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The Businessman Vs. the State

By on October 10, 2012 in Business

Today is the perfect day for an individual, and most properly a businessman, to refuse to submit to a tyrannical government, especially ours in America here and now. I’ll tell you why in a minute but first let me praise former General Electric (GE) Chairman and CEO Jack Welch for writing in his op-ed in today’s edition of the Wall Street Journal (read the essay here):

Imagine a country where challenging the ruling authorities—questioning, say, a piece of data released by central headquarters—would result in mobs of administration sympathizers claiming you should feel “embarrassed” and labeling you a fool, or worse. Soviet Russia perhaps? Communist China? Nope, that would be the United States right now, when a person (like me, for instance) suggests that a certain government datum (like the September unemployment rate of 7.8%) doesn’t make sense.

Mr. Welch, a chemical engineer who led GE between 1981 and 2001 and raised the company’s value by 4,000 percent, is right to compare the United States to a Communist dictatorship. The Obama administration, which recently targeted CNN, has attacked free speech by singling out a lone filmmaker for persecution. The government is similarly waging a smear campaign against Republican opponent Mitt Romney – on the grounds that he, too, is a businessman – so it is no surprise that Jack Welch is being attacked; in his case, for exercising his freedom of speech on Twitter and speaking his mind. But the businessman is fighting back, taking to the free press to make his case in the above-quoted article. It’s an excellent piece, and it is particularly appropriate for Mr. Welch’s article to be published on this day, the 55th anniversary of Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand. Give ‘em hell, Jack.

Is Time Warner Ditching Batman?

By on July 25, 2012 in Business, Movies

Judging by the movie studio’s response to the mass murder at a Colorado movie theater where The Dark Knight Rises was playing, I anticipate some serious changes in the way movies are made, consumed and distributed. That the mass murderer assaulted innocents during an exhibition of a work of art could have a ripple effect in an industry dominated by huge corporations that may yield to politicians, pressure groups and government controls. Warner Bros., a division of Time Warner, cancelled several premieres in the wake of the attack, an arguably reasonable action taken out of an abundance of caution as the phrase goes.

In fact, there have been scattered arrests related to incidents at movie theaters showing the new Batman movie, and certainly tactful public relations is good business. But what is abandoning a motion picture on the market – Warner Bros. has apparently also cancelled most of their marketing for the movie and refused to disclose box office receipts for the most anticipated movie of the year – supposed to accomplish? Does the studio’s ditching of The Dark Knight Rises honor the memory of those victims who enthusiastically sought to see and experience the movie? Does it increase one’s understanding of the attack? Does it increase the likelihood that nihilists will attack future screenings of other so-called tentpole or event movies? Is it ethical to all but throw a project years in the making into the ditch? What about a movie studio’s contractual and moral obligations to the filmmakers, cast and crew and company employees and shareholders? Is Warner Bros. capitulating to brute force?

There are legitimate questions about tact and propriety and I’ve been critical of nihilistic movies and their effects on the culture. A company such as Time Warner has a right to cross-promote its products across multiple platforms, as Comcast’s NBC Universal and Disney’s ABC routinely do. The issue is a company’s disclosure, trust and integrity, particularly with regard to journalistic enterprises (which also applies to advocacy). For example, Time Warner owns the asinine aggregated ratings Web site RottenTomatoes.com, which purports to reduce movie analysis to numbers (the site requested my reviews for submission years ago and I declined) and, when the Web site pulled comments regarding the Time Warner-owned The Dark Knight Rises, I assumed it might be a cross-promotional stunt. I did the same when Time Warner’s publication, Entertainment Weekly, put the film on the cover with an exclusive interview with its star, Christian Bale, and director, Christopher Nolan. Let the buyer beware of potential conflicts of interest. But at least let the prospective buyer be aware that a motion picture has been made and put on the market.

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Arthur C. Nielsen, Jr., 1919-2011

By on October 28, 2011 in Business, Obituaries, Television

“If you can put a number on it, then you know something,” the late Arthur C. Nielsen Jr., who died earlier this month, reportedly said his father once told him. If you use or refer to metrics, analytics and box office statistics, you are cashing in on Mr. Nielsen’s work, because he was president and chairman of the A. C. Nielsen Company founded by his father. The Nielsen Company pioneered gathering, reporting and analyzing consumer data and it still dominates such information in the entertainment industry, especially television. Arthur Nielsen, whose life began and ended in Winnetka, Illinois, became president of his father’s modest television statistics firm in 1957 and he was named chairman in 1975. According to newspaper obituaries, he took the business from making under $4 million a year to $680 million in annual revenue. The World War 2 veteran, who served as a major in the Corps of Engineers, was assigned during the war to construct a building that would function as a place to operate a machine. The machine’s purpose? To generate highly complex tables that would calculate for accuracy the metrics of firing huge artillery guns. Nielsen was fascinated and became a passionate exponent and innovator of what the company called a “measurement science.” Among those innovations are of course the famous Nielsen ratings that continue to define, frame and shape television markets. Whether they know it or not, future practitioners and pioneers in entertainment industry statistics analysis, such as my former business partner, Box Office Mojo founder Brandon Gray, gained enormous value from Mr. Nielsen’s work. He leaves behind much more than the world’s leading market research business. Art Nielsen, as he was known to his colleagues, ran, fostered and kept re-creating a technology-based business that advanced our understanding of the arts and business. Gaining knowledge of what people choose to consume helps us learn why they consume it, which helps artists produce richer, more compelling work for people to consume. By taking measure of what people consume, Nielsen’s distinguished career improved both the art of business and the business of art.

