Urgency, and the company culture needs to eradicate complacency. Change requires total commitment and the entire company needs to know, understand, and embrace the change. Your company cannot go to the next stage unless you have urgency. “There is a 70% chance that any change will fail” (Kotter, J. P. Kindle edition). When I tell people outside of the entertainment industry about the business they are shocked that people behave the way they do. The sex scandals are only a small dysfunction of what has held back Hollywood from developing and evolving business practices. It is to bad the recent news has become a witch hunt, and most of the offenders will continue as they always have. What about the bully’s? The racism? Some of these people have the trifecta and the audiences have no idea who they are supporting. The current system has been broken and inefficient for decades, but it is entertainment and who really cares, right?
How do you fix it? That is beyond the scope of this post. The reason I talk about this now is because it is easy for people to understand what I mean by “urgency” to change the culture. How long will it last? “People often complain about being forced to produce short-term wins, but under the right circumstances that kind of pressure can be a useful element in a change process. When it becomes clear that quality programs or cultural change efforts will take a long time, urgency levels usually drop” (Kotter, J. P. Kindle edition). If the leadership in the industry have covered up all these deep, ugly secrets how can they manage updating their business processes from paper to digital? At byagi we are deeply concerned because in order to make change happen one needs singularity in the commitment and not let anything stand in the way. Our calling is to help take Hollywood out of the dark ages in “their” business practices. How do we do that? We start by creating a learning environment in our company, and lead by example.
I was looking for a digital solution in Hollywood for managing crew’s spending on feature films and television projects and “they” don’t make one, so I built one. “Ferry Porsche said I was looking for the sports car of my dreams and I couldn’t find it, so I built one” (Amazon.com: Decades Of Disruption: Robert Dalrymple, 2017). At byagi we have chosen to be leaders and take a road less traveled. Going it alone is not for the meek. But when you use qualitative and quantitative data the risks are mitigated. Failing is not negative but a fact of life and part of the process of building innovative, curve jumping products and services. It is also part of making a change, and creating urgency in your organization.
I have never been one to follow which has hurt my career because followers are rewarded by those in control. Try questioning a bully producer. I am not good at vertical obedience when I know my information is sound. I found this article the other day that said, “The customer is always right. It’s a noble sentiment that has done much to improve customer service, especially in retail. But with technology, business users may not always understand what they are asking for. Even worse, they may try to dictate the technical details of the solution” Harpham, B. (2017, November 21). One of my first demo’s a couple years ago for a V.P. of Finance said when we were done that he could not use the system because it looked to simple. Would you say that about the Porsche? Was it to small and light to run against the big muscle cars? The history of Porsche is about firing a shot across the bow and showing people the ultimate in possibilities. Byagi is doing the same thing with managerial and financial production management in the entertainment industry.
Our interface is clean and simple. We give the user only what they need to be compliant. “What does Sarbanes-Oxley compliance require?” We either meet or exceed requirements. “All applicable companies must establish a financial accounting framework that can generate financial reports that are readily verifiable with traceable source data. This source data must remain intact and cannot undergo undocumented revisions. In addition, any revisions to financial or accounting software must be fully documented as to what was changed, why, by whom and when” (http://sarbanes-oxley-101.com/sarbanes-oxley-faq.htm). Our system goes to the source of financial data, captures it and tracks everything.
Here is one of byagi’s shot across the bow. We have created a natural way to do a journal entry that is compliant with Generally Accepted Accounting Principles and the accountant may or may not be involved in the data entry portion. Audit and approve are the new standards for accounting in Hollywood. We have approvals and transparency never before seen in our industry.
Does anyone out there know how easy finances are when you give people the tools they need to get the job done right the first time? Simplicity is the beauty of what we do. Work is not ugly, work is not a four letter word that should be avoided. If people knew some of the working conditions in the entertainment world they would be just as shocked as the sex scandal. If people have been complacent about the current scandal what does that say about their business intelligence?
