HRM380 Case on Sesame Street

Case 2 Group ‘K’ Sesame workshop and International Growth

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Case 2 Group ‘K’ Sesame workshop and International Growth Sesame Workshop, Workshop, formerly known as the Children's Television Workshop Workshop (or CTW), is a Worldwide American non-profit organization behind the production of several educational educational children's programs programs that have run on public broadcasting around the world. Sesame Street is Street is a significant production of Sesame Workshop. The show was reproduced in almost every country and became an immediate success everywhere. It had many opportunities for co productions in many many of the countries. countries. But the main main mission of Sesame Sesame Workshop Workshop was to educate people globally. Martha Van Gelder, the group vice president of products and international television at Sesame Workshop Workshop described in a saying that they want to do everything very well and may be in less. But they want to develop their brand name and mission. They want to help all children in the entire world.

Joan Ganz Cooney was the original founder, with the intention of producing a revolutionary television series based on cutting-edge research into childhood learning. The result was Sesame Street , a landmark program which has been reproduced in countries around the world. It was originally funded by the Carnegie Corporation in association with Ford Foundation and the United States Office of Education. The CTW name was officially changed to Sesame Workshop in 2000 to reflect the company's reach into new media and capitalize on the worldwide recognition provided by the Sesame Street name.

The Children's Television Workshop was founded to conduct a study on some specific set of curriculum goals in 1968. Five test shows were developed and evaluated on the following year. The first show named Sesame Street was Street was aired on November 1969 on a station of Public Broadcasting Service. The show was an immediate success which covered more than half of the target audience.

Sesame Workshop‟s primary mission is to create ground-breaking ground -breaking initiatives in order to enhance the educational power of media and help all children reach their highest potential. They designated their core values are: innovation, optimism, knowledge knowledge and diversity. Sesame Workshop is a not-for-profit company chartered by a board consisting 16 members which included Joan Ganz Cooney. Sesame workshop also had three financial goals. Which were1. To assemble public and private funding partnerships to support educational initiatives. 2. To support educational activities with self-generated revenues. 3. To establish under-lying financial stability by maintaining an investment portfolio to cover operating deficiencies when necessary and to ensure the long-term financial viability of Sesame of Sesame Street.

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Case 2 Group ‘K’ Sesame workshop and International Growth Sesame Workshop, Workshop, formerly known as the Children's Television Workshop Workshop (or CTW), is a Worldwide American non-profit organization behind the production of several educational educational children's programs programs that have run on public broadcasting around the world. Sesame Street is Street is a significant production of Sesame Workshop. The show was reproduced in almost every country and became an immediate success everywhere. It had many opportunities for co productions in many many of the countries. countries. But the main main mission of Sesame Sesame Workshop Workshop was to educate people globally. Martha Van Gelder, the group vice president of products and international television at Sesame Workshop Workshop described in a saying that they want to do everything very well and may be in less. But they want to develop their brand name and mission. They want to help all children in the entire world.

Joan Ganz Cooney was the original founder, with the intention of producing a revolutionary television series based on cutting-edge research into childhood learning. The result was Sesame Street , a landmark program which has been reproduced in countries around the world. It was originally funded by the Carnegie Corporation in association with Ford Foundation and the United States Office of Education. The CTW name was officially changed to Sesame Workshop in 2000 to reflect the company's reach into new media and capitalize on the worldwide recognition provided by the Sesame Street name.

The Children's Television Workshop was founded to conduct a study on some specific set of curriculum goals in 1968. Five test shows were developed and evaluated on the following year. The first show named Sesame Street was Street was aired on November 1969 on a station of Public Broadcasting Service. The show was an immediate success which covered more than half of the target audience.

Sesame Workshop‟s primary mission is to create ground-breaking ground -breaking initiatives in order to enhance the educational power of media and help all children reach their highest potential. They designated their core values are: innovation, optimism, knowledge knowledge and diversity. Sesame Workshop is a not-for-profit company chartered by a board consisting 16 members which included Joan Ganz Cooney. Sesame workshop also had three financial goals. Which were1. To assemble public and private funding partnerships to support educational initiatives. 2. To support educational activities with self-generated revenues. 3. To establish under-lying financial stability by maintaining an investment portfolio to cover operating deficiencies when necessary and to ensure the long-term financial viability of Sesame of Sesame Street.

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Sesame Street is Street is an American American children's television series and a pioneer of the contemporary educational television standard, combining both education and entertainment. Sesame Street features Muppets characters characters created by Jim Henson, making it one of the longest running children's programs programs on television t elevision and also the longest running series broadcasted on PBS.

Sesame Street is Street is an exceptional initiative undertaken by the Sesame Workshop. It is a 130 hour-long program consist 30-40 segments each. Muppet characters played a significant role in the particular premier. Although Muppet characters were originally created by late Jim Henson, they became an integral part of Sesame of Sesame Street . Sesame Street always Street always concentrates on at least one highly detailed educational goal. Extensive testing found that viewers of the show achieve some significant great er gains over the non-viewers. The show made a vital contribution to cognitive and social development of the preschoolers. As a result of contributing so much in preschoolers‟ education through media, Sesame Street won Street won numerous awards from all over the world. In the United States, Sesame Street‟s 76 Emmy Awards were the most ever awarded to a single program. In all, Sesame Street has Street has been nominated for 14 Primetime Emmys and has won seven and has been nominated for 253 Daytime Emmys and has won 108 as well as a Lifetime Achievement Award in 2009.

Sesame Street was Street was an immediate success all over the world soon after it was premiered. Producers from countries around the world world became interested in the show to be re-broadcast in their countries. Primarily, the American version of the show was broadcasted around the world. Afterwards, Afterwards, foreign audiences started to request for an altered version of the show which matches their own culture. Consequently, the show began to be reproduced all over the world world representing the country‟s culture.

Going worldwide, Sesame Workshop worked with various producers from the home country. Firstly, this was just to have an advantage to apply the local c ulture in their work. Secondly, they discovered the writers who can create some innovative writings and obviously those writings match the local culture and customs. Sesame Workshop, in their shows, used both their own characters and the local char acters. But the scenes were totally local production. Open Sesame was another production of Sesame Workshop that was broadcasted only to focus on the local market. It was a live l ive show that also was cheaper to produce.

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Prior to move on to China, Sesame Workshop came into agreement with four Chinese universities and with their alliance, they conducted seminars a bout Sesame Workshop. They found lots of people are really fascinated about Sesame Workshop. So, the firm started to move on to China and signed a contract with Shanghai Television. The characters were a mix local actors and artists from Sesame Workshop. The very first show in China was aired in February 1998 and 130 half-hour shows were developed for the first season. Sesame Workshop was a part of USAID when it was initiated in Russia. The program had several objectives to be competed in Russia. The most part of the show was developed in Russia and the others were from New York.

