Background

S esame Workshop is a nonprofit educational organization making a meaningful difference in the lives of children worldwide by addressing their critical developmental needs. The Workshop is committed to the principle that all children deserve a chance to learn and grow; to be prepared for school; to better understand the world and each other; to think, dream and discover; to reach their highest potential.

Sesame workshop & its development

Sesame Workshop is an American educational children's television series for preschoolers and is a pioneer of the modern educational television standard, combining both education and entertainment. Sesame Workshop is well known for its Muppet characters created by Jim Henson. Sesame workshop uses combinations of puppets, animation, and live actors to stimulate young children's minds to improve their letter and word recognition, basic mathematics, geometric forms, classification, simple problem solving, and socialization via segments of children or people in everyday life.

Sesame Workshop’s shows were highly educative for children since it first introduced in America; still it was very popular in more than 150 countries. 20 different languages were used to broadcast in different country with great success where they used local actors, writers, musicians, animation, and sets. Also English version or English dubbed version were telecasting over various country. Sesame Workshop was the producer of Sesame Street, the highly acclaimed children’s educational show. By 2001, the show was broadcast in almost 150 countries, making Sesame Workshop the largest single teacher of young children in the world. International revenue represented about 20% of total revenue.

The Master mind behind Sesame Workshop

The show's format called for the humans to be intermixed with the segments of animation, live-action shorts and Muppets. These segments were created to be like commercial quick, catchy and memorable and made the learning experience much more like fun. The format became a model for what is known today as education and entertainment based programming. Joan Ganz Cooney who was a successful educational television producer, thought to use the television as an educational purpose for preschool children. For this reason Carnegie Corporation, an American foundation studied on this issue about feasibility of this show in 1966. Based on the study’s findings, Cooney urged that an experimental television series devoted to preschool children be established. For this reason the seventh month broadcasting period has been decided and an agreement was signed between the Carnegie Foundation and Ford Foundation also with the U.S. Office of Education for $8 million which was raised from government and private source.
The history behind Sesame Workshop

Sesame Street is produced in the United States by the non-profit organization Sesame Workshop, formerly known as the Children's Television Workshop (CTW), founded by Joan Ganz Cooney and Ralph Rogers. After five tests show, the Sesame Street launched on air in Public Broadcasting Service. This broadcasting service was commercially supported by Government of America and private funding. Social, moral, and affective development; language and reading; mathematical and numerical skills; and reasoning, problem-solving, and perception these are the main objective of this show.

The Children’s Television Workshop (CTW) was founded in 1968 to conduct the study and they were involved to research which was conducted to determine how to best develop an operational model. CTW aired the program for test groups. Results showed that test watchers were entranced when the ad-like segments aired, especially those with the jovial puppets. These test shows were developed and evaluated in August 1969. Based on the results of the tests, the first show, called Sesame Street, aired in November 1969 on stations of the Public Broadcasting Service, a commercial-free television network supported by government and private funding. The show was an immediate success and in the first season, the estimated audience was about seven million of the 12 million target audience. After this first season it was run with great popularity and reached 31st season in United States. Then CTW changed their name to Sesame Workshop in 2000.

Mission of Sesame Workshop

Sesame Workshop’s main mission is to create innovative, engaging, and content that maximizes the educational power of media to help all children to reach their highest potential. It is trying to educate and entertain the children of the world by television and other mass media. According to Sesame Workshop-

“Our mission is to create innovative, engaging content that maximizes the educational power of media to help all children reach their highest potential.”

Its core values are:

Innovation: Sesame Workshop looks for new ways to make the world of media more valuable for the children with a keen appreciation of children’s imagination and inquisitive spirit.

Optimism: It champions the educational potential of media in the lives of children.

Knowledge: It does the research to expand their understanding of what appeals to children and what helps them to learn, develop, and grow.

Diversity: It creates places where all children can see themselves and appreciate others.
Three Financial Goals of Sesame Workshop

Sesame Street is one of the most highly regarded educational shows for children in the world. No other television series has matched its level of international recognition and success. Sesame workshop has three goals and they are-

• To assemble public and private funding partnerships to support educational initiatives.

• To support educational activities with self generated revenues.

• To establishing underlying financial stability by maintaining an investment portfolio to cover operating deficiencies when necessary and to ensure the long term financial viability of Sesame Street.

Sesame street- A pack of 30-40 segments

Sesame Street is produced in the United States by the non-profit organization Sesame Workshop, formerly known as the Children's Television Workshop. At first time the Sesame Street broadcasted in only in United States. Studio, animation, lives action from outside the studio, and puppet scenes these are the main four categories by which the Sesame Street based on the broadcasting. Big Bird, Elmo, and Oscar the Grouch were very popular and these were main categories of puppet were entrained children in 130 hour based episodes where these episodes were divided into 30 – 40 segments. Each show closed with a 15-minute segment called Elmo’s World. Muppet character introduced that was made by Jim Henson who was the great puppet maker on that time and the puppets whose were made by him were in high demand on that time. Joining of Jim Henson brought great fortune for Sesame Workshop because demand of his puppet brought very popularity of Sesame Street. Moreover his puppets made us viable in the marketplace.

Awards Received by Sesame Workshop

After getting positive influence, Sesame Street is one of the most highly regarded educational shows for children in the world. No other television series has matched its level of international recognition and success. Sesame Street make significantly greater gains than non-viewers in most tested areas of the series’ curriculum. Studies show that the show made a significant and lasting contribution to preschoolers’ cognitive and social development. It also shows that children from both middle-and-low-income backgrounds gains more from its programs. Following its debut, Sesame Street won numerous awards in the United States and other countries. The original series has been televised in 120 countries, and more than 30 international versions have been produced, not including dubbed versions. The series has received 76 Emmy Awards, more than any other television series. Sesame Street won numerous awards in the United States and also other countries.

Sesame Street on way of Globalization

Sesame Street is known for its multicultural element and is inclusive in its casting, incorporating roles for disabled people, young people, and senior citizens. After getting too much respond or gaining popularity the show broadcasted worldwide. It premiered on November 10, 1969, on the National Educational Television network, and the following year it was moved to NET's replacement, the Public Broadcasting Service. Sesame Street was broadcasted in English in Canada, New Zealand, Australia and other English spoken countries. But slightly modified in Hebrew was broadcasted in Israel. In Japan it was firstly broadcasted in English like Caribbean, due to their second language but dubbed version was broadcasted after first season of broadcasting. The Sesame Street was broadcasted in different country in different languages and focused on particular population for example in Canada mainly focused on bilingualism and in New Zealand focused on local Maori population. In German the Sesame Street was dubbed in German languages. Few segments were enlisted into national educational curriculum such as in German.

Licensing Policies of Sesame Workshop

Though they are saying that this is not-for-profit organization but real incremental costs for re-broadcasting were for duplicating tapes and residuals for actors and musicians so it was really profitable business. Increasing demand outside America made Sesame Street’s licensing abroad. For this reason they develop some policies. In late 1969, Children’s Television Workshop created an international division charged with the responsibility of overseeing Sesame Street’s licensing abroad. These are –

▪ All non USA versions of sesame street must be commercial-free ▪ Changes to the series must meet the highest production standards. ▪ All non-U.S. versions of Sesame Street must reflect the values and traditions of the host country’s culture ▪ Any proposed changes to the series must be approved, initiated, and supervised by a local committee of educators working with Children’s Television Workshop.

Success in Mexican Market

Out side in United States the Sesame Workshop broadcasted in Mexico where 130 half hour episodes are dubbed in Spanish. Here half were produced in US and half were produced in Mexico for Mexican market. The name became Plaza Sesame’s and designed into Mexican in 1973. To avoid duplicating the look of the American series, a distinctive Latin American-looking set was designed around a neighborhood square. That achieved the highest audience when broadcasting in Mexico. New music was recorded, and writers and producers were hired from Mexico and other Latin American countries. Two new puppet characters were created exclusively for the series. To avoid duplicating the look of the American series, a distinctive Latin American-looking set was designed around a neighborhood square. Xerox Corporation was helped to introduce in the Latin American also the helped financially.
Sesame Street on Radio- for the first time

United States Agency for International Development (USAID) and the South African Department was introduced Talakani Sesame presented by Sesame Workshop for rural and urban children in multilingual for their diverse language. It also introduced in the radio which was the first time of the Sesame Street history. This program was planned for the rural and urban children. USAID also introduced Alam Simsim for Egyptian television as a daily series. This program was sponsored by the top food company of Middle East Americana.

The Co-Production Model

Local Culture

As a result of positive influence of Sesame Street was one of the most highly regarded educational shows for children in the world. The Sesame Street worked on various countries with their local producer, local adviser and local broadcaster for implementation of local goal. For this reason they brought 20-30 people in New York for training to write the best quality story. Sesame Workshop also constructed puppets for local productions that reflected local cultures and customs such as bear in German, porcupine in Israel, parrot in Mexico, Zulu-speaking meerkat called Moshe in South Africa. Each segment was focused on locality, like language, street scenes were totally local production and half of the live action was locally produce and other half was produced in the Sesame Workshop. Muppet segments were totally created in the Sesame Workshop such as Bert & Ernie and Cookie Monster, were drawn from Sesame Workshop material and dubbed.

Variation- A result of broadcast in contractual agreement

Same language using different countries had the right to broadcast same Sesame Street like Portugal had the right to broadcast in Angola and Mozambique. Similarly Netherlands did the same in places like Aruba and Caribbean where Dutch was spoken. Plaza Sesame’s of Mexico had broadcasted in different Latin American country. Contractual arrangements with broadcasters had many variations. With all international agreements, when the broadcast term expired, all rights reverted to Sesame Workshop. The co-producer could also use material from Sesame Workshop’s library of culturally neutral international segments. Sesame Street was not easily dubbed because actors were talking from book where as Open Sesame was easily dubbed for this reason it is widely used in local languages. Open Sesame was another presentation of Sesame Workshop which was telecasted all over the world.
Animations and puppet scenes could be dubbed. But the dubbing procedure was finalized by the Sesame Workshop even they approved voices chosen. Berlitz International was introduced Sesame English in China and Taiwan. Print, audio, video, and CD-ROM products of Sesame Workshop were available in these countries.

Sesame Street in China and Russia- An Entry to Educational Floor

Sesame Street had made introduction in the communist world like china. There Sesame workshop had different plan. Sesame Workshop was arranged various three-day seminars and other program for discussing education and children program in china with the help of four universities. The seminars were sponsored by universities and their departments of education. All broadcasters tried to connect with Sesame Workshop but only Shanghai Television, which broadcast to about 100 million people, had the right to broadcast Sesame Street. The contract, negotiated over a year, included a provision for syndication throughout China, which at the time was a difficult process. Sesame Workshop got $5 million for co production and General Electric being sponsored.

Sesame workshop looked forward on Russia. Russia is a country that stretches over a vast expanse of Europe and Asia, where the Sesame Workshop faced their main huddles. Ulitsa Sezam, Sesame Workshop’s Russian co-production was broadcasted in 1996 after five year making by the help of USAID program for democratization, business principles, and education and sponsorship by Nestlé. The series includes regionally diverse original material produced and filmed in Russia, as well as segments from the Sesame Street International Library. They face difficulties for broadcasting such as transportation, communications, office accommodations, and electricity.

Sesame Workshop in 2001- All rounder

Sesame Street is known for its multicultural element because they are involved in multiple activities. In 1968 Sesame Workshop addresses children's developmental needs in 120 countries worldwide. With efforts extending far beyond Sesame Street, the Workshop uses four distribution channels. In 1998 a joint venture of cable channel Nickelodeon, the Sesame Workshop launched first commercial-free 24-hour. Also they were involved in various products like television, film, and video included television programming, feature films, home video, and various products on cassette and CD. In 1999 Dragon Tales that was the creation of Sesame Workshop had a huge success in the United States and markets such as Australia, U.K., and Hong Kong even that dubbed into Brazil and Mexico. Sesame Workshop involved in various curriculum like they published 150 Sesame Street-based books for more than 12 million children and adult. Also educational products which are related with the Sesame Street are introduced in the market.

Sesame Workshop in Electronic Media

Sesame Workshop is actively expanding it Internet presence through Sesanestreet.com and developing new Web-based content for internet excess much of it tied to television shows. Sesame Workshop’s Interactive Technology Group developed CD-ROMs, video games, and DVD content. Sesame Street CD-ROMs are among the best-selling educational titles.
Sesame Workshop’s promotion

Sesame Street has successfully expanded in more than 150 countries. International product licensing tended to follow the introduction of the television show. As a country became more familiar with Sesame Street, it then becomes possible to introduce products based on Sesame Street. They also meet the quality of the product as well as standard. Sesame workshop’s characters themselves could not be used in the advertisements to sell products. Sesame Workshop’s licensing agreements stipulated that products could not be advertised on the television if the audience was more than 10% preschoolers.

Licensing with Sesame Workshop

There were more than 400 licenses. Sesame Workshop licensed its brands throughout the world were selling their products. Sesame Workshop’s licensing agreements stipulated that products could not be advertised on the television if the audience was more than 10% preschoolers. The revenue generated from it used for the support of the educational programs. There were thousands of companies, which had the partnership with Sesame Workshop like Mattel, Sony, Kmart, Keebler, and Procter & Gamble. Among them Mattel had the largest production of Sesame Workshop’s toy. In 1996 and 1997 Sesame Workshop leading toys among them Tickle Me Elmo and Sing & Snore Ernie were mostly sold. In 2000 Sesame Street brand cookies were launched and it was very fond of by various people.

Other several programs

There are many Sesame Street theme parks in various countries such as Pennsylvania, Mexico, Brazil and Japan. They had tragic partnership with other companies for educational resources. Outreach products were created through national and community partnerships and were designed to reach children in need and low income and minority families. Also they were doing many social awareness programs for children like Sesame Street Fire Safety Program, Sesame Street A is for Asthma Awareness Project and Sesame Street Beginnings: Language to Literacy.

Sesame Workshop’s Operation in 2000

In 1998, after operating surplus, Sesame Workshop returned to deficit positions in 1999 and 2000. However, the 2000 deficits were less than in 1999, which was the largest in the firm’s history, that resulted in various new product initiative and fundraising efforts. The majority of revenue, which is generated by the sesame, is related with the Sesame street show and the product, which is related with this program. In 2000 their revenue increased by 19% and this was mainly for the introduction of the Dragon Tales. In 1999 their employee was 400 and then it came about 300 employees and because of the decreasing employee their administrative and general cost decreased and also their licensing on publishing and product the revenue increased 1% and 2% respectively.

The International Organization For Television

Their business also famous internationally though this is not for profit organization but their purpose is to educate the children, help the children. For the English language show, co-production and product licensing they separated the international sales force. Different sales force creating a problem and that’s why to get rid of this problem the international television sales group was created. It is required because different sales force targeting the same broadcasters. After that Sesame Workshop classified the market and customer as:

• Existing customers.

• Broadcaster that shown an interest in television Sesame Street. For these potential customers, in the discussion the major element was financial support for the issues. 5-8 million dollar was necessary for a co-production of 130 hrs of programming which can e used for 2-3 yrs and the example of Poland is include in this category.

• Like Brazil and France the countries which was involved in co-production and stopped producing.

• Countries that Sesame Workshop would like to enter but where few, if any, established relationships existed.

Emerging Strategies of Sesame Workshop

Entrance into a new marketplace is not so easy for an organization. For this, Sesame Workshop needs to have research on the current market position and based upon their result they need to take decision whether they will target the market or not. Market decisions through co-production typically are initiated by a broadcaster. Before taking decision Sesame have to consider various issues like the level of television penetration, relationship at the government level, financial viability at least on a breakeven position, available people for developing the show, and last but not the least establishment of license and publisher partners. The entire thing is very necessary to consider for expanding their business in a new market area because if they do not consider these things before expansion they cannot capture the new market and do business successfully.