Work should not be a place where people engage in “Happy Talk” either, which something John Kotter writes about in his book, Leading Change. “If complacency were low in most organizations today, this problem would have limited importance. But just the opposite is true. Too much past success, a lack of visible crises, low performance standards, insufficient feedback from external constituencies, and more all add up” (Kotter, J. P. Kindle edition). Sounds like the entertainment industry to me. Stocks and flows are terms used in Systems Management. There is always a reason why. Finance on productions is something I have heard complained about for the last two decades. The standards in a creative industry have been low, but expectations for results high.
Do any of you in the C-Suite, VP’s, or Directors know how bloated productions are? What is more important labor or production value? Do you like inefficient and overstaffed crews? Education and reading will help any of you who question what I am saying. Start with my references in these blogs and question what is happening on your production. What financial tools do you provide for your (not just accounting) crew? I have yet to see a platform like ALineProducer that shares and collaborates in one place creating a new system of record.
The hours and tasks that are eliminated, shifted, results shared, stack up fast when using ALineProducer. I know from personal experience having used, ALineProducer, as an Accountant on 6 projects. The pace at which the information is distributed increases exponentially. The cover of, Journal of Accountancy, November 2017, reads “We have to be bold, incoming Chair Eric Hanse, CPA, CGMA, says that the pace of change demands that the profession take proactive steps to maintain relevance”. When a production uses our application the Accountant’s main responsibility changes to auditor of information, not data entry. Auditing the quality and accuracy of the information being entered in the system also requires a higher level of education. Data entry accountants will need to make an adjustment in their skill-set to stay relevant. Even better it would be awesome to actually get CPA’s in the finance and production accounting world to help the confused minds of production get their business process current and relevant.
We have taken finance to a new level that in my opinion no one else in the industry can match right now. No one is even close. “Making a significant change to business intelligence in an organization has consequences for careers. The art of change management and leadership cannot be ignored in guiding people through the transition” Harpham, B. (2017, November 21). Those who have the urgency to master their information systems in a digital environment will be far better off than those who are complacent. Be bold, make big data changes, and join a new conversation about the production business in entertainment.
Disclaimer – Some of these references may not be quoted but they have inspired thoughts for this post. None of these references endorse the products or services from byagi.
REFERENCES
Amazon.com: Decades Of Disruption: Robert Dalrymple [Video file]. (2017). Retrieved from https://www.amazon.com/Decades-Disruption-Robert-Dalrymple/dp/B076DFQXY8/ref=sr_1_1?s=instant-video&ie=UTF8&qid=1513639288&sr=1-1&keywords=porsche+documentary
Harpham, B. (2017, November 21). 9 ways you’re failing at business intelligence. Retrieved from https://www.cio.com/article/3237786/business-intelligence/9-ways-youre-failing-at-business-intelligence.html
Hill, L. A., & Davis, G. (2017, November/December). The board’s new innovation imperative, Directors need to rethink their roles and their attitude to risk. Harvard Business Review, 95(6), 103-109.
Kawasaki, G., books and speeches
Knight, P. (2016). Shoe dog: A memoir by the creator of Nike. Scribner Book Company.
Kotter, J. P. Change Leadership: The Kotter Collection (5 Books) (Kindle Locations 2341-2343). Harvard Business Review Press. Kindle Edition.
Kotter, J. P. (1996). Leading change. Boston, MA: Harvard Business Review Press.
Pfleeger, S. L., & Atlee, J. M. (2012). Software engineering: Theory and practice. Johanneshov: TPB.
Prokesch, S. (2017, March/April). The Edison of Medicine lessons from one of the world’s most productive and profitable research facilities. Harvard Business Review, 95(2), 134-143.
Sarbanes-Oxley FAQs – What Your Business Must Do for Compliance. (2017, December 18). Retrieved from http://sarbanes-oxley-101.com/sarbanes-oxley-faq.htm
Tysiac, K. (2017). We have to be bold. Journal of Accountancy, 224(5), 18-22. Retrieved from journalofaccountancy.com
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