Sesame Workshop was engaged in various sorts of activities all around the world. Their magazines was enough entertaining for both children and adults. They also developed some interactive activities which were introduced through CD-ROMs, games, DVDs and most importantly through their website. International trade licensing enabled Sesame Workshop to broadcast their program in almost 150 countries of the world. They wanted that most of the preschoolers would join them. Sesame Workshop licensed its brand name in order to reach all children all over the world. They dispersed their work all over the countries and they broaden their target market to all age groups. Sesame Workshop also established theme parks in various locations. Their outreach programs were designed to reach low income children als o.

2000 is a significant year in respect to the financial fi nancial aspects of Sesame Workshop. The 1999 deficit, largest in the firm‟s history, histor y, resulted in various new product initiative and fundraising efforts. They cut down administrative cost at their best and focused more on the sector they are making out profits.

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Until 1992, Sesame Workshop had separated English version of the show from the others. But after the time, they shaped some new strategies for reaching their target customers. These strategies are described in the following.

Co-production decisions were initiated only by a broadcaster who had seen the English version of the show and passionate to reproduce another version for his country. Sesame Workshop then considered 5 well established issues. Initiall y, all the production cost had to be funded by the broadcaster. Sesame Workshop developed product strategies for the show.

In 1996, a total reorganization of international operations was initiated. This arrangement was headed by a group president. The total world was divided among some segments and two regional vice presidents took the charge of these segments. This structure enables Sesame Workshop to understand the market all around the world. It also enables Sesame Workshop to spend lesser time in smaller markets and focus on larger markets.

In 1999, a vast change in management of Sesame Workshop had been made. New divisions were created and they tried to reach all over the world with their brand. This new division was lead by Marthe Van Gelder. He said in a saying that they do not focus on making money. Rather they focus on educating most of the kids. Sesame Workshop established offices outside United States and agents were employed to manage everyday‟s work.

Sesame Workshop is a not-for-profit organization. But they had to compete with other for-profit organizations. But if they do not look for profit, they will be diminished any day. They cannot bear the expenses. Sesame Workshop is in business for maintaining its social responsibilities. Their main strategy was diversity. They established different strategies for entering into different market.

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India is not a very interesting market for Sesame Workshop because of limited distribution channels. Moreover it is a country where many different linguistic and cultural people collaborate. This in turn makes production harder and difficult to reach all linguistic and cultural people. Brazil, France and Italy seem to be a target market with high potential. They also agreed for a long-term relationship with Sesame Workshop. Sesame Workshop tried to focus on understanding a market intensely than on actual selling. Sesame Workshop differs deeply from others in children‟s programming. They try to enter response for any market opportunities. They had the advantage of entering any market as they do not have to think about their profits. Search for Common Ground is such mission that did not generated any profit but is consistent with the missions.

There are some well-established criteria for investing. A thorough breakeven enables the managers to take decisions about where to invest more and where less. They look at the market opportunities and bring out strategies to maximize those opportunities. They also tried to find new revenue sources and make the use of those sources. They did not focus only on revenues. They created ways to develop themselves and extend the experiences.

In the era of internationalization of Sesame Workshop, televisions of most countries were dominated by public broadcasters. Many of those broadcasters were prepared to be associated with Sesame Workshop. But after 1990, when the commercial broadcasters were growing up via satellite and cable, the work of Sesame Workshop became very much competitive. Most commercial broadcasters were not interested in broadcasting children‟s programs to be competitive with the others. Moreover, some countries had cable reached on most of the households and some had not. Dealing with such diversified markets was a very difficult job for Sesame Workshop. Formerly, Sesame Workshop‟s work was to invent new and innovative ideas for children‟s education. But after the popularization of satellite television, two different kinds of problems were faced by Sesame Workshop. Competition became harder and harder. Many other programs for preschoolers were also developed and broadcasters preferred those shows with less expense.

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Facing with these competitions, Sesame Workshop had to reestablish their goals and revise their strategies. They also reduced their prolonged 130-episode shows to 65episode shows per season. Here, they promised to deliver quality standards. Sesame Workshop also made some surveys about the acceptance of commercial breaks.

Sesame Workshop had many opportunities in various countries. Japan provided an interesting situation. A large market in Japan watched this show as a vehicle of learning English. Japanese girls were also very interested i n the characters of Sesame Street. Sesame Workshop always tries to reach every child in the country they work in. They were ready to take any risk where sufficient money could not be reached. Product licensing was another interesting and challenging job for Sesame Workshop. Products behave differently at times. They always try to enhance their brand names. Sesame Workshop‟s goal was to find ways to maintain their li censing activities in their own way. Since they are focusing on the local markets, they always make their products local.

Sesame Workshop is a small firm with unlimited dreams. They do not make shows for making profit out of it. But they try to make entertaining as well as educational shows for the preschoolers. Educating children is the main mission of Sesame Workshop. They have been very successful with the Sesame Street, a show that is very popular even in present da ys.

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Sesame Workshop is a not-for-profit organization which is responsible for producing entertaining and educational shows for preschoolers. Their main goal is to e ducate all children in the countries around the world. As a not-for-profit organization, they do not make shows for generating profits from it. They try to capture ever y market opportunities regardless of making profit. Sesame Street is a very popular show produced by Sesame Workshop. It had been an immediate success wherever it was broadcasted. The show was dubbed in different language for different country. It was co-produced all over the world. Sesame Workshop produced different cultural and traditional versions of the show focusing on the broadcasting countries. Most part of the show was local production. Even the characters were made differently. Sesame Workshop associated with different local producers to enter into different market. This allows the company to make diverse cultural shows. Each show was different from the other. Producers were encouraged to being out innovative ideas. Other than the Sesame Street, Sesame Workshop had many educational shows for children. Children found these shows much interesting. The characters of the shows were very popular among the children. Sesame Workshop‟s challenge was to remain true to their roots and develop programming that is both enticing and educational. Mission of educating children is the first priorit y of Sesame Workshop.

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Is it possible for Sesame Workshop to sustain in this competitive market with their not-for profit approach by meeting their strict set of rules and standards accordance with their organizational mission and goals where rest of the competitors are with great financial backup and profit oriented as well as are not producing only basic educational shows like Sesame Workshop?

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SWOT analysis is a strategic planning method used to evaluate the Strengths, Weaknesses, O pportunities, and Threats involved in 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 achieve that objective.

