Taran Swan at Nickelodeon Latin America (A) Case Solution

1. What grade would you give Taran Swan for her leadership of the Nick Latin America initiative?

Exceptional leadership is the key to a successful business venture and development. Transforming innovations into growth opportunities is the main trait of an exceptional leader. Teamwork and skill development are focused in order to implement the innovative idea successfully. He/she has to attain functional knowledge for project implementation in a different environment, identify important pool of partners, implement promotional and marketing strategies, and making the supply chain process efficient for the new project.

Taran Swan can be described as an exceptional leader in the project launch of Nick in Latin America. She was the head of Nickelodeon expansion project into Latin America. As Nick tried to explore new markets and reach for new subscribers/customers, it selected Swan to perform the job in the most effective way possible. Swan, also serving as the business development team lead, selected a few experienced individuals of the same company in order to make her team strong and professional for the implementation of the new project. She was the responsible person for making a failing project turn into a success through effective strategy and leadership skills. Implemented management style included the selection of energetic, experienced, bright, and talented individuals and allowing them to make decisions and strategies according to their own perception and experience. Primal analytic techniques were used during the whole process of implementation and execution. Swan’s team had the will to initiate and take risks in order to turn the project into a profitable one. They had the ability to overcome the risks and succeed in most of the cases. Swan and her team can be taken as an example for future business expansion models, confirming the exceptional leadership qualities of Taran Swan.

2. How would you describe her leadership approach?

Taran Sawan had a visionary style of leadership during her career. She had a vision for the company and a clear picture of strategies and plans for future implementation. She was selected as the leader of company’s new initiative involving success and risks. Visionary leadership often has a side effect which ignores the rest of the members of the team. But Sawan was a leader who focused on individuality in order to build the confidence of her team members. A team leader has the ability to combine the effort of every subordinate and strengthen business strategy by using each human resource available. Sawan showed the characteristics of a perfect team leader resolving every problematic situation with a team effort.

Visionary leadership style is most effective when an organization is starting a new venture, or selecting a different direction. Its mission is to make sure that the team members share a single vision and direction for future planning. Taran Sawan led the team in an effective way and set them free to think, innovate and create a new set of strategies and policies. Team members had a greater opportunity to work according to their own preferences, and were allowed to take a particular extent of risk in their decisions. South American extension plan was directly under control of Swan, for which, she selected a small number of experienced and job specific people. The team she developed was focused on the fast paced working environment to reach the goal of a successful marketing campaign in South America, to make Nickelodeon the number one channel in children television industry.

3. What does she do best? What, if any, weaknesses do you see?

The capabilities of any person should be evaluated before his/her selection for the particular job. Taran Swan was selected as the director product launch in Latin America after successfully serving as business development director at Nickelodeon International. She had prior experience of training and implementing Nickelodeon’s brand imaging at various places of channel’s launch. Her team was considered to be one of the most efficient and effective business development and training team in the television industry. This was the reason that Nickelodeon channel promoted uniform trend of operations throughout its international working stations. Taran Swan was considered to be a visionary leader whose basic purpose was to encourage her team members, in order to perform in the most efficient way possible.