The decision about the entrance into a new market region through co-production, naturally initiated by a local broadcaster who has seen the English version of Sesame Workshop and wants the show for its country. If the decision is made to move forward and the contract is signed with a broadcaster. This co-production can take from a year to four or more years to produce. Throughout this time Sesame works with the product partners for developing their product strategy. This product strategy will follow the launch of the television show when the brand image has been established. 1996 Reorganization- on the way of Re-structure

Some countries co-produce their own unique versions of Sesame Street, in which the characters and segments represent their country's cultures. Other countries simply air a dubbed version of Sesame Street, or a dubbed version of Open Sesame. Because of the restructuring of international operation in 1996, a new structure was started by a group president for the products and international television. A group vice president for international and two regional vice president positions were created one for Latin America and Asia and one for Europe, Africa and the Middle East respectively. They also created a position of a vice president for co-production also. For all Sesame Workshop, each regional vice president is responsible for profit and return on investment. Another thing that there are regional directors who is responsible for television and licensing. The reorganization resulted in modification of markets and countries. For example: Non USA markets. For the Non US market they breakdown the broadcasting plan as follows-

• Large potential markets with strong recognition- U.K, Germany, and Japan. • High potential markets generating more revenue - Mexico, china • Maintenance markets with limited growth - Australia, Canada, Netherlands. • Social impact markets – Israel, South Africa

Result through Re-structure

Sometimes the organization needs to reform their style to conduct their business. By doing this they can understand their position and they can take a vital decision for the bright future of the company. When Sesame reformed the organization internationally they took a decision and that was they reduce the managerial time which they spent on small market and they decided to give more focus on the larger markets with high potential. They observed that selling the Sesame Street in English version or doing a co-production they need the same amount of effort regardless of market size. Many smaller markets who were the oldest customer of Sesame Workshop’s raised the issue whether relationship with smaller customers should be scale back. Within this organization there answer was no but there was an agreement that markets had to be recognized. At the same time, some market entry decision did not fit into this model. For example: when Russia get success after launch the product USAID asked Sesame Workshop to consider Egypt which was not consider as a high potential market.

Changes in 1999

There are some changes occurred in 1999. One of them is the group presidents for products and international was resigned but the position was not filled up in mid 2001. They also created a new project management division to manage projects in South Africa, Egypt and Israel. This division was consisted of four directors and focused on educational outreach, fundraising and government contact issues and had limited product licensing opportunities. Martha Van Gelder was the group head and consisted of 16 people who were concentrating on developing markets with product license and television business. On the other hand they feel proud to say that how efficiently they can reach to the most kids.
Streamline decision making

In 2001 Sesame Workshop had no offices outside the USA and agents had to manage their daily activities in international markets. So they introduced a new idea of not having different agents in one country and this helped them to introduce streamline decision making process and was implemented in Europe and Latin America. They also consider using alliances to support marketing and advertising along with maintaining brand and program content.

Identifying new markets

Sesame Workshop wants to be a profitable enterprise because they are now in a deficit position. Though it is a not for profit, it has to compete with profit seeking companies. For this reason they need good people, great shows and good business systems and planning. As they have production costs as well as marketing expenses they need to focus on this figure to make profit like as smart and professional as Warner Bros or Disney who are always looking for a profitability targets in order to make their decisions.
Maintenance of Social Responsibility
Maintaining a social responsibility is a critical factor for them. The pure mission’s countries like South Africa, the company has decided them as strategically important. In these countries there is not a self-sustaining model around licensing. So they can come with different model that may have government and corporate sponsorship. They have to offer lower price in poorer country so that they can provide their services to them also. On the other hand they also celebrate diversity because they can also produce program both for children and women who needs education.

India – considered a potential interesting market

The Sesame Workshop has 5-6 million viewers when some English was being shown on cable. But from licensing perspective, India was not very interesting for them because there are limited distribution channels. Through the television it is very easy to reach people and even to get some reasonable licensing fees. But in India, there is various cultures and languages exist. So they have a huge language and cultural differences for which it is difficult for the Sesame Workshop to show one play in the whole country. That is why the organization has very limited chance of being successful in India. But it is such country where many potential people are living, where if they could co-produce their shows then they could profit more. After the discussion with the Indian organization it came down to the problem that to make shows for the whole country they need a large amount of people to co-produce the show according to the culture and language. They cannot play only one show for such different cultural people living in one country. But the problem is that they have only certain amount people who can do co-production development. That is they focused more on South Africa, though India was being considered as one of the potential countries.
Other Target Markets

In Europe, France and Italy are the two countries which are also considered great potential markets by the Sesame Workshop. In the 1970s, the Sesame had broadcasted versions of the series on the air back in those two countries but it did not work very well and even did not leave them with a strong relationship. That is why these two countries were considered as difficult markets for American programming. But those countries are really important for them as they are both great potential markets. Recently, Sesame has signed a deal in Italy to broadcast Sesame English and Elmo’s World on Rai and RaiSat.

In Latin America, there is another market exist that is considered to have great potential by the Sesame Workshop. And it is Brazil. This organization always seeks for finding the growth potential countries to increase its sales as well as profits. But their Head of Global Distribution focuses more on understanding the markets situation rather than on actual selling, because Sesame is a small firm with limited resources and unlimited dreams. With this limited resources they cannot just take the same people and throw them against multiple projects which also requires an intense amount of work. Additionally, finding out ways to enter into a new market is very time-consuming process as every market is different. So though Brazil was considered to be potential for them they could not focus on that market.

International Strategies

The Sesame Workshop takes their decisions for developing the children’s programming differently, which is their unique strategy for attracting people. There are some huge markets for co-production opportunities like Brazil and India. But it is difficult for them to allocate their limited resources in different markets. They are still trying to figure out what they actually want financially and their business to look like.
It is not possible to do co-productions in every market. But they have the freedom to enter into new market and to make breakeven as they are non-profitable organization. They want to focus on larger markets rather than focusing on smaller markets. They want to do only unique projects for smaller markets, like they are recently doing a conflict resolution series for Cyprus by using live action with an organization known as Search for Common Ground. But there they could not make profit though it is consistent with their mission.

A Road Map of Investment Criteria

For establishing specific investment criteria, as the basis of guiding their new international investments, the organization had a bad time. According to one executive, they could not figure out which one is important and how to weight the criteria, though they tried to establish criteria like- mission, cash flow, financial return and management time involved for making a consistent list. They tried to make their decisions consistently where they needed a consistent breakeven for operating the regular activities. After some years they understood that at first they need to focus on the overall property and figure out how they can utilize them.
They have to make investment decision according to their available financial resources. The reason behind the success of one show can be considered as for the high-quality production or for the characters or for the simple story lines, which is very hard to test. When they have to find new revenue sources they also have to consider all the expenses associated with that source, because every wrong decision can cost them a lot as they are suffering from deficit for long time age.

Broadcasting Competition

In 1970s and 1980s when Sesame Workshop was internationalized for the first time, television was dominated by the Public broadcasters who were even ready to pay the organization all production and other costs. Their shows have been broadcasted worldwide; in addition to the U.S. version, many countries have locally-produced versions adapted to local needs, some with their own characters, and in a variety of different languages. In Canada, beginning in 1970, 15-minute shows called Canada's Sesame Street were broadcast, and by 1972 an edited version of the one-hour American program was airing but with specially filmed Canadian segments, which featured the French language.

In the 1990s especially with the growth of commercial broadcasting via satellite and cable the television industries worldwide became much more competitive. With new competition audiences dropped for the individual broadcasters and especially for the monopoly public broadcasters. As well the children’s programming area was not a primary area for most commercial broadcasters. In some markets cable reached 80% of the households on the other hand only a small percentage of households had cable. To deal with this situation Sesame Workshop begun to structure where one company terrestrial rights and another company cable were given, both rights were exclusive and separate.

New Competitive Challenges

Previously Sesame was the one organization making this kind of educational shows for the children. But nowadays there are many channels have come up with same kind of programs. Where before they never thought that their shows would not be well received by the audience, but after the increased competition now they have to face some challenges to keep on their loyal customers. They are facing two different kinds of competition- now they can’t imagine that their shows will be the broadcasters’ first choice. To be successful, a show must need to be good by being on the cutting edge. They must offer a wonderful product in every category. There competition has increased from preschool shows across the foreign countries, which were financed and designed for global development from the beginning. Now they have to think according to the changing environment of competitive world to sustain. Now there are more channels and options fro programming but the broadcasters around the world are no more ready to pay the license fees. Those broadcasters are willing to pay zero but still want Sesame Workshop to deliver and promote a fully produced show, and guarantee a percentage of ancillary revenue. If Sesame Street is too expensive, broadcasters will go for something else.
Opportunities along with some challenges

Sesame Workshop’s intention of showing their program is to educate the children. From many countries, they have realized that one of its popular shows Sesame Street that has been shown in English is primarily watched as the vehicle for learning English. But that was not their main intention. Some countries, like Japan, have viewed Sesame Street a main way to learn English. Sesame Workshop can utilize this phenomenon as a way to its high growth as in non English speaking countries there is a demand for it. And this is a very interesting way to learn English from the childhood.

Another opportunity is- by providing license in different countries, Sesame Workshop can sell its Sesame Street characters on products like clothing, purses, T-shirts, keys chains, earrings etc. and these products will soon become very popular among the children and girls. These Sesame Street products give children and grown-ups alike more ways to laugh and learn with their Sesame Street friends. It is already doing this to some extent. It can increase the selling of these goods more extensively worldwide. When people purchase Sesame Workshop products, they are also supporting the education of children around the world. But the challenge is people are not consistent with brands. So the Sesame must work hard to make sure the brand does not erode to the point.

In some markets they are severely limited by being with a public broadcaster in terms of television commercials. They can sell toy but cannot promote them on television. So their goal is to find such ways to sustain with their licensing activities, so that it keeps them apart from other licensees or licensors. Their television competitors often pay for their television programming to feed the licensing program. So the Sesame Workshop had to enter into the international market with local shows by taking into account the local needs and cultural differences among countries.

Final Words…………..

Sesame Workshop, formerly known as the Children's Television Workshop or CTW, is a non-profit organization behind the production of several educational children's programs that have run on public broadcasting around the world including PBS in the United States, which was founded in 1968. This organization has grown so fast that its over-extending growth may not allow them to respond to everybody. They are now suffering from deficit for many years ago, because it is a small firm with limited resources and unlimited dreams. Now its over-extension of their business has become one of their challenges, though some of their shows, like Sesame Street is a very powerful series and a lot of people want to work with Sesame Workshop. So they want to find some effective way so that they can sustain with their unique mission and financial growth.

Theme

S esame Workshop is a not-for profit organization committed to the principle that all children deserve a chance to learn and grow and produces highly acclaimed children’s educational show. Being the producer of children educational show, success of Sesame Workshop depends on how unique and innovative it is in producing the program and how well it maintain its sustainable growth being a small firm. But Sesame workshop has extended so much that it is not able to sustain it as it has lack of resources to respond to everybody. Also it is running with a financial deficit because its commercial-free philosophy and lack of new products is not allowing them to compete with the for-profit organization and generating money to fulfill its mission of reinvesting revenue in educational activities.

Main Issue

B eing a small not-for-profit organization with unlimited dreams what should Sesame Workshop do in facing the challenges of allocating scarce resources among multiple international markets, evaluating high or low potential markets, handling markets with limited financial potential, especially for licensing, and at the same time making money and fulfilling the mission of educating children?

SWOT

S
WOT analysis a strategic planning tool used to evaluate the Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats involved in a project or in a business venture. It involves specifying the objective of the business venture or project and identifying the internal and external factors that are favorable and unfavorable to achieving that objective. Identification of SWOT is essential because subsequent steps in the process of planning for achievement of the selected objective may be derived from the SWOT. The aim of any SWOT analysis is to identify the key internal and external factors that are important to achieving the objective. SWOT analysis groups key pieces of information into two main categories:

Internal factors – The strengths and weaknesses internal to the organization.

External factors – The opportunities and threats presented by the external environment.

Strengths: A firm's strengths are its resources and capabilities that can be used as a basis for developing a competitive advantage.

Weaknesses: Failures, defeats, loses, and inability to match up with the dynamic situation of growth the change.

Opportunities: Possibilities of what can be done and where effectiveness is possible.

Threats: Changes in the external environmental which is uncontrollable also may present threats to the firm. Strengths

Sesame Workshop has a commercial-free 24-hour cable television channel and online service dedicated to educating and entertaining children without any commercial break.

Sesame Workshop is involved in multiple activities. Television, film, and video included television programming, feature films, home video, and various products on cassette and CD. It has a television channel and online service dedicated to educating and entertaining children called Noggin. This is a joint venture with Nickleodeon. This is launched in 1998 as the first commercial-free 24-hour cable television channel and online service. Here Sesame Workshop broadcasts its programs without any commercial breaks.

Justification: Due to own its own channel, Sesame Workshop can globally own the shows and own the airtime. It means it can own the rights and can keep it on the air and can slowly develop an audience. For these strategic reasons it launched Noggin on the Nickleodeon channel. This helps Sesame Workshop a lot to fulfill its goal of spreading its educational programs among its target audience. As a result it can become more flexible and creative partner to the broadcasters. It can become more innovative in developing funding sources for co-production and can get better quality shows. So its commercial-free 24-hour cable television channel and online service dedicated to educating and entertaining children has become strength for them.

Sesame Workshop has Sesame Streettheme parks in different locations which is an interactive play experience with rides and attractions that bring this extraordinary children’s television show to life.

Sesame Workshop has Sesame Street theme parks in four different locations. Sesame Street Theme park is an interactive play experience for families with children ages 2-7 and has been named one of the top four theme parks in the Northeast by Family Fun Magazine. The park, officially named Sesame Place, first opened in 1981 a half hour’s drive northeast of Philadelphia. It includes both wet and dry attractions, with the water park integrated throughout the park for superb crowd management, and the bright colors and fun characters are appealing to kids of all ages.

Justification: There are many things to do at Street theme parks. It offers stimulating play activities featuring exciting water attractions. The Sesame Street television show is great entertainment, and no Sesame Street theme park would be complete without great shows for families to enjoy. Several options are available each day which includes Big Bird’s Beach Party and the interactive Elmo’s world live shows. The Rock around the Block parade through the center of the park includes the most characters of any entertainment venue, and kids can also meet their favorite characters at various times and locations each day. Popular characters, such as Big Bird, Elmo can be found in different shows as well as other appearances and special events such as character breakfasts and lunch dining options.

Sesame Workshop categorized markets and customers in four different segments which lead to better serving of customer’s needs and wants, & opportunities for growth.

Sesame Workshop has categorized its markets and customers into four different segments. Those are current customers, potential customers that is broadcasters who has shown real interest in televising Sesame Street, countries that had been in co-production and had stopped producing and countries that Sesame Workshop like to enter but few establishment relationship exists. It means Sesame Workshop is segmenting the whole markets into these categories then it targets its market segment and provides its products to them.

Justification: A segment-orientated approach generally offers a range of advantages for both Sesame Workshop and its customers. This categorization helps to separate one customers needs and wants from others. It is possible to satisfy a variety of customer needs with a limited product range by using different forms, packages, incentives and promotional activities. It is often difficult to increase prices for the whole market. It is possible to develop premium segments in which customers accept a higher price level. As a result it can increase the profits. It also allows Sesame Workshop to create its own ‘niche products’ and thus attract additional customer groups which will ensure high growth, sustainable customer relationships, and higher market shares.

Sesame Workshop sells Sesame Street characters on products like clothing, purses, T-shirts, keys chains, earrings etc. & there is a high demand of these products among the children and girls.

The Sesame Street characters like Abby, Bert, Big Bird, Elmo etc. are very popular among the girls and the children. Sesame Street is broadcast to educate the children and families. Along with this the popularity of the Sesame Street characters increased a lot among the children and girls. Seeing this popularity Sesame Workshop starts selling Sesame Street characters on products like clothing, purses, T-shirts, keys chains, earrings etc. and these products soon become very popular among the children and girls. These Sesame Street products give children and grown-ups alike more ways to laugh and learn with their Sesame Street friends.

Justification: Sesame Workshop has complete control over the rights of all Sesame Street characters. Being the most favorite children’s television series, Sesame Workshop offers, Sesame Street merchandise, Sesame Street toys and Sesame Street bedding feature all its favorite characters, including Elmo and Big Bird, and it is a fantastic for any Sesame Street fan. Sesame Workshop has a huge sell of these products. As a result it increases the revenue of Sesame Workshop and it reinvests its revenues from these in educational activities. That means every time people buy one of its products, they are not just doing something good for their own child, they are also helping children around the world to reach their highest potential.

Sesame Workshop provides customized products to the children of different age which helps it to best meet the demand of and wants of different customers.

Sesame Workshop is a not-for-profit organization whose main mission is to educate children and their families by showing educational programs worldwide. The needs and demands of different children around the world are different. Their language and cultures are different. Sesame Workshop has to produce programs which can address all these issues. And they are doing so. Also it is producing different programs for different age of children. One of its animated series called Sagwa is targeted to children age 5 to 8 years old. Tiny planets, a multimedia learning system targeted to the children 3 to 5 years old launched online and on television.