Cars: Mazda Quits Making Rotary Engine

By on October 16, 2011 in Business, Cars, News

“Mazda to stop making rotary-engine vehicles,” read the Associated Press headline. After 45 years of making the engine that powered the first and only Japanese car to win the 24-hour Le Mans endurance race, Mazda Motor Corporation, the only automaker in the world to manufacture rotary engine vehicles, recently announced that production of the rotary engine will end in June 2012. Developed by Felix Wankel in 1960 and first used by Mazda in 1967, the rotary engine costs more money and uses more fuel compared to the piston engine, but it’s lighter and quieter and uses fewer moving parts. Amid environmentalist-backed government emissions regulations and government favortism toward electric and hybrid cars, Mazda admitted in its statement that emissions dictates are a partial cause for the decision and said sales had declined. The company, which pledged to continue researching rotary engine possibilities, puts the latest edition of the RX-8 (the only Mazda model with a rotary engine) on sale Nov. 24 with a sales target of 1,000 vehicles. A small percentage of the Hiroshima, Japan-based Mazda is owned by Dearborn, Michigan-based Ford Motor Company, the only private automotive manufacturer in the United States.

Books: How to Win Friends & Influence People in the Digital Age

By on October 10, 2011 in Books, Business

On the 75th anniversary of a concise business book that’s sold more than 30 million copies, the New York-based Dale Carnegie and Associates has produced an updated version of Dale Carnegie’s book, How to Win Friends & Influence People, (Simon and Schuster, October 2011, $26/$13 on iBooks), which adds the phrase in the Digital Age to the title. Dale Carnegie (1888-1955), whom his father claimed was a distant cousin to steel industrialist Andrew Carnegie, may or may not have approved of this overhauled adaptation of his original work, written with Brent Cole, but he approached his topic, communication, with a kind of benevolent embrace of entrepreneurialism, and this version does too. Unfortunately, its theme confuses benevolence with self-sacrifice, asking in the introduction: “Aren’t we all moved by altruism?” No, we’re not.

The authors also mix up narcissism with self-interest, a common error, but if you can sift through these and other mistakes, there’s plenty of good advice, tips and encouragement for doing rational, honorable and productive business in today’s overwhelming information age. “Carnegie,” the intro asserts, “was the master of influence that is earned.” This seems at least partly true, with his simple, thoughtful insights intact, updated and integrated with today’s markets in mind. Among the gems are tales about President Lincoln and an unsent letter to General Meade in the aftermath of the Battle of Gettysburg during the Civil War, a good contrast between the story of The King’s Speech and a fallen, disgraced National Public Radio executive, and this ancient Jewish parable about a shepherd guarding 100 sheep who loses one, just one, and must decide what to do: “Does he say a prayer and hope the sheep shows up before a wolf nabs him? No, he pens the ninety-nine and goes looking. That one sheep is of such magnificent importance the shepherd cannot bear to see him left alone. Consider the message this sends to the sheep, not just the one but also the other ninety-nine who look to the shepherd for provision and protection. Now consider sending that same message to those you’d like to influence. Have you let them know just how valuable you think they are? There is great power in this simple principle, embodied regularly.”

Guiding readers through productive communications, including the use of social media, with anecdotes, tips and tools about the importance of providing encouragement, smiling, using names, listening, discussing what matters, leaving others a little better off, and other ideas, How to Win Friends & Influence People in the Digital Age blends success stories with certain notions (most, not all, of them good). Pointing to the late Steve Jobs, the book reminds us that, when he unveiled the iMac at the turn of the century, he predicted a future of the computer as a hub for video and digital cameras, music players, assorted productivity devices, and cellular phones, and he was ridiculed by critics and competitors alike. “Some of Apple’s longtime rivals,” Dale Carnegie Training writes, “called the [iMac] ‘clownish’ and ‘silly’ and the vision ‘far too grand’. The public? They embraced the vision and the life that it promised. And Apple Computer, now simply Apple, has seen its share price increase 4,856 percent. The closest competitor has increased approximately 14 percent…The difference is that Steve Jobs recognized something Dale Carnegie championed repeatedly: to influence others to act, you must first connect to a core desire within them.”

Except for bad advice about never saying “you’re wrong” to someone and the usual plea for humility, the authors generally encourage the reader to act in his self-interest and they partly define what they mean by the ability to earn trust and influence others: “…the pinnacle of this principle is not complete self-denial. Notice the principle does not read, ‘Replace your interests with others’ interests.’ It instead reads, ‘Take interest in others’ interests,’ and that is the secret of its application.” I’m not convinced that this edition is worth the price (the original version is available on Apple’s iBookstore for $5), but theirs is a decent and generally constructive lesson in positive thinking, and especially the idea of reciprocity, that people who want to succeed in today’s challenging business environment, including those who claim to live by the virtue of selfishness, should learn.