A SWOT analysis must first start with defining a desired end state or objective. A SWOT analysis may be incorporated into the strategic planning model. Identificati on of SWOTs is essential because subsequent steps i n the process of planning for achievement of the selected objective may be derived from the SWOTs. First, the decision makers have to determine whether t he objective is attainable, given the SWOTs. If the objective is not attainable a different objective must be selected and the process repeated. The SWOT analysis is often used in academia to highlight and identify strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats. It is particularl y helpful in identifying areas for development The aim of any SWOT analysis is to identify the key internal and external factors that are important to achieving the objective. These come from within the company's unique value chain. SWOT analysis groups key pieces of information into two main categories: 

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Internal factors – The strengths and weaknesses internal to the organization. External factors – The opportunities and threats presented by the external environment to the organization

The internal factors may be viewed as strengths or weaknesses depending upon their impact on the organization's objectives. What may represent strengths with respect to one objective may be weaknesses for a nother objective. SWOT analysis is just one method of categorization and has its own weaknesses It also presents the resulting lists uncritically and without clear prioritization so that, for example, weak opportunities may appear to balance strong threats. It is prudent not to eliminate too quickly any candidate SWOT entry. The importance of individual SWOTs will be revealed by the value of the strategies it generates. A SWOT item that produces valuable strategies is important.

The usefulness of SWOT analysis is not limited to profit-seeking organizations. SWOT analysis may be used in any decision-making situation when a desired endstate (objective) has been defined. Examples include: non-profit organizations,

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governmental units, and individuals. SWOT analysis may also be used in pre-crisis planning and preventive crisis management. SWOT analysis may also be used in creating a recommendation during a viability study survey. This brings together the internal and external environmental scanning to identify the business‟s internal strengths and weaknesses and external opportunities and threats. A technique for identifying the Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats of the programmed area as a basis for discussing programmed objectives. SWOT (Strengths, Weakness, and Opportunities & Threats) is an analytical tool t hat examines the interaction between the Business or the proposed change and the external Marketplace

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trengths:

characteristics of the business or team that give it an advantage over

others in the industry. It refers to the competitive advantage and other distinctive competencies that a company can exert in the mar ket place.

eaknesses: are characteristics that place the firm at a disadvantage relative to others. This are constrains that hinder the movement in cert ain direction.

pportunities: external chances to make greater sales or profits in the environment. Primarily exert from external environment and refer to the gaining of completive advantage.

hreats: external elements in the environment that could cause trouble for the business. Threats are external uncontrollable variables that can create problems on organizational performance pose as threat to firms.

The following are SWOT analysis of Sesame Workshop

Strengths are as follows: 1. Sesame Street are using as a means of learning English and Studies demonstrated that, the show made a significant and lasting contribution to preschoolers’ cognitive and social development and won the Emmy Awards Countries like Caribbean used the Sesame Street Series as a means of teaching English. And that‟s why Sesame Street won numerous awards in the United States and other countries including 76 Emmy Awards. As was the case for any television show, international distribution was quite profitable. For children‟s television workshop, the only real incremental costs for re broadcasting were for residuals for actors and musicians. And after the US shows all the broadcasters requested to broadcast it in English. This is strength for Sesame because; this makes Sesame Street very popular in the world. Other shows don‟t have this character. So this is definitely strength for Sesame Workshop.

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And a study demonstrated that children who watched the show learned more, that‟s why parents also encourage children to watch it. Awards are alwa ys given to those who\s are best. Emmy award is a very reputed and respected television award. The winning of this award is strength for Sesame, as this award help sesame to achieve more respect from people and also from competitors and channels.

2. The Sesame Workshop was appreciated by many countries of the world. Children and channels both appreciated them. Sesame Street can reduce costs and pricing for poor countries those other production companies cannot. Sesame Workshop was appreciated by every country where they telecasted, likeGermany, Canada, New Zealand and other countries. In these countries there is not a self-sustaining model around licensing. They combine the broadcast and license in the great market. And as they are non-profit organization, they are not that much costly. With more than 400 licenses, Sesame Workshop licensed its‟ brand throughout the world. Appreciation is the greatest strength for anything. Sesame Street got this appreciation from each and every country. This is definitely biggest strength for them as they got the support from the audiences. Cost is an important element in any production. Sesame Street can make shows in a minimum cost and this ability makes them popular in other countries. Any country whether they are rich or poor, can easily demonstrate Sesame Str eet because of their low cost

3.

Sesame Workshop can diversify. They can make shows in different countries with their local language, culture and heritage. Sesame Street was welcomed by the people of countries and they worked to spread the culture of the country to the children.

Sesame Street is very strongly appreciated for spreading the local culture and heritage among the people and especially among the children of that particular country. Children love to watch it and through this show they can easily know about their culture and customs. Sesame Street was considering a ver y strong means of introducing children their culture and history that others were not able to promote so nicely. Diversity is a good quality of a program and Sesame Street maintai n that quality with perfection. If a serial or show becomes the way to spread history, and culture of a country then this is a biggest achievement for that show. Sesame Street achieved that success and so this is strength for them. Sesame Workshop was involved in multiple activities, such as television, film and video included television programming, feature films, home videos, and various products on cassette and CD. And they are successful with their aspects.

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Diversity is strength for Sesame Workshop. Typically other shows are demonstrated only on TV, but Sesame Street breaks this rule. They make involvement with new technology and make people more interested for their shows. Maintain diversity is strength.

4. Sesame Street is so strong that the whole world welcomed them so nicely. In every country and city wherever Sesame Street demonstrated, they got a warm welcome. They never faced any trouble for enter anywhere. This is strength for the production company. In 190 a German network, NDR began broadcasting sesame Street dubbed in Germany. In 191 NDR began producing and inserting a few segments that incorporated elements of the German national educational board. And Canada, NewZealand also welcomed them heartily. A show is made for the audience. If they like it then this is the success of that show. Sesame Workshop was welcomed by every country it demonstrated. This is really hard for any show to achieve. Sesame Street made this true, so this is strength for them.

Weaknesses are as follows: 1. Sesame Street is a non-profit production. This is good but in this case this is one of the weaknesses of Sesame Street.

As Sesame Street is a not-for-profit organization, this makes it harder for them to compete with all the for-profit productions that have shows with commercials. Every show is made for profit and channels also aired shows to make profit by advertisement. But Sesame Street is a not-for-profit production. So they are not bothered with the ads and profits. This is surely good, but this character made Sesame Street to compete with other for-profit shows. Channels became more interested for profit shows. That‟s why being a good production, Sesame Street‟s this strategy became a weakness for them as they can‟t continue this strategy, because they have to also satisfy the channels to air their show.

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2. Maintaining the Social responsibility is critical for them.

If Sesame Workshop decided to do social responsibility through their show, they should have the ability and power to keep that. But as it is becoming tough, it is a weakness. Where ever in the world sesame street demonstrated, they always try to do some social responsibility. So people began to believe that sesame means sociality. This trust and confident was very tough for the production and was critical for them to maintain. Sesame Street has an aim to do social woks. From the very beginning they tried to help the society to teach something especially children. But due to competition they were not able to continue that aim. It is a weakness for them. They should have ability to maintain their motive. If they can‟t keep their motive then is wi8ll turn as their weakness and this happened with Sesame Street.

