The Exchanges

Q Jeffrey, Amy, how did you make your way here?

A Here's the thing, Harry, which is, as you well know, I spent 40 years in the media, entertainment, movie, TV business, but there was a sort of theme through pretty much every chapter of that where technology was a gigantic enabler of our storytelling, and if you think of the rate of innovation of, that has gone on in, particularly with movies and television, Over these, say, let's just call it the last 30 years or so, it's pretty astounding. Whether it's films in terms of special effects and the entire process end-to-end of making films, for me, probably the most transformative moment is when I reached out to Steve Jobs and John Lasseter and brought them into the Walt Disney Company and made a home for Pixar. When I started DreamWorks Animation, we had a studio of over 800 engineers and artists. Technology has been my Ally, my friend, my partner, and pretty much everything that I've done, and the relationships were established, frankly, 20 years ago, and I've maintained them.

AI assessment note: “I reached out to Steve Jobs and John Lasseter and brought them into”

Q Geoffrey, in terms of you, incredible time with DreamWorks, what was your biggest takeaway, and how did that impact your mindset?

A Literally, uh, every day make sure you're looking around the corner over the horizon, um, to what's coming at you. Um, you know, change, uh, is part of all of our lives, um, but embracing that change, you know, culturally, uh, is a, is a, is a high bar. Um, and for me, having lived through the disruption of hand-drawn animation to computer animation, um, I would say was, you know, probably one of the greatest challenges, and our survival, uh, literally depended on our ability to make a pivot. Um, it was brutal. We lost a lot of very talented people who were not actually, didn't have the capabilities to be a part of Uh, the innovation that was going on. Um, but I have to say if we hadn't done it, uh, we would have gone bankrupt.

AI assessment note: “every day make sure you're looking around the corner over the horizon”

Q Geoffrey, in terms of you, incredible time with DreamWorks, what was your biggest takeaway, and how did that impact your mindset?

A Literally, uh, every day make sure you're looking around the corner over the horizon, um, to what's coming at you. Um, you know, change, uh, is part of all of our lives, um, but embracing that change, you know, culturally, uh, is a, is a, is a high bar. Um, and for me, having lived through the disruption of hand-drawn animation to computer animation, um, I would say was, you know, probably one of the greatest challenges, and our survival, uh, literally depended on our ability to make a pivot. Um, it was brutal. We lost a lot of very talented people who were not actually, didn't have the capabilities to be a part of Uh, the innovation that was going on. Um, but I have to say if we hadn't done it, uh, we would have gone bankrupt.

AI assessment note: “every day make sure you're looking around the corner over the horizon”

Q I agree with you both. How does that make you feel about the future of remote? I don't like it. I had some problems with my team earlier this week. It would never have happened. If we were in the same office, it's fine now because we met in person, but you miss so much.

A I think it's gonna, I don't think there, once again, there's not one size fits all. You know, if you spend an hour, an hour and 15 minutes on a commute in an hour, an hour and 15 minutes on a commute home, And you are, you know, an engineer, or you are an accountant, or a lawyer, where in person isn't actually additive to what you're doing. You don't have daily multiple interactions in the course of your day. It's ridiculous. And it's unproductive, and it's unsatisfying. So, the herd, you know, idea that everybody moves in sync with one another, I don't think that makes a ton of sense, but the value of people being together in certain types of functions inside of companies, I think is invaluable. And I think it's been underestimated, and I think you'll see a, a return to it. It may not happen overnight, but it'll get there.

AI assessment note: “I don't think there, once again, there's not one size fits all.”

Q Jeffrey, you've hired incredible teams. What do you know now that you wish you'd known when you started hiring incredible talent?

A I'm infamous in this town for having set a line in my early Disney days. If you don't come to work on Saturday, don't bother coming on Sunday. Well, I meant it when I said it. I've learned my lesson, which is I actually have come to understand there is a work-life balance that actually makes somebody the best version of themselves. But the sentiment there is I wanted people who wanted to go to Mars with me. I wanted them. We were on a mission. It was a very high bar for us to get to where we were going to. It's not right for everybody. But if you're gonna be in this environment, I want you a 110%. Different people, some people are night owls, some people are daytime, and you need to make allowances for those things. People that wanted to raise a family. Sujay's in the middle of raising a family right now. It makes him a better person, a better executive, better round in that, and so I want him.

AI assessment note: “I actually have come to understand there is a work-life balance”

Q Listen, how does that make you feel about the future of remote?

A I don't think there, once again, there's not one size fits all. If you spend an hour, an hour and 15 minutes on a commute in, and an hour, an hour and 15 minutes on a commute home, and you are You have an engineer, or you are an accountant, or a lawyer, where in-person isn't actually additive to what you're doing, you don't have daily interactions in the course of your day, it's ridiculous, and it's unproductive, and it's unsatisfying. The herd idea that everybody moves in sync with one another, I don't think that makes a ton of sense, but the value of people being together in certain types of functions inside of companies, I think is invaluable. And I think it's been underestimated, and I think you'll see a return to it. It may not happen overnight, but it'll get there.

