Taran+Swan+at+Nickelodeon

Nickelodeon is a strong company with its international division growing rapidly. The main person in charge and the person driving the South American expansion is Taran Swan. She has personally picked and put together a great team of people who have directly contributed to the fast paced growth in that division. However, the current situation of Mrs. Swan has brought an important issue to light. Due to a medical condition requiring her to stay on bed rest for the remainder of her pregnancy, there will be an absence of authority for up to seven months. Decisions have to be made on whether to hire someone to take her place, continue working from New York, or leaving the responsibilities to her team. Our recommended solution is to appoint an interim from within the organization to fill her position. Among our top four candidates, we recommend Taran appoint Donna Friedman to handle the responsibilities during her pregnancy leave. We are going to distribute Donna’s current duties to Valerie and Stephen; Valerie will be in charge of all marketing and Stephen will take on full responsibilities of the Creative Director, therefore allowing Donna to handle Taran’s responsibilities.
 * __Executive Summary: __**

**__Primary Analysis: __**

**__Fundamental Management Problem: __** As a team of consultants, we have narrowed Taran’s fundamental management problem down to making a decision whether to appoint an interim to take over her responsibilities as General Manager, or to leave her duties to other members in the organization. There are several examples from this case that provide evidence to support this problem. For instance, the disagreement between Neuhaus and Byrne (Page 10) where Byrne wanted to sit with the dedicated Nickelodeon staff, while Neuhaus wanted the sales team to be located together in the MTV space. This dispute justifies the need for an authority figure to settle disputes (i.e. “playing referee”) within the company. Nickelodeon has been pursuing a program block to reach the U.S.-Hispanic Market in which they had begun negotiations with Telemundo, the Spanish-language broadcaster in the United States (Page 15). In order to successfully continue this project, the organization needs someone to aid in leading major projects such as this one. A Town Hall meeting had been organized to provide MTV with the progress Nickelodeon has made; therefore, the organization will also need someone to represent Nickelodeon in order to provide this feedback.

**__Recommended Solution: __** In order to solve this management problem, we have developed a solution to this problem. Our recommended solution is to appoint an interim from within. There are many advantages by implementing this solution. By appointing someone from within the organization, the company will save time and money training that particular individual, whereas bringing someone completely new in will take time becoming familiar with the organization. Someone who is already a member of the organization has prior knowledge and experience with the nature of the business, where someone new would disturb the group cohesiveness that has already been established. Credibility is already established among the members of the organization, and a new member would have to gain their own credibility in order to influence current members of the company. Based upon the company’s overwhelming desire for their employees to “bleed orange”, it would be logical to appoint someone that is already adapted to this concept.

**__Action Plan: __** Our action plan for Taran Swan is to appoint an interim from within the organization. This solution provides the best chance of having a positive outcome. Taran will select her interim among her current employees. After reviewing all of the current employees, we found Valerie McCarty, Donna Friedman, Stephen Grieder, and Sonia Schwarz to be the four individuals who seem to be most qualified for the position. The proposed action plan will evaluate Nickelodeon’s current employees and select an interim to take Taran’s place during her leave of absence. Our action plan will be integrated through a step-by-step selection process. A typical selection process consists of the following steps: choosing the right candidate, conducting a pre-interview screening and/or preliminary interview, completing an application, executing a personal interview, checking references, evaluating a credit check, providing an abilities test, administering a physical exam, and considering a job offer ("Step by step," 2005). By appointing a member from within the organization, several steps can be eliminated from this process (i.e. application process, reference check, credit check, abilities test, and physical exam), thus saving the company time and money. After reviewing our chosen qualified candidates, we feel Taran should select Donna Friedman to fulfill her position during her time of absence. As stated in Donna Friedman’s resume, she is currently the Vice President Marketing and Associate Creative Director, NICKL. Prior to joining NICKL, Freidman served as associate creative director off-air for Nickelodeon International, and as managing producer, Nickelodeon Interactive/Viacom New Media. Also according to her biography, Friedman seems to be very creative and productive, because she co-authored the highly touted “How to Nickelodeon” handbook, which is the original guide to the cable network’s brand identity and philosophy. This was done under the guidance of former President, Nickelodeon/Nick at Nite & Vice Chairman, MTV Networks Geraldine Laybourne and Scott Webb, Executive Creative Director, Nickelodeon (Page 22). “Swan had been impressed with Friedman's creativity in planning the Jornadas party and developing the innovative ‘Grow Down’ campaign with advertisers” (Page 8). Donna Friedman is currently the Vice President of Marketing and Associate Creative Director, NICKL. In order to promote her into Taran’s position, Donna’s current job tasks will be distributed to colleagues Valerie McCarty and Stephen Grieder. Since part of Valerie’s current responsibilities include marketing, she will not be in control of all marketing efforts and remain in control of communications as well. Stephen is the Creative Director; therefore, he will take on all responsibilities of the Creative Director along with his duties as Vice President of Programming. According to Swan, Friedman has a “contagious enthusiasm for the brand and out-of-the box thinking,” and this why we feel Donna Friedman is best equipped to fulfill Taran’s position as General Manager.



= Works Cited = Hill, L. A., & Doughty, K. C. (2008). //Taran Swan at Nickelodeon Latin America.// Boston: Harvard Business School Publishing. Nelson, D. L., & Quick, J. C. (2009). //Organizational Behavior: Science, the Real World, and You.// Mason: South-Western Cengage Learning. //Step by step selection process //. (2005). Retrieved from []

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