Justification: Customization offers a range of advantages for both Sesame Workshop and its customers. It also helps to separate one customers needs and wants from others. It is possible to satisfy a variety of customer needs with a limited product range by using different forms, packages, incentives and promotional activities. It is often difficult to increase prices for the whole market. It is possible to develop premium segments in which customers accept a higher price level. As a result it can increase the profits. It also allows Sesame Workshop to create its own ‘niche products’ and thus attract additional customer groups which will ensure high growth, sustainable customer relationships, and higher market shares

Sesame Workshop is recognized for their excellent brand image. They have successfully created a brand image worldwide. Their brand image can be strength for them.

Sesame Workshop, formerly known as the Children's Television Workshop or CTW, is a non-profit organization behind the production of several educational children's programs that have run on public broadcasting around the world including PBS in the United States. It was founded in 1968. The Workshop is committed to the principle that all children deserve a chance to learn and grow, to be prepared for school. Eventually they started expanding to man other countries. They have already expanded in Canada, Italy, Korea, Arab Word, Australia, Indonesia and many other countries in the world, as it’s product demanded very high and it has been possible because of their brand image in the market.

Justification: From 1968, Sesame has created a brand image in the market. Not only that, they have successfully retain their image in the market. That’s why Sesame was able to expand so many countries in the world and they are still expanding. In expanding other countries their brand image have played a very significant role. So their brand image is one of the strengths for them. Sesame Workshop is committed to the principle that all children deserve a chance to learn and grow; to be prepared for school; to better understand the world and each other; to think, dream and discover; to reach their highest potential. Sesame workshop is the producer of Sesame Street which is the highly acclaimed children’s educational show.
Sesame has segmented the market locally for their products in outside countries while expanding.

In terms of expansion, Sesame Workshop has segmented the market regionally. In Canada and New Zealand, local segment also were produced and inserted into the show. In Canada, the segmentation focused in bilingualism and in New Zealand, the focus was on the heritage of the local Maori population. In this way they concentrated on the culture of the countries and segmented the market according to the culture of those countries. Sesame workshop also constructed puppets for local productions that reflected local culture and customs. For example in Israel, the main body puppet was a porcupine represented the Israel culture, prickly on the outside and soft on the inside. In Germany, the puppet was a bear and in Mexico, a parrot. In South Africa, puppets included a Zulu speaking meerkat called Moshe, a chosen in part because male and female meerkats share the task of looking after their young. In these ways they have highlighted the culture of the countries.

Justification: It is a huge strength for them. As they retain the culture of the countries it can influence the people of the countries psychologically, the audience can attract the audience very well for which the demand for their show will go up. As a result it will increase their popularity as well as their demand. It is strength for them to survive in the market with the competitors. By segmenting the market locally Sesame Workshop can separate its target customers and can best meet their needs and wants. This can bring a huge success for Sesame Workshop.

Sesame workshop believed that good writing is the key to their success in running their show effectively and they trained their employees very well with this regard.

Their show is based on the scripts that are being told by the puppets and acted accordingly. That’s Sesame workshop believed that a good writing is the key to success for which they collaborated extensively with the co-producers of all production issues; writers, musicians, animations, sets etc. Besides, about 25 to 30 people would be brought to New York for training on writing educational and entertaining segments for the show. Sesame workshop also constructed puppets for local productions that reflected local culture and customs. For example in Israel, the main body puppet was a porcupine represented the Israel culture, prickly on the outside and soft on the inside. In Germany, the puppet was a bear and in Mexico, a parrot. They give emphasize on the writing, which is the base of theses sorts of shows.

Justification: As it is a program for the pre-school children and the motive is to make them educated and teach them about some basic things and on their culture. Sesame workshop also constructed puppets for local productions that reflected local culture and customs. For example in Israel, the main body puppet was a porcupine represented the Israel culture, prickly on the outside and soft on the inside. The script of the show has to be very interesting and easily understood. That’s why the writing has to be very improved and Sesame workshop understands it very well and there are training programs for the employees as well. It helps to improve the quality of the programs, which increases demand of their program.
Sesame workshop maintains their work and takes great care to maintain the show of each region and they avoid duplicity in looks of the show in for different regions as well.

In 1973, the international evolution continued with the introduction of the new series of 130 half-hour episodes entirely in Spanish for the Mexican market. Half the material came from the U.S. series and the other half was produced in Mexico. To avoid duplicating the look of the American series, a distinctive Latin American set was designed around a neighborhood square. New music was recorded and writers and producers were hired from Mexico and other Latin American countries. Two new puppet characters were created exclusively for the series and the financial support came from several Latin American sources and a grant from Xerox Corporation. In this way they differentiate the look of the show and the set of the show produced for one country to others.

Justification: The organization takes great care of the quality and gives tremendous effort to differentiate its own shows in different countries. To avoid duplicating the look of the American series, a distinctive Latin American set was designed around a neighborhood square. New music was recorded and writers and producers were hired from Mexico and other Latin American countries. Two new puppet characters were created exclusively for the series and the financial support came from several Latin American sources and a grant from Xerox Corporation. They take great care to retain legitimacy of their shows, for which they can be able to concentrate on the different cultures and customs of different countries.

Since 1968, Sesame has maintained and improved the quality of the Programs and their high quality program is one of their biggest strengths for them.

After producing the show in U.S. there was a huge demand for the show in other countries as well but the countries requested to alter the linguistic content for foreign audience. In late 1969, Children’s Television workshop created an International division charged with the responsibilities of overseeing Sesame Street’s licensing. One of the main things in the licensing policies was the changes to the series must meet the highest production standards. Here they give importance to the quality of their program. Sesame workshop has maintained and improved the quality of their programs. They take great care of the quality of their show for different countries. They put emphasis on the culture of different countries on their shows. It constructed puppets for local productions that reflected local culture and customs.

Justification: The quality of their programs plays a very important role for Sesame Workshop to exist in the market successfully. Here they give importance to the quality of their program. Sesame workshop has maintained and improved the quality of their programs. They take great care of the quality of their show for different countries. They put emphasis on the culture of different countries on the shows produced for different regions. Since 1968, Sesame has maintained and improved the quality of the Programs and their high quality program is one of their biggest strengths for them. There they also maintain their own quality.

Sesame gives emphasis to the culture of the country where they expand and they produce their show according to the culture of that country, which is a very positive feature for the organization that increases their demand.

While expansion, Sesame has segmented the market locally. In Canada and New Zealand, local segment also were produced and inserted into the show. In Canada, the segmentation focused in bilingualism and in New Zealand, the focus was on the heritage of the local Maori population. In this way they concentrated on the culture of the countries and segmented the market according to the culture of those countries. Sesame workshop also constructed puppets for local productions that reflected local culture and customs. For example in Israel, the main body puppet was a porcupine represented the Israel culture, prickly on the outside and soft on the inside. In Germany, the puppet was a bear and in Mexico, a parrot. In South Africa, puppets included a Zulu speaking meerkat called Moshe, a chosen in part because male and female meerkats share the task of looking after their young. In these ways they have highlighted the culture of the countries. It is an enormous strength for them.

Justification: As they retain the culture of the countries it can influence the people of the countries psychologically, the audience can attract the audience very well for which the demand for their show will go up. They emphasize on the cultures of the countries where they expand. For example- Israel, the main body puppet was a porcupine represented the Israel culture, prickly on the outside and soft on the inside. In Germany, the puppet was a bear and in Mexico, a parrot. As a result it will increase their popularity as well as their demand. It is strength for them to survive in the market with the competitors.

Sesame workshop was actively expanded its Internet presence and they have successfully developed their own website.

Sesame Workshop, formerly known as the Children's Television Workshop or CTW, is a non-profit organization behind the production of several educational children's programs that have run on public broadcasting around the world including PBS in the United States. By 2001, their show broadcasted in almost 150 countries. Now they actively expanded its Internet presence through SesameStreet.com. They have developed new web-based content; much of it is tied to television shows. It can help them to provide more information to the customers about their programs and about their activities. It is also helpful for them to reach to the highest level of their potential audience and serve their needs.

Justification: Sesame Workshop has actively expanded its Internet presence through SesameStreet.com. They have developed new web-based content; much of it is tied to television shows. It can help them to provide more information to the customers about their programs and about their activities. Sesame Workshop has their Internet website, with their website they can reach to a huge amount of audience around the world and it can play an important role in reaching towards their potential audience.

Sesame workshop has expanded in many areas and their main component of expansion is their tremendous market research that is strength for them.

Sesame Workshop was founded in 1968. The Workshop is committed to the principle that all children deserve a chance to learn and grow, to be prepared for school. Eventually they started expanding to man other countries. They have already expanded in Canada, Italy, Korea, Arab Word, Australia, Indonesia and many other countries in the world, as its product demanded very high and it has been possible because of their brand image in the market. Sesame Workshop has successfully entered in around 150 countries in the world. They concentrated on the culture of the countries and segmented the market according to the culture of those countries. In every country where they expanded they emphasize on the culture of that country very well. To know about the culture and customs of different nations they had to do lot of research on those countries. For example in Israel, the main body puppet was a porcupine represented the Israel culture, prickly on the outside and soft on the inside. In Germany, the puppet was a bear and in Mexico, a parrot. To know about all these information they had to do a lot of research and that is a strength for them in knowing the culture of other countries.

Justification: For their business purpose, they had to know about the different culture and customs of the countries for which an efficient research work must have to be done and Sesame Workshop is doing their research very well. Sesame Workshop has successfully entered in around 150 countries in the world. They concentrated on the culture of the countries and segmented the market according to the culture of those countries. In every country where they expanded they emphasize on the culture of that country very well. To know about the culture and customs of different nations they had to do lot of research on those countries.

Weaknesses

Sesame Workshop is having a commercial-free philosophy, which may deter its growth and can be a problem for them in finding the co-productions.

In the past government-owned channel were not allowed to interrupt programming for young children with commercials. As a result being the pioneer in telecasting children program, Sesame Workshop could successfully implement its commercial-free philosophy as the public broadcasters accepted it. But now there are lots of commercial channels and all want a commercial break. It is becoming difficult to ask somebody to show an entire hour commercial-free. Sesame Workshop’s one of the main philosophy is broadcasting its children’s programs without any commercial break. For this philosophy many commercial broadcasters are not interested to telecast Sesame Workshop’s programs.

Justification: Due to this commercial-free philosophy, Sesame Workshop is not being able to show its programs in different commercial channel as commercial channels are not interested to broadcast programs without any commercial break. So Sesame workshop can only broadcast its programs on its own channel but it will reduce its capacity to grow more. It is also seen from an experiment that the children can make the distinction between the show and the commercial. So there will be no harm if commercials breaks are allowed in a children educational program. So if Sesame Workshop does not change it commercial-free philosophy it will not get commercial broadcasters to show its children programs. As a result it will not be able to show its programs to the audience. So it can be a serious weakness for the company.

The production deals were changing, which meant an increasingly complex network of partners, customers, sponsors and other relationships.

To make the co-production model work, they need first run revenues, syndication if possible, international sales, and international product sales. The old model was that broadcasters paid for everything including management fees and some profit for the organization. A few years ago they had started going into markets where there was government money available and where they had to raise sponsorship money. The broadcaster was not paying the whole thing. Ultimately, Sesame Workshop was taking the risk if sufficient money could not be raised. Now they have some broadcaster who used to pay for the whole co-production, but now they will no longer pay. As Sesame Workshop is a small organization, this complex structure can affect them as well. That can be a weakness for them.

Justification: As Sesame Workshop is a small organization, the new corporate model can affect them largely in doing their business. It can be complex for them in international sales and on the sponsorships and to the customers as well.
Sesame Workshop is having a surplus deficit in all operational years except 1998, which can affect them in doing business in long run.

Being a not-for-profit organization, Sesame workshop’s mission is to education children and their families globally. Though profit is not its main goal, creating a financially viable and growing organization is a necessity because it has to compete with others for-profit organization. But it is having a surplus deficit in all operational years except 1998. Sesame Workshop is a small firm but it has taken an initiative to launch various projects but it does not have enough resources for that. As a result financial deficit occurs. That can affect their business in the long run. They can be going out of resources in doing any production.

Justification: Organization were facing deficit from last some years and if this feature continues, it can affect them dangerously in the long run. As they have had expanded largely in many regions, their deficits can lead them towards disaster in future. Sesame Workshop is a small firm but it has taken an initiative to launch various projects but it does not have enough resources for that. As a result financial deficit occurs. That can affect their business in the long run. They can be going out of resources in doing any production.

Sesame Workshop is facing lack of new programs, which can be very tough for them to survive with other competitors in the market.

From 1968 Sesame Workshop has provided with high quality educational program among the audience. However, now they need new programs for their business. They were a one hit wonder that’s been wonderful worldwide. But they needed the follow-up success. Now Sesame Workshop has lack of new programs. As the competition has increased and in very soon all its programs will be saturated means audience will no longer wants Sesame Workshop’s previous shows which already viewed a lot. World is changing and demand and preference of the audience is changing. So now organization cannot attract these audiences with old programs. Audience wants more now programs.

Justification: As competition has increased and the windows for the show are shrinking, the audience we are going after is also shrinking. So with the number of programs those are available to the shrinking audience continuing to increase. So if Sesame Workshop’s program loses popularity, then it will be hard for them to come back. Now there are more channels and options for programming and competition has increased. Different organizations are coming up with their unique products. So for the follow up success of Sesame workshop it needs new programs. Otherwise its audience will shift and no longer can compete with the competitors who have new products with unique features. So not having new programs for the audience is a serious weakness for the company. World is changing and demand and preference of the audience is changing. So now organization cannot attract these audiences with old programs. Audience wants more now programs.

They mainly do the puppet show for the pre school children and they have segmented it with many types but there is not any king of advantage for the disable children as a sign language.

Sesame Workshop was the producer of Sesame Street, the highly acclaimed children’s educational show. For the show they use street scenes, animated and live actions and puppet scenes. They produce their show in a very precise way. They paid attention on the smallest things in making and producing the show. They even made shows for outside countries according to the culture of that region. Is spite of giving the full attention, they have missed an important part for the pre-school children. They don’t have any program for the disabled children. Those children who cannot hear or see cant understand anything from their program. They didn’t produce any programs with the sign language. So it can be a weakness for them.

Justification: Sesame Workshop has only emphasized on the children’s proper learning. They give importance to all segments and all groups of children. However they missed the disabled or deaf children. If they would have provided any sign language besides the program then it wont be a problem for those children. Since they don’t have such programs, it is a weakness for them for not providing the proper education to all groups of children.

To decrease in general and administrative costs Sesame Workshop has reduced its corporate staff, which can be a weakness for them in doing business.

Being a not-for-profit organization, Sesame workshop’s mission is to education children and their families globally. Though profit is not its main goal, creating a financially viable and growing organization is a necessity because it has to compete with others for-profit organization. But it is having a surplus deficit in all operational years except 1998. Sesame Workshop is a small firm but it has taken a initiative to launch various project but it does not have enough resources for that. As a result financial deficit occurs. To overcome this deficit, Sesame Workshop has reduced its corporate staffs that resulted in a decrease in general and administrative costs.

Justification: Sesame Workshop has a very high growth rate. To sustain with that growth rate it needs expert human resource because they are one who is behind the success of Sesame Workshop. Also as it is expanding in globally it requires more people for successful expansion. So by reducing its employee Sesame workshop is not doing any good for the organization except losing its human resources, which is very important for them. This is one of big misconception that reducing staff will bring operating efficiency. If Sesame Workshop continues to do so it will experience a contraction in its growth rate and instead of reducing cost it will experience that its revenue decreased a lot as there will not be enough employee to support the sustainable and viable growth rate.

The recruitment policy and procedure of the company is very poor. The retention of potential employees and problems in recruitment policy can be a problem for them in surviving the competitors.

Sesame Workshop doesn’t have any strategy for hiring new employees and retaining old ones. Ones an employee is gone out of their company, it takes a lot more time to hire another employee on that place. It portrays an uneven employee maintenance and recruitment policy for the company. Another factor is that, they reduce the number of employees to decrease their cost. Sesame Workshop is a small firm but it has taken an initiative to launch various projects but it does not have enough resources for that. As a result financial deficit occurs. To overcome this deficit, Sesame Workshop has reduced its corporate staffs, which resulted in a decrease in general and administrative costs.