3. When competition has increased, the windows for show and the audiences were shrinking.

Competition is an obvious element for any business. Sesame Street should have the power to face it. Soon the competition was increasing and the windows of sesame were shrinking which was not expected. And the audiences were also shrinking. So the numbers of programs that are available to the shrinking audience were increasing and the popularity was in trouble. Competition is part of any work. A production mush has the ability to cover the competition. But Sesame Street became shrinking with competition. This is a big weakness for them.

4. Sesame Street could not be dubbed entirely because of the segments using live actors.

Sesame Street gained the trust of people. People believe there ability and acting. They want to teach their children English through Sesame Street. But they were unable to dub the show completely. As the shows were using live actors, the whole was not dubbed with the language. For example-if the actor was talking about letter B, and was B for Book, it was not easily dubbed. If a show decided to dub in a particular language, they must have capability and benefits to dub the whole. Sesame Street was not able to do so, it is a weakness. They should have other strategy to cover this. As people want to watch the whole show in a particular language, they can make any arrangement to do this. Otherwise this will affect the popularity of the show and its reputation.

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Opportunities are as follows: 1. There are still many untouched market out there for Sesame Workshop and they had chances to spread their popularity and wide the range

This is an opportunity for Sesame Street because they can enter i n a new market and get chance to demonstrate their show to the other countries of the world. Though Sesame Street was displayed by many countries, but there are still some countries where Sesame Street was not demonstrated. It was a chance for them to increase their market. Sesame Street has some countries where they never went. This is a big opportunity for them. They can go to these cities and spread the popularity. This opportunity will help the production to go to other side of the world. They can do their activity to those countries and children can also be able to watch this famous show. So this is an opportunity for them. They can increase market penetration in the countries that don‟t have many Sesame Workshop products as USA. They can develop a new line of shows targeted for a different market and age group than currently offered. Sesame Street has the opportunity to do market penetration and spread the show more deeply and widely. Very few shows get this chance. So this is an opportunity.

2. In 2000 Sesame Workshop acquired complete control over the rights of all Sesame Steer characters; it helps them to work better. In 1998 NHK, the Japanese broadcaster began offering a dubbed version of the show.

In 2000 the most fortunate thing happened that was when Jim Henson walked through the door. His puppets made sesame viable in the marketplace. And the control of the Sesame Workshop helped the production to work better. When Sesame Workshop got the chance to have full control over the character, this becomes easier for them to work. Now they can do production as their won wish. This is an opportunity for them. Having full rights over the show give Sesame Street a good chance to make the show as their own. They can include more characters without any restriction and it will increase the show‟s image to the children.

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3. Sesame Street became supplement of print, audio, video and CD-ROM products. And People made Sesame Street as a substitute to learn English in the many countries of the world.

Sesame Street gradually become substitute of CDs and other things for learning English and people get more attracted to this show. So this is an opportunity. Sesame Street was considering as a substitute of regular books, CDs and other means of learning. Parents were encouraging their children to watch Sesame Street to le3ant better with more interest. Sesame Street not only achieved the popularity in television, they also got famous with their CD, audio, video format. This is an opportunity for sesame to become more appreciable. Sesame Workshop‟s television programs were shown in almost 150 countries of the world. Japanese teenage girls become interested in English and the y liked Sesame as a means to learn English. Sesame Street became a substitute for learning English and this is a great opportunit y to spread the language, culture among the people.

4. Sesame Street is a non-profit production; they have the freedom to go into new markets breakeven.

This is an opportunity because being a non-profit organization, sesame street can get benefit to go new countries without any restriction from the channels, or government. This is a good opportunity. Sesame Street had the opportunity to go into a totally new market easily. People welcome them so easily and nicely. This is the re ason when in 1998 Sesame Street first aired in China, it was a great success. For-profit organizations face difficulties to enter a new market. They have to look after so many things. But as Sesame Street is a non- profit production, they don‟t need to care so many difficulties. They can easily enter a new place anytime. This is definitely an opportunity.

Threats are as follows: 1. There are other arrays for children’s programs.

This is a threat because if there are other substitutes for the same purpose as Sesame Street then the popularity will hamper. Viewers will be divided.

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There are many threats to Sesame Street out there. Mainly the other array of children‟s programming out there, and the cable networks dedicated to children as well. The cable networks are dedicated to children, so they display different shows for them. There are more shows and programs for children. This is threat foe sesame to lose their popularity. Gradually the other production houses and channels started to demonstrate other same kind of shows for children and then they will not only watch this show but also will be interested to others. So this is a threat for Sesame Street.

2. Countries that had been in co-production had stopped producing such as Brazil and France. The popularity was decreasing.

This is threat because if the helping hand stopped that means the popularity is decreasing. And popularity is the main asset of a s how. This is a big threat. As the competition increased the co-producers of Sesame Workshop in Brazil and France stopped their support and it was a big threat for them. When the support of helping hand stops, it is really a big threat for the victim. And same thing happened with Sesame Workshop. Slowly the Sesame Workshop discovers that, they can no longer assume that they will be the broadcaster‟s first choice because of increasing competition. There are dozens of pre-school programs emerging. There are increased competitions from preschool shows across the board. A show is made for audience and the supports from audiences are more valuable than money. But due to other programs and channels the popularity was decreasing and this is really a threat.

3. Another threat was the emerging channels and children programs. Besides Creating new characters were a big challenge for them. And the development of technology was also a threat for Sesame Workshop

As the channel started showing other program for the children. Sesame need to create new dimensions with their show this is challenge as well as a threat for them to hold their reputation. Technology was a threat because if children become addicted to internet and starting showing programs and cartoons from there then they will lose interest to watch TV and shows like Sesame Street . So this is a threat. As the license fees were decreasing, lots of new channels and programs were coming. Another threat is that, many broadcasters in the USA and globally started to win airtimes. The emerging channels and kids shows made the popularity of sesame less. For Any show this is definitely a challenge and threat. Sesame Workshop was producing the same old programs. But now they seriously need new program and characters. This is a big challenge for them.

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Creating new character is really a challenge. People get bore to see the old cartoons. Children like to see new characters and puppets. This is a challenge for sesame to keep their popularity. Recently in Japan, opportunities for wireless Internet were emerging. That causes a threat for Sesame as people will have much more option to know English. The new technology made the internet so easy that people tend to use wireless net then to watch learning shows. Children also like to play on net and computer than show TV. And internet made people so easy to learn English. Children can see many programs from internet, video CD. If they become fond of this technology then good shows like Sesame Street will lose their popularity. So this is a threat for Sesame Street.

4. The very sudden and quick popularity was a challenge for Sesame Street.

Popularity becomes threat to them because they get so much popularity in a small time. So they need to be very careful about their shows. Otherwise people will start deny the show quickly. So this is threat and a challenge for them.

