Listening Skills

Paper instructions:
Overview

Scenario: Pilar Grimault has scheduled a meeting with her department’s young creative director, Miguel Valentino. He has recently completed a campaign for a long standing client, Jezebel. Although the campaign was a huge success, the client has complained to Pilar about Miguel’s project management skills.

Profile:

Pilar Grimault is the senior account manager at Midnight Visions, a worldwide advertising agency, after having been a creative director for Midnight in London. She manages teams ranging from 25 to 150 people, and she works on accounts for record labels, fashion houses, and entertainment conglomerates.
Miguel Valentino is a creative designer overseeing some of the most high profile accounts for record labels and design houses. He manages global teams of 5 people.

Back History: At Midnight, account managers oversee 4 to 6 accounts at any given time. Some of Miguel’s current accounts are Jezebel, Antonioni, and HotSpot. This is the first time Miguel has had three high profile accounts at the same time – a result of shifting schedules and production slow downs.

Pilar has a lot of confidence in Miguel. However, since Miguel has had less experience than most, Pilar watches over him closely. In addition to reviewing the account reports, she has casually/subtly inquired about Miguel’s performance with some of the team members and some of the clients. Most of the news is positive with only a few matters that could and should have been handled better. This is really a positive review, and the trouble spots at this stage of the game are minor but still need to be addressed. The trouble spots she is most concerned with involve the Jezebel account: Miguel went over budget ($11,000) and then charged the client for overages without checking with or warning them in advance. They were thrilled with the end media and were okay about the overages – but not the process. Today is the review.