Unit 2. Effective Management

Unit 2 Effective Management

Reading

Task. Read the personal profiles below and 1) write down the words and word combinations that describe the company’s principles. Make sure you understand their meaning; 2) list the steps (actions) taken to have the best staff in the first profile; 3) list the features that the portfolios (designers) are judged by in the second profile.

1. Dick Mitchell

“I’m a great believer in the jack-of-all-trades method of running a design studio,” says Dick Mitchell, design partner in the Dallas design firm of Richard Brock Miller Mitchell and Associates. “Our studio has thirteen designers who do it all –design, write, illustrate, handle production work and press runs, and even act as our studio representatives. Being able to follow a design idea from the beginning sketches to the final press run offers most of our people a great sense of accomplishment.”

So how does Richards Brock find such talented jacks-of-all-trades? By hiring with an eye toward the future, says Mitchell. Job candidates are told very clearly during the interview process what the studio wants from them, both now and down the road, and what their future with the company could be like. Possible hires are questioned very closely about their own ambitions, because the studio believes strongly that employees who set their goals high and work toward them can’t help but bring the studio along in their climb to success.

“Because our designers are so good, they often get offers from other studios. From the day we hire a designer, we encourage her to be very honest with us about her satisfaction at work, and to talk with us openly if she gets another offer and is seriously considering it.

“Besides open discussion and a future with the studio, we also keep talented people by paying them well. In general, we pay as much as we can in annual salary, plus we have profit sharing and yearly bonus plans for all employees. Although money isn’t everything, it is a good way to show people the fruits of their hard work. And having some part of compensation based on the studio’s profits makes everyone well aware of whether last year was up or down for the studio financially. It also gives people a real stake in the work they do every day,” observes Mitchell.

2. Don Trousdell

“I still think that design should be a cottage industry,” says Don Trousdell, owner of Trousdell Design, a studio in Atlanta,Georgia, that specializes in advertising design. “When a studio stays small and simple, it’s lighter on its feet. It can change according to each client’s needs and keep up with new design styles as well.”

Trousdell practices what he preaches. With a staff of only seven people (two other designers besides Trousdell, one production artist, one rep/production person, one purely rep person, and a bookkeeper), Trousdell Design handles such plum clients as Custom-weave Carpets and Kimberly-Clark, Although Trousdell hasn’t taken on a new staff member in several years, he still looks at countless portfolios each month and has a unique method of judging which designers have that extra spark needed to turn a good studio into a design leader. He advises, “Look for designs that are intelligent, that show an ability to solve communication or image problems, and not just ‘pretty’ things up. I also analyze how the design itself is put together – is this designer a careful artisan as well as an inventive thinker?

“Extending an idea to different design applications is a very important source of profits, especially in advertising design. When I look at a portfolio, I ask myself: has the artist extended her design idea to other areas of advertisement design, such as packaging or field support materials? Not only is this a good sign of creativity in a portfolio, it also shows attention to the studio’s financial well-being, since different applications of the same design idea mean more income for the studio.

“In general,” Trousdell notes, “I look for someone who handles a design problem completely differently than I would have – and does it better”.