Justification: Employees are the main keys to run a business properly. They are the main source of the success of any organization. To sustain with that growth rate it needs expert human resource because they are one who is behind the success of Sesame Workshop. Also as it is expanding in globally it requires more people for successful expansion. So by reducing its employee Sesame workshop is not doing any good for the organization except losing its human resources, which is very important for them. This is one of big misconception that reducing staff will bring operating efficiency.

Sesame Workshop is a not-for-profit organization, their main concern has to be educating the children where as, their main motive has become earning profit in many cases, which may have a negative impact in the minds of the audience.

Being a not-for-profit organization, Sesame workshop’s mission has to educate the children and their families globally and they are working on it very properly. However, the profit is also another main motive for them. Though they are a not- for-profit organization, their main motive has to be the proper education of the children. But in some cases they are lagged behind in serving their main objective. They focus mainly on their profit. They focus on those areas that are highly profitable than those of the small segments where the children need more of the proper guidance and proper education. They are working well but this sort of motive can create a negative image of them in the minds of the customers, which will be bad for the company.

Justification: Sesame workshop is serving their customers very well. Many preschoolers are learning their ABCs and 123s while watching Sesame Street. But their main motive has become earning profit in many cases, which may have a negative impact in the minds of the audience. The negative image can affect the company in a broad way.

Opportunities

Being a not-for-profit organization, Sesame Workshop has the freedom & feasibility to go into new markets & do co-production and break-even.

Looking towards the future, the manager of international group sees many opportunities for Sesame Workshop. It is not feasible to do co-production in every market. But due to being a not-for-profit organization, Sesame Workshop has the freedom to go into new markets and break even. Sesame Workshop currently helps produce more than 20 co-productions of Sesame Street around the globe, each tailored to the cultural, social and political demands of their country’s viewers. Teaming up with local directors and writers, Sesame Workshop producers work internationally to bring the venerable television show to children around the world in their own languages. The world according to Sesame Street profiled three of these co-productions those are Bangladesh, Kosovo, and South Africa

Justification: Co-production is all about working together to achieve a mission. It starts from the idea that projects are successful only when the people being served are involved. Each of Sesame Workshop’s international co-productions is carefully crafted to meet the specific needs of the local children. Child-development experts in each country work with local directors, producers, and writers to translate the magic of Sesame Street in a way that captures the rich cultural flavors of each region. The engaging live action, animation, and colorful characters create a world of fun for young children and their families. Sesame Workshop can extend its co-production to other countries to ensure its high growth and revenue which is most required for Sesame Workshop now.

Sesame Workshop can use its Sesame Street to target those non English speaking countries like Japan where this program is watched primarily as a vehicle for leaning English.

Sesame Street’s intention of showing Sesame Street is to educate the children. In many countries it saw that its Sesame Street shown in English is primarily watched as the vehicle for learning English which was not Sesame Street intention. Countries like Japan viewed Sesame Street a main way to learn English. Sesame Workshop can utilize this phenomenon as a way to its high growth as there is a demand of it in non English speaking countries. And this is a very interesting way to learn English from the childhood. For this there is a demand of English version of Sesame Street among the non-English-speaking countries.

Justification: Many preschoolers is learning their ABCs and 123s while watching Sesame Street. Along with this kids of all ages who come here from non-English-speaking countries also pick up English basics from Big Bird, Bert, Ernie, and the gang. And in Japan, teens are actually learning to speak English by watching the show. As a result, it can extend it English Sesame Street to countries like China, Taiwan which will increase its market share and a way of teaching English worldwide.
Sesame Workshop can sells Sesame Street characters on products like clothing, purses, T-shirts, keys chains, earrings etc. as many children and girls are fond of these characters.

By providing license in different countries Sesame Workshop can sells its Sesame Street characters on products like clothing, purses, T-shirts, keys chains, earrings etc. and these products soon become very popular among the children and girls. These Sesame Street products give children and grown-ups alike more ways to laugh and learn with their Sesame Street friends. It is already doing this to some extent. It can increase the selling of these goods more extensively worldwide. When people purchase Sesame Workshop products, they are also supporting the education of children around the world.

Justification: Being the most favorite children’s television series, Sesame Workshop offers, Sesame Street merchandise, Sesame Street toys and Sesame Street bedding feature all its favorite characters, including Elmo and Big Bird, and it is a fantastic for any Sesame Street fan. Sesame Workshop has a huge sell of these products. As a result it will increase the revenue of Sesame Workshop and it can reinvest its revenues from these in educational activities. That means every time people buy one of its products, they are not just doing something good for their own child, they are also helping children around the world to reach their highest potential.

When market will become saturated, Sesame Workshop can more widely broadcast Open Sesame in developing countries as it is much cheaper to produce.

Open Sesame is another international television product broadcast in international markets like Arab World, Australia, Italy, Pakistan etc. Open Sesame is a children's television series composed solely of the skits and segments of the legendary American television series Sesame Street. While some countries air the American program in whole, and some create their own versions of the show, many more air this title of loosely associated skits, as Open Sesame. The name is a pun based on the magic words "Open sesame" which is used in the legend of Ali Baba.

Justification: Open Sesame is much cheaper to produce because it relied on dubbing the local language. Except the part where using live actors, all most whole part of Sesame Street can easily be dubbed like the part of live actions, animation and puppet scene also can dubbed easily. And it is very cheap to do so. Also there is a very high demand of Open Sesame in many countries of the world. Because it is cheap to produce and Sesame Workshop maintain a high standard of Open Sesame though it is dubbed. So this open Sesame can be a great opportunity for Sesame Workshop when it is under a huge pressure to reduce cost and increase sells. It can start broadcasting its Open Sesame to more countries around the world. It can also target the poorer countries where there will be high demand of Open Sesame as it will serve the purpose of educating children with low cost and high quality products of Sesame Workshop. When market will become saturated, Sesame Workshop can more widely broadcast Open Sesame in developing countries as it is much cheaper to produce.
Being the largest single teacher of young children in the world Sesame Workshop can use its success and brand image to for much more international growth like Brazil, France, or India.

Sesame Workshop is a nonprofit educational organization making a meaningful difference in the lives of children worldwide by addressing their critical developmental needs. The Workshop is committed to the principle that all children deserve a chance to learn and grow; to be prepared for school; to better understand the world and each other; to think, dream and discover; to reach their highest potential. Sesame workshop is the producer of Sesame Street which is the highly acclaimed children’s educational show. Being the largest single teacher of young children in the world Sesame Workshop can use its success and brand image to for much more international growth like Brazil, France, or India.

Justification: Taking advantage of all forms of media and using those that are best suited to delivering a particular curriculum, the Sesame Workshop effectively and efficiently reaches millions of children, parents, caregivers and educators - locally, nationally and globally. It believes that all children deserve a chance to learn and grow. It says that when people purchase Sesame Street and other Sesame Workshop products, they are supporting the education of children around the world. The income it receive from product sales along with crucial support from foundations, corporations, individuals, government agencies, and licensees, is put right back into the development of Sesame Street and our other educational projects around the world. In this way it has created a brand image worldwide. Using this positive brand image, Sesame Workshop can achieve much more international growth in countries like Brazil, France, or India where it haven’t enter yet.

Threats

Being a small firm with limited resource in international Sesame Workshop has grown so fast that its over-extending growth may not allow them to respond to everybody.

Sesame Workshop Sesame Workshop, formerly known as the Children's Television Workshop or CTW, is a non-profit organization behind the production of several educational children's programs that have run on public broadcasting around the world including PBS in the United States. It was founded in 1968. The Workshop is committed to the principle that all children deserve a chance to learn and grow; to be prepared for school; to better understand the world and each other; to think, dream and discover; to reach their highest potential. Sesame workshop is the producer of Sesame Street which is the highly acclaimed children’s educational show. From the inception it has extended too much in many different countries as its products demand is very high.

Justification: Sesame Workshop is a small firm with limited resources and unlimited dreams. In international, Sesame Workshop has gown so quickly over the last few years that it itself become worry about its overextending. Sesame Street is a very powerful series and a lot of people want to work with Sesame Workshop but it can not respond to all. As a result it can create a negative image about the Sesame Workshop among the people’s mind. It has already extended so much that it does not have enough resources to support its overextension. As a result sustainable growth is not being possible so it making loss in its current years. If this thing continues Sesame Workshop may have to suffer badly in facing the competition and may have to close its operation.

Sesame Workshop has a licensing policy that is all non-U.S. versions of Sesame Street must reflect the values and traditions of host country’s culture which can reduce the demand of Sesame Street in other countries.

Sesame Workshop often gets the requests to alter the linguistic content for foreign audiences increased rapidly after the shows U.S introduction. As a result, it needed policies and procedures for proposed international adaptation of Sesame Street. In late 1969, Workshop created an international division charged with the responsibility of overseeing Sesame Street’s licensing abroad. One of its main licensing policies is that all non-U.S version of Sesame Street must reflect the values and traditions of the host country’s culture. Means if its version is being telecasted in Arab world it should reflects the values and traditions of U.S culture.

Justification: This can become a threat for the Sesame Workshop because the culture of U.S may be totally different from the country where it will be shown. As a result that country may not broadcast Sesame Street as it reflects U.S culture. This can become a serious problem when it tries to broadcast in Arab countries as they are very conservative culture compare to U.S culture. It can deter its international growth heavily.
License fees around the world have been going down and down as a result if Sesame Workshop is too expensive broadcasters will not put the same value on its products as it cost them to produce.

When Sesame Workshop internationalize in the 1970s, television in most countries was dominated by the public broadcasters. Many of these broadcasters were ready to pay Sesame Workshop fees to cover production and other fees. In the late 1990s with the growth of commercial broadcasting via satellite and cable, the television worldwide becomes much more competitive. With new competition, audience dropped for individual broadcasters and it reduces the monopoly power of public broadcasters. As a result, it reduces the capacity of Sesame Workshop to generate revenue from license fees as children programming area I not a primary area for most commercial broadcasters.

Justification: Now there are more channels and options for programming but license fees paid by the broadcasters around the world have been going down and down. Now broadcasters willing to pay zero but still want Sesame Workshop to deliver a fully produced show, promote it, and guarantee a percentage of ancillary revenue. If Sesame Street is too expensive broadcasters will take something else. This can eliminate the market of Sesame Workshop’s products if it does not come up with unique and new products for the audience. Otherwise broadcaster will not have any interest to show Sesame’s programs in exchange of a license fee.

Sesame Workshop has reduced its corporate staff just to decrease in general and administrative costs which may deter its growth internationally.

Being a not-for-profit organization, Sesame workshop’s mission is to education children and their families globally. Though profit is not its main goal, creating a financially viable and growing organization is a necessity because it has to compete with others for-profit organization. But it is having a surplus deficit in all operational years except 1998. Sesame Workshop is a small firm but it has taken a initiative to launch various project but it does not have enough resources for that. As a result financial deficit occurs. To overcome this deficit, Sesame Workshop has reduced its corporate staffs which resulted in a decrease in general and administrative costs.

Justification: Sesame Workshop has a very high growth rate. To sustain with that growth rate it needs expert human resource because they are one who is behind the success of Sesame Workshop. Also as it is expanding in globally it requires more people for successful expansion. So by reducing its employee Sesame workshop is not doing any good for the organization except losing its human resources which is very important for them. This is one of big misconception that reducing staff will bring operating efficiency. If Sesame Workshop continues to do so it will experience a contraction in its growth rate and instead of reducing cost it will experience that its revenue decreased a lot as there will not be enough employee to support the sustainable and viable growth rate.
Sesame’s reorganization of international operations in 1996 resulted a new organizational structure which is much more vertical which can increase the complexity, consume time, and reduce transparency.

In 1996 the Sesame Workshop had reorganized its organizational structure, which was more or less vertically structured. Vertical structure means that they have many organizational layers for which it might take too much time to implement a decision. In 1999 there was brought some additional changes which increased the layers even more. It might be said that as they are doing their business globally they might need to maintain many different layers inside their organization. But it is mentioned in the case that the Sesame Workshop is a small firm with limited resources and unlimited dreams. As they have two agents one for Europe, and one for Latin America, they actually don’t need to maintain this kind of lengthy hierarchy to make approve or implement a decision.

Justification: Sesame Workshop is maintaining a vertical organizational structure or lengthy hierarchical process which consumes time and money both. Also lower level employees will have no chance to talk with the top level directly. It hampers their motivation a lot. Also there is no chance that the audience can give their feedback directly to all level of employees. Top levels are getting the lower level employee’s and customer’s feedback thorough someone else or grapevine. So there is a lot of chance of getting wrong information, it takes time to take decision and also it reduces the transparency. All this things will hamper a lot when Sesame Workshop face competition and respond quickly to the market.

As competition is increasing and the audience that Sesame Workshop is going after is also shrinking as result programs may it’s lose popularity & it will be hard to come back.

In the late 1990s with the growth of commercial broadcasting via satellite and cable, the television worldwide becomes much more competitive. With new competition, audience dropped for individual broadcasters and it reduces the monopoly power of public broadcasters. As competition has increased and the windows for the show are shrinking, the audience we are going after is also shrinking. So with the number of programs those are available to the shrinking audience continuing to increase. So if Sesame Workshop’s program loses popularity, then it will be hard for them to come back.

Justification: The main thing for the existence of Sesame workshop is the popularity of its program. If its program loses its popularity it will be no longer exists in the market. Earlier, when Sesame Workshop started its operation there where no such company likes Sesame Workshop. So it could have exercise monopoly power to its audience. Because there were no option for the audience except seeing its program. But things have changed now. Competition has increased. So the windows of telecasting Sesame Workshop’s programs have shrunk. Also the number of audience has also shrunk. So in this case if Sesame Workshop’s program loses its popularity then it will be very hard for them to exist in the market and will fulfill its mission of educating children.
Market can become saturated for Sesame workshop as it has provided to its highest extents and without new programs it will be difficult for them to exist in the competition.

From 1968 Sesame Workshop has provided with high quality educational program among the audience. That’s why broadcasters were ready to provide license fees and has created a brand mage among the audience. But competition has increased and in very soon all its programs will be saturated means audience will no longer wants Sesame Workshop’s previous shows whish already shown a lot. World is changing and demand and preference of the audience is changing. So now organization can not attract these audiences with old programs. Audience want more now programs.

Justification: Now there are more channels and options for programming and competition has increased. Different organizations are coming up with their unique products. So for the follow up success of Sesame workshop it needs new programs. Otherwise its audience will shrink and no longer can compete with the competitors who have new products with unique features. So as Market can become saturated for Sesame workshop as it has provided to its highest extents and without new programs it will be difficult for them to exist in the competition.

The increase in cable and satellite broadcasting is being contradictory with Sesame Workshop’s commercial-free philosophy which may deter its growth.

In the past government-owned channel were not allowed to interrupt programming for young children with commercials. As a result being the pioneer in telecasting children program, Sesame Workshop could successfully implement its commercial-free philosophy as it was accepted by the public broadcasters. But now there are lots of commercial channels and all want a commercial break. It is becoming difficult to ask somebody to show an entire hour commercial-free. Sesame Workshop’s one of the main philosophy is broadcasting its children’s programs without any commercial break. For this philosophy many commercial broadcasters are not interested to telecast Sesame Workshop’s programs.

Justification: Due to this commercial-free philosophy, Sesame Workshop is not being able to show its programs in different commercial channel as commercial channels are not interested to broadcast programs without any commercial break. So Sesame workshop can only broadcast its programs on its own channel but it will reduce its capacity to grow more. It is also seen from an experiment that the children can make the distinction between the show and the commercial. So there will be no harm if commercials breaks are allowed in a children educational program. So if Sesame Workshop does not change it commercial-free philosophy it will not get commercial broadcasters to show its children programs. As a result it will not be able to show its programs to the audience. So it will lose its audience which will deter its growth globally.

HR Issue

H uman resource is a nucleus of an organization. It plays a key role in helping companies dealing with a fast-changing competitive environment and the greater demand for quality, efficient and potential employees. Every organization needs to have a specific HR department so that the organization can sustain and run the business successfully. Sesame Workshop which is the producer of children’s educational show is the largest single teacher of young children in the world. By 2001, the show was broadcast in almost 150 countries and was co-produced in the local languages in 20 countries having 300 employees. Sesame Street is a show of Sesame workshop which got 76 Emmy Awards. Their mission is to create innovative, engaging content that maximizes the educational power of media to help all children to reach their highest potential.

