In a rapidly evolving media landscape, balancing risk and reward has become a critical skill for industry leaders. During a recent panel discussion, top executives shared their strategies for navigating this challenging environment, offering valuable insights into the future of entertainment and entrepreneurship.<\/p>\n
Donald Mustard, a partner at AGBO, the indie studio founded by Anthony and Joe Russo, emphasized the importance of taking significant risks to achieve groundbreaking innovation. “You live on the very bleeding edge of risk of what is possible,” Mustard stated. “If you really ever want to do something innovative and groundbreaking, you gotta be taking massive risks all the time.”<\/p>\n
This sentiment was echoed by Justina Omokhua, SVP at Parkwood Entertainment, Beyonc\u00e9\u2019s media, management, and production company. Omokhua highlighted the need for decision-makers to ask themselves three critical questions: “Is the thing that I\u2019m trying to do new, is it novel, is it innovative?” She stressed that sometimes a project might meet all three criteria, while other times it might only meet one. Regardless, the willingness to take risks is essential.<\/p>\n
Omokhua also underscored the importance of planning for potential failures and learning from them. “You have to ask the questions of yourself and be willing to take the risk,” she said. This approach allows companies to adapt and improve their strategies for future projects.<\/p>\n
In addition to risk-taking, Omokhua emphasized the importance of staying attuned to market trends and consumer behavior. Her team monitors customer inputs on a “monthly” or sometimes “weekly” basis to keep up with market demands. “What is their likelihood to purchase given the current state of affairs? Is this something that somebody\u2019s going to be inclined to do? Buy whiskey, use a hair product, go to a concert, listen to this specific type of music,” she explained. Understanding these factors is crucial for making informed business decisions.<\/p>\n
Asad Qizilbash, SVP of product and head of PlayStation Productions, warned against the trap of “good days-bad days” thinking when assessing new initiatives. “You\u2019re gonna make mistakes. There\u2019s gonna be things that don\u2019t work out\u2026 But you\u2019ve gotta have the discipline to know that things are gonna go wrong in the short term,” Qizilbash advised. He recommended taking a longer-term view while also being decisive in ending projects that clearly aren’t working.<\/p>\n
Launching untested projects requires not only courage but also investment. Judy Tu, SVP and senior relationship manager in City National Bank\u2019s entertainment division, noted that the cost of capital is decreasing, citing the Federal Reserve\u2019s recent interest-rate reduction. Tu expressed optimism about the entrepreneurial enthusiasm displayed by the other panelists. “It\u2019s music to my ears, in that you have all of these companies who are being incredibly thoughtful about how they approach risk,” she said.<\/p>\n
Mustard concluded the discussion by sharing his excitement for the potential creative avenues opened by future smartphone and artificial intelligence technology. Although AI has been a sensitive subject in the media space, Mustard emphasized that he is in the business of crafting the future. “The trend of yesterday is the trend of yesterday. Our opportunity is to create the next trend,” he said. “Our viewpoint of the world is, \u2018What is tomorrow, and how can we create it?\u2019 That\u2019s our job.”<\/p>\n
The insights shared by these industry leaders highlight the importance of embracing risk, learning from failure, and staying attuned to market trends. As the media landscape continues to evolve, these strategies will be crucial for navigating the challenges and opportunities that lie ahead.<\/p>\n
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Industry leaders at Variety’s Entertainment & Technology Summit discussed balancing risk and reward in media. Key insights: take massive risks for innovation, stay attuned to market trends, and plan for failures. “Create the next trend,” urged AGBO’s Donald Mustard. #MediaInnovation #Entrepreneurship<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":10468,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-10466","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-tv-series"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieetv.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10466","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieetv.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieetv.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieetv.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieetv.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10466"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/movieetv.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10466\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieetv.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/10468"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieetv.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10466"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieetv.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10466"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieetv.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10466"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}