A Day in the Life of Yolanda Valdez

Yolanda Valdez, senior vice president for marketing of ClearVision Optical Group, arrived at her office at 7:25 a.m. Settling in at her desk, she began to think about the problems she needed to handle in the course of the day. ClearVision Optical Group is a specialty retailer operating under the name of ClearVue with annual sales of over $20 million. The optical group owns 750 stores in 40 states, Canada, Mexico, Puerto Rico, The Netherlands, and England. It is the United States' largest provider of eye care products and services, and it seeks to expand its market share in other free world countries. ClearVision is one group of S. G. Davis, an Illinois-based company that also has pharmaceutical and medical product groups. The optical group is planning to expand into other broadly based health-care markets, and in 2010 it began experimenting with small shops that sell only sunglasses. ClearVision is a marketing-oriented company that bases its strategy on understanding customer needs and developing and delivering distinctive characteristics that appeal to customers. An example of this is ClearVue's in-store labs that cut lenses for eyeglass frames on a "while-you-wait" basis, often getting the customer's prescription filled within an hour.

This service differentiates ClearVue from its competitors, who typically do not offer such speedy service. Valdez' duties as senior vice president for marketing broadly include determination and evaluation of the strategic and operational directions for the company. Her specific responsibilities include marketing research, advertising programs, the eyeglass frame line, contact lenses, and in-store merchandising-display programs. A high-priority item on Valdez' list of things to accomplish today was to construct a questionnaire to survey customer attitudes about the firm's line of frames. This was to be circulated to each of ClearVue's retail store managers to determine whether the current frame styles were preferred by customers and if the selection of frames was adequate at each price level. Valdez realized that she would have a greater likelihood of uninterrupted work before most of the other employees came at 8:30, so she began working on the questionnaire at 7:45. She had scarcely begun clarifying her definition of the problem and stating her objectives when her secretary, Linda Brown, came in with a list of activities planned for the day. A meeting with the research analysis group working on contact lenses was scheduled for 9:15. There was another meeting set for 10:15 with the group working on fall displays for use in the stores. Valdez was scheduled to lunch with a representative of a prospective advertising agency at 12:00, and she had an appointment with the president at 3:00 p.m. to discuss progress on an evaluation of the firm's frame suppliers. She told her secretary she needed some letters typed and put in the mail before the afternoon and a summary of the supplier evaluation typed before her meeting with the president. Her secretary reminded Valdez that the vice president for finance wanted to see her that day to discuss the details of financing for the new sunglass stores.

When Linda left, Valdez settled back to work on the questionnaire. She outlined what she hoped to accomplish and wrote down a list of specific pieces of information she wanted to get from the store managers. At 8:20 the senior vice president for operations in the Western Division called and asked Valdez if she could get a cup of coffee with him and discuss some new ideas he had for marketing children's eyewear. Yolanda agreed to meet him in five minutes. They discussed the plans she was currently considering and how the new suggestions would modify those plans. As she was walking back to her office at 8:45, a woman who worked in the optical lab on the premises asked her if she could give her some advice. Yolanda said she could spare a moment. The woman questioned her on career opportunities in marketing, both in the company and in the entire field. She confessed that she had wanted to get more training and go into marketing, but had never taken the opportunity.

Yolanda told her about her experiences in the field and advised her about the best route to take to get into the company's marketing department. After she left, Valdez called the president and asked for his opinion of a major new advertising and display campaign for children's eyewear based on the suggestions she had received. They discussed various ways in which the advertising budget could be reallocated to finance such a campaign. They decided that some funds could be taken from fashion eyewear programs, and some additional money could be trimmed from other elements of the budget and allocated to this campaign. The president mentioned that he would like to see the ideas Valdez had for this campaign before they were sent to an advertising agency. As Valdez hung up, she realized it was time for the meeting with the contact lens group. She walked into the conference room and sat down at the head of the table. She chatted informally with a few of the people in the group before they got down to business.

Valdez listened to their presentation, and after they were finished, she stated some new ideas on the situation and thanked them for the results. She set some goals for the contact lens group that she wanted accomplished before the next meeting. This meeting was over at 10:15, and the group working on fall store displays came in for their meeting. Valdez told them about the children's eyewear. The meeting ended at 11:20. As Valdez walked out of the conference room, she was stopped by a man from the display group. He talked to Valdez for a few moments about some ideas he had for different types of displays for the sunglass stores. Then he hesitated for a moment and asked Valdez if he could speak to her about a situation that had been troubling him. Valdez said she would like to help with the problem if possible. The man told her that he had been experiencing conflict with his team leader in the display group: He felt she had not been allowing free expression of ideas and "had it in" for him. The man admitted that he did not know how to cope with the situation and had been considering looking for another job. Valdez promised to look into the matter further. When she returned to her office and found a stack of phone messages waiting for her, she first returned the call of the vice president for finance and arranged to meet with him at 1:30. She also returned the call of the vice president for manufacturing. He needed to talk to her about manufacturing problems with one of the new specialty lenses, so they set up a time to discuss the problem at 2:00. Leaving the rest of the messages on her desk, Valdez left for her lunch appointment with the ad agency representative. At lunch, she discussed plans for network TV advertising and asked for ideas and strategies for effective new messages and the most effective timing for ads. All the time, she was attempting to evaluate whether or not ClearVision should hire this new agency for its next campaign. Since this would be ClearVision's first use of network TV advertising, it was a particularly important decision.

Valdez was back in her office at 1:15. She made some routine calls to subordinates to check on their progress on certain projects until 1:30. Then the vice president for finance came in to discuss the acquisition of an existing chain of sunglass stores. They talked about integrating these stores into ClearVision Optical Group's strategic plan until Keisha Jackson, the vice president for personnel, knocked on the door. The vice president for finance stayed to hear what Jackson had to say, and the three discussed possible solutions to the new company employee benefits program. Both vice presidents left at 2:30. Valdez collected her phone messages and began returning calls. She had just finished talking with a frame supplier representative in New York and an ad agency reporting the completion of a print ad campaign for the next quarter when she had to leave for her meeting with the president. Valdez talked with him for half an hour about expansion strategy and another half-hour about her evaluation of the frame suppliers the firm was currently using.

At 4:00 Valdez went back to her office and found a report on her desk about an inventory control model that gave appropriate purchase quantities and intervals for the current frame line. One of her subordinates in the frame management group had researched the matter and felt that frame purchasing could be more efficient. Valdez recalled that she had told the man to come up with a better method if he could, and this report gave his findings on the matter. Valdez read the report carefully and thought about its implications. She called the man in and asked him to explain some aspects of the model more clearly. They discussed how the model would work in practice and the dollar savings that would result from it. The man left Valdez' office at 4:45, and Valdez began working on the frame line questionnaire again. Five minutes later, Linda Brown came in with some letters for her to sign and some personnel evaluations the head of personnel had sent over to be filled out. She decided to forget about the questionnaire and work on it at home, where she was less likely to be interrupted. She worked on the performance evaluations until 5:45, when she packed her papers in her briefcase and headed for home.

Questions

1. What competencies are illustrated in the case?

2. Using the Communication Inventory presented as an Experiential Exercise with Chapter 9, evaluate Valdez' communication effectiveness. In what area(s) does she excel?

3. Is Valdez an effective team leader?