Quiz 7: Planning and Goal Setting

Nielsen Media Research David Calhoun left a job he loved as a star executive at General Electric to step into a mess as CEO of the A. C. Nielsen Corporation. His immediate challenge: The media research unit, which is under heavy fire from television clients such as NBC and CBS for chronic delays in reporting television ratings. Nielsen held a conference call with major clients acknowledging the delays and promising to do better, but the following Monday, the company again failed to report any ratings at all for the previous day. Nielson was not delivering data to customers as promised. What's the big deal? Calhoun and chief of research Susan Whiting know that about $70 billion a year in advertising revenues for the television industry depends on Nielsen ratings. Viewers might think TV networks are in the business of providing entertainment, but management's primary goal is providing eyeballs for advertisers. When television managers and advertisers don't get timely, accurate data from Nielsen, they're shooting in the dark with decisions about how to allocate resources. Daily meetings at some companies are scheduled based on getting the information from Nielsen when promised. "There is so much revenue involved over which we have no quality control," said Alan Wurtzel, president of research for NBC." We don't just use this data for analytical purposes. This is the currency of the business.'' Calhoun and other top managers are analyzing what went wrong at Nielsen. Originated in 1923 to perform surveys of the reduction of industrial equipment, Nielsen became a household name when it launched its television ratings system in 1950. More than 60 years later, Nielsen sail functions as a near - monopoly in the ratings business. Yet the company could be facing a serious threat from cable and satellite companies that are working on a way to get set-top boxes to provide real-time TV viewing data to rival Nielsen's. Managers see several factors involved in the problems at Nielsen, but the biggest one is that the amount of data the company processes doubled in a year, overloading computer servers and straining the company's human systems. The increase has come both because of changes in how people are watching television, such as over the Internet and other digital devices, and in the amount of information networks want. As the television business gets cut into thinner slices, clients need even more precise data to make good decisions. Nielsen is pursuing a strategy it calls "Anytime, Anywhere Media Measurement" to stay relevant and address new competition, but it has to get its quality problems fixed quickly. Clients understand the strain, but they have little sympathy. They want to know why Nielsen managers didn't anticipate the spike in data demands and plan accordingly. Where do you think the problems lie at Nielsen? For example, are they primarily with the company's strategic goals and plans, tactical goals and plans, or operational goals and plans? With alignment of goals and plans?

Write a brief mission statement for a local business with which you are familiar. How might having a clear, written mission statement benefit a small organization?

Inspire Learning Corporation54 When the idea first occurred to her, it seemed like such a win-win situation. Now she wasn't so sure. Marge Brygay was a hardworking sales rep for Inspire Learning Corporation, a company intent on becoming the top educational software provider in five years. That newly adopted strategic goal translated into an ambitious, million-dollar sales target for each of Inspire's sales reps. At the beginning of the fiscal year, her share of the sales department's operational goal seemed entirely reasonable to Marge. She believed in Inspire's products. The company had developed innovative, highly regarded math, language, science, and social studies programs for the K-12 market. What set the software apart was a foundation in truly cutting-edge research. Marge had seen for herself how Inspire programs could engage whole classrooms of normally unmotivated kids; the significant rise in test scores on those increasingly important standardized tests bore out her subjective impressions. But now, just days before the end of the year, Marge's sales were $1,000 short of her million-dollar goal. The sale that would have put her comfortably over the top fell through due to last-minute cuts in one large school system's budget. At first, she was nearly overwhelmed with frustration, but then it occurred to her that if she contributed $1,000 to Central High, the inner-city high school in her territory probably most in need of what she had for sale, they could purchase the software and put her over the top. Her scheme would certainly benefit Central High students. Achieving her sales goal would make Inspire happy, and it wouldn't do her any harm, either professionally or financially. Making the goal would earn her a $10,000 bonus check that would come in handy when the time came to write out that first tuition check for her oldest child, who had just been accepted to a well-known, private university. Initially, it seemed like the perfect solution all the way around. The more she thought about it, however, the more it didn't quite sit well with her conscience. Time was running out. She needed to decide what to do. What Would You Do? 1. Donate the $1,000 to Central High, and consider the $10,000 bonus a good return on your investment. 2. Accept the fact that you didn't quite make your sales goal this year. Figure out ways to work smarter next year to increase the odds of achieving your target. 3. Don't make the donation, but investigate whether any other ways are available to help Central High raise the funds that would allow them to purchase the muchneeded educational software.