Internationally Sesame Street became popular so quickly over the last few years that now they are worried about overextending themselves. Sesame Workshop is a small firm with limited resources but unlimited dreams. This is one kind of indirect threat to them. Sesame Street was so much popular that it becomes a threat for them to maintain. They must have to make very well story, characters, puppets and the overall show must have a good impression. This is a threat for t hem to keep it up. If anything becomes so popular in a small time then they have to handle it with more care. Earning in a small time worth care to maintain. Sesame Workshop was also felling this. So this big popularity was an indirect threat to them that they can‟t do any mistake. Their one mistake can mess the situation. And they can lose their fame. That is why this is a threat for them. This is all about the SWOT analysis of the very famous Sesame Workshop ‟s sesame street. This SWOT analysis will help a production to work better. And if any business does their SWOT analysis carefully then it will help them to achieve the great success and tremendous respect from the audience which is the most important asset for a show. The aim of this analysis is to make aware about the internal and external; environment of the business that effect he situation most.

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Human resource issues are very crucial factors for any organization in this world. HR issues refer to policies, practices and employees attitudes toward their jobs. Analyzing and designing work ,determining human resource needs ,hiring effective employees ,selecting employees for required position ,train the hired employees for efficient working ,rewarding employees ,evaluating employees performance and giving them feedback ,and also creating positive work environment all of these things are HR issues. The most important resources of any organization are its HR resources. The most important HR issues of Sesame workshop are given as bellows:

1. Agent is limited to manage business relationship

In 2001, sesame workshop had no offices outside United States. Agents were used to manage day-to-day business relationships in international markets. The firm began shifting away from having different agents in each country. Sesame Street now had one agent for all of Europe, which helped streamline decision-making. The same approach was being implemented in Latin America. Sesame workshop was considering how to more effectively use alliances to support marketing and advertising while still maintaining control over the brand and program content.

2. Employ the deserving candidates and make them organizational assets train the existing employees. Proper recruitment and training are very important elements to continue business internationally.

It is very important for an organization to ensure that t heir employees are well-trained because if they are not well-trained then it becomes very difficult for an organization to reach its goals. Training refers to a planned effort to facilitate the learning of jobrelated knowledge, skills and behavior by employees. Actually a continuous learning requires employees to understand the relationship between their jobs, their units, and the company and to be familiar with the company business goals. When an individual is hired as a management candidate, he/she enters a training program, which consists of learning store operations, gaining product knowledge, and becoming familiar with company policies and procedures. To perform these actions brilliantly some crucial characteristics were required; such as huge effort, technical skill, teamwork and many other factors, which objects can only be learnt through proper training process. Reductions in corporate staff resulted in a decreas e in general and administrative costs. The total number of employees was about 300, down from more than 400 in 1999.Sesame Workshop is not providing unending training to their employees a nd for that reason the employees are very effective and efficient in their work

3. No HR Department in Sesame Workshop

One of the biggest problems associated with Sesame workshop is that it does not get any HR department and we think it is a very bad strate gy for the workshop .As we all know the appropriate use of HR issues is the key component in organizational

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success. There will be a lot of questions will arise if any organization does not get an y HR department .For example: How the workshop will globally expand without having any HR department? Will their strategy work effect ively? How the workshop will use their human resources? From these we understand how much important having the HR department in any organization. Sesame Workshop does not have any HR department and that is really a very bad strategy. Because as companies reorganize to gain competitive edge, human resources plays a key role in helping companies deal with a fast-changing competitive environment and the greater demand for quality employees. This is a personnel pool available to an organization. The most important resources in any organization are its human resources. 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. Although Sesame Workshop currently running its business very efficiently, as it is started operating globally it will become a tough task for them to maintain this position without Human Resources Department. Operating and Managing multi-cultural conditions which are more competitive they need to hire efficient managers and it will become a great hazard if they do not establish a Human Resource Department.

4. The fees of the management are paid by the broadcasters instead of the Sesame Workshop.

Compensation and benefits is also one of the most important HR issue .through compensation program, a company can increase productivity and the level of motivation of their employees. in Sesame Workshop , they are not providing effective monetary programs to their employees to achieve high level of motivation from them . Sesame Workshop does not provides a variety of expenses. All forms of non monetary rewards plays vital role to t he employers behavior‟s the power of non monetary rewards should not be under estimated. Sesame Workshop is not providing different kinds of non monetary rewards to their employees which are known as benefits. Where the host company should compensate their employees, the whole management team is dependant for it to the broadcasters.

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After analyzing the case and identifying the Human Resource issues eff ectively in the previous part, it is now time for offering some recommendation on Sesame Workshop to keep spotlight on some particular areas. We know that Sesame Workshop is one of the most successful organizations in the world. They provide education among the children in an innovative way. But there is some lacking we found in the management system and in many other sectors of Sesame Workshop. So, to survive in this competitive market with maintaining such a glorious condition, they have to follow some recommendation. By focusing on HR related issues, we have identified in the previous part, now we are going to recommend some solutions that will support the efforts of quality enhancement of their services. By adopting our recommendation, we believe that Sesame Workshop overcome its problems whatever it has. And by following the certain suggestions they might increase their market value .in the following one by one, at first we will mention „what‟ are the specific problem we have identified and then what our recommendation to solve the problem, and why those are important for the betterment of the company. Our recommendation is applicable for both the top management and other employees related with Sesame Workshop. In this recommendation part, the scope of discussion is mostly confined within the WHAT and WHY (reason) parts of suggested activities Sesame Workshop must undertake in order to encounter prevailing challenges. The means, first it will be mentioned „what‟ are things that can be or should be done, and „why‟ those have to be done. After that, in the subsequent implementation section of the report, it will be discussed elaborately that „how‟ that can be done, along with „what else‟ will be necessary to make them successful and effective.

According to the case, there is nowhere mentioned of a formal and strong Human Resource Management Department in Sesame Workshop.

This is an era of Human Resource Management. Human Resource Management is essential to manage any kind of organization with a certai n manner because it is a heart of any certain organization. So, not having a formal and strong HR department is like a curse for any organization because in this competitive world, maximum companies have HR department and they deal with other companies by their HR department. Moreover, it is so necessary in the case of recruiting and selecting deserving candidates of any organization. For any organization, their employee is preferred as their assets. Sesame Workshop might face problem because of their

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employee because due to the lack of a good HR department, they might fail to sel ect a good employee. So, a non deserving employee cannot be an asset for an organization.

Sesame Workshop should set up a fully functional Human Resource Department to deal with HR areas.

Sesame Workshop is one of the successful not for profit organizations in the world which is very good competition among other organizations like Disney etc. But in this competitive age there is no possibility to survive with the past glory if proper measurement is not taken. So, to deal with any kind of HR related issue, as a deserving organization, Sesame Workshop might have a good, formal and strong HR department. This will ensure their betterment in competitive market.

Recruitment and selection process Under the control of HR department, Sesame Workshop may have to create a recruitment and selection committee consist of some experienced and loyal executives who have the experience to work as a HR manager or line manager and can handle any unexpected issues. They will be responsible for maintaining the whole HR process. They will hire new and suitable employees for the betterment of the organization. They will do so because they know which candidate to choose or not more than anyone else. In this way, Sesame Workshop can be able to find an ass et in the form of their employee.

