Dan Wang, Big Spaceship, Page 1

Big Spaceship, founded in 2000 by Michael Lebowitz and Daniel Federman, is a digital
creative agency located in Brooklyn, New York, specializing in interactive marketing and
communications. Its growth lies in the fact that it can quickly pivot to the demands of
clients in the era when digital, social, content and mobile are all beginning to merge.
The companys strategy is working directly with clients rather than with ad agencies in
between, and doing all the work from concepts all the way through production, design,
and development. Big Spaceship creates the digital experience commensurate with the
level of innovation brought to clients product.

However, innovation needs to be fostered internally which is worth a close look at how
the organizational structure may facilitate the performance optimization. Given the fact
that Big Spaceship employed around 50 people in 2008 and lived in the dynamic
environment where agencies akin to it spilled over this industry, the company had
undertaken a major restructuring of its organization, shifting from a functional structure
to a team structure. This change differs itself from the traditional cascade approach
where strategy flows to production to design and finally to technology. Instead, the
team-based structure organizes employees who perform specific duties into project
teams that include the entire spectrum of the functions. Its strengths include improved
cross-disciplinary communication and increased resource efficiency. First, it pushes
employees to collaborate. When people work in teams, creativity and innovation
increase through brainstorming and process improvement discussions. Second, they
share the responsibility for completing work on schedule. Furthermore, by creating a
comprehensive roles and responsibility matrix, accountability gets clearly defined so

Dan Wang, Big Spaceship, Page 2

misunderstandings dont arise. Third, it enables management to staff the projects with
resources that complement each other in an efficient manner. On the other hand, the
team structure does have drawbacks. First, it creates organizational rigidity by
preventing the firm from easily moving certain experts onto particular projects which
results in the economic inefficiency. More importantly, it has adverse effect on
employees development. The team structure makes it hard to share best practices
among members of the same discipline. Companies that succeed in a team-based
setting typically coach employees on how to work through problems efficiently and
effectively. Generally speaking, the team-based organizational structure adopted by Big
Spaceship has aligned individual strengths and the Company's goals, offering quality
performance and partnering with clients. In addition, the company only hires talents who
fit its culture and provides opportunities for staff members to improve their skillset to
meet the critical task demands. Besides, the openness culture nurtured within the
company has empowered everyone to participate in the brainstorming on strategy.

Undoubtedly, Big Spaceship possesses a certain advantages which support its growth
potential. For example, it has a small team and lean structure, which means low
operating cost to stay competitive among peers. The high-profile work in the early years
serves as the marketing campaign and genesis of new business development. However,
the inherent disadvantage is also not negligible. This industry is crowded and
consolidating like crazy. Increased competition means the life of small digital tech
companies such as Big Spaceship could not achieve sustainable growth either because
of acquisition or exhaustion.