...Written Case Analysis Case: Taran Swan at Nickelodeon Latin America (A). Harvard Business School Case Jon Goebel Question 1: Considering various behaviors exhibited by Taran Swan, what do you think are the two predominant personality traits that characterize her? Rely on the class discussions from Session 1. Highlight important examples from the case that led you to this conclusion. In the case study about Nickelodeon in Latin America, Taran Swan exhibits glimpses of each of the five personality traits, but the two traits that most clearly epitomize her dynamic personality are “high extraversion”, and “high openness to experience”. Taran Swan has a tendency toward “high extraversion” and demonstrates this in how comfortable she is networking throughout all levels and functional areas within Nickelodeon / MTV and parent company Viacom. She was dealt a challenging situation when initially asked to launch the network station in Latin America. Taran is given direction to solicit resources and support from MTV personnel, but these employees are not familiar with the Nickelodeon brand and hold obvious bias toward their own network (MTV). Despite this situation, one MTV employee still gives Taran very high praise for not only involving all departments of the organization, but also for offering the opportunity to contribute their own ideas. Taran’s tendency for extraversion also allows her to infuse a sense of camaraderie...
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...MGT-500 Leading people and Organizations Case write-up Taran Swan at Nickelodeon, Latin America By: Sher Khan Nassery ID: 003757 March 10, 2015 Summary of the Case: This case is about “Nickelodeon” an American Cable Channel for kids with an intention to launch its new branch in Latin America. Nickelodeon was launched in the United States in 1979. The establisher of Latin America’s branch was Ms. Taran Swan the Nickelodeon’s managing director. Ms. Swan had served as Launch Director and General Manager of Nickelodeon in Latin America since its inception in 1998. More specifically in this case, we read about the challenges that Ms. Swan had faced while launching the Latin America’s branch. We have also discussed about her leadership style and how she had managed the team through decisions she made and the subsequent results as part of her leadership in the Nickelodeon. Questions and Answer: 1- Describe the culture at Nickelodeon Latin America. Be specific. In Nickelodeon, the work environment is very comfortable where employees do not hesitate to share ideas and critique each other. All employees in Nickelodeon feel themselves responsible in a self-driven way. They appear to be creative and goal oriented who can find solutions to any problems that may occur. Application of different guidelines through established focus groups in order to strengthen the high energy work culture, high accountability, reliable and effective communication system including the sense of responsibility...
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...Case Analysis - Taran Swan at Nickelodeon Latin America (A) Organizational Leadership and Decision Making – RMGT110 Taran Swan at Nickelodeon Latin America Introduction This case study has at its center, Taran Swan, who served as launch director and general manager of Nickelodeon Latin America. She was involved with the launch from its inception. She was enthusiastic in the pursuit of her goals and at the beginning when the Nickelodeon Latin America was taking shape, she was relentless in achieving what her managers believed was impossible. Despite her dogged determination, she proved to be very open to new ideas and suggestions. Her enthusiasm and savvy were infectious. She was a good listener and held people accountable for their actions. Her only agenda was ensuring the channel’s success and maintaining the Nickelodeon brand and integrity. She successfully created an environment conducive for people to discuss, question and rationally lay out their ideas and views. Her transformational leadership style shines through, as she rarely applies her authority and at the same time, by adjusting small pieces of the organization that she has created, the company leaps forward. In such a hostile and unfamiliar environment, some leaders would follow a more totalitarian approach but she chose a different path. She allowed freedom of ideas and views. They overcame the competition by thinking big – as she puts it herself to “make a splash”...
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...the Taran Swan case , does Swan 's team display the characteristics of high-performance teams ? If so , describe the way in which her team resembles a high-performance team Taran Swan 's team displays the characteristics of high-performance teams such as trust , effective organizational culture , and the management of relationships According to Katzenbach and Smith (1993 , a team 's performance .calls for both individual and mutual accountability (pg . 1 . In other words , trust between team members is essential to a team 's overall performance . This particular trait improves communication between team members and eases the tension of teamwork Taran Swan 's delegation of work required a profound degree of trust in her employees Swan appointed Friedman and McCarty as co-vice-presidents of marketing Even though the two of them had little or no experience in marketing Swan trusted in their own inherent talents to accomplish the marketing campaign . Friedman said , I kept telling Taran we needed to hire someone , but she said we were doing a fine job . I told her I 'd never done this before , but she said `It 's okay , you 'll figure it out ' Taran had faith in us that we could learn to do it and work together (pg 8 . Because of the strong belief in the individual , efficiency heightened in the situation , they were poised to give their best and deliver excellent service that would be in the best interest of the team . It worked In Managing Your Team by Linda A . Hill...
