Managing to Win

AFDI—Actually Fu—ing Doing It…meaning anyone can talk big, it’s up to us to DELIVER big. It also refers to Taking Care of Business vs Talking Care of business. Fast…responsive and operating at the speed of 2022. The Media/Entertainment business is especially non AFDI as in “Hey man, no problem…I’ll take care of it” and then…nothing. Look at any consistently successful person and AFDI in in their DNA

PASSION-CHARACTER-MUSCLE—

Passion—Fans know you are in to for the passion…not a quick buck or the latest trend

Character—Ya ooze it. It ain’t generic

Muscle—Big, bad ass and global

HIGH IQ/LOW BS—You hire smart people with zero BS, attitude or drama

APTITUDE—SO important. There are BRILLIANT people who simply don’t have the aptitude for what we do. I’ll bet Einstein would make a horrible voice guy (but would mind having him on the tech team). The point is that theres a very specific aptitude for what a team member does.

NO-ONE CARES WHAT YOU DID—IT’S WHAT YOU ARE GOING TO DO—Again, the Media/Entertainment space is the worst. People who go on and on about their past— are living in it. Speaking of past, whenever we’d launch a new programming concept, track record was irrelevant if not problematic..it’s the aptitude for what’s NEXT Passionate about the past…pointed to the future

CONTROLLED INSANITY—Great ideas are often by design and relative to the norm , insane. SO—the insanity must be organized , focused and controlled

CREATIVE BY COMMITTEE—Nope. A small group advisors/collaborators, of course. Committees that drag things out is everything wrong with big media. Conference calls should be 15 minutes max….meetings 30 minutes… Certainly there are exceptions, but the point is we execute, not spend hours debating or overthinking. It’s not Washington

FIRST PROGRAM…THEN SELL—It means create a product SO fresh that it drives the brand vs. designing around sales or technology. “Content is king” is a cliche. Revenue is king. BUT—-create the revenue by FIRST creating the killer programming rather than as vehicles to sell products.

CONTENT SUCKS— The word does. We may have to use it externally, but internally, thats like calling music “product.” Commodity

AVERAGE SUCKS— Important! Take a restaurant. A Michelin starred place..great! A cool dive…great! Some cookie cutter chain? No—its ‘average’…and the same applies to us. Character wins our kind of battles

BULLSHIT BINGO— (from wiki) Buzzword bingo is generally played in situations where audience members feel that the speaker, in an effort to mask a lack of actual knowledge, is relying too heavily on buzzwords rather than providing relevant details. Business meetings led by guest speakers or notable company personalities from higher up the pay scale are often viewed as a good opportunity for buzzword bingo, as the language used by these speakers often includes predictable references to arcane business concepts, which are perfect for use in the creation of buzzword bingo cards.

THE TECHNOLOGY EXCUSE— This is where technology is “the answer” irregardless of how other areas of the company might suck. Tech is a “duh” You GOTTA be the best to survive. But forgetting about the ‘other stuff’ is deadly. Take music—how about a brilliant sound that is amazing on a state of the art system? It’ll still be ‘average’ if the song ain’t great.

COMPLETENESS— Where EVERYthing is operating at 150% on mission. Right down to the way the receptionist answers the phone. 360 degrees

ECCENTRIC….ALL THE WAY TO THE BANK— You don’t want eccentric Surgeons or Cops….but in building new ideas, that eccentricity can be very powerful, if channeled right.

PREACH AND TEACH..TO REACH—A lost art. TEACHING. GUIDING. MENTORING. It won’t happen through osmosis…you have to teach…inspire…lead…enable

Think over the horizon to travel there…