As the new communications manager for International Gadgets, you have come acros
ID: 3688706 • Letter: A
Question
As the new communications manager for International Gadgets, you have come across many examples of ineffective communications, including some older directives that were never carried out, mostly because of their unclear nature. One example included an email stating that the recipient (within the R&D team) was to “create a presentation discussing the new product and send it to interested departments.” Others included a request from Sales to Technical Support for “a list of the biggest problems with our hot products” and a memo from Finance to all departments to “reduce the number of suppliers being used to better control costs.” In a memo to your team, describe what is wrong with directives such as these and how to improve these messages so that they are delivered to the recipient with clarity and conciseness.
Explanation / Answer
To: Team Members
The following directives are not being carried out for being unclear and imprecise, I’m going to go through each to point out the questions and then how to improve them.
The first directive, an email to a member of the R&D team saying that he had to “create a presentation discussing the new product and send it to interested departments”. Which ones are the interested departments? The entire company or only those involved with the development and marketing of that product? This should be specified on the directive, preferably with a list of the departments that should get the presentation. Second, “discussing” is too vague. Could be a list of characteristics, status of the development of the product, date estimates for it’s development, etc.
The second directive, a request from Sales to Technical Support for “a list of the biggest problems with our hot products”. “Our hot products” again, is too vague. Top 5 sellers, top 10? That is information that Sales handles, so they should put the list of products. Second, “biggest” is imprecise, Technical Support can only form a list of the most common complaints of the customers and order them by their frequency. Technical Support should use their ticket system in order to gather said data, or if they lack it, get one.
The third directive, a memo from Finance to all departments to “reduce the number of suppliers being used to better control costs.”. A cost-cutting measure with no research is irresponsible. It should ask for a research on what materials are not actually being used, and to stop the supply of said materials. Not cutting providers entirely unless all the materials of said provider are unused.
Communications Manager.
International Gadgets.
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