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Sesame Workshop : Leadership Development

“Cynthia’s insights and support were invaluable to us. She helped us make the tough decisions, present the case for the resources we needed and build an effective team. We couldn't have done it without her.”

— SHERRIE WESTIN, EVP, CHIEF MARKETING OFFICER, SESAME WORKSHOP    

Sesame Workshop is a not-for profit educational organization that helps children around the world learn and grow. Best known for its “Sesame Street” television show in the U.S., the Workshop provides educational content through television, radio, books, magazines, interactive media, and community outreach in more than 20 countries around the world.

At the hub of all this activity is the marketing department, a small team of executives responsible for guiding the marketing programs of the company and ensuring a consistent look and feel to all communications. With a vast purview and a critical responsibility, the Sesame Workshop marketing department was often under stress. The organization was continually finding a way to execute one more program, work with one more partner, launch one more initiative that would help achieve its mission. Each new initiative required some involvement and work product from Marketing, which was working as hard as it could, and yet there was never funding for additional marketing staff. The impact on the team was demoralizing – increased stress, leading to grumbling among team members, 12 hour days for the department head and declining satisfaction with the department’s work among those in the organization that relied on it.

Brought in by the CMO and working with the Vice President of Marketing, Hayes Strategies completed an evaluation of the marketing needs of the organization, as well as the structure and capabilities of the marketing department. From there, recommendations were made on how to structure and support the department to allow it to flourish. Hayes Strategies continued to work with the Vice President over a period of a year to develop a strategy for the department that would meet the needs of the organization, put in place the structure and staff needed to support that strategy, and develop the leadership skills needed to manage the expanded staff and ever-expanding expectations. Today, the team works together effectively and the organization values the timeliness and professionalism of work output.