In the previous part of this case solution we have analyzed and found the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats. And now we have to identify some significant HR issues that already exist in the Sesame Workshop, like- how they are hiring and training their employees to enhance their efficiency, how they structure their organization, how they are compensating their employees to motivate them as they have high turnover, how they satisfy their customer by innovative idea and so on. So now we like to discuss those significant HR issues of the Sesame Workshop, which we have found from this case and in the following they are described one by one:

Sesame Workshop brings about 25-30 employees to New York for training on good writing educational and entertaining segments for the show as it believes that good writing is the key to success, and they use a lengthy hiring process for filling up a vacant place.

The Sesame Workshop does not have any separate HR department for which it does not follow any specific rules to recruit, to select, to compensate or to train their employees. For co-production with other countries, they bring some people from their partner country to New York and train them in writing educational & entertaining segments for the show. They also construct puppets to cope up with the local culture and customs. But the problem is they have no specific T&D plan for it so that they can further precede their business in a systematic way. Another issue is that their recruitment process is very slow and they do not have any specified recruitment plan. But in an organization the most important resource is its human resources and appropriate human resources assure an organization that the right number and kind of people are available at the right time and place so that organizational needs can be met.
We have chosen it as a HR issue because Human Resource and Management include these factors- training and recruitment. As Sesame Workshop works for the children, they need the right and well trained people to satisfy their child customers. In this case there is no specific rules mentioned that how Sesame is recruiting their people for their organization. But in one area we have found that their group president for products and international television resigned in 1999 and till the mid of 2001 the position was vacant. If they had any specific recruitment committee then it might not take such two years to fill up a vacant position. So they must need to focus on this issue as they are now the largest producer of children’s educational show and expanding their business all over the world. If they go without a systematic way they may not retain the highest potential customer any more.

According to the case here is no specific outline mentioned about their training process which indicates that their Training and Development process of employees is also not designed properly. The Sesame Workshop believes that good script writing is the key to their success for attracting children. So in the co-production model they have a policy in which they bring some people, around 25-30, from their partner country to New York and train them in writing educational & entertaining segments for the show. They also construct puppets to cope up with the local culture and customs so that they can capture that local market easily. But as they do not have any specific T&D plan, for the long run it may not give the same output to the company. So here the needs for a HR department arise.

As Sesame Workshop does not focus on employee satisfaction, their employee turnover for the organization is very high, which indicates low regulation and motivation towards the employees.

Compensation policy is the systematic component of HR. For an organization, it is the key element to motivate employees which indicates a systematic approach to providing monetary value to employees for their work performed. To motivate employees only the monetary rewards are not sufficient. Motivation can make any impossible to possible that results through non-monetary tools in this case. For this reason we want to focus this compensation policy of Sesame Workshop where it is a bunch of a program producer for the children’s education and is a not for profit organization. But in this case we have not found sufficient information about employee compensation program towards the whole organization. So we could not get the compensation policy that the organization is currently using for the employees and also for the satisfaction level of employees. In one portion of the case a manager talked about the satisfaction level of employees indirectly as like as they make decisions which makes it so interesting to be there but sometimes frustrating for them. This comment indicates that employees are not justified properly in the organization. Sesame Workshop is the largest producer of children’s educational program, which has already expanded their business into more than 150 countries so far and had $147 million revenue at the end of 2000.
Sesame Workshop has 300 employees in the organization. For a large organization like Sesame Workshop it is shocking that they are not following any specific compensation practice for their employees and executives. After reading the case we have found that they are not following any compensation policy to satisfy and motivate their large number of potential employees and we think that this is because of their deficit condition over the past decades. This also led a demotivation towards the employee who actually is not satisfied with their job as they have to work hard. For this reason the satisfaction level for the employees are too low to continue their job with this organization and creates a high employee turnover for the organization. On the other hand Sesame does not provide any performance appraisal for their employee contribution which also creates dissatisfaction towards the employees. Even though the organization wants to financially stable but they don’t focus on their valuable employees. As it is a artistic organization providing children’s program, their employees are also a talent of this profession so loosing them one by one is a great cost for Sesame because this type of talent employees are not available always in the market.

This is a HR issue because employee satisfaction and low turnover is a tool for employee motivation and also for encouraging them to be creative in their job. And it is a part of compensation included in HR practices. Though sometimes it causes harm to the company itself, it has been successful most of the time for the employee to bring the higher return for the company.

Sesame Workshop does not have any specific R&D Department for which they may face difficulties in future as they needs new and innovative ideas for producing their shows, and also expanding their business worldwide though they are in deficit condition.

Sesame Workshop has already been the largest single teacher of young children in the world. Though it is a non-profit organization it needs to profit to be financially viable all the time. From the case we have found that they do not have any Research and Development department in the organization, though they ground their work in research. But the growing competitiveness of the business world they must need to adopt the new and innovative ideas to attract more children as well as retain their existing customers. As Sesame is popular in all around the world, they must know about different culture and norms, customer needs, competitors who already exist in the market and so on. So without knowing all these information about any different countries no foreign business can enter into or run the business successfully in that country for longer time. They have to hire the local people to make co-production. So there the new hired employee might not adjust with their own business culture for which the organization might need to train them according to their corporate culture or might adopt the new culture themselves to sustain in the new market, which is not possible without R&D.

According to us this is as a HR issue because the Sesame Workshop has to be very careful to make their show for different countries for which they need to research about the people for hiring the puppets, writers, musicians etc. as they are spread out internationally. There culture might be different, hiring process might be different, people might be different, and the compensation policy might be different. So before spreading out every country in the world, they must know this information very well. Additionally, for the growing competitiveness of the business world they must need to adopt the new and innovative ideas to attract more children as well as retain their existing customers. And here rises the need of a R&D department. into or run the business successfully in that country for longer time.o business can enter itment after achieving the success i

For having a deficit for many years Sesame Workshop prefers to go for downsizing & laying off their employees to reduce their operational cost, which causes a high employee turnover rate for the organization.

Downsizing of an organization means that they lay off their employees in a large scale to reduce their cost and meet their breakeven point as early as possible. If they can meet their breakeven they can go for a profit position. But this type of large downsizing creates a frustration towards the potential employees who are working with the organization currently. This frustration will also reduce the efficiency of the employees because the corporation focuses on the employees lay off only to reduce the cost.

For this case it is an important HR issue which we would like to focus on because it relates the problem with employees where employees are key element of an organization and hot topics of HR. Employees are the most important tool for an organization and without potential employee an organization cannot sustain for a long run. Deficit for a decade is a frustrating thing for an organization. But it is a reality for Sesame Workshop. They only saw profit in 1992 and 1998 and all the time they had to manage their deficit by some donation or financing activities. During these years actually they could not manage their operating costs with their operating revenue.

Though the revenue of one program increased by 19% in 2000 named Sesame Street as a result of introduction of “Dragon Tales”, this increase of revenue cannot generate much revenue which can cover the corporate deficit. For this reason they go for the reduction policy of their operating costs which will help to improve the net profit position for the corporation. So they thought to reduce operating costs by the reductions in corporate staff resulted in a decrease in general and administrative costs. As part of their reductions of employee policy they reduced their employee from more than 400 to about 300 which is a large downsizing and create a high employee turnover. It is not good for a large organization which wants to expand their business continuously.

Sesame Workshop has a vertical organizational structure which was reorganized in 1996 and also in 1999 to reduce the managerial time spent on smaller market and to focus on the larger markets with high potential, which has been causing harm to the organizational profit margin.

In 1996 the Sesame Workshop had reorganized its organizational structure, which was more or less vertically structured. Vertical structure means that they have many organizational layers for which it might take too much time to implement a decision. It might be said that as they are doing their business globally they might need to maintain many different layers inside their organization. But it is mentioned in the case that the Sesame Workshop is a small firm with limited resources and unlimited dreams. As they have two agents for all Europe and for Latin America, they actually don’t need to maintain this kind of lengthy hierarchy to make or approve or implement a decision.

According to the reorganized international activities structure, in Sesame Workshop main office there is one Group President for products and international television. There is also one Group Vice President for international and two Regional Vice Presidents - one for Latin America & Asia and one for Europe, Africa & the Middle East. Every regional vice president has responsibility of profit and return on investment for all Sesame Workshop business. There is also a Vice President for Co-production. For each region, there were some Regional Directors responsible for television and licensing activities. In some places like China, for the more complexity in activities there is also a Senior Director who is responsible for the television activities in that country. So from this explanation we have found that they are maintaining total five executive layers where the other layers are still not in consideration. Thus it indicates that they are maintaining a lengthy hierarchical process which consumes time and money both. The partial organizational structure, excluding the other managerial and others low end positions, is shown in a flow chart which is given in the Appendix section.

We are considering this as a HR issue because for this wrong organizational structure- it does not focus on the maintenance markets, which means the smaller markets where they are currently generating revenue but having limited growth potential. This reorganization resulted in a revised classification of markets and countries in which they were broadcasting or planning to broadcast. As a result, a decision was made to reduce the managerial time spent on the smaller markets and to focus more on the larger markets. But the problem is they need the same effort for co-producing in both large and small markets, where small markets are supposed to be profitable for them. So by ignoring this kind of growth opportunities associated with small markets, actually they are hampering their own financial condition.

Recommendation

I n the previous part we have identified some significant HR issues from the given case from various perspectives. After analyzing the case and identifying the HR issues effectively, it is now time for recommendation to the Sesame Workshop to focus on some specific areas to retain their existing customer, capture new market in new or innovative ways and also to make profit for financial viability. We are already aware of that the Sesame Workshop is the largest producer of children’s educational show. They seek for new ways to make the world of media more valuable for children and do research to expand their own knowledge about what appeals to children and what helps them to learn, develop and grow. Though it is a not for profit organization, it seeks for profit as it has three financial goals- assembling the funding partnerships to support educational activities, to support educational activities with self-generated revenue and to establish underlying financial stability by maintaining investment portfolio. We agree that this organization is doing their business for over thirty five years in all over the world with its existing system and policies, but they have already started to have deficit. So there must be some areas that should be focused by them to sustain in the international market for longer period.

Focusing on Human Resource related issues we have identified in the previous part, HR issue, we are going to discuss the problems at first and recommend some solutions according to them one by one so that the Sesame Workshop can overcome from deficit and earn a profit to operate their business successfully and conduct more expansion throughout the world. In the following one by one, at first we will mention ‘what’ are the specific problems we have identified, ‘what’ is our recommendation to solve these current problems, and ‘why’ those are essential to the company.

Problem: 1

Sesame Workshop uses a lengthy hiring process for filling up a vacant place and train their puppets & writers without any specific plan, because they do not have any separate HR department in the organization.

The Sesame Workshop does not follow any specific rules to recruit, to select, to compensate or to train their employees. They have no specific T&D plan for training their writers and puppets where they believe that good script writing is the main reason for their success. For co-production with other countries, they bring some people from their partner country to New York and train them in writing educational & entertaining segments for the show. They also construct puppets according to the local culture and customs. Another issue is that their recruitment process is very slow and they do not have any specified recruitment plan. So as they are now internationally renowned, every single fault might cause a destructive issue for the organization. That is why they must adopt new recruitment and training policies so that they can further precede their business in a systematic way. Recommendation: 1

The Sesame Workshop needs a separate Human Resource Department, which will control such processes like- recruitment, selection, Training and Development, and Compensation policy etc., which are vital to the company success in the long run.

We are suggesting them to open a new HR department where they have to restructure their existing processes, like- recruitment, selection, training and development, compensation strategy, organizational structure etc. Though without any HR department they are operating their business successfully, if they open this department their performance deficiency would be removed and they would overcome the deficit easily. They need to change specifically the following two processes at first:
Recruitment & Selection process
The Sesame Workshop has to create a Recruitment and Selection Committee at first which would be under the control of the newly opened HR department. The committee would be consisting of some experienced and professional HR managers or line managers who will maintain the whole process. They have to have a written criterion following which the recruitment committee members will hire the puppets, writers, musicians, animators etc. so that they can identify the right person quickly. But the final decisions should be taken by the Executive managers of HR department.
Training & Development process
Their Training and Development process of employees is also not designed properly. In the given case we have found that in the co-production model of the Sesame Workshop, they are providing training to their writers and puppets. But there is no specific plan for training them. So they would do proper planning for train them effectively. At first the company has to hire a trainer who will be recruited and trained firstly by the existing persons, who are currently involved in these processes. After giving the trainers proper training, a proper T&D plan would be made. So in this way employees will be trained effectively in a systematic way and from the right trainers. Why it is the best solution???

In an organization, appropriate human resources assure that the right number and kind of people are available at the right time and place, so that organizational goals can be met. When the Sesame Workshop was broadcasting their show only in America, then their activities were limited to that area. But as day by day they have spread out their business throughout the world they must need to be in a systematic way. But the Sesame does not have any separate HR department for which it does not follow any specific rules to recruit, select, compensate or train their employees. So it is the best solution for them to sustain in the international market Problem: 2

The employee turnover for Sesame Workshop is very high as the organization does not focus on employee satisfaction, which indicates lower motivational tools available in the organization.

Employee satisfaction is a very important for an organization like Sesame Workshop because employees are the best part of an organization. If they are not satisfied at all there is possibility to switch off the job. But if employees are satisfied by their employer and employer can give the right value to his employees an organization can grow swiftly without having any doubt. And to satisfy employees fully need a proper compensation policy where compensation is only the systematic approach to provide monetary value to employees in exchange of their work performed. It is the best motivational tools for an employee. Without motivation, employees are not willing to work hard and are not committed with the organization. As a result an organization has to face loss at the end of year.

Similarly, Sesame Workshop also faces problems with their employees. Though it is the largest producer of children’s educational program, has already expanded their business into more than 150 countries so far. It has 300 employees in the organization to run the business successfully. But surprisingly it is not following any specific compensation practice for their potential employees and executives. The reason behind is their deficit condition over the past decades. The employees, who are actually not satisfied with their job as they have to work hard, create disappointment towards the employee and create a high employee turnover for the organization. On the other hand Sesame does not provide any performance appraisal for their employee contribution which also creates dissatisfaction towards the employees.

Recommendation: 2

Human Resource Department of Sesame Workshop needs to form a compensation committee which will help to design a perfect and motivated compensation policy and help to introduce performance appraisal to satisfy employees more and reduce high employee turnover.

To sustain in the international market with the same leading position and having profit at the year end, HR department of Sesame Workshop which we already suggest to open at first recommendation part, needs to follow a specific compensation policy for the employees. Because it will help to motivate the employees and increase the satisfaction level of them. It also reduces potential employee turnover. So HR department need to form a compensation committee and appoint an individual to oversee the designing process of the new and effective compensation program. After that they need to restructure their current compensation philosophy. They also need to form a compensation policy which is successful and bold, imaginative yet practical to motivate all the employees and increase the efficiency of Sesame Workshop.
Form a compensation committee

To provide a new and perfect compensation policy, HR department of Sesame needs to designate an individual to oversee the total situation. They also have to determine whether his position will be permanent or temporary and from where they will hire this employee, the cost of going outside regardless of inside, the cost of a consultant’s review to make the process successful. After that HR needs to form a compensation committee to determine the existing difference of compensation level between the employees and the existing international market situation in the same position. Then they need to decide the expected salary level which will motivate and satisfy the employees beyond the borders without having any discrepancy. They also have to restructure the benefit programs for their employees because all benefits are not necessary for the employees always and it will differ from country to country.

Restructure the compensation philosophy

After recruiting the individual, HR needs to develop a new compensation policy as they don’t follow any specific one. This compensation program will motivate the employees more than now because it will consider all employees of the international sales market and give compensation accordingly. As they already follow international sales force which indicates that every employee gets same level of compensation. But it is not possible to have similar demand from every part of the world. The demand of compensation level varies from country to country. So they have to fix it accordingly.

Introduce performance appraisal

As Sesame is large organization and having so much popularity and doing loss all that time indicates that their workforces are not working efficiently. It also indicates that employees are not motivated by their performance so that organization is seeing loss all the time. To solve this problem they need to come up with performance appraisal program and reduce the basic salary level. We suggest to decrease the basic amount part because it gives more security to the employees and employees are getting the extra privilege of working less and worst. It will appreciate employees to work hard and efficiently and motivate them to do better. After doing these things we think that they can solve their employee turnover problem easily.

Why it is the best solution???

