Use Hollywood as a case study
Few business-school professors would ever think to walk the red carpet and use Hollywood as a case study. However, it is time they tuned in to Tinseltown. One reason is that other industries are coming to resemble the film business in some ways. In today's knowledge-based economy, bosses are having to spend more time managing flighty "stars". Food and consumer-goods makers are, as the studios have already done, seeking to focus more on a narrower range of "blockbusters"; and in industries from electronics to carmaking, the pace of product and brand launches is increasing, so Hollywood's ability to create a buzz rapidly about a new film may offer valuable lessons.
Furthermore, movie-making is an American success story. It is one of the few remaining industries in which the country's grip on the global market is as strong as it has ever been. China's Chollywood and India's Bollywood do not make films that people in other countries line up to see. America's film and television industry reckons its exports are worth around $16 billion a year.
Every company that employs creative people must think about how to harness their strengths for commercial gain without strangling their free-spiritedness. Hollywood has a century's experience in this. Studios recruit a fresh creative team for each film, leaving its members to work intensely together with a minimum of interference, stepping in only when things are clearly going wrong. This gives team members a feeling of control and pride in their project; and to cap it all, everyone has their contribution duly acknowledged in the closing credits.
Such teamwork is rare in other businesses, argues Mark Young of the University of Southern California's Marshall School of Business. People work hard and collaborate well in the movie business in part because they have little job stability. Many are freelancers, who will not get hired for the next film unless they prove themselves on the current one. The tough lesson from Hollywood, then, is that job insecurity can lead to greater productivity, as long as workers believe in what they are doing and have their achievements recognised.