Justification In an organization, most important is its human resource. Without it, an organization is like helpless in a sea because every part of an organization is interrelated with HR. appropriate human resources assure an organization that the right number and kind of people are available here at the right time and place so that organizational needs can be met. Sesame does not have any specific HR department for which it does not follow any specific rule to recruit, select, and compensate their employees. So, it is the best solution for them to run their business in a systematic way. Moreover, operating and managing multi-cultural conditions which are more competitive, Sesame Workshop needs to hire efficient managers and it will be difficult if they do not establish a Human Resource Department. To manage employees, Sesame Workshop needs to have a strong HR department; otherwise they will be fall in the big trouble.

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Employees may get demotivated while working at Sesame Workshop

As the number of channels and program for children is increasing da y by day, it become very risky and competitive to make sure about the program broadcasting of sesame workshop because they offer not for profit program. Other organizations can offer higher salary and benefit to the employee where at Ses ame Workshop, everything depends on the wish of broadcaster.

Sesame workshop should re-design its compensation packages and it should offer proper reward and recognition (R&R) system to boost up its employee morale.

For management perspective we believe that broadcasters always try to lessen their cost. As they have to manage cost of each and ever y sector, they have the right to do this. Moreover, Sesame Workshop does not allow any commercial break. So, it is quite necessary for the broadcaster to lessen their cost at any cost. So, they offer a minimum cost to the employees. According to the case, Sesame Workshop also boycotts hundreds of employee due to the necessity of cost reduction. But in this competitive era, money is the main issue for everything. So, this kind of strategy what Sesame Workshop follows, might not work in future, because money is the main motivation tool. If employees do not get sufficient compensation, they do not show interest to do job for Sesame Workshop. They will not be so loyal to the certain company if they are not compensated in a good manner. So it is very necessar y to redesign the basic salary structure of Sesame Workshop.

Justification We have to remember that, demotivated employees never give their 100% loyalty, effort and concentration on their work. Thus company gradually becomes weaker because of these employees, which effects greatly in long run. Sesame Workshop will not be able to achieve greater success if it has too many demotivated employees. But if Sesame Workshop re-design their compensation structure and give proper benefits among employees, they become beneficial because getting proper compensation, they might be able to get the best from their employee.

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Agent and market is limited to manage business relationship and interruption of socio-cultural issues

In 2001, Sesame Workshop had no offices outside United States. Agents were used to manage day-to-day business relationships in international markets. The firm began shifting away from having different agents in each country. But for cultural differences and many other issues, Sesame Workshop cannot spread its business properly in some countries like India, Brazil etc. Moreover, two regional vice president positions were created- one for Latin America and Asia and another for Europe, Africa, and Middle East. We think this strate gy is problematic due to the socio-cultural differences among the regions.

Hire local agents in order to gain an advantage in the local markets.

To capture Indian market, Sesame Workshop can hire Indian people as their agent and debut their programs by them. They also can provide English sub title there to make higher its educational image. Brazil is a football oriented country. So, to capture their market, they can make at least one program based on football for not only them but also countries like Argentina, Korea, Germany, Poland and many more. It should help to capture their market as well as they will be able to know the demand of this new market. They can introduce live TV program, live touring show where will be Sesame Street and other Sesame Workshop‟s program characters‟ costumed actors and dancers as characters from the series. They can also organize summer camp in different countries to be closer to the children of different countries. To solve the problems regarding the location of vice presidents, according to the socio-cultural differences, we think, Latin America, Europe, and Africa will be provided with one vice president who will be in charge of this certain region. And Asia and Middle East will be provided with another vice president for this certain region.

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Justification India is a country of diversified languages. If Sesame Workshop wants to be as popular as in USA, it has to make its program with diversified languages because most of the Indian children are not able to understand English language. They can add English sub-title in the program which can help the children learn English like the children of Japan. To capture a certain market, the product and the service has to cop up with the culture and heritage of that certain country or place. For Brazil, it is only football which is more than a sport for them. Same thing goes to Argentina, Korea, Germany etc. football oriented country. So, Sesame Workshop can make at least one program based on football. To capture the market of other countries, Sesame Workshop can organize summer camp, and many other happy events. It might help to broaden the market value of this organization and also can find a scoop to spread more education. We know that there is a connection of culture between Asian countries and the countries of Middle East and between Latin-American, African, and European countries. So, if the regions are divided into this manner, it will be very helpful for the vice president to make better strategies for Sesame Workshop.

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The only target audience of the Sesame Street is the children and the only media is the Television where they broadcast only an hour long normal educational program.

Sesame Workshop just focuses on educational programs only targeting children of a certain age where different kinds of organization offering s many new concepts towards children. It just focuses on general children education. It is very little area for business. It might make the service boring to the viewer. So now, they should broaden its sector of services.

Introduction of more diverse services

As Sesame Street and many other programs are really very successful in making series, Sesame Workshop now should concentrate about making movies for children. As we know that, female children are more deprived of their fundamental needs, Sesame Workshop should make animations, cartoons, or movies against gender discrimination and supporting female child‟s needs. It can make its im age better and also can provide real life education. They can take interview of many deprived and poor but successful personality to encourage children to do something good and always believe in industry.

Justification The competition among TV channels is getting more aggressive day by day. TV channels are offering various kinds of program targeting children. So, to survive in this competitive world, Sesame Workshop has to offer something new and unique which fulfill the demand of new generations and also fulfill the demand of Sesame Workshop‟s mission.

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Problematic marketing strategy of Sesame Workshop

As we know that, Sesame Workshop is a not for profit organization. It is an era of profit and money. Nothing is possible without money. In this case, being a not for profit organization is not so beneficial for any company. Moreover, Sesame Workshop does not allow any commercial break during their program which is very unwanted for broadcasters. It is so because, for sesame programs, broadcasters have to pay the cost for each and every sector but t hey do not even get a chance to earn profit by showing commercial advertisement due to the rule of Sesame Workshop. This is very problematic strategy of Sesame workshop which should be changed.

Come to a contractual agreement with the broadcasters about the promotion of their products

To solve this problem, Sesame Workshop can allow broadcasters a short time commercial break during the one hour long program. They (Sesame Workshop) can show their own product‟s advertisement as a commercial break. They can also allow to licensing their characters to promote or use as a model of commercial break. Or they can apply the cause marketing approach.

Justification As in the competitive world, no one is willing to pay for anyone else, so due to that reason, Sesame Workshop should be flexible in the case of its market ing strategy. It may allow broadcasters some certain things which is r eally necessary for the betterment and survival of this organization.