For the employer perspective relationship between the compensation and employee satisfaction is a vital element. Everyone wants to be a profitable enterprise by increasing the efficiency and productivity of employees. Only monetary rewards are not sufficient to satisfy the potential employees also need some non-monetary tools. Performance appraisal also enhances the satisfaction level of employees. So restructuring of the compensation level of employees is the only way to maintain the growth, having profit position and sustain in both local and international market. Problem: 3

Though Sesame Workshop ground their work in research, they do not have any specific R&D Department for which they may face difficulties in future as they are continuing with the expansion throughout the world and they need to know various things about the new market place.

When the Sesame Workshop was broadcasting their show only in America, then their activities were limited to that area. But as day by day they have spread out their business throughout the world they must need to be advance and also proceed forward in a systematic way. Though as part of their mission, they ground their activities in research. But having a separate R&D department would bring a blessing to them. Because this is such a department which investigates not only in the outside world of the organization, but also it’s inside. And as they are continuing with the global expansion they must know about different cultures and norms, customer needs, competitors who already exist in the market and so on.

Recommendation: 3

Sesame Workshop will have to open a new R&D department where the research teams will do various researches to obtain information about the global opportunities they have and the innovative ways to increase their profit margin.

Research and Development is an important part of business for organizing it in a proper way. So we are recommending the Sesame Workshop to open a separate R&D department as soon as possible after opening the HR department. These two departments would work for each other. Because without updated information, no business can sustain for longer period in the same position in this competitive age. As they have already been the largest single teacher of young children in the world, all their local as well as foreign competitors are aware of their activities and strengths points. So by adopting new, advanced and unique policies, their competitors may take their position in the market easily, which can be protected by practicing R&D.

Research inside the organization

After opening the R&D department inside the organization, the Sesame will have to hire new employees through the recruitment and selection committee. There would be various research teams for various problem solutions. At first they have to collect information about their existing employees including – puppets, writers, animators, set workers, musicians etc. if they need any other facilities or change in compensation policy. As currently they are not providing them any exclusive incentives, this is very important for them to know whether their workers are satisfied or not. So before hiring new employees or to lay off the employee they must research the compensation level that is expected by the existing employees so that they can attract the new with better compensation strategy.
Research outside the organization

The Sesame Workshop will also have to research about the outside world of the organization. Like- whether there is any organization wants to enter into the market or not, if there is such anyone then what is the compensation level that are paid to their workers by them, at what level their own children customers are satisfied, what other people think to improve their show, what deficiency they have, what appeals to children and also about new or innovative ways to improve the show. So for these particular researches they must have to create a separate research team.

Research in other countries

The Sesame Workshop has to be very careful to make their show for different countries for which they need to research about the people for hiring the puppets, writers, musicians etc. as they are spread out internationally. For the growing competitiveness of the business world they must need to adopt the new and innovative ideas to attract more children as well as retain their existing customers. They will have to hire the local people to make co-production and the new hired employee might not adjust with their own business culture for which the organization might need to train them according to their corporate culture or might adopt the new culture themselves to sustain in the new market. So they must obtain information about the technologies that are used by the local companies of that country, their culture, norms, customer needs, their satisfaction level, and standard of existing service provided by the local companies etc. by a separate research team.

Why it is the best solution???

Though the Sesame Workshop is focusing on research factors, it needs a separate R&D department. Because along with searching for new ways to attract children, it has to be very careful to make their show for different countries for which they need to research about the people for hiring the puppets, writers, musicians etc. as they are spread out internationally. In other countries the culture might be different, hiring process might be different, people might be different, and the compensation policy might be different. So before spreading out every country in the world, they must know theses information very well. Additionally, for the growing competitiveness of the business world they must need to adopt the new and innovative ideas to attract more children as well as retain their existing employees and customers. And thus we think that this is the best solution for them to be the leader in the global market place.

Problem: 4

Sesame Workshop is having a deficit for many years for which it prefers to go for downsizing & laying off their employees to reduce their operational cost, which causes a high employee turnover for the organization.

To run on deficit is very worrying for an organization. No one want this in their business, everyone wants to deal with profitable position. It is also similar for the Sesame Workshop. Though it is a not for profit organization, they generate revenue for the organization and expand their business over time. So it is necessary for them run on profit position. Because no company can sustain in this compitative world having loss over the time. To adjust the situation Sesame prefers to go for downsizing. And downsizing of an organization means that they lay off their employees in a large scale to reduce their cost and meet their breakeven point as early as possible. If they can meet their breakeven they can go for a profit position. As Sesame had operating surplus in only 1992 and 1998 and over the time they face tremendous loss and expand their business over 150 countries, they wanted to change the situation by lay off. And the total number of employees was about 300, down from more than 400 in 1999. But this type of large downsizing creates a frustration towards the potential employees who are working with the organization currently. This frustration will also reduce the efficiency of the employees because the corporation focuses on the employees lay off only to reduce the cost.

Recommendation: 4

To resolve operating loss over time, HR department of Sesame Workshop needs to focus on growing small market, invest more on financing activities, introduce commercials on program time, encourage broadcaster to go for licensing agreement, stop the expansion policy of the organization without allocating resources and maintain the current market for generating more operating revenue.

As Sesame wanted to reduce cost and have some operating profit for the organization, they go for downsizing by lay off their employees and they lay off approximately 150 or more employees. But it could not be the right solution to reduce cost by lay off as they don’t stop their expansion program and creates contradictory issue for the organization. And by lay off they cannot sustain in the market for a long time. As generally Sesame Workshop is a small company with large expansion, we suggest them to solve the problem in other way which will be more beneficial for them. After analyzing the case we will suggest them to go for introducing commercials between the children’s program time as they can distinguish between advertisement programs to generate more revenue. They also can focus on small growing market and invest in financing activities to accumulate money immediately. We also suggest to encourage the broadcaster to licensing fees and to stop expansion policy of the organization as they don’t have enough resources.
Focus on small growing market

To generate revenue for the organization in a short time we suggest Sesame to focus on small growing market as they now focusing more on large growth potential markets. But we think in small market there more opportunities to generate revenue easily than large market. To do so they need to do a market research on small market and based upon their result they can choose some small markets and target them easily to generate money from them either by new attractive, innovative program or by selling their product like puppet, clothing, purse, T-shirts, key chains, earrings and so on.

Introduce commercials between the programs

As the children can understand or distinguish the program content and commercials easily, Sesame can go for introducing commercials between the children’s program to generate revenue from the commercials. It is a very profitable business without costing the company more. To do this they need to communicate with the right people who are involving in these commercial deals. After listening their condition and terms, Sesame can go for an agreement with them and generate a free money from them easily without giving too much effort.

Encourage broadcaster for licensing

Though Sesame has 400 licensor around the world to broadcast their educational program, they also doing lots of co-productions. It is not generating revenue as licensing. So we suggest them to encourage the broadcaster for more licensing agreement so that they can generate money easily and have operating profit. To do so they need to communicate with the existing broadcaster as well as new one and give them some extra benefits to influence in licensing agreement.

Stop expansion for available resources

Sesame has already expanded their business over the world and they are producing their programs for 150 countries. But as they are facing deficit over the period and having low resources, we suggest them to stop expansion program of the organization. Because expansion in a new area is related with costs. And for a small company with no money cannot entire in a new geographic area one by one. When they have available resources they can go for further expansion. And for now it is important to maintain the current market and generate revenue from there.

Why it is the best solution???

To resolve the above problem we think that these are the best solutions because these will generate more money in a short time than cutting the cost by downsizing which was not a good idea and creates high potential employee turnover and low growth rate. We think that stopping the expansion policy will help Sesame to reduce the cost figure more easily and introduction of commercial, focus on small growing market and encouragement of licensee help to generate more revenue in a short time. Problem: 5

Sesame Workshop had reorganized their organizational structure in a vertical way in 1996 to focus more on larger market along with ignoring the smaller market, which caused harm to the organizational profit margin.

According to the reorganized international activities structure, in Sesame Workshop main office there is total five executive layers where the other managerial & low-end layers are still not in consideration. Thus it indicates that they are maintaining a vertical organizational structure or lengthy hierarchical process which consumes time and money both. The main problem with this structure is- it does not focus on the maintenance markets, which means the smaller markets where they are currently generating revenue but having limited growth potential. But they need the same effort for co-producing in both large and small markets, where small markets are supposed to be profitable for them. So by ignoring this kind of growth opportunities associated with small markets, actually they are hampering their own financial condition.

Recommendation: 5

Sesame Workshop must restructure its organizational layers in horizontal way, which is currently structured vertically, so that every plan could be implemented more easily and quickly and also they can utilize the international growth opportunities associated with the small markets by focusing on both smaller and larger markets.

The Sesame Workshop is maintaining too many layers in their organizational structure, which is not a proper way of operating a business. Because it consumes too much time as every decision has to be passed through every layers from top to bottom. Another thing is that it also acts as a barrier for employee and top level relationship development. The less the number of layer in an organizational structure, it is better for the organization itself. So we strongly recommend to the Sesame Workshop to reorganize their organizational structure again and try to make it horizontally spread, by removing at least one or two layers, not vertically.

Another aspect of the reorganization of international operations is that it does not focus on the maintenance markets, which means the smaller markets where they are currently generating revenue but having limited growth potential. This reorganization resulted in a revised classification of markets and countries in which they were broadcasting or planning to broadcast. As a result, a decision was made to reduce the managerial time spent on the smaller markets and to focus more on the larger markets. But the problem is they need the same effort for co-producing in both large and small markets, where small markets are supposed to be profitable for them. Like in Egypt, India, France, Brazil etc. they have a growth opportunity though it is not potential. So by ignoring this kind of growth opportunities associated with small markets, actually they are hampering their own financial condition.
Focus on Smaller Markets at first to generate revenue

To overcome their deficit condition, focusing on the smaller markets will help them a lot. So we are strongly recommending to the Sesame Workshop not to ignore these small countries and to focus on both larger and smaller markets to generate revenue which has been very essential for them at this deficit situation. As they have lots of co-production opportunities existing in some countries, they should go towards those countries to generate revenue. They must focus on generating revenue to overcome the poor financial condition. Because without financial resources their production cannot be precede on as nowadays broadcasters are not ready to pay for the shows. So anyhow they must try to co-produce their shows with those profitable countries where many of their oldest customers want to make a good relationship with them. In this way they will easily over come their deficit profit margin.

Reduce the Organizational Vertical Layers

We have recommended earlier that they must open a new HR department where they will reform every policy. After generating revenue from the smaller markets, they must open it as soon as possible, because they have to reorganize their existing organizational structure which is currently in vertical way. The vertically organized structure does not benefit an organization, because it kills too much time and effort to make a decision or to implement it. It also hampers the chance of developing the employee-employer relationship. So they must reorganize the structure such a way so that they have a proper process of quick decision making. After opening the HR department the HR manager will restructure the organizational structure into a horizontal one. As the Sesame Workshop is a small firm, though they have spread out all over the world, they must maintain the organizational layer lesser so that in less time they utilize their resources to the highest extent. In this way will easily overcome the deficit condition and will be able to invest in other larger markets with high growth potential.

Why it is the best solution???

As the Sesame Workshop is maintaining too many layers in their organizational structure, it kills too much time as every decision has to be passed through every layer from top to bottom and it also acts as a barrier for employee and top level relationship development. Though its children educational shows are very famous everywhere and it has spread itself all around the world, it is still a small firm with a low profit margin or even suffering from a deficit for many years. Another aspect is that it does not focus on the smaller markets where they are currently generating revenue but having limited growth potential. They want to further expand their business only in those countries where they have high growth potentiality. But they have not enough money afford such large project in those countries as there the broadcasters are no more interested to pay out the fees. So they must focus in the smaller markets where they had done the business earlier and there the people are also interested to work with them. So we think it is the best solution for them to generate the revenue for overcoming the poor financial condition and afford the new policy maintenance cost.
Implementation

A fter identifying some problems that are Sesame Workshop currently having, in the previous recommendation section we have recommended some suitable solutions respectively for each of them aligned with organizational goals. And now in this part we are going to implement whatever plans we have discussed in the previous part. Our planning and recommendation are of no use unless they are properly implemented and utilized to the full extent. Without a sound HR framework, and without healthy HRM practices, even the best ever compensation packages will fail to get the most out of even the best employees on earth. So an appropriate organizational environment must be in place that will foster the effectiveness of the proposed compensation plans. Without implementation, planning is only wastage of time, money and labor. Therefore, effective and timely implementation of suitable plans is essential to make them successful.

To implement a plan some resources like- time, money, and place must be properly allocated with preference, because without the proper allocation of these resources no plan can be successfully implemented. As Sesame Workshop is the largest producer of children’s educational shows, it must have to be very careful and focus on some specific issues which we have identified so far. We have made the respective plans to solve those identified problems by also taking into account their business type, market factors, economic condition of the world, their financial condition and also their core values. As it is a non-profit organization it has very limited source of earning. But it needs a high profit as they have very high operational cost. So they require sponsorship for their created programs. But for the increased competition and change in human nature they are having very lower profit margin or deficit for a long time. So to overcome it they must adopt new policies and implement them effectively and within a proper time.

In this subsequent implementation section of the case solution, we have to answer some subsequent questions regarding the implementation process following our identified problems along with their solutions. We will discuss elaborately in this section ‘How’ we would implement our recommended plans, ‘Who’ is going to implement them, ‘Where’ we would implement them and at last, but not the least ‘By when’ we would implement them. After answering all these questions following the problems one by one hopefully we will be able to implement our plan timely and effectively. Without a sound framework and without a healthy work environment, even the best ever plans will fail. Therefore, an appropriate organizational environment must be in place that will foster the effectiveness of our proposed implementation plan. We have come up with some realistic implementation plan that will foster the Sesame Workshop to the highest extent to achieve the highest market share not only in the global market. All those implementation plans are described in the next pages one by one along with their problems and proposed solutions:

Problem: 1

Sesame Workshop uses a lengthy hiring process for filling up a vacant place and train their puppets & writers without any specific plan, because they do not have any separate HR department in the organization.

Recommendations:

The Sesame Workshop needs a separate Human Resource Department, which will control such processes like- recruitment, selection, Training and Development, and Compensation policy etc., which are vital to the company success in the long run.

Though without a HR department the Sesame Workshop had been operating their business for many years and making children educational shows all over the world, they must open a new HR department for more performance efficiency in service providing. In this competitive age, to sustain in the market and to overcome their main problem of deficit it must have to adopt new strategy & here the HR plays a key role in helping companies deal with a fast-changing competitive environment.

We have suggested the Sesame Workshop to open a HR department where they have to create a Recruitment & Selection committee to recruit the actors, writers, puppets, animation, musicians or other set workers for providing an effective show to their children customers. We also suggested them to hire some trainers to train their both new and existing workers according to their skill requirement. These activities cannot be maintained properly without proper guidance and monitoring. This is the main reason we recommend the Sesame Workshop to open a new HR department to guide their employees in a systematic way.

How it would be implemented?

Sesame Workshop must implement those plans, which we have suggested in the previous recommendation part, effectively so that it can easily overcome the deficit problem quickly and also to foster itself towards a systematic way. We all know that without proper implementation, no plan can be successful. To open a new HR department the Sesame will have to hire some professional HR people from outside who will later decide how to develop the department. At first they have to create an outline about how many levels would be there in this department and how to fulfill those positions like – the Vice President of HR, Director of HR, Executive managers, Mid-level managers, Supervisors, HR specialists and clerical staffs. Then they must divide the whole department into some other segments according to the work varieties. Such as for recruitment & selection process they must have a recruitment & selection committee, for training their employees they need a T&D section, for distributing the salary or any other compensation issues they need to open a compensation committee and so on.
So everything would be in a systematic way and under the supervision of HR departmental Head so that he can have the evidence of every activities going on in his department. They need to focus on establishing specifically the two processes of recruitment and training processes at first. The whole procedure of developing these two different divisions within the HR department is given below one by one:

Recruitment & Selection process

After opening the HR department the Sesame Workshop has to create a new Recruitment and Selection Committee at first which would be under the control of the newly opened HR department. The committee would be consisting of some experienced and professional HR managers or line managers who will maintain the whole process of recruitment and selection. After creating the new policy and following it properly the committee will recruit employees for HR positions. After hiring the HR people from outside for the first time a proper outline or criterion would be made so that they can recruit the right puppets, writers, actors, musicians, set workers, animators etc. for their production in a systematic way. They must create a job description by doing the job analysis as they need to fulfill the new positions. After that they would conduct the traditional ways of recruitment, like – advertisement, interviews or test so that they can identify the right people for their organization. So in this way by following the specific criterion they can identify the right person quickly. But the final decisions should be taken by the Executive managers of HR department.