Nielsen Media Research David Calhoun left a job he loved as a star executive at General Electric to step into a mess as CEO of the A. C. Nielsen Corporation. His immediate challenge: The media research unit, which is under heavy fire from television clients such as NBC and CBS for chronic delays in reporting television ratings. Nielsen held a conference call with major clients acknowledging the delays and promising to do better, but the following Monday, the company again failed to report any ratings at all for the previous day. Nielson was not delivering data to customers as promised. What's the big deal? Calhoun and chief of research Susan Whiting know that about $70 billion a year in advertising revenues for the television industry depends on Nielsen ratings. Viewers might think TV networks are in the business of providing entertainment, but management's primary goal is providing eyeballs for advertisers. When television managers and advertisers don't get timely, accurate data from Nielsen, they're shooting in the dark with decisions about how to allocate resources. Daily meetings at some companies are scheduled based on getting the information from Nielsen when promised. "There is so much revenue involved over which we have no quality control," said Alan Wurtzel, president of research for NBC." We don't just use this data for analytical purposes. This is the currency of the business.'' Calhoun and other top managers are analyzing what went wrong at Nielsen. Originated in 1923 to perform surveys of the reduction of industrial equipment, Nielsen became a household name when it launched its television ratings system in 1950. More than 60 years later, Nielsen sail functions as a near - monopoly in the ratings business. Yet the company could be facing a serious threat from cable and satellite companies that are working on a way to get set-top boxes to provide real-time TV viewing data to rival Nielsen's. Managers see several factors involved in the problems at Nielsen, but the biggest one is that the amount of data the company processes doubled in a year, overloading computer servers and straining the company's human systems. The increase has come both because of changes in how people are watching television, such as over the Internet and other digital devices, and in the amount of information networks want. As the television business gets cut into thinner slices, clients need even more precise data to make good decisions. Nielsen is pursuing a strategy it calls "Anytime, Anywhere Media Measurement" to stay relevant and address new competition, but it has to get its quality problems fixed quickly. Clients understand the strain, but they have little sympathy. They want to know why Nielsen managers didn't anticipate the spike in data demands and plan accordingly. Do you think developing a strategy map would be a good idea for Nielsen? Why or why not?

What strategic plans could the college or university at which you are taking this management course adopt to compete for students in the marketplace? Would these plans depend on the school's goals?

Nielsen Media Research David Calhoun left a job he loved as a star executive at General Electric to step into a mess as CEO of the A. C. Nielsen Corporation. His immediate challenge: The media research unit, which is under heavy fire from television clients such as NBC and CBS for chronic delays in reporting television ratings. Nielsen held a conference call with major clients acknowledging the delays and promising to do better, but the following Monday, the company again failed to report any ratings at all for the previous day. Nielson was not delivering data to customers as promised. What's the big deal? Calhoun and chief of research Susan Whiting know that about $70 billion a year in advertising revenues for the television industry depends on Nielsen ratings. Viewers might think TV networks are in the business of providing entertainment, but management's primary goal is providing eyeballs for advertisers. When television managers and advertisers don't get timely, accurate data from Nielsen, they're shooting in the dark with decisions about how to allocate resources. Daily meetings at some companies are scheduled based on getting the information from Nielsen when promised. "There is so much revenue involved over which we have no quality control," said Alan Wurtzel, president of research for NBC." We don't just use this data for analytical purposes. This is the currency of the business.'' Calhoun and other top managers are analyzing what went wrong at Nielsen. Originated in 1923 to perform surveys of the reduction of industrial equipment, Nielsen became a household name when it launched its television ratings system in 1950. More than 60 years later, Nielsen sail functions as a near - monopoly in the ratings business. Yet the company could be facing a serious threat from cable and satellite companies that are working on a way to get set-top boxes to provide real-time TV viewing data to rival Nielsen's. Managers see several factors involved in the problems at Nielsen, but the biggest one is that the amount of data the company processes doubled in a year, overloading computer servers and straining the company's human systems. The increase has come both because of changes in how people are watching television, such as over the Internet and other digital devices, and in the amount of information networks want. As the television business gets cut into thinner slices, clients need even more precise data to make good decisions. Nielsen is pursuing a strategy it calls "Anytime, Anywhere Media Measurement" to stay relevant and address new competition, but it has to get its quality problems fixed quickly. Clients understand the strain, but they have little sympathy. They want to know why Nielsen managers didn't anticipate the spike in data demands and plan accordingly. If you were David Calhoun, what kind of planning processes might you implement right now to fix this problem?

One of the benefits of a strategy map is that goals and how they are linked can be communicated clearly to everyone in the organization. Does a minimum-wage maintenance worker in a hospital really need to understand any goals beyond keeping the place clean? Discuss

In 2008, Delta had more customer complaints, such as late flights and mishandled baggage, than any other major carrier. If you were an operations manager at Delta, how might you use MBO to solve these problems? Could scenario planning be useful for airline managers who want planes to run on time? Discuss.

A new business venture must develop a comprehensive business plan to borrow money to get started. Companies such as FedEx, Nike, and Rolm Corporation say they did not follow the original plan closely. Does that mean that developing the plan was a waste of time for these eventually successful companies?

How do you think planning in today's organizations compares to planning 25 years ago? Do you think planning becomes more important or less important in a world where everything is changing quickly and crises are a regular part of organizational life? Why?

Assume that Southern University decides to do two things: (1) raise its admission standards, and (2) initiate a business fair to which local townspeople will be invited. What types of plans might it use to carry out these two activities?

Why would an organization want to use an intelligence team? Discuss.

Some people say an organization could never be "prepared" for a disaster such as the massacre at Virginia Tech, which left 33 people dead, or the huge BP oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico. Discuss the potential value of crisis planning in situations like these, even if the situations are difficult to plan for.

Come up with a stretch goal for some aspect of your own life. How do you determine whether it makes sense to pursue a stretch goal?