AI assessment note: “I think you'll see a return to it. It may not happen overnight”

Q Jeffrey, Amy, how did you make your way here?

A Here's the thing, Harry, which is, as you well know, I spent 40 years in the media, entertainment, movie, TV business, but there was a sort of theme through pretty much every chapter of that where technology was a gigantic enabler of our storytelling, and if you think of the rate of innovation of, that has gone on in, particularly with movies and television, Over these, say, let's just call it the last 30 years or so, it's pretty astounding. Whether it's films in terms of special effects and the entire process end-to-end of making films, for me, probably the most transformative moment is when I reached out to Steve Jobs and John Lasseter and brought them into the Walt Disney Company and made a home for Pixar. When I started DreamWorks Animation, we had a studio of over 800 engineers and artists. Technology has been my Ally, my friend, my partner, and pretty much everything that I've done, and the relationships were established, frankly, 20 years ago, and I've maintained them.

AI assessment note: “there was a sort of theme through pretty much every chapter of that where technology”

Q I agree with you both. How does that make you feel about the future of remote? I don't like it. I had some problems with my team earlier this week. It would never have happened. If we were in the same office, it's fine now because we met in person, but you miss so much.

A I think it's gonna, I don't think there, once again, there's not one size fits all. You know, if you spend an hour, an hour and 15 minutes on a commute in an hour, an hour and 15 minutes on a commute home, And you are, you know, an engineer, or you are an accountant, or a lawyer, where in person isn't actually additive to what you're doing. You don't have daily multiple interactions in the course of your day. It's ridiculous. And it's unproductive, and it's unsatisfying. So, the herd, you know, idea that everybody moves in sync with one another, I don't think that makes a ton of sense, but the value of people being together in certain types of functions inside of companies, I think is invaluable. And I think it's been underestimated, and I think you'll see a, a return to it. It may not happen overnight, but it'll get there.

AI assessment note: “you'll see a, a return to it. It may not happen overnight”

Q Listen, how does that make you feel about the future of remote?

A I don't think there, once again, there's not one size fits all. If you spend an hour, an hour and 15 minutes on a commute in, and an hour, an hour and 15 minutes on a commute home, and you are You have an engineer, or you are an accountant, or a lawyer, where in-person isn't actually additive to what you're doing, you don't have daily interactions in the course of your day, it's ridiculous, and it's unproductive, and it's unsatisfying. The herd idea that everybody moves in sync with one another, I don't think that makes a ton of sense, but the value of people being together in certain types of functions inside of companies, I think is invaluable. And I think it's been underestimated, and I think you'll see a return to it. It may not happen overnight, but it'll get there.

AI assessment note: “there's not one size fits all”

Q Jeffrey, you've hired incredible teams. What do you know now that you wish you'd known when you started hiring incredible talent?

A I'm infamous in this town for having set a line in my early Disney days. If you don't come to work on Saturday, don't bother coming on Sunday. Well, I meant it when I said it. I've learned my lesson, which is I actually have come to understand there is a work-life balance that actually makes somebody the best version of themselves. But the sentiment there is I wanted people who wanted to go to Mars with me. I wanted them. We were on a mission. It was a very high bar for us to get to where we were going to. It's not right for everybody. But if you're gonna be in this environment, I want you a 110%. Different people, some people are night owls, some people are daytime, and you need to make allowances for those things. People that wanted to raise a family. Sujay's in the middle of raising a family right now. It makes him a better person, a better executive, better round in that, and so I want him.

AI assessment note: “I've learned my lesson, which is I actually have come to understand there is a work-life balance”

Q Can I ask, speaking of, like, staying relevant there and keeping mindsets fresh, you know, Jeffrey, everyone said about the strength of your network. The hard thing is with network over many years, it accumulates, and with breadth comes actually a lack of depth. That's not the case for you. How do you maintain network breadth and depth in a way that no other people really can?

A Well, honestly, I just work really, really hard at it. You know, investing in relationships and partnerships and friendships, these are, you know, to me have always been high priority, and I've always gotten a tremendous ROI from it. And so, and I find it enormously rewarding. So, you know, I, today we have so many different devices available to, to do it, Harry. So some of it comes from my three breakfasts and two lunches and dinners. And, uh, uh, some of it comes from, uh, you know, hitting the phone, which is my old school weapon of mass destruction. Um, and, but much of it today is, you know, just on text. You know, and just staying in touch with people and, uh, being interested in what they're doing and reaching out when I see that people are doing interesting and exciting things and just maintaining it. I mean, it's, you know, it's, it's very rewarding.

