Sense-Making Nickelodeon Case Study

Sense-making

One of the key factors for Swan to success when she assumed the responsibility of lead Nickelodeon Latin America expansion project was her well-developed sense-making ability. From the very beginning, she defined accurately the situation, understood the external and internal contexts and the different stakeholders.

She effectively defined the problems around the launch and the operation of Nickelodeon in Latin America, such as the cultural differences between the US market and the Latin American market, the corporate restrictions in terms of budget and people, the company's skepticism regarding new abroad investments, her own abilities/weaknesses and the time restrictions. She understood that the opportunity to enter to the region was at that time and she worked based on that. As Taran said, "If we didn't go in [to Latin America] now, we were never going in”.

An important tool that Taran used to define the problems was to interact with different groups of people. This allowed her to gather important information from other sources in an effective way. For example, during the launch of Nickelodeon in Latin America, she worked with several focus groups where she and her team learned the cultural needs and differences of the Latin American kids. This information was later used to build a successful identity of the channel in the region, an identity that celebrated the different Latin American cultures.