Training & Development process

In the given case we have found that in the co-production model of the Sesame Workshop, they are providing training to their writers and puppets. But there is no specific plan for training them. So they must do proper planning for train them effectively, because Training and Development is crucial for an organization to make their employees to be productive, efficient and potential. If the employees are not productive and efficient enough then it’s really difficult to meet the organizational needs, objectives and goals. Though the Sesame Workshop is providing training to its new as well as its existing puppets and script writers according to their personal requirements and also the culture and customs of the local areas, there should be some proper planning to train them effectively. In this way their efficiency in making shows will increase more and their marginal profit will increase.

At first the company has to hire a trainer who will be recruited by the Recruitment & Selection Committee and be trained firstly by the existing persons, who are currently involved in these processes. After giving the trainers proper training, a proper T&D plan would be made so that the trainers can train the employees following a standard. Next they have to create a policy in which all the new-hired employees have to be trained primarily or oriented to the corporate culture and its commitment to serve their customers. Then they would be sent to the field work. Existing employees will also be trained by the trainers if they are needed to be trained for their own knowledge lacking. In this way employees will be trained effectively in a systematic way and from the right trainers and therefore they help to achieve the corporate goals.
Other HR related issues
In HRM there are some other issues besides these two processes explained in the previous page. They are- compensation system, organizational structure, orientation, and so on. With developing a new department of HR the Sesame Workshop will have to hire HR people to manage all these processes. The HR managers would have to create a proper guideline to orient the new employees, maintain a good relationship, and effective compensation policy. As lacking of any compensation system is a big issue for the Sesame Workshop, we have solved this problem by a separate recommended plan. Everything in the HR department would be under control of the executives and all managers have to report them about the monthly progress of their operation and the executives will later show the reports to the group President.
Cost Allocation
Proper cost allocation is another issue for Sesame Workshop to figure out correctly before they go for implementing the program. As it is a small organization with limited resources, it is very important for them to allocate the money carefully to implement this plan. They don’t have enough money available to do this, at first they must utilize the opportunities for co-productions they have from small markets like Egypt, India, and Brazil etc. From there they can generate revenue and with this surplus they can remove the deficit problem and use this money to open the HR department. To open a HR department they must consider a big amount of money anyhow as they have to add a full HR team in their business operation. They will have to pay for giving the new HR people their office space for which they might expand their current building space, also for office furniture, Job advertisement, recruitment process for hiring people, for maintaining separate committees and last but not the least for developing the new policies. They also have to consider the payroll of all additional employees in HR department including the trainers for the T&D section of HRD. So cost has to be properly allocated so that the whole plan can be successfully implemented within proper time. Who would implement it?

No plan can be successful if it is not implemented in proper manner by the right person. And opening a new HR department is a big issue which cannot be implemented easily. Before starting the developing process the Sesame Workshop must choose the right person for the implementation. According to us the current recruiters are the people who will hire some experienced HR people from outside for creating the Recruitment & Selection Committee. And after designating the newly hired HR people in the right position in the committee, they would recruit other HR managers by using a newly made guideline. After that the committee will also hire some trainers from outside to train their existing and new writers, puppets and other workers, and also to make a proper T&D plan for the organization.

Where it would be implemented?

The place where the plan would be implemented is also an important issue for the Sesame Workshop. When they were broadcasting their shows only in America, then their activities were limited to that area. But as day by day they have spread out their business throughout the world they must need to be advance and also proceed forward in a systematic way. So they would implement the plan in their main office at first. Then they would open the department in every other regional offices. But as they are suffering from a deficit for many years, they must consider the financial resources at first for which they would focus to open the department in America and with the increase in revenue generated from new opportunities, they will move forward to other countries to implement the plan further. But before opening the department there, they must research on the business culture and employee behavior those larger markets so that they can figure out if they need to make any change in their newly made policies, which would be made for their local operation.

By when it would be implemented?

Implementing any plan without proper timing has no value. So the Sesame Workshop must implement the plan within a specific time. They must target a date within which they will come up with their new HR department. We suggest that as they have not sufficient financial resources to develop a new department at first they go for entering into the small markets where they have great international growth opportunities. And after that they might be able to generate a surplus and with that money they will come up with implementation program. As HR is an important part of every organization, as soon as possible they need to develop it so that they can have the feedback of it before they go for further expansion in other larger market. We recommend them that as they have no specific policy regarding the HR issues; they must adopt the plan within six to eight months. If they cannot develop it within this period then they might change the targeted time period to implement the plan. But one thing they must concern that the time should be as soon as possible, otherwise the plan might not be effective anyway.

Problem: 2

The employee turnover for Sesame Workshop is very high as the organization does not focus on employee satisfaction, which indicates lower motivational tools available in the organization.

Recommendations:

Human Resource Department of Sesame Workshop needs to form a compensation committee which will help to design a perfect and motivated compensation policy and help to introduce performance appraisal to satisfy employees more and reduce high employee turnover.

Sesame Workshop is the largest producer of children’s educational program and has 300 employees. But surprisingly it has no specific compensation policy for their potential employees and executives. The reason behind is their deficit condition over the past decades. Though they are running successfully in the world wide it is now creating problems for the sustaining growth of the organization. The employees are not satisfied with their job and compensation level which creates disappointment towards the employee and create a high employee turnover for the organization. On the other hand Sesame does not provide any performance appraisal for their employee contribution which also creates dissatisfaction towards the employees. In this competitive age, to sustain in the international market and to overcome their main problem of deficit it must have to adopt new compensation policy and performance appraisal to satisfy the employees most and reduce the turnover.

We have suggested the Sesame Workshop to structure new compensation policy for the employees of separate geographic area. Because in different country the life style are different and the expectation of the employees are also different from others. So we cannot give same level of compensation and performance appraisal to all. Develop compensation level also for the actors, writers, puppets, animation, musicians or other set workers for providing an effective show to their children customers. We also suggested them to hire a consultant to oversee the designing process. These activities cannot be maintained properly without proper guidance and monitoring. This is the main reason to recommend the Sesame Workshop to develop a specific and proper compensation policy and performance appraisal to motivate their employees in a systematic way so that employee turnover becomes low.

How it would be implemented?

Without implementation the recommendations become worthless. So, Sesame Workshop must implement those plans, which we have suggested in the previous recommendation part effectively. So that it can easily overcome the deficit problem quickly and also to foster itself towards a profitable enterprise.
To develop a new compensation practice towards all employees in different countries, the Sesame will have to hire individual personnel who will oversee the program and a consultant who can give the best suggestions to employees. At first they have to create an outline about new compensation level and performance appraisal for every employee including the Vice President, Director, Executive managers, Mid-level managers, Supervisors, specialists and clerical staffs. After that they have to do market research and prepare a compensation policy which can reflect both the employees and employer most. They also need to focus on individual performance level which will improve the efficiency of work performed by the worker and otherwise they are not willing to work hard and precisely. The whole procedure is given below one by one:

Form a compensation committee

To change or restructure the compensation philosophy of Sesame workshop HR has to designate or hire an individual to oversee the program. In this way they also have to determine whether the position of recruiting person will be permanent or temporary, the cost of hiring from outside regardless of inside. After that, they have to calculate the cost of a consultant’s review to make the process successful and they also have to determine the budget considering the available resources and the capability to follow the process to solve the problem. Next it has to form a compensation committee consisting of officers from every region. Then they have to come up with such compensation system that encourages employees to work hard and efficiently and take the organization toward the profitable industries. After that they need to decide the salary level and benefit programs for the employees whether it will offer at, above than industry average

Structure the compensation philosophy

Now HR department of Sesame has to develop a new compensation policy as don’t have now for all which will motivate the existing employees more than now and attract the new comers. Without satisfaction of employees may do lots of hard work but can still fails to grab customer satisfaction. Sesame need to decrease the basic salary about 40% to 50% of total salary and other percentiles can be covered by benefit program. This will help employees to feel that they are valued for the organization and organization needs their efficiency along with potential productivity because Sesame has already in a loss position for several years. So Sesame needs a balanced compensation policy which will competitive for the international market considering different culture and demand of employees which also relevant, achievable and practical to implement.

Establish pay grade system

The Compensation committee which we suggest to open at first has to conduct a job analysis and evaluation of all employees considering the place factor and prepare the job classifications. Then develop a model of job description for exempt and non exempt positions for international market. Then committee has to rank the jobs based upon the employee’s capability of producing the educational program for children. Then committee has to verify in ranking model with industry market data and relatedness of job responsibility to the organization. After that for a good result of compensation policy has to prepare a matrix organizational review and flow chart on the basis of required tasks and duties of the employees. Then committee has to determine the pay grades or monetary range of a position at a particular level and determine the difference between each salary step and a minimum and maximum spread of pay range. They also have to develop a salary administration policy and document the general company policy. After doing all the analysis they need to determine what will be the basic salary for the employees of Sesame as they don’t have it yet.

We suggest giving employees 40 to 50 percentile base pay which will ensure the employment security towards his job. Other portion of salary has to be related with their performance and the level of producing programs efficiently. Sesame can also introduce the individual cash or non cash recognition, perquisites and rewards for the performance. They can introduce reward system and promote employees based upon that. To ensure low employee turnover they have to focus on the demand of employees in different region because they are international organization and are going to 150 countries.

Performance appraisal

They also have to evaluate employees of Sesame on their performance. They can do it by peer appraisal and 360 degree performance appraisal. This will help to motivate employees to produce more educative program for the children and maintain the sustain growth in international market. To do this they can do a internal market research on their employees of different countries and based upon that introduce performance appraisal. And this program needs to announce first because employees don’t have any idea about this previously. They also can give some percentage of incentives for reaching the pre set goal to individual as well as production teams.

Cost allocation

Cost allocation of a program is the most important thing because if anyone misses it to do, he has to face a lot of problem and loss according it. Proper cost allocation is very important issue for Sesame Workshop to figure out correctly before they go for implementing the program because it is a small organization with large expansion and limited resources. So it is very important for them to allocate the money carefully to implement this plan. As they don’t have enough money available to implement this program they can redistribute the salary level which will not cost them more. They also can establish licensing fees so that they can generate the required money easily. They also can focus on small growing markets so that can easily accumulate the resources. They also have to consider that employees are the element who can foster the growth of the company and hiring individual, consultant takes a huge cost. Not only that performance appraisal, reward system also want resources to implement it. And last but not least, based upon their cost allocation they have to decide that this is possible or not to allocate the proper resources to implement this recommendation. They also have to forecast, plan and spend money in exact place.

Who would implement it?

Implementation in proper manner by the right person is very important to ensure successful recommendation. Structuring new compensation policy and performance appraisal program in an international organization is quite difficult to implement. To implement it Sesame Workshop must choose the right person who can make this impossible in possible. HR people are the right person who can easily structure the compensation program easily without facing lots of problems. In this case the group vice president Martha Van Gelder can give suggestion to the HR people to implement a new compensation program and performance appraisal which will help to satisfy employees in all markets and reduce the employee turnover.

Where it would be implemented?

It is important to consider the place where the compensation policy will be applied for the Sesame Workshop. When they were locally broadcasting their shows, their activities were limited to that area. But as they are now expand their business in 150 countries they have to implement it for all the areas. If they don’t do it, other parts of organization will dissatisfy with the discrepancy policy. So they would implement the plan in their main office at first. Then they have to consider it in large production program office and last on the small growing market so that employees are satisfied with their job and motivate to do better program for Sesame. But as they are suffering from a deficit for many years, they must consider the financial resources at first. One more thing they need to consider that they are already focusing on international sales but we suggest them to focus compensation policy on customization basis.

By when it would be implemented?

Time is the most important factor in implementation part. Because if we suggest a recommendation and the organization decide to implement it after 5 years that will not be justifiable. And it will totally hamper the financial position of the organization and the project will be a just loss investment. So the Sesame Workshop must implement the plan within a specific time. They must target a date within which they will come up with their new specific and proper compensation policy with performance appraisal system. We suggest that as they don’t have sufficient financial resources to come up with a new compensation policy and performance appraisal system, at first they can go for entering into the small markets where they have great international growth opportunities or they can use their financing activities to collect the money. And after that they might be able to generate an extra portion of revenue and with that money they can come up with implementation program. As satisfaction of the employees are the most important part of every organization to run the organization for a long time, as soon as possible they need to develop compensation policy and performance appraisal system in their organization. We suggest to develop HR department first as they don’t have yet and within 6 to 8 months they need to come up with it before going for further expansion. If they cannot develop it within this period then they might change the targeted time period to implement the plan.
Problem: 3

Though Sesame Workshop ground their work in research, they do not have any specific R&D Department for which they may face difficulties in future as they are continuing with the expansion throughout the world and they need to know various things about the new market place.

Recommendations:

Sesame Workshop will have to open a new R&D department where the research teams will do various researches to obtain information about the global opportunities they have and the innovative ways to increase their profit margin.

Research and Development plays a vital role for every organization to sustain in the competitive market for longer time. So we have recommended to the Sesame Workshop to open a R&D department as soon as possible after opening the HR department to solve the above problem. These two departments would work for each other. Because without updated information, no business can sustain for longer period in the same position in this competitive age. As they have already been the largest single teacher of young children in the world, all their local as well as foreign competitors are aware of their activities and strengths points. Additionally, new and innovative ideas for the show are the crucial elements for their success. So by adopting new, advanced and unique policies, their competitors may take their position in the market easily, which can be protected by practicing R&D.

Though as part of their mission, they ground their activities in research. But having a separate R&D department would bring a blessing to them. Because this is such a department which investigates not only in the outside world of the organization, but also it’s inside. And as they are continuing with the global expansion they must know about different cultures and norms, customer needs, competitors who already exist in the market and so on. That is why we suggested them to be more advance and open a new R&D department where there would be various research teams working for different research items both inside and outside the organization.

How it would be implemented?

Research and development is very much essential for the Sesame Workshop because they currently do not have any R&D department, though they ground their activities in research. So we are going to suggest them a plan about how they can develop a R&D department and how they use it in their regular business operation. To develop the R&D department in the main office, at first they have to hire additional marketing people from outside who have the knowledge about how to do market and industry research. They would be recruited by the new HR recruitment & selection committee members. After they get hired by the company, the executive manager of the department would have to create some research teams and designate them.
Under the control of newly opened R&D department there would be various research teams working for different research items both inside and outside the organization. There must be a planning of how and exactly on what they have to research and they must be given a dead line within which they have to collect the needed information.
In this way through the research teams the organization would be able to obtain the needed and advanced information, like- current level of their employee satisfaction & their need, scope of improvement, new technology for increment of efficiency along with reducing operational cost, and also for any information they need to enter into the other countries within a reasonable and shorter time. We have divided our recommendation or suggested plan into three segments depending on the various research teams’ job- research inside the organization, outside the organization and in other countries. They are described below:

Research inside the organization

After opening the R&D department and hiring new employees through the recruitment and selection committee the research people would be divided into three segments, one of which will work for researching inside the organization. At first they would have to collect information about their existing employees including – puppets, writers, animators, set workers, musicians etc. if they need any other facilities or change in compensation policy or not. As currently they are not providing them any exclusive incentives, this is very important for them to know whether their workers are satisfied or not. So before hiring new employees or to lay off the employee they must research the compensation level that is expected by the existing employees so that they can attract the new potential people to work with them providing those people a better compensation than other competitors.

Research outside the organization

The age is no more flexible to sustain with the same position for longer time. So the Sesame Workshop will also have to research about the outside world of the organization. Those various issues include- whether there is any organization existing which wants to enter into the market in the upcoming days or not, if there is such anyone then what is the compensation level that are paid to their workers by them, at what level their own children customers are satisfied, what other people think to improve their show, what deficiency they have, what appeals to children and also about new or innovative ways to improve the show. So for these particular researches they must have to create a separate research team.

Research in other countries

Though the Sesame Workshop grounds their work in research and they have been focused so far on researching about cultural differences among countries, it has to be very careful to make their show for different countries. Because this age has been more competitive day by day. For this specific research area, they need to research about the people for hiring the puppets, writers, musicians etc. as they are spread out internationally. For the growing competitiveness of the business world they must need to adopt the new and innovative ideas to attract and retain their children customers. They will have to hire the local people to make co-production and the new hired employee might not adjust with their own business culture for which the organization might need to train them according to their corporate culture or otherwise might adopt the new culture themselves to sustain in the new market. So they must obtain information about the technologies that are used by the local companies of that country, their culture, norms, customer needs, their satisfaction level, and standard of existing service provided by the local companies etc. by a separate research team.

