Case Analysis #2
Rongsheng Yuan MGMT250 Hector Martinez Case analysis#2 03/27/13 Amelia Rogers, the account director for Tassani Communication, worked with the Marketing director, Guy Johnson. Johnson informed her that Dave Burns, the creative director had phoned him to discuss the direction of the “Rust No More Muffler” project. The problem is if Amelia need to take up the situation with Jim Paglia, the COO of Tassani Communications. Rogers, Burns and Johnson worked on a variety of ideas for the “Rost No More” project. They met to review the work several times to make suggestions of feasibility of the project.
Burns was satisfied with the sketch and believed that the work could be improved smoothly. However, Johnson’s boss had some queries about their ideas. Johnson asked Rogers and Burns to start working on another layout. There are four objectives that explain the reasons why Burns tried to phone Johnson several times even if he was not supposed to do so. First of all, Burns’ role was to give the creatives’ ideas to the clients and account management people. He need to communicate the creatives’ version in a convincing way. As a creative director, Burns should make the client to think the creatives’ more groundbreaking ideas.
It was his task to talk with his clients in terms of their interests. In order to make his work successfully, he had to meet his client frequently to make sure all the requirements were included and meet. Burn was a responsible director who cared about the ideas of his clients and the quality of the project. Secondly, Burns was not able to accept clients’ opinions when they do not agree with him. However, Burn did not consider his stubbornness as a weakness even if he was aware of a fault. In his opinion, if he disagreed with someone, he was free to not agree and give out his thoughts.
His point of view was true, but he often did not understand situations well. As Rogers mentioned in the case, Dave loved to be shared with backgrounds. Since Dave needed to learn the detailed instruction of the project, he would question If he was not informed. It was understandable that Burns should be informed of the requirements of assignments, but his phone calls were overwhelming to Johnson if he questioned too often. Thirdly, Amelia did not have industry-specific experience, and she did not have good relationship with colleagues in TC, so the project and the conflicts might be a huge challenge for her.
Even the COO Paglia encouraged her to ask questions and was willing to help if she had any concerns. When Rogers, Burns and Johnson worked on the assignment, it was Rogers’ role to be the mediator of Burns and Johnson. According to the case, the colleagues of TC demonstrated that Rogers provided best products by creating conflicts. She only cared about the relationship with her clients and did manage to get achievements. However, she did not get along with her colleagues well due to her arrogant manners.
Since Amelia lacked the industry-specific experience and good relationship with colleagues, she got frustrated with the assignment naturally. The fourth objective is that Johnson’s boss doubted their layout. During the development of their project, Rogers, Burns and Johnson met to review the layout twice. They design a postcard with an illustration of a muffler, but they got a lukewarm reception from Johnson’s boss. As a result, John advised Rogers to get a illustrated sample of the layout. According to the case, Johnson’s boss seemed to be unsatisfied with their idea or give any suggestions to them.
Burns might be concerned about the ideas and quality of their assignment, so he phoned Johnson twice to make sure what his boss needed. To solve all of these potential problems, there are four alternative solutions make sense to me. Firstly, I believed that Amelia should ask Paglia for help due to her lack of experience. Since Burns was a stubborn person who was overwhelming when he disagreed with others, Paglia, as his superior, could ask him not to phone Johnson frequently. However, it was Burns role to talk with clients about their assignment.
Burns did not do anything wrong but was eager to know Johnson’s opinions. As a result, Amelia showed that she was not capable of handling the problems herself. Meanwhile, Burns might care her to worsen their relationship by contacting COO directly. The second solution is to talk with Burns face to face. According to Amelia, she would explain backgrounds to Burns when doing their project. Burns might understand this situation if Amelia’s explanation were convincing. However, in the case, Burns did not pick up her calls, which implied that he might not want to communicate with her.
Even if Amelia had the chance to talk to him, his strong opinions would not be changed easily. The third solution is to ask Johnson’s boss for direct advice about their layout. Their problem was from Johnson’s boss because of his unconvincing attitude. Their project would move forward successfully once they got the clear instruction from the boss. However, employees of TC were not expected to communicate directly with clients unless they meet tactical issue. However, Johnson was frustrated with their layout. He did not get good feedbacks from his boss.
As for Burns, he would stop making phone calls to Johnson once they had the detailed requirements from the boss. The fourth solution is to have a group meeting to discuss their plan of the assignment. As they reviewed the layout, they should also speak out their point of view. Since Burns had many questions about their project, Johnson should explain their background and requirement to him clearly. Meanwhile, Johnson was also unfamiliar with his boss’ idea, so he needed to indicate that he did not want to further discuss the project after the meeting.
As for Burns, he should think alone about his ideas toward the assignment before group meeting. However, this solution would only solve their internal conflict but would not help their assignment move on because they lacked the detailed instruction of the layout. We can choose the best solution by compute the total scores of the solutions that meet the objetives. Problem | Objectives| | Solutions| | | Burns phoned Johnson twice to talk about the project but Johnson refused Burns phoned Johnson twice to talk about the project but Johnson refused | 1.
Burns’ task to talk with clients. | | 1. ask Paglia for help| | | | 2. Burns insisted on talking with Johnson. | | 2. talk to Burns| | | | 3. Rogers lacked of experience| | 3. Talk to Johnson’s boss| | | | 4. Johnson’s boss was not convinced | | 4. group meeting| | | Objectives | Objective 1| Objective 2| Objective 3| Objective 4| Total | Rank in importance| | | | | | Solution1| 3| 4| 3| 1| 11| Solution2| 1| 3| 2| 1| 7| Solution3| 3| 4| 1| 5| 13| Solution4| 4| 3| 2| 1| 9| From the table, to talk with Johnson’s boss is the best solution which meet most of the objectives.
