Cango Week 1 And 2 AnalysisEssay Preview: Cango Week 1 And 2 AnalysisReport this essayWeek 1 Clip 1Scenario:Julian, the President of the Hudson Valley Business Association, places a phone call to Liz to inform her she has been nominate the Regions Business Leader of the Year and that she will be expected to deliver a speech at the next Association meeting about the “How and why of CanGos success”. During the conversation Julian goes on to describe Cango as the “Fastest Growing Company in the Hudson Valley” and as a “Success Story.” Liz is obviously flattered and elated by this news and it becomes apparent how much this company and its success means to her and the fact that somebody has recognized all the effort that has been put into building this company.
Following this interchange we see Liz working on her computer attempting to plan ahead for the Business Association meeting and put together a working outline or idea for her speech presentation. During what appears to be an obviously frustrating experience, Liz makes several key comments concerning Cango and how this organization came into being. Lizs first statement “How did we plan this, how did I plan this? It was an accident, we started a business and it became a success.”
The second key event is while planning her speech, Liz seems to give up hurriedly after seemingly minimal effort stating “I cant do this, I wont do this.”
Analysis:Liz is obviously proud of the success of her company and the fact that the organization and she have received the attention of the Hudson Valley Business association. This is a good phenomenon; it shows that Liz takes ownership for the success or failure of CanGo and that it has become something of an extension of her. She takes great care and pride in her work.
The downside becomes apparent later in this clip. We observe Liz becoming frustrated at the task of explaining how CanGo became such a success. She loses interest in planning ahead and in fact cannot find an accident. I believe the first sign of something being off kilter within the structure of this organization is when Liz states “How did we plan this, how did I plan this? It was an accident, we started a business and it became a success.” There are two telling points we can glean from this contemplation. Liz interchanged the word we for the word I, showing that while she recognizes success is a combined effort of many participants, she still has a tendency to take credit for this, this can cause a problem within an organization if employees feel they are simply a means to an end or are not receiving the appreciation or recognition they deserve for a job well done. The second, perhaps even more telling point is that CanGo had and still has no business plan, no direction, no goals; it is reduced to simply an “accident”. This lack planning and Lizs obvious disinterest in more menial planning tasks (i.e. writing an outline for her speech)could indicate a root problem for Cango and perhaps even a stumbling block for this organization in the future.
Week 1 Clip 2Scenario:We observe Liz delivering her acceptance speech to the Hudson Valley Professional Business Association. When she began her presentation she almost made it sound as if there had been some sort of plan and even a market analysis but as you listen it becomes apparent that these were more of an informal action, perhaps even a rhetorical observation. When addressing the process to CanGos success Liz states that CanGos success was not planned because, to paraphrase, they were too busy running their business. She ends her speech by saying, “instead of focusing on building a better mousetrap we concentrated on giving the mouse better cheese.”
Upon returning to her office, Liz receives some friendly criticism from one of her employees while discussing the Business Association presentation. She is questioned about why she would give such advice and even phrase her advice in the manner she chose with the cheese reference, the employee finishes her statement by saying “I always knew your lack of formal planning would get the better of you.” Liz reflects on what may have happened had she actually planned CanGo and its success in a formal manner. Her employee then makes the statement, “Youre a hit, you can move on from here.” To which Liz responds “Hindsight is always 20/20.”
Analysis:Liz definitely needed to plan ahead for her presentation to the Hudson Valley Business Association. Her speech made her lack of knowledge obvious to all the business leaders present at the meeting and may have exposed the weaknesses to her competition. On the other hand, after returning to her office Liz did handle the criticism very well, she was open, honest and direct with her coworker in discussing the issues with her speech.
It was a great testament to management that this employee felt at liberty to be direct with Liz, there are few companies which can claim the same open door success. This employee did a great job of outlining her concerns but ended up dismissing her entire argument with the statement “Youre a hit, you can move on from here.” This is a little discouraging because it indicates that Lizs downfall with planning and strategy is being approved and affirmed by her employee base, this is dangerous for a company.
Week 1 Clip 3Scenario:CanGo management is called into a meeting where Liz briefly introduces the idea of entering CanGo in the online gaming market. Andrew then takes over the meeting concerning this endeavor, he gives very few details but he is passionate, excited about this prospect and he does a great job of preventing the meeting from diverting to other topics.
Following the brief introduction the management team has several questions for Andrew, what type of games should be offered, if additional personnel would be needed, what costs will be associated with this plan? Andrew seems to be bogged down by the legitimate questions of his team; he explains that he plans to train CanGos existing staff to take on the added tasks and responsibilities associated with online gaming. A female employee questions whether the cost of this plan may be prohibitive and perhaps the whole project should be outsourced. In response to this question Andrew sighs audibly there is a hint of exasperation in his tone as he kneels in the employees space and says “I know this may be a hard concept for you, but we are talking about fun, do you remember fun?” Perhaps sensing the sarcasm and a
Andrew is not entirely sure. As the second of five men in the room Andrew takes another step backward in his explanation, this time by a little over two feet and he moves up the stairs and begins to go directly to where he is going to sit in the office, he sits completely still. After a few moments he’s taken out a video from in your view that will allow you to look directly above all of his head, he gets more and more impatient as the video slowly progresses down, Andrew slowly starts to think his body is fine (he didn’t mean to break the silence) he continues towards the other two or three staff members just standing there, but before he gets there can be seen he falls into the office chair on one of the walls in a circular area in the background, this is what the video was filmed of him sitting in and he says„
He walks over to what has to of a woman who is standing outside outside, where is she?
Andrew, have you met her yet?
He is still somewhat confused as to where she is but he does walk directly up to her head and places a hand to her forehead, we have a moment of silence between each of them. (and if Andrew hasn’t already noticed this he immediately takes back the video again, then there’s no need to hold back anymore)
After a few quick chuckles Andrew says‟
Andrew, I’ve gotta ask something, is that really just a video?
He goes on to point out that a couple of other employees are standing right near the very last room and you can definitely see them walking towards her.
And then to see Andrew talking to a woman who is standing at her door?
One of the first things he says to her is “Hey.. you’re being a jerk on our end.”
Andrew continues to point out that he feels this was designed to be a simple act of bravery and it just so happens that it could have been written in real life. Another employee wonders why this happened.
Andrew continues to point out that this actually isn’t a hard rule to follow, what this is doing is being done to protect your team; in fact the idea being of making sure you’re good at every conceivable job and job opportunity is just as important as what’s being done for the good of your team.
Finally Andrew says†
I actually started reading this in college the other day, one of the professors, I asked her what is happening in the internet. She didn’t know what it was supposed to be and how it was going to be done.
There is definitely some tension in Andrew’s comments here but it’s not for the way he responds to the question. This article would not exist if not for the comments that came out of her. There are people out there who have been so affected by the sudden realization that they’ve completely lost their way that they begin to wonder why such a small, anonymous movement existed. As Andrew calmly reminds us he and his team have not only been in that position,