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...Belakang Taran Swan adalah seorang General Manager di Nickelodeon Latin Amercia dan saat ini Swan sedang memegang banyak proyek besar dan penting. Nickelodeon adalah sebuah saluran tayangan untuk anak-anak berusia 2-11 tahun yang pertama kali ditayangkan di United States di tahun 1979 dan kemudian diakuisisi oleh Entertainment Powerhouse Viacom di tahun 1986. Swan sudah bergabung dengan business development di Nickelodeon International selama 3 tahun dan telah mempelajari strategi entry untuk 10 negara dan memiliki ketertarikan pada negara Amerika Latin. Di tahun 1993, Swan dan Business Director Nickelodeon International telah memulai eksplorasi untuk mencari peluang di America Latin. Pada tahun tersebut, 2 media besar sudah memasuki Amerika Latin yaitu Cartoon Network dan Fox Kids Network. Berdasarkan pengamatannya tersebut, Swan merasa yakin bahwa Nickelodeon dapat segera memasuki Amerika Latin sebelum pasar menjadi terlampau jenuh. Di tahun 1996, Swan meyakinkan corporate office (Viacom) untuk mengalokasikan dana pengembangan di Amerika Latin. Sebelumnya di tahun 1993, saluran program MTV telah ditayangkan di Amerika Latin dan kondisinya cukup sulit. Hal ini membuat Viacom tidak mau gegabah dalam mengeluarkan dana investasi untuk saluran yang belum terindikasi kuat apakah dapat berjalan dengan sukses atau tidak. Dalam usahanya mendapatkan persetujuan, Swan bersama dengan Nickelodeon International Swat Team mengunjungi Miami dan mengadakan workshop “How-To Nickelodeon” dengan...
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...Situation: Taran Swan, an M.B.A from Harvard Business School was visionary executive of Nickelodeon channel. In 1995, she salvaged the launch operation in Germany from its initial failure and while doing so she learned some of the important lesson related to the complexity of the international operation. Earlier, as the Director of Business Development of Nickelodeon international, Swan wanted to explore the opportunity in the Latin American market. But due to volatile economy of the Latin American region, she had to shelve this plan. After returning from Germany, Swan started focusing on Latin American market once again and felt that the time was appropriate to enter the Latin American market before the market gets saturated. She developed the business plan to for Nickelodeon expansion into Latin American market and got conditional approval from the senior leadership. As the Nickelodeon leadership was not fully convinced on the success in the Latin American market, she was only allowed to launch the new expansion in Miami by sharing the resources MTV Latin America, a sister company of Nickelodeon. Swan started work in full swing. She was a highly data driven person and she was excellent in delegating work. She had a full trust over her team and let them work with autonomy. She was also a believer of team based decision making. In September 1996 Nickelodeon achieved the minimum distribution target and with that Swan got full management approval. She start hiring and...
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...Taran Swan at Nickelodeon Latin America Background Nickelodeon is a cable channel for kids 2-11 years old. It started out in the US in 1979. Nickelodeon produced cartoons, live action, comedy, drama, music, sports and game shows. In 1996 it was the most popular kid’s TV channel in the US. The international channels had their own names, but relied on US programs that were voiced over. The channels were launched by a team from corporate the company called the Nickelodeon International Swat Team. They would build the channel and transition it to local management. By 1998 Nickelodeon was in more than 30 countries. While Taran Swan was the director of Business Development for Nickelodeon International, she had begun to look into opportunities in Latin America. But in 1993 when Swan first looked at Latin America the market seemed too volatile and Nickelodeon was more interested in Australia and Germany. Swan became the launch director for Germany where her team built the channel from scratch and turned it over to local management in 1995. When Swan returned from Germany she turned again to Latin America. She found that the Cartoon Network and Fox Kids Network had already launched in Latin America. Swan felt that now was the time to enter before the market was saturated. During the three years Swan spent with Nickelodeon International she had studied entry strategies for ten countries, but Latin America was her favorite. Viacom, the owner of Nickelodeon, needed to see a proven...
