Cango Week 1 and 2 Analysis

Week 1 Clip 1

Scenario:

Julian, the President of the Hudson Valley Business Association, places a phone call to Liz to inform her she has been nominate the Regions Business Leader of the Year and that she will be expected to deliver a speech at the next Association meeting about the “How and why of CanGo’s success”. During the conversation Julian goes on to describe Cango as the “Fastest Growing Company in the Hudson Valley” and as a “Success Story.” Liz is obviously flattered and elated by this news and it becomes apparent how much this company and its success means to her and the fact that somebody has recognized all the effort that has been put into building this company.

Following this interchange we see Liz working on her computer attempting to plan ahead for the Business Association meeting and put together a working outline or idea for her speech presentation. During what appears to be an obviously frustrating experience, Liz makes several key comments concerning Cango and how this organization came into being. Liz’s first statement “How did we plan this, how did I plan this? It was an accident, we started a business and it became a success.”

The second key event is while planning her speech, Liz seems to give up hurriedly after seemingly minimal effort stating “I can’t do this, I won’t do this.”

Analysis:

Liz is obviously proud of the success of her company and the fact that the organization and she have received the attention of the Hudson Valley Business association. This is a good phenomenon; it shows that Liz takes ownership for the success or failure of CanGo and that it has become something of an extension of her. She takes great care and pride in her work.

The downside becomes apparent later in this clip. We observe Liz becoming frustrated at the task of explaining how CanGo became such a success. She loses interest in planning ahead and in fact cannot find an accident. I believe the first sign of something being off kilter within the structure of this organization is when Liz states “How did we plan this, how did I plan this? It was an accident, we started a business and it became a success.” There are two telling points we can glean from this contemplation. Liz interchanged the word we for the word I, showing that while she recognizes success is a combined effort of many participants, she still has a tendency to take credit for this, this can cause a problem within an organization if employees feel they are simply a means to an end or are not receiving the appreciation or recognition they deserve for a job well done. The second, perhaps even more telling point is that CanGo had and still has no business plan, no direction, no goals; it is reduced to simply an “accident”. This lack planning and Liz’s obvious disinterest in more menial planning tasks (i.e. writing an outline for her speech)could indicate a root problem for Cango and perhaps even a stumbling block for this organization in the future.

Week 1 Clip 2

Scenario:

We observe Liz delivering her acceptance speech to the Hudson Valley Professional Business Association. When she began her presentation she almost made it sound as if there had been some sort of plan and even a market analysis but as you listen it becomes apparent that these were more of an informal action, perhaps even a rhetorical observation. When addressing the process to CanGo’s success Liz states that CanGo’s success was not planned because, to paraphrase, they were too busy running their business. She ends her speech by saying, “instead of focusing on building a better mousetrap we concentrated on giving the mouse better cheese.”

Upon returning to her office, Liz receives some friendly criticism from one of her employees while discussing the Business Association presentation. She is questioned about why she would give such advice and even phrase her advice in the manner she chose with the cheese reference, the employee finishes her statement by saying “I always knew your lack of formal planning would get the better of you.” Liz reflects on what may have happened had she actually planned CanGo and its success in a formal manner. Her employee then makes the statement, “You’re a hit, you can move on from here.” To which Liz responds “Hindsight is always 20/20.”

Analysis:

Liz definitely needed to plan ahead for her presentation to the Hudson Valley Business Association. Her speech made her lack of knowledge obvious to all the business leaders present at the meeting and may have exposed the weaknesses to her competition. On the other hand, after returning to her office Liz did handle the criticism very well, she was open, honest