The Exchanges

Q It's incredible. Ok, so you're 32. You're doing this turnaround. What are the insights you're driving at Fox that you're going to wind up using later on when you do take two?

A So the, the biggest insight, well, we can get into how I work with creative people because that's probably the most important long-term thing. But the, I think going back to your question of video games, so it's now mid eighties because I've been there for a couple of years and I now really understand the economics of the movie business. So like maybe I'm slow to pick it up, but I, I got it and they're terrible. They're terrible underlying economics, and they were bad and they've been bad since 1955, since the consent decree that basically disaggregated distribution from production and turn the motion picture business from a studio system into a boutique system and a rubric for good versus bad entertainment businesses. A boutique system is generally bad and a studio system is generally good or can be good. The studio system was long gone. And studio system means your creative talent. All your talent is on the payroll. Boutique system is they're not on your payroll. They can auction their services. And obviously talented people are auctioning their services for every project. It's going to be much more expensive than if they're on your payroll in success. Um, so you have a structure in the motion picture business since 55 a century. It wasn't didn't happen overnight. 55. But by the by the late sixties, early seventies, mid seventies, where It's heads I win, tails you lose. If th…

AI assessment note: “rubric for good versus bad entertainment businesses. A boutique system is generally bad”

Q Let's go back to that story where you're like, well, we need a 20th Century Fox. We need a business guy. Let's grab this guy. So when you realized you needed an AI person, did you create an entire role? Like, how was the structure?

A No, we have a new CTO, Dave Klein, and it all reports to Dave, because it's technology. It sits within the technology world, and no, I don't, you know, Not in any way to minimize the effect of all things AI. But first of all, the words mean different things to different people. And we're a technology company that makes entertainment. We always have been. So this is not new to us and engaging with technology aggressively to create better products, to market them better and to run our business better is what we do. You know, innovation and efficiency. So it fits well within our system and we've Pushed really, really hard to be as ambitious as possible. And even so, I would say we're getting internal criticism and that we're not moving fast enough, but we're trying to.

AI assessment note: “No, we have a new CTO, Dave Klein, and it all reports to Dave”

Q But is there anything that you remember, like discussions you had or stuff he told you, like, implicitly that you applied?

A No, I, I just remember the form of the discussion, which was a lot of very robust debate with, um, a lot of heat around it. And I used to say to people, you know, we argue all the time, uh, Barry and I, and he's right. 99% of the time, but one percent of the time I'm actually right. So that's how I learned from him. Uh, and he was, he was patient with me most of the time, but you had to have a strong stomach to, I mean, he was famous and, and fierce in those days. He was not, Like Junior, he was a very senior in the industry already, never mind what he's done since. And he was, he was scary. Oh, and by the way, like, it's not like if this job didn't work out of Fox or other people lining up to hire me. Like, I was young. I was newly married. I had a kid, had a mortgage. Like, I needed to keep my job. But I understood that this was his dialectic. And if you back down, if you didn't argue, you were done. I understood it wasn't personal. Just wasn't personal. Other people took it personally, like personal attack or criticism. I just knew that it wasn't. It's not like it was personal on the good side, either. It's not like if he were sitting here, he'd say, oh, yes, I love Strauss. I thought he was so amazing. He might not even remember I worked for him in those days. Therefore, I knew it wasn't personal. It wasn't about me. It was about the thing itself. It was arriving at the rig…

AI assessment note: “No, I, I just remember the form of the discussion”

Q Over a long period of time, that is an edge. Can you talk about that?

A That was a sort of a nice to have. The must have was we are going to give you the resources, creative and financial, to pursue your passion. We're not going to interfere creatively. We want you to make the best video games on earth. That was the pitch. And we mean it. And we will support you through thick and thin to do so more than any other company. Oh, and by the way, then we'll run a rational business organization. No one's going to scream at you. You're not going to find out that someone's getting indicted. We're not going to get sideways with the FTC. And, um, you know, it, it'll be like a real grownup company. And then over time, I couldn't promise this right away, but But I had to promise it. I said, we'll also have a solid balance sheet so that when we fail, inevitably you fail in the entertainment business, we can live to play another day. That took us a few years.

AI assessment note: “That was a sort of a nice to have. The must have was”

Q And I love what you said about why it might be effective. You said, I'm pretty sure it works because the method requires one to concentrate hard exclusively and frequently on what one wants. Can you say a little bit about that?

A Sure. I mean, I think having not done as much research as you, but having read a billion biographies, I was very focused growing up on success, sort of traditional success. But also political success. And I tried to sort of drill it down to, like, what is the factor that is most common among highly successful people? And the only thing I could come up with was they knew what they wanted. And it's not because you know what you want, like Napoleon Hill, you know, write it on your mirror, like, I want a million dollars on Thursday. It's because I wanted to build a diversified collection of media communications and entertainment assets supercharged by technology. Starting in a one and I've been laser focused on it ever since, which means I make choices that are in service of that. So here's magical thinking is I want to do that, but you know what? It's a very nice day out there. I'm going to the beach today, tomorrow, and the next day. You just told me like you're a reasonably successful guy. I think you just told me you work seven days a week. I have, you know, three jobs. I work really hard. Why? Because I have a set of goals and I'm focused on achieving those goals. Now there's still no guarantee. There's still no guarantee. But by knowing what you want and working in service of what you want, you are much more likely to get what you want than if you don't know what you want or …

AI assessment note: “by knowing what you want and working in service of what you want”

Q Does it have anything to do with technology?

A Uh, it had to do with the fact that the reason for Vestron to exist was that they were pioneering home entertainment, but everyone else got into home entertainment. You can never have a competitive advantage in the entertainment business through distribution only. That's why Netflix produces content. You can start with distribution only if you're a pioneer, but you got to immediately go into production and productions. It's very tough business, as I said earlier. So Vestron is not capitalized to be a diversified Film and television production company with a video game division, sorry, a video store division, not video games. And, um, it's, it's apparent to me they're gonna have problems. So I start looking around and, uh, for a job. And remarkably enough, at the age of 31, people are not exactly lined up, knocking on my door to ask me to be president of a major film studio. But Joe gets this job as chairman of Fox and behind the scenes. And this I was not aware of. But I became aware of it. Barry said to Joe, look, you've never worked at a major and you've never run a business. You're an independent producer, but he needed creative engine to turn around the studio. It was where that was, which was true. You got to hire a business guy to support you here, like to, to be your partner and building the business. So Joe comes from the independent world. Remember totally different wo…

AI assessment note: “it had to do with the fact that the reason for Vestron to exist”