Cost Allocation

Every plan should have some budget to be implemented properly in time. So cost is another issue for the company to figure out correctly before they go for implementing the program. To open a new R&D department the Sesame Workshop must consider a big amount of money as they will have several additional Research teams working for their business in three different phases- inside the company, outside the organization and in other countries. So it will cost them a lot. But preparing for the budget is wise as they will get the benefit for having such a department which will work for their own purpose. They must allocate the total budget for the R&D department among all the activities they need to conduct for opening a totally new department. They will have to give the new employees additional office space for which they need money. The other areas where they will need money are- for travel expense of research, recruitment process for hiring people, for maintaining separate committees and last but not the least for developing the new policies. Among them the travel expense will cost them more as their business has been already globally spread out. So keeping everything under consideration cost has to be properly allocated so that the whole plan can be successfully implemented.

Who would implement it?

The person for implementing the plan must be chosen carefully beforehand so that the other resources including time, money etc. is not wasted. No plan can be successful if it is not implemented by the right person. So before starting the department developing process the Sesame Workshop must choose the right person for the implementation. The Sesame Workshop has been maintaining a research works to make their shows effective and interesting. So they must have some research workers existing in their organization. Here we are suggesting the company to open this R&D department after they open the HR department. And that is why the recruitment & selection committee will be available that time to hire new employees for this department. After they get hired by the company, the executive manager including some people from existing research workers of the department would have to develop some guideline, to create some research teams and designate them in the right positions according to their research areas. The research manager would develop a schedule and the supervisor will monitoring that the research team is working properly or not. So the main source for implementing the plan would be the Recruitment and Selection committee to hire employees for this particular department and after that all the other activities would be done by the whole R&D department itself. Where it would be implemented?

Place is another factor to be considered before implementing any plan. And it is particularly very important for the Sesame Workshop as they want to continue their business expansion globally. When the Sesame Workshop was broadcasting their show only in America, then their activities were limited to that area. But as day by day they have spread out their business throughout the world they must need to be advance and also proceed forward in a systematic way. So it has been a critical issue for them at which place they should develop the R&D department at first. We strongly recommend them to open the department at their company main office at first as soon as possible. When they will realize that it really helps them in continuing their business operation, they will precede the implementation process of this plan in other offices situated in other counties. But before opening this department in other countries they must research through their own research teams about their cultural adoption of this new policy. Thus they can figure out if they need to make any change in their local research policies. So finally we are suggesting the Sesame Workshop to develop the R&D department serially in the following way:

• Inside their company in United States • After realizing the result, in other preferable countries

By when it would be implemented?

Time is another important factor in the implementation procedure. Implementing any plan without proper timing has no value. So the Sesame Workshop must implement the plan of establishing a new R&D department within a dead line. They must target a date within which they will come up with this new department. We strongly suggest that as R&D is very important for them as they have already expanded their business globally and still wanting to expand in larger markets. Another important reason for necessity of R&D is their business type. They ground their every work in research as they make show for children’s education for which anyhow they try to make the show interesting to them. So as soon as possible they need to develop it in USA at first. They must adopt the plan within eight to ten months just after they open the new HR department.

Problem: 4

Sesame Workshop is having a deficit for many years for which it prefers to go for downsizing & laying off their employees to reduce their operational cost, which causes a high employee turnover for the organization.

Recommendations:

To resolve operating loss over time, HR department of Sesame Workshop needs to focus on growing small market, invest more on financing activities, introduce commercials on program time, encourage broadcaster to go for licensing agreement, stop the expansion policy of the organization without allocating resources and maintain the current market for generating more operating revenue.

Downsizing of an organization in a large scale to reduce cost and meet the breakeven point is very worried things for an organization because it lay offs potential employees and creates frustration towards them who are working with the organization currently. This frustration will also reduce the efficiency of the employees because the corporation focuses on the employees lay off only to reduce the cost. As Sesame wanted to reduce cost and have some operating profit for the organization, they go for downsizing by lay off their employees and they lay off approximately 150 or more employees. But it could not be the right solution to reduce cost by lay off as they don’t stop their expansion program and creates contradictory issue for the organization. And by lay off they cannot sustain in the market for a long time. On the other hand, they have already been the largest single teacher of young children in the world, all their local as well as foreign competitors are aware of their activities and strengths points. So we recommend Sesame Workshop to focus on small growing markets to generate the revenue and meet the breakeven point easily. We also recommend them to invest more on financing activities and raising the fund for the not for profit organization, introduce commercials on program time, encourage broadcaster in more licensing agreement. For their better position we suggest Sesame not to expand more in this time as don’t have available resources to support the expansion program.

How it would be implemented?

Sesame Workshop must implement those plans, which we have suggested in the previous recommendation part, effectively so that it can easily overcome the deficit problem quickly and also to foster itself towards a systematic way. We all know that without proper implementation, no plan can be successful. And as Sesame Workshop is a small company with large expansion, we suggest them to solve the problem in other way which will be more beneficial for them. After analyzing the case we will suggest them to go for introducing commercials between the children’s program time as they can distinguish between advertisement programs to generate more revenue. They also can focus on small growing market and invest in financing activities to accumulate money immediately. We also suggest to encourage the broadcaster to licensing fees and to stop expansion policy of the organization as they don’t have enough resources. Now we are suggesting following the following steps:

Focus on small growing market

Generating revenue for the organization in a short time we suggest Sesame to focus on small growing market as they now focusing more on large growth potential markets. To do so they need to do a market research on small market and HR department is responsible for conducting this market research on all the small markets for the organization. After that based upon their result they have to evaluate small markets where they can easily capture and earn more revenue. When they can choose or target some small markets to generate revenue they have to decide by which way they can generate it, which program or product can attract more customer than others and have to evaluate them accordingly. Product can be new attractive, innovative program or physical their product like puppet, clothing, purse, T-shirts, key chains, earrings and so on. Next they have to come up with the desired product of the regions and advertised about that so that the organization can earn more money and increase the total revenue amount.

Introduce commercials between the programs

As the children can understand or distinguish the program content and commercials easily, Sesame can go for introducing commercials between the children’s program to generate revenue from the commercials. It is a very profitable business without costing the company more. To do this HR department needs to communicate with the right people who are involving in these commercial deals like commercial head of the advertised company. We also suggest them to come up with that commercial which are only for children and can educate children’s something, not destroy their future because the programs are mainly for the preschool children. After listening the advertised companies terms and condition, Sesame can go for an agreement with them to show the commercials between the programs. By doing these things they can generate huge money from them easily without giving too much effort and having unaffordable cost.

Encourage broadcaster for licensing

Sesame has already 400 licensor around the world to broadcast their educational program to generate the earnings. But they also expand their business by going for co-productions with other countries where licensing is not workable and is not generating revenue as licensing. But now we suggest them for going to licensing agreement because co-productions also increase the cost for the organization where as licensing does not require that much of money or costing. So we suggest them to encourage the broadcaster for more licensing agreement by consulting them with individually or group to convince them and they need to show licensors profit equation to them. After convincing them they need to review the step as licensor are not introducing any bad product for the children or not. After that they need to make an agreement with them for a specific period of time.
By doing this Sesame can generate money easily and have operating profit. To do so they also need to communicate with the existing broadcaster as well as new one and give them some extra benefits to influence in licensing agreement.

Stop expansion for unavailable resources

Sesame has already expanded their business over the world and they are producing their programs for 150 countries and want top reach at every part of the country in the world so that they can educate all the preschoolers. Sesame serves children as a teacher and they like to aware all the children. But they are now facing deficit over the period and having low resources to go for further expansion and like to reduce their cost by lay off. So we suggest them to stop expansion program of the organization now as don’t have enough resources to follow up. If they want to expand more now, they will actually kill the business because expansion in a new area is related with costs and no organization can sustain having deficit all the time. And for now it is important to maintain the current market and generate revenue from there. To do so they need to consult with 16 boards of directors and show the actual position of the company. With the support of board of directors HR department can stop the further expansion and can target already existed markets. So that they can generate money eventually save the organization from loss by stopping it from further expansion.

Cost Allocation

Implementation of a program is totally associated with huge cost, so cost is another issue for the company to figure out correctly before they go for implementing the program. Focusing on small growing market, introducing commercials between the programs, encouraging broadcaster for licensing agreement are not associated with a great cost. So Sesame can easily implement this part and generate revenue from it. On the hand stopping further expansion will reduce the cost for the organization. And by the extra balance Sesame can implement their priority based implementation program. But preparing for the budget is wise as they will get the benefit for having such a department which will work for their own purpose. Keeping everything under consideration cost has to be properly allocated so that the whole plan can be successfully implemented.

Who would implement it?

Who will implement the discussing solutions is very important because if it is go in a wrong hand, it will cost the organization a lot and may be the organization will not interested to implement it further. Normally it is the responsibility of HR department to convince the board of directors to accompany with the solutions. If the board of directors is decided to implement the solutions, HR department can come up with the best implementation program and start to implement the program. Here cost is needed to be considering because already Sesame is in a deficit position.

Where it would be implemented?

It is important to consider the place where the compensation policy will be applied for the Sesame Workshop. Without knowing the place Sesame cannot go for implementation because they serve in 150 countries and their product varies from country to country. So they have to target a specific area for the implementation purposes where the solutions would impact and successful. So they need a market research and based upon that has to select a specific area. If they don’t do it, organization has to face huge cost regarding the implementation in a wrong area. But as they are suffering from a deficit for many years, they must consider the financial resources at first.

By when it would be implemented?

We know time is valuable; this will also true for implementation a program also and is the most important factor in implementation part. Because if we suggest a recommendation and the organization decide to implement it after several years when the problem is not existed ant more that will not be justifiable. And it will totally hamper the financial position of the organization and the project will be a just loss investment. So the Sesame Workshop must implement the plan within a specific time period. They must target a date within which they will come up with their small market strategy, commercials between programs ideas because these are easy to implement and are relatively less cost oriented. We suggest that as they don’t have sufficient financial resources to come up with a new strategy they can first stop their expansion policy over the world and maintain the current market successfully. After that they can come up with other programs. We suggest to stop further expansion as early as possible specifically in a month because it actually increases the deficit portion more. And Sesame can implement other implementations within six to eight months. If they cannot come up within this period then they might face a large deficit problem from where they may not survive.

Problem: 5

Sesame Workshop had reorganized their organizational structure in a vertical way in 1996 to focus more on larger market along with ignoring the smaller market which caused harm to the organizational profit margin.

Recommendations:

Sesame Workshop must restructure its organizational layers in horizontally so that every plan could be implemented more easily and quickly, and also they can utilize the international growth opportunities associated with the small markets by focusing on both smaller and larger markets.

The Sesame Workshop is maintaining too many layers in their organizational structure, which is very time consuming and also acts as a barrier for developing between employee and top level relationship. We all know that the less the number of layer in an organizational structure, it is better for the organization itself. So we strongly recommend to the Sesame Workshop to reorganize their organizational structure again and try to make it horizontally spread not vertically, by removing at least one or two layers.

Another reason behind our recommendation is that their current structure does not focus on the smaller markets where they have limited growth potential but are currently generating revenue. This reorganization resulted in a revised classification of markets and countries from which a decision was made so that they reduce the managerial time spent on the smaller markets and to focus more on the larger markets. But the problem is they need the same effort for co-producing in both large and small markets, and where small markets are supposed to be more profitable for them to generate short term revenue. Like in Australia, Canada, Netherlands etc. they have a growth opportunity though it is not potential. So by focusing on this kind of growth opportunities associated with small markets, they will easily overcome their poor financial condition.

How it would be implemented?

We have divided our recommendation into two phases- at first they have to focus on the smaller market so that they can overcome the deficit problem, which they are having for many years ago. And after they generate surplus, which means a higher profit margin, from co-producing with those smaller markets, like in Egypt, India, France, Brazil etc., they will be able to open a HR department where they will come up with new reformed organizational structure. In the next page we have explained the whole procedure following which the Sesame Workshop can implement our recommended plan.
Focus on Smaller Markets at first to generate revenue

We are strongly recommending to the Sesame Workshop not to ignore these small countries and to focus on both larger and smaller markets to generate revenue which has been very essential for them at this deficit situation. To overcome their deficit condition, focusing on the smaller markets will help them a lot. As revenue generation has been vital for them, the Vice President of Co-production will manage the whole procedure how to co-produce or broadcast their shows in those countries. But it must be approved by the Group Vice President of the organization. Because without financial resources their production cannot be precede on as nowadays broadcasters are not ready to pay for the shows. So anyhow they must try to co-produce their shows with those profitable countries where many of their oldest customers want to make a good relationship with them. In this way they will easily over come their deficit condition.

Reduce the Organizational Vertical Layers

We have recommended earlier that they must open a new HR department where they will reform every policy. After generating revenue from the smaller markets, they must open it as soon as possible, because they have to reorganize their existing organizational structure which is currently in vertical way. The vertically organized structure does not benefit an organization, because it kills too much time and effort to make a decision or to implement it. It also hampers the chance of developing the employee-employer and top-level management- customer relationship. So they must reorganize the structure such a way so that they have a proper process of quick decision making.

After opening the HR department the HR manager will restructure the organizational structure into as horizontal as possible. As the Sesame Workshop is a small firm, though they have spread out all over the world, they must maintain the organizational layer lesser so that in less time they utilize their resources to the highest extent. A supervisory committee can be formed who will ensure that people can give their feedback and ideas directly to the top level as well as all other level where they want. This committee will also ensure that top level employee can interact with the customers so that they can get the direct feedback. Mainly the duties of this committee will be to involve employees from all levels from top level executives to the clerical positions.

According to the traditional organizational structures, top level executives do not have any relationship with the customers, but we have recommended them to establish such a structure which will look like a reverse pyramid. In the reverse pyramid there will be customers in every corner which indicates that all level managers will have relationship with customers. In this way their decision making process will be faster as they do not have to discuss with the low level employees to know about the customers’ needs. Ultimately in this way will easily overcome the deficit condition and will be able to invest in other larger markets with high growth potential.

Who would implement it?

To implement our recommended plan, the Sesame Workshop must go to those countries where they have not very high growth potential but have a great opportunity to generate short term revenue. As revenue generation has been vital for them, the Vice President of Co-production will manage the whole procedure how to co-produce or broadcast their shows in those countries. But it must be approved by the Group Vice President of the organization. After generating revenue and from that money after opening the HR department the HR manager will restructure the organizational structure into a horizontal one. A supervisory committee will ensure that people can give their feedback and ideas directly to the top level as well as all other levels where they want. This committee will also ensure that the top level executives can interact with the customers so that they can get the direct feedback. As the Sesame Workshop is a small firm, though they have spread out all over the world, they must maintain the organizational layer lesser so that in less time they utilize their resources to the highest extent.

Where it would be implemented?

Place is another crucial element to consider for implementing our plan. We are recommending Sesame Workshop to implement the plan by focusing on small markets at first for co-producing and broadcasting their shows. So the place would be those countries where their older customers exist and who are interested to work with them, like Australia, Canada, Netherlands etc. so that they can generate revenue quickly within two months. And the next phase of this implementation process is to reform their organizational structure which would be occurred in their main office at first and if successfully implemented then go for further process to other countries. So ultimately we recommend them to implement the plan in those smaller markets and after that in their main office.

By when it would be implemented?

For Sesame Workshop now it has been very important to overcome from the deficit condition as soon as possible. But their ignorance of smaller market is the main barrier to overcome the problem, which they could not recognize earlier. So we have recommended that as they have lots of co-production opportunities existing in some countries, they should go towards those countries at first to generate revenue. Because without financial resources their production cannot be precede on as nowadays broadcasters are not ready to pay for the shows anymore. And after that they would open the new HR department where they will reform their organizational structure in the way we have recommended. So this plan should be implemented partially within one to two months and after generating revenue from the small markets, further implementation will occur within six to eight months when the new HR department would be opened.

Appendix

Organizational Structure (Partial) of Sesame Workshop:

It continues up to clerical positions

Note: As in the given case there is nowhere mentioned that after the Senior Director what other positions are maintained by the Sesame Workshop, we have assumed that there would be some other layers including Managers, supervisors, Specialists, and clerical staffs after the Senior Director position.

Reference

1. www.sesamestreet.com 2. MGT351: Human Resource Management
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The Senior Director

The Regional Director

The Group Vice President

The Regional Vice President for Latin America & Asia

The Regional Vice President for Europe, Africa & Middle East

The Co-production Vice President

The Group President

SWOT Analysis

Managers

Other Professionals