Chapter 1

Is This the Last Race?

Movin’ down the back streets

Pass the speed of light

Sparks burn inside me

Gas and air adjusted right

Layin’ down some rubber

Needle’s in the red

—(Street Lethal, Racer X, 1986)

For a long time, things had been going well with the business. As record labels go, it had pretty much hit the top of the charts and stayed there. However, in recent months it looked as if it had begun a slide that could prove difficult to recover from. As the CEO, Jason should have seen what was happening. But for some reason he missed all the signals. Sony had recently closed a plant and laid off 300 workers in New Jersey due to what they called, “the challenge facing the physical media industry.” They were referring to the introduction of iPods, MP3 players, LimeWire, and other forms of technology that had replaced the CD.

Jason guessed the first indicator he should have noticed was in the area of distribution. His company had enjoyed many years of preferred service and product placement. They had always treated their distributors well and with good terms; however, they were getting pressure from the marketplace as well as from their competitors. He started noticing their products positioned lower on shelves, and they were not getting end cap displays like they had in the past. Something was definitely up. Their online sales were also starting to suffer.

Their artists’ numbers were dropping. They had less than 20% of their artists in the Top 100 Billboard rankings in all genres. This had never been the case. The road managers were complaining about the crowds at live events. They had thinned out, and greyed quite a bit. That was always a challenge. As fans get older, music does not hold as dominant a place in their lives as it used to. They buy fewer albums, download fewer individual tunes, and attend fewer concerts.

The label had to find ways to reach these audiences better, or they would have to let some of their older artists go. This was a tough call because it also involved the catalog of songs that they held publishing rights to. If they let the artists go, they didn’t have a strategy to continue promoting the licensing of their songs. When their artists were working, other artists were still recording their songs. It was a dilemma that they had never faced. One bright spot was in the licensing of their songs for films and videos. However, this would not last forever as many new companies had sprung up to produce generic music just for that purpose. These were not hit songs but good background pads and mood audio.

Jason had also received a complaint from one of their top artists. They were threatening to leave because of the treatment they were receiving from their managers who worked for the label. Some of the older managers were getting a bit gruff when they worked with the artists. It was as if the managers were becoming grumpy old men. Most were still under 50, but Jason thought the business was starting to wear on them.

Managing and promoting artists can sometimes seem like babysitting. Many artists are very insecure and compensate for that insecurity by acting like prima donnas. Oddly, this happens more with the older artists than the younger ones. You would think that after the artists reach a certain level of success, they would find some security in having made it. But, apparently, the pressure of staying on top drives them to greater levels of insecurity. Jason figured this was one reason he had not continued as an artist. He could see the writing on the wall facing so many of his musician friends. He knew the better place would be in the business of music: helping artists, building an organization, and eventually growing old sitting on the beach.

As he walked around the office, he noticed that most of his employees were doing something other than working. Some were playing video games, some were on their cell phones, others were just sitting around texting their friends and family. Could they really be so dysfunctional that the empire he had built was now beginning to crumble around him?

Jason decided to call a meeting of the Executive