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...TARAN SWAN Using the terms you have learned (particularly in Module 2) in this course, describe Taran Swan’s personality. Explain your response by referring to the personality trait and attribute frameworks you’ve learned in this course and evidence in the case. Which of her personality traits and attributes might play a role in how she manages Nickelodeon Latin America Leadership is one of the most common practices that is found and applied on the different organizations around the world. The need for governance has mainly increased the pressure on institutions specializing in educating aspiring leaders with the needed skills that they are expected to have when they are already working on their own fields of interest. Through the utilization of the SWOT analysis, Taran Swan’s capability as a leader shall be analyzed and examined well. The application of the SWOT analysis based evaluation shall present the actual progress of the said individual thus denoting the position that she has already garnered in the Latin American Nickelodeon Corporation. THE SWOT Analysis The SWOT Analysis is designed to evaluate the capability of an individual or of an organization to provide its clients or the people that a particular individual aims to serve. The SWOT analysis includes Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats. 1. Strengths: • As a leader, the author is able to encourage her team in performing well with her own tasks in the workplace. • The integrity...
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..."kid focused environment dressed casually and felt comfortable bringing their kids into work; toys lined many cubicles; and they passed out candt at some meetings." (pg 13). Building Nickelodean Latin America's Culture Taran utilized three antecedents of culture to build and shape the culture at Nickelodean Latin America. Swan and Friedman used the industry and business environment by throwing a brand experience party at Journadas "the largest cable trade show in Latin America." (pg 4). This not only served to build brand awareness but also demonstrated to the executive team and employees how risky ventures can be beneficial. Evidence that this rubbed off on Swan team was displayed when her "big bets" strategy was adapted and "initiatives that really broke Nickelodean out from the competive pack" (pg 12 ) were developed. Taran's vision and behavior also helped build the culute at Nickelodean Latin America. "Swans strategic thinking rubbed off on (pg )" her executive team and trickled down to lower level employees. Her work ethic and participative management style allowed her and her swat team to create a sister agreement and persuade MTV people to "do additional work with no corresponding increase in pay (pg 3). According to one employee, "Taran did a great job involving all the different departments and allowing everyone to contribute ideas." (pg 4). This no doubt had an effect on the...
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... PRACTICAL APPLICATION • • There are great leaders in the world who are super successful. Yet they lack one or a few of these traits. To complement their weaknesses, they find other people in their organization to balance them out. We see this application in the case where Taran Swan lacked relating and sensemaking but has inventory and visioning. Taran Swan at Nickelodeon(8/27/15) CONCEPT OVERVIEW CASE SUMMARY This case describes the launch of Nickelodeon in Latin America and its first 18 months. Swan is shown putting together a team and adjusting the culture of the company. After 18 months, Swan must leave the company because of complications with her pregnancy. On bedrest for 6 months, she must decide if she can continue to run the organization from New York. Other options include placing an interim lead or quitting altogether. If she stays, how will she need to adjust her leadership style and working relationships? This case provides perspective on the pros and cons of an incomplete leader. In addition, this case showcases the effects a new and driven leader can have on the culture of an organization. By analyzing the leadership style of Taran Swan, the effects on her team and the success of the organization are seen. PRACTICAL APPLICATION Self + Relationship + Team = Results Self = Self awareness, knowing what type of leadership persona you are projecting Relationships = building relationships Team = Leading Team What...
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...Where Will We Find Tomorrow’s Leaders? Paul Hemp FROM THE JANUARY 2008 ISSUE SUMMARY SAVE SHARE COMMENT TEXT SIZE PRINT 8.95 BUY COPIES VIEW MORE FROM THE January 2008 Issue EXPLORE THE ARCHIVE RECOMMENDED Discovering Your Authentic Leadership (HBR Bestseller) LEADERSHIP & MANAGING PEOPLE HBR ARTICLE William W. George, Peter Sims, Andrew N. McLean, David Mayer, Diana Mayer 8.95 ADD TO CART SAVE SHARE HBR Tools: Better Meetings ORGANIZATIONAL DEVELOPMENT PRESS TOOLKIT 29.95 ADD TO CART SAVE SHARE First, Let's Fire All the Managers LEADERSHIP & MANAGING PEOPLE HBR ARTICLE Gary Hamel 8.95 ADD TO CART SAVE SHARE For the past half century, there has been consensus about the kinds of places effective business leaders are formed: companies like General Electric and Procter & Gamble, high-powered consulting firms like McKinsey, elite business schools like Harvard and Wharton, the military. But it’s a different world now. Markets and workforces are increasingly global and diverse. Change is so rapid that one leader can’t hope to keep abreast of all developments, much less be responsible for the innovation needed to keep ahead of them. Decision making is broadly distributed across an organization, and collaboration is required with numerous parties outside it. So it’s worth reexamining our image of the ideal business leader and how and where a person will acquire the attributes needed to become one. We may find that it’s through...
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