AI assessment note: “some of it comes from my three breakfasts and two lunches and dinners”

Q Jeffrey, hit me. How did you make your way here?

A Sure. Well, here's the thing, Harry, which is, as you, uh, well, well, no, I spent 40 years in the media, entertainment, movie, TV business, but interestingly, there was a sort of theme Through pretty much every chapter of that where technology was a gigantic enabler of our storytelling. And if you think of the rate of innovation of that has gone on in particularly with movies and television, um, over these say, let's just call it the last 30 years or so, uh, it's pretty astounding. So whether it's in the films, uh, in terms of special effects and The entire process end to end of making films, um, you know, for me, probably the most transformative moment is when, uh, you know, I reached out to Steve Jobs and John Lasseter and brought them into the Walt Disney Company, um, and made a home for Pixar. Uh, so it's just, you know, when I started DreamWorks Animation, um, we had a studio in Redwood Shores of over 800 Um, uh, engineers and artists. So I sort of felt like, you know.

AI assessment note: “I spent 40 years in the media, entertainment, movie, TV business”

Q He said, when you have something like Quibi, how does that impact your mindset towards risk? Does it make you more or less inclined to take risk?

A Great question. He's okay. I'm okay. He doesn't, he's not getting punished for that. So the reason why it's a great question, Harry, is, is that in many respects, it, it exemplifies, uh, the difference between the culture of Northern California and the culture of Southern California. In Southern California, you know, so let me just start with the following. We are in a risk business. Right? Media and entertainment and technology, uh, founders building new companies. There's a very simple equation. If you want to do something that is original and unique, it equals risk. If you are going to do something that risk is risky, it means there needs to be the provision for failure. If you take out the equation, the ability to ever fail, you will not take risk. If you don't take risk, you'll never do anything unique and original. It's true of every pioneer. Okay. So in the Southern California and the culture that I grew up in, um, failure comes with huge public humiliation. It doesn't matter whether you're in front of the camera, behind the camera, uh, The, the nature of it and the media around it is you get punished pretty brutally when you, when you fail. You get raked across the coals and the list is endless of movie stars and their ups and downs. In Silicon Valley, you know, you fail, you get onto the next thing. Like failure makes you smarter, makes you stronger. You know, it's a, …

AI assessment note: “I was never humiliated by the failure of it. I was humbled by it.”

Q You said when you have something like Quibi, how does that impact your mindset towards risk? Does it make you more or less inclined to take risk?

A Great question. He's not getting punished for that. So the reason why it's a great question, Harry, is, is that in many respects, it exemplifies the difference between the culture of Northern California and the culture of Southern California. We are in a risk business, right? Media and entertainment, End technology. Founders building new companies. There's a very simple equation. If you want to do something that is original and unique, it equals risk. If you are going to do something that is risky, it means there needs to be the provision for failure. If you take out the equation, the ability to ever fail, you will not take risk. If you don't take risk, you'll never do anything unique and original. It's true of every pioneer. Ok, so in the Southern California, in the culture that I grew up in, failure comes with huge public humiliation. Doesn't matter whether you're in front of the camera or behind the camera, the nature of it and the media around it, you get punished pretty brutally when you fail. You get raked across the coals, and the list is endless of movie stars and their ups and downs. In Silicon Valley, you fail, you get on to the next thing. Failure makes you smarter, makes you stronger. It's Part of how you grow as an entrepreneur out of it. And so going back specifically to Quibi, I was never humiliated by the failure of it. I was humbled by it. We never had product …

AI assessment note: “I was never humiliated by the failure of it. I was humbled by it.”

Q You said when you have something like Quibi, how does that impact your mindset towards risk? Does it make you more or less inclined to take risk?

A Great question. He's not getting punished for that. So the reason why it's a great question, Harry, is, is that in many respects, it exemplifies the difference between the culture of Northern California and the culture of Southern California. We are in a risk business, right? Media and entertainment, End technology. Founders building new companies. There's a very simple equation. If you want to do something that is original and unique, it equals risk. If you are going to do something that is risky, it means there needs to be the provision for failure. If you take out the equation, the ability to ever fail, you will not take risk. If you don't take risk, you'll never do anything unique and original. It's true of every pioneer. Ok, so in the Southern California, in the culture that I grew up in, failure comes with huge public humiliation. Doesn't matter whether you're in front of the camera or behind the camera, the nature of it and the media around it, you get punished pretty brutally when you fail. You get raked across the coals, and the list is endless of movie stars and their ups and downs. In Silicon Valley, you fail, you get on to the next thing. Failure makes you smarter, makes you stronger. It's Part of how you grow as an entrepreneur out of it. And so going back specifically to Quibi, I was never humiliated by the failure of it. I was humbled by it. We never had product …

AI assessment note: “I was never humiliated by the failure of it. I was humbled by it.”