The following is taken from an advertisement placed in a weekly business magazine by the Dickens Academy.

“We distributed a survey to senior management at International Mega-Publishing, Inc. The result of the survey clearly indicates that many employees were well prepared in business knowledge and computer skills, but lacked interpersonal skills to interact gracefully with customers. International Mega-Publishing decided to improve customer satisfaction by sending their newly hired employees to our one-day seminars. Since taking advantage of our program, International Mega-Publishing has seen a sharp increase in sales, an indication that the number of their disgruntled customers has declined significantly. Your company should hire Dickens and let us turn every employee into an ambassador for your company”

An advertisement placed in a weekly business magazine by Dickens Academy mentions about a survey distributed to senior management at International Mega-Publishing, Inc. According to the advertisement the result of the survey indicated that many employee, though well prepared in business knowledge and computer skills, lacked in interpersonal skills with the customers. The advertisement also talks about the increase in sales of International Mega-Publishing since they started sending their new hired employees to one-day seminars conducted by Dickens Academy. Thereby, every company is advised to hire Dickens to turn the company’s employees into its ambassadors.

In contrast to the claim made in the advertisement, the accomplishment of Dickens Academy does not sound very reliable as their survey was distributed to the management of a single company, namely International Mega-Publishing. Since, it is possible that the problem of lack of interpersonal skills among most employees is limited to this publishing company; it may not be a general problem everywhere. In other words, the problem identified and its solution offered, do not sound very impressive with a single example to quote.

As the Academy refers to the one-day seminars attended by new employees, it is quite likely that the newly appointed men in International Mega-Publishing were facing a problem in dealing with the customers due to say, some different kind of work system prevailing over there. Similarly, this particular company may be more in need of such seminars, as offered by Dickens Academy because of some new products launched by it which are not used conventionally. It may also be because of moderate quality products of the company which needed an extra boost.

The fact that sales of International Mega-Publishing increased, can be merely coincidental with work shops of Dickens Academy attended by the company’s newly hired employees. There may not be a direct link between both. As stated earlier, the rise in sales of the company could be due to some newly launched products or better quality service in different fields, rather than an outcome of seminars attended by the employees, on good interpersonal relations with the customers. Going by the advertisement, it seems that the company has hastily correlated the rise in sales to the program conducted by Dickens Academy.

Likewise, details of the survey which concluded that many employees of International Mega-Publishing primarily lacked in interpersonal skills, are not given. Neither the criteria, nor the scope of the survey is explained.

In the wake of rising competition in market and propagandas in the form of advertisements, there are strong chances of Dickens Academy arriving at a conclusion which would help in the promotion of their academy and its services. It might have been pre-calculated to point out weaknesses of companies that would put their academy in demand and convince companies to hire them.

Further, the basis on which it is assumed that there have been a number of disgruntled customers is not explained. Besides, no survey has been conducted which reports in fall in of the number of such dissatisfied customers. Therefore, without verifying the authenticity of the survey conducted and results disclosed by Dickens Academy, the same should not be hired.