and organizational constraints affected decisions. This helped them communicate changes consistently and prepared them for responsibilities beyond their immediate teams.

Today, three managers oversee workload, creative quality, one-on-ones, employee advocacy, and performance reviews. Two were promoted from senior designer roles, while the third expanded from limited supervisory experience to leading a permanent team.

The management layer now owns much of the day-to-day oversight I previously handled directly, allowing me to focus on organizational design, technology, budgeting, brand governance, vendor strategy, and cross-functional planning.

Establishing the operating system

The combined team also needed a more structured project-management model.

The legacy CBIZ Asana environment had been designed around a small group, while Marcum’s Wrike queue lacked the visibility and controls needed for a larger, more interconnected Marketing organization.

I partnered with the Project Management director to establish Creative’s use of Asana, including boards, intake processes, workload reporting, dashboards, and status tracking. Creative Operations supported implementation and ongoing administration.

The new model created greater visibility into capacity, project status, and workload distribution. It also established clearer accountability for how work entered the department and how assignments were managed.

Adjusting the structure when the data changed

The original structure was based on the best information available, but the actual workload developed differently than expected.

I had anticipated that routine intake would represent approximately two-thirds of demand. After the first year, reporting showed that it was closer to one-third. Campaigns, events, and other complex assignments required substantially more capacity.

The senior team could not absorb that volume alone. Managers were being pulled into production work, while designers assigned to intake were already crossing over regularly. The structure also complicated merit-based promotions because seniority had become too closely associated with one team.

Using existing headcount, I reorganized the function into two balanced design teams, each with a mix of senior and developing talent. Multimedia became a separate group, creating a clearer path toward a future video team with its own manager.

The change required relatively little disruption, but it aligned the organization more closely with the work it was actually receiving.

Improving workload and sustainability

Early operational indicators show a healthier distribution of work under the balanced-team model.

Campaigns are divided across both design teams. Projects are redistributed within the teams before managers absorb production work themselves. Each team holds a weekly workload review to identify hidden capacity issues, increasing to twice weekly during heavier periods.

Managers now have more room to focus on leadership, creative oversight, planning, and employee development. More manageable workloads have also increased participation in committees focused on professional development, brand improvement, and competitive evaluation.

Because the revised model initially operated during a slower seasonal period, its performance will continue to be evaluated through higher-volume fall and spring cycles.

Early operational indicators show a healthier distribution of work under the balanced-team model.

Rebuilding cross-functional trust

The integration initially created significant friction between Creative and other Marketing functions.

Teams were operating under heavy demand while adjusting to new processes, turnaround expectations, and responsibilities. Trust deteriorated enough to require direct discussion during an in-person senior leadership meeting.

I responded by listening before assigning blame, meeting regularly with peer directors, and separating legitimate business needs from avoidable process friction. Where appropriate, I adapted the model while maintaining essential brand-governance standards.

This included involving Marketing and Sales leaders in technology planning, retaining a limited number of strategically placed Adobe licenses outside Creative, and meeting directly with business leaders about contested logo and photography standards.

As processes stabilized, working relationships improved. Creative’s contribution has since been recognized during campaign-planning discussions, and peer directors have described my role as that of a negotiator who helped resolve tension between teams.

The next stage is to involve Creative more consistently in early brainstorming and continue developing the team’s ability to contribute before execution begins.

The most important result is not the org chart itself. It is the creation of a Creative function with enough leadership depth, operational discipline, and flexibility to respond to future challenges.