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Any plans are just waste of time if they just limited themselves in paperwork. Full proof plans and highly justified recommendations are just useless if there is no implementation in real life. Along with this, implementation has to be done in appropriate time when the action is needed and it should be done effectively because unless this, all the efforts are given in making those plans and recommendations would be just a waste of time. As per the case analysis, we have discussed about some points of recommendation regarding the well being of “Sesame Workshop” for its sustainable growth in this highly competitive market by solving its weak points or problems, HR issues and so forth. To meet the organizational goals and mission, it is important to have a sound human resource management system in any organization; Sesame Workshop is not exceptional from it. Moreover, the implementation of the plans for sustaining in this highly competitive market with a nonprofit view is also a challenge to continue its works with generating revenue as well. Implementation is the real life application of all the plans and recommendations. It is the scope where it is possible to practice the feasibility of all the suggested recommendations and the worthy paperwork which includes the efforts of the people who are involved in the game plan of making it a better a one than the previous one. As proper planning is a vital part, as well as the implementation has its own appeal to apply those plans in real. This implementation section basically covers these areas: What What How Who Where When

The Problem Recommended Solutions Steps to be taken to Implement Recommended Solutions Employees, workers, managers, HR Department, Marketing Department, Management, Employer etc Inside the host country workshop, global or local workshops etc. Which comes first and then which comes next in the action plan

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According to the case, there is nowhere mentioned of a formal and strong Human Resource Management Department in Sesame Workshop.

Recommendation no. 1 Sesame Workshop should set up a fully functional Human Resource Department to deal with HR areas.

How it would be implemented? As there is no mention of an active HR department in Sesame Workshop case, we are assuming that they don‟t have any HR department in their workshop. They must open a new HR department for better service and production. In this competitive era, anything can be copied and anything which is now “your invention” could be others in a moment without the human resources, where it can‟t be copied but can be nurtured as distinctive assets for the organization. We have suggested them to open a HR department where they have to create a Recruitment and Selection committee to recruit the right talents for producing their high quality productions without any compromise. The committee must have a panel of experienced and loyal employees who can assure that the organization is having the very best talent of the market who will further improve the production. Also, a HR department is also needed for handling any arising HR issues because any disruption can hamper the environment of innovation and production. We all know that without proper implementation, no plans can be successful. So Sesame Workshop must implement the plan of establishing an active HR department that we have suggested in the previous section of Recommendation. As we mentioned before, they can create a panel with their own employees or they can hire third party organization to do it for them. For some other HR related issues like for training, they need a structured Training and Development Department, for distribution of compensation committee etc under HR department. So everything would be in a systematic way and under the supervision of HR Department. They can follow the following steps like: 

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They can conduct planning and forecasting to determine the positions to fill in accordance with the duty and job description and specification with the qualifications to fulfill the recruitments. They can put the recruitment advertisement on TV, online, newspapers etc for attracting external candidates, or for internal recruiting they can post it office 6 3 notice board or newsletters. e g a P

Case 2 Group ‘K’ Sesame workshop and International Growth    

Then they can build a pool of qualified candidates from internal or exte rnal sources. Then they can screen out all the applicant‟s applications by themselves or they can give this responsibility to other third party organization on behalf of them. As the next step they can utilize many selection tests like written tests, medical test, analytical ability, creativity check etc. Then they can arrange interview to find out the right person for the job.

By these steps, they can open a new HR department in their organizati on. After establishing it, they can form a committee or they can give the responsibility to the third party to design a compensation plan for the company or they can create other committees to handle the other HR issues. For trai ning and development, they can endorse some supervisor who will train some other employees about the style and standard of Sesame Workshop who will then next train the local subsidiaries.

Who would implement it? Every plan should be implemented by the right person, because 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. The right and responsible person from top management will implement the plan of establishing the new HR department, and they will also designate the newly hired HR employees in a proper manner with the right positions. But a supervisor needs to be there who would be the existing employee of the organization to get them acquainted with the organization‟s culture, mission and word standard.

Where it would be implemented? The place where the plan of establishing new HR department would be implemented is to an important issue for Sesame Street. As it a internationally active organization, it is really a critical issue to determine where they will establish it. They might at first open it in their head office, but it is recommended to open a HR department in all their local subsidiary countries.

When it would be implemented? Implementing any plan without proper timing has no value. So Sesame Workshop have to be concerned that currently they have no HR department, so they have to open it as soon as possible. They must come up with a specific date to establish it in a nearby future after completing all the preparation regarding it. If they cannot establish it in a near future, the plan might not be effect ive because within that time maybe there will arise some HR issues which cannot be solved properly.

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Employees may get demotivated while working at Sesame Workshop

Recommendation no. 02 Sesame workshop should re-design its compensation packages and it should offer proper reward and recognition (R&R) system to boost up its employee morale.

How to implement it? Sesame Workshop is a not for profit organization from its very beginning. At first when they launched their program, it was a huge success with lots of appreciation. But time changes gradually. We are talking about the time when public channels were the only broadcasters which left the audiences with a few or no options. Today the market is expanding with new opportunities and challenges where it is difficult to sustain by maintaining old pattern of business strategy without making any adjustment with time. So where at first the broadcast ers were willing to pay the whole cost along with the management fee, now they are not willing to pay anything but demanding the new and unique production from the workshop and told the workshop to manage their own sponsors. Here we have given a recommendation in the previous section that this may cause the demotivation among the employees, artists of the workshop as they have to worry about the fact the broadcasters are now not willing to pay their fees. This will certainly have an impact on their work quality too. So here we are suggesting for implementing a compensation package and reward and recognition system to ensure the safe feeling and the feeling of organizational citizenship among the employees. 

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To implement this issue, Sesame Workshop at first they could establish a fully functional HR department to design new compensation package where the employees who are sent to the local subsidy countries will not only be compensated with the broadcasters‟ money, but also with a guaranteed compensation from the head office. The compensation structure will not only focus on basic pay but they will also be a combination of bonus and benefits. The HR department could do it by forming a committee to decide about the issue. There should be process to monitor the system as the huge diversified employee groups are getting compensated properly or not. The monitor process could be done by HR department of head office and local countries‟ broadcaster‟s HR department.

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Where to implement it? This suggestion will be only implemented in the head office as the employees are going to the subsidy companies to meet the standards of the Sesame Workshop by any means with the effort of their hardship and dedication. So the head office has to ensure that they are receiving a fixed compensation structure for their work in local subsidy countries.

Who would implement it? Top management level people will implement it by taking the decision about approving this system. Then the HR department will carry out the plan to execute it according to the management decision. They will also design a compensation structure with the development of a proper reward and recognition system which will help and motivate the employees to work even better.

When to implement it? The market for Sesame Street as well as for the Sesame Workshop is changing. So to cope up with the changing world, the management of Sesame Workshop would implement the plan now if they don‟t want any dissatisfied employees or employee turnover in their organization.

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Agent and market is limited to manage business relationship and interruption of sociocultural issues

Recommendation no. 03 To capture Indian market, Sesame Workshop can hire Indian people as their agent and debut their programs by them. They also can provide English sub title there to make higher its educational image.

How to implement it? Sesame Workshop has reduced its employee no. from 400 to 300 in the year of 20002001. They did it because of their cost cutting strategy, but it is also important that a trained and dedicated group of employees are the asset of an organization and are the prerequisite of a successful company. So without a group of efficient employees, we think it is difficult to conduct the business with only an agent or two re gional vice presidents where their regions are having less in common in terms of cultural and social aspects. Moreover, the strategy of only making the TV shows is also need to be overlooked. To overcome the problem, we have suggested a recommendation in previous section. To implement it, the organization could take following steps: 

The organization can appoint the agents from the local mar ket for the betterment of understanding the local country culture. So the HR department has to establish another HR department on the local c ountry to appoint an eligible local agent.

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Only on agent for one country and only two presidents for 6 regions is not enough to run the business properly in smooth way. So manpower has to be increased. The HR department of Sesame Workshop could appoint more vice presidents by dividing the areas based on characteristic similarity.

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Sesame workshop can make their programs with the special interest on the local market‟s cultural life, interest, behavioral patterns etc. For this, the HR department could send special teams of employees to observe the subsidy market and to understand their cultural and social notable points.

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To overcome the limited market opportunity, they could introduce educational live shows performing the characters from the Sesame Streets, Dragon Tale etc. which will help them to focus and capture broader market. They can

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arrange this shows by sponsorship from various companies, government funds etc.

Where to implement it? This strategy would be implemented in both host country and local countries, where the criteria regarding agents could be implemented in subsidy countries, and the negotiations for live show primarily will take place in host countr y, the upon the success, the plan will be implemented in local subsidy countries.

Who will implement it? Most of the parts will be done by the HR department of Sesame Workshop, where the negotiations regarding fund raising for the live shows could be done by the top level employees who were previous negotiators for many times. but first of all, the top management have to give their consent to execute such plans.

When to implement it? It could be implemented in recent time to have an immediate impact on the market. The organization is now operating its business by single agents, so it is a high time to implement the idea. After that, so conquer more market share and fund raising, they may think of performing any live shows where they can generate money as well because the popularity is now still in matured level.

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The only target audience of the Sesame Street is the children and the only media is the Television where they broadcast only an hour long normal educational program.

Recommendation no. 04 As Sesame Street and many other programs are really very successful in making series, Sesame Workshop now should concentrate about making movies for children. As we know that, female children are more deprived of their fundamental needs, Sesame Workshop should make animations, cartoons, or movies against gender discrimination and supporting female child‟s needs. It can make its image better and also can provide real life education. They can take interview of many deprived and poor but successful personality to encourage children to do something good and always believe in industry.

How to implement it: Sesame Street and the other productions of Sesame Workshop are really very successful in the show business. But the problem is they are only concentrating on making an hour long TV series where they have the opportunity to give it a broader aspect. They can also make some movies on some educational issues where some very important learning can be done through the process of just enjoying a movie with broader plot and characters with more opportunity of revenue also. Years after years, children are watching the same patterned Sesame Street across the whole world which can be monotonous to audiences as well as to the broadcasters. So the organization has to think some alternative way to retain its attraction for the demand of time. Also the competitors of Sesame Street are not only focused on t he educational perspective and they are introducing more and more programs to get the market share and are rapidly introducing more characters to the children. So it is an obvious fact that Sesame Street has to make some changes to their traditional TV program to sustain in the market with popularity. To implement the strategy of bringing the variation in their programs, Sesame Workshop may do the following procedures:   

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At first, they have to conduct a research about the opinion toward their traditional one hour long TV program. If the study shows that audiences are expecting something more than their traditional broadcast, they could conduct another survey. By the next survey, they would try to find out what could be their other program by the public demand where they can concentrate further, but they have to remember that they just can‟t make anything as their mission is to educate the preschoolers and nothing else. They have to raise fund for their new program by some deals and negotiations. Then they would find most talented script writers, designers, directors etc. to make the thing happen, to give it a real shot.

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Case 2 Group ‘K’ Sesame workshop and International Growth  

If everything is made by time, they have to promote it in any channels both in public and private ones to raise the awareness about their new production. Then they can release it in any favorable time.

Where to implement? As it is a big step for Sesame workshop, at first they can practice this in their host country. If there is a huge success for it, they can do the same thing in global aspect, but for the first time, they may go for only dubbing version for the new innovated program instead of the adaptive and adjusted local version. Then by the time with t he success, they can practice it locally.

Who would implement it? It is a big decision and definitely it will be decided by the key people of the Sesame Workshop whether they would go for the plan or not. If the decision is favorable, the production unit with the help of third party organization or studio can make this thing happen. The promotional activities would be done by the marketing department, and for production, voice and other matter, HR department will assure the supply of right person with the right talent.

When to Implement? The implementation should be done with a elaborate time line for conducting the researches and making the new show. However, it should be done in a near future with an immediate action plan.

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Problematic marketing strategy of Sesame Workshop.

Recommendation no. 05 To solve this problem, Sesame Workshop can allow broadcasters a short time commercial break during the one hour long program. They (Sesame Workshop) can show their own product‟s advertisement as a commercial break. They can also allow to licensing their characters to promote or use as a model of commercial break. Or they can apply the cause marketing approach.

How it would be implemented: Effective marketing strategy is a vital issue for the success of business, even for the not for profit organizations. As the pattern differs from profit organizations, t he marketing strategy for nonprofit organization is laid on the strategy of cause marketing where they are not directly promoted themselves but endorsing a cause with it. As Sesame Workshop is not willing to air any commercials during their program, they can go for it which is not mentioned in the case. They can do such campaigns like creating awareness in the special days like children‟s day, asthma awareness etc. This approach will give them the publicity and along with this they can meet their social responsibility. Only publicity cannot be sufficient for the sustainable growth for the Sesame Workshop. They need to be a bit flexible with their strict rule of airing no commercials during their program. As all the media world is getting more competitive and the broadcasters are less willing to pay the whole expense of Sesame Workshop programs, they have to lessen their strictness. Their doubt was the children will not be able to distinguish between the program and the commercial which proved wrong in the test commercial break introduction in Mexico. Most important issue is, the competitors of Sesame production are the profit oriented organization who have a strong financial backup and are not only producing program only based on educational aspect, but the audiences are the same - the children. Along with this, more private channels made the market s cattered as well as the audiences. So the broadcasters are now less interested to pay the whole for Sesame Workshop program. In this situation, we can recommend them to lessen their regulation over airing commercials. For implementing this decision, they can first discuss it in the top managerial level to decide whether they will go for commercial breaks or not. If the response is positive, then they can air some experimental commercial broadcast during the s how to know the audiences‟ reaction. But they have to be very selective toward the commercial or

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HRM380 Case on Sesame Street

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