Video Analysis Essay:
Summary of the video and key lessons learnt in relation to management concepts
The video is an interview about an organization/franchise known as Camp Bow Wow (CBW). It focuses on management; hence, the interviewees are managers from the company. The theme of the interview in the video is ‘Innovative management for a changing world’. From the video, it can be posited that the company in focus (Camp Bow Wow) takes care of dogs at a fee.
The staffs being interviewed have a wealth of experience in what they do and especially management functions and roles. Moreover, the staffs are from different levels of management within the company. For example, Sue is the owner and the executive officer of CBW while Sladlace is a general manager at the company. Sladlace had worked for two other organizations before joining CBW and she shares her vast experience and challenges as a manager.
The managers share their experience in different capacities as managers, challenges faced, and the best practices that could be applied elsewhere. For example, Sue, the chief executive officer at CBW shares how she had a difficult managing time and directing senior staffs and managers at the company. Sue explains that Camp Bow Wow Company started two and a half years prior to the date of the interview with a couple of staff. She shares one of the aptitudes a manager should have is the desire for excellence in customer service. That is, meeting the needs and desires of the clientele group as well as ensuring the company’s staff are well motivated to give the best service.
Sue also shares about the importance of ensuring efficiency while being effective at work. For example, she shares how challenging it is for staff to ensure they offer the best service to the dogs and at the same time, provide excellent customer service to clients so that they enjoy the value of the money they pay to the company.
Skills that companies look for in managers and those that might be most needed for the Camp Bow Wow leaders (franchise owner, general manager, and camp counselor).
Management skills needed to perform a certain task may vary from one organization to another. However, universal skills and could be utilized in any work setting. According to Dowlatshahi (2005), the most common skills and competencies that companies look for in managers include but not limited to admirable interpersonal skills, excellent communication capabilities, problem solving and exceptional decision making skills, team spirit, flexibility, and ability to carry out one’s duties with minimum or no supervision. However, Fitzsimmons & Fitzsimmons (2011), argues that management skills looked for by companies may vary depending on the level of management. For example, senior level managers would be expected to have excellent strategic planning and leadership skills while middle level managers would be expected to demonstrate exceptional organizational, decision making, result oriented and people management skills. On the other hand, the lower level managers would be expected to be self driven, result oriented, team players and excellent communicators.
At Camp Bow Wow Company, which has several staffs in the management position, several management skills would be needed. For example, Candice Sladlace claims that management requires people and time management skills. Thus, this manager would require several skills including leadership, interpersonal, time management, and organizational skills for her to remain functional and effective in what she does.
Sue (the owner of CBW) demonstrates that she has a number of leadership and management skills including interpersonal, organizational, time management, mentorship aptitude, patience, customer service skills, and problem solving abilities. This is because she has been able to run the company for more than two years. Furthermore, she has attracted managers like Sladlace who works well with her. The place seems to be busy throughout the day, but Sue is able to keep it running while ensuring dogs are well taken care of, clients are well attended to, staffs work within the organizational charter and clients get to pay them their dues upon satisfaction with the service(s) rendered.
On other hand, the camp counselors would require multitasking capabilities, excellent interpersonal and exceptional customer service skills. This is because they are seen to do “a little bit of everything” including talking to customers, attending to dogs, and doing clerical work. Moreover, the counselors would need good financial management and attention to details capabilities since the company owner is quoted saying “they couldn’t run a credit card properly”
Effectiveness and efficiency
Effectiveness is about ensuring that the company or organization meets its objective and the desires in addition to the needs of its clients are adequately met. For example Sue says that “it is important for clients to know that the company [‘you’] cares about their dogs.” From Sue’s point of view effectiveness is about making the customer feel he/she is valued and important to the company’s success and therefore should be well taken care of. Wall & Rees ( 2004), argues that effectiveness in an organization is mainly concerned with providing the right service, meeting targets and goals, and sticking to timelines.
On the other hand, efficiency is all about ensuring there is rational use of resources, which in economics are scarce. Efficiency is also about ensuring profits/outputs are maximized from minimal inputs. Sue argues that if one just concentrates on efficiency then customers won’t be satisfied and they may not return to the company to procure the service(s).This may imply that efficiency just focuses on doing things in the right manner. That is, as prescribed in the organizational policies and guidelines.
Thus, in CBW, activities like receiving customers and their dogs, attending to the dogs, and attending to customers may require effectiveness. However, activities like distributing items, materials and food for the dog, reducing wastage, and receiving payments for services may require efficiency. This is because activities that focus on efficiency tend to reduce use of organizational resources while ensuring returns are maximized. Conversely, activities that focus on effectiveness tend to ensure optimal performance and customer satisfaction
Managerial roles can be attributed to Sue Ryan (franchise owner) and Candace (general manager)
Making reference to Mintber’s management roles, the roles that would be most applicable to the franchise owner (Sue Ryan) include Figurehead, leadership, disseminator, spokesperson, and entrepreneur roles while those attributed to the general manager (Candice Sladlace) include monitor, disturbance handler, and resource allocator.
Sue Ryan acts as a figurehead because she is the owner and executive officer at the franchise. She acts as a leader and attends to legal duties pertaining to the activities of the organization. She also interacts with employees and is expected to motivate them to perform to the organizational expectations. Sue is enterprising that’s why she started the franchise more than two years ago. Thus, she is committed also to quality and self improvement.
On the other hand, Candice, the general manager interacts with customers and other staffs in the company. Hence, as a manager she is expected to be a good negotiator, disturbance handler and rational resource allocator. Candice is also expected to be both a spokesperson and liaison to present the decisions of the executive to the sub-ordinate staff and issues of the junior staff to the executive. In this way, she will be ensuring both efficiency and effectiveness as she executes her managerial roles.
References
Barnet, W., & McKendrick, D. (2004). Why are some organizations more competitive than others are? Evidence of a changing global market. Administration Science Quarterly , 535-571.
Dowlatshahi, S. (2005). Strategic Success Factors in Enterprise Resource-planning Design and Implementation: A Case-study Approach. International Journal of Production Research , 43 (18), 3745-3771.
Fitzsimmons, J., & Fitzsimmons, M. (2011). Service Management: Operations, strategy, information technology. New York: McGraw Hill.
Wall, K., & Rees, G. (2004). International Business (2nd Ed. ed.). Illinois: Pearson Education Ltd.
