I'M ONLY INTERESTED IN PROFIT CENTERS, OR THE MIND OF THE MODERN ENTERTAINMENT EXECUTIVE

30 Oct. 2002

Entertainment executives have never been eager to invest money in infrastructure maintenance especially when it could be spent making a hit record or movie. In terms of priorities, they view their core jobs as making the right choice on a demo or a script; producing it and watching the big money roll in. This fact combined with the average life expectancy of said executives the current entertainment marketplace explains why it’s so difficult to get them to look further ahead more than even one quarter. Unfortunately, a Digital Asset Management program is not a hit movie nor song, nor is it a short-term project.

Thus continues the conundrum of those responsible for the archives in these entertainment companies: how to get the responsible decision-makers to really consider the challenge they’re faced with in this important area and take steps to do something about it. And of course, as I mentioned before, the situation becomes even more difficult when times are tough and any degree of job security is wishful thinking.

The preferred way to get the attention of the decision-makers in this case is to emphasize two results of an EAM project (not necessarily in this order) ROI and preservation of assets. This is a knid of “carrot or club” approach. It’s always interesting for them to find new ways to make money of course. But the type of investment necessary to embark on an EAM project often proves to be a huge disincentive. That’s where the preservation argument comes into play. From a job-performance point of view, it is certainly not a good thing to be the guy who ignored the advice of the technologists and did nothing to prevent the proven degeneration of key assets of the company.

And there is another key point to consider. What is the current state of the business? Let’s take the recording industry for example. I think it’s safe to say that things have rarely been worse. The following little vignette might be an example of said entertainment executive’s thought process.

Ouch! I’m in a really bad situation. You’re asking me to invest all this money in a project that won’t pay off for five or ten years when profits are something I can hardly remember? This is really complicated. Digital asset management. It just seems too damn expensive. But on the other hand, you’re telling me that not only is the stuff in the library falling apart but in fact we don’t even know where all of it is. But if we do get this all together, we can make much better use of what we do already own. Right. God knows, we could use some revenue. Hey, at least if we’re able to repackage the stuff we already own we might make some money. And, what about the Internet? All the free music up there is killing us. If we put some of our own up we might have a fighting chance, and we can’t do that until it’s digitized. Now the factory people are saying that it would be so much better to deliver masters to the plants electronically than send them by airfreight. Quicker, safer, and less expensive in the end. But…my contract comes up in six months. This isn’t a good time to rock the boat. I guess the best thing would be to wait and see what happens.

Here’s the bottom line analysis of the reasoning process. Question: is it better to do nothing and let somebody else worry about it later or step up and make a decision and take the credit or the blame? Answer: it depends. If said executive is new on the job, a situation that is not uncommon these days, lack of knowledge would indicate doing nothing is best. On the other hand, if said executive has survived the recent layoffs, he is probably shell-shocked and will always not make a decision unless forced into it. Being forced to make a decision on an EAM project is hardly ever the case because it is, by definition, long-term. Finally, there is an outside chance that he is secure in his job and has a directive to use and protect the assets of the company, in which case he might just say yes. It’s clear, however, that the strength of the odds is on the do-nothing side.

The lesson to be learned here is a simple one. If you intend to propose an EAM project, your proposal had better be well-researched, informative, and it had better be compelling.