Case-in-Point

This case was developed by me as part of the admissions process conducted by SCMHRD for selection of new candidates into the PGDM course - heartening to know that some students of the batch of 2008 would have been selected on the basis of their response to this case.
A personal experience that I wanted to share and know what you would have done in similar circumstances. Do post your comments after going through the case...


Vishal has recently joined MediaComm, a media company that is engaged in the production & marketing of TV programs for various channels. As an Ad Sales & Marketing Executive, he is responsible for making sales presentations to clients; primarily media planners & buyers at ad agencies and obtaining airtime bookings from them on the various programs.

Apart from the pressure of targets to be met, Vishal also has a non-cooperative senior, Anil to cope with. Since joining 2 months back immediately after graduation, Vishal has been trying hard to please Anil, but to no avail. A task master to the core, Anil has only been concerned with sales & revenues, without being cognizant of the sales training requirements of the new recruit.

The industry is an extremely competitive one with a plethora of channels vying for the public’s attention and new ones being launched almost every fortnight. In such a scenario, the clients have a lot to choose from. For the media planners & buyers, achieving a certain target level of audience exposure is all that matters; which could be through varied combinations of programs across channels. In such a scenario, it is only the relationship with the client and on the spot negotiations, which help to crack the deal.

Given the relationship-oriented nature of the business, Vishal has been working hard at building the same, based on which he can obtain sales in the long-term. Over time, Vishal realizes that Anil’s nature has been that way since he too has pressures to face from the top management on account of high-interest loans taken to run the business.

Rakesh, a media buyer at ADict – one of the top 10 ad agencies, which has had no previous business relations with MediaComm, has been on Vishal’s radar since some time. After tracking him for a period of 2 months, Vishal approached Rakesh with a good deal on a film being marketed by MediaComm. On account of its non-perishable nature, the entire airtime of 300 seconds on the film needs to be sold out for the film project to be financially viable. However, with only a few days to go for telecast, very few clients have confirmed their bookings and a substantial amount of airtime still remains unsold.

Rakesh has shown interest in buying a large chunk of the airtime, but at a much lower rate than that being offered by Vishal. In the meanwhile, Anil too has been speaking to a few clients of his regarding the film. In the absence of confirmations, Anil tells Vishal to go ahead with the deal at ADict and take the bookings from Rakesh at his rate. As such, the entire airtime on the film is exhausted.

However, in a matter of only a few hours, a client of Anil confirms his bookings at a much higher rate than that of Rakesh. Backing out at this point of time would imply severing relations not only with Rakesh, but also ADict. Nonetheless, Anil is insistent on the higher rate offered by his client.

Considering the relation between Vishal & Anil and the long-term implications of the deal, analyse the case and indicate your future course of action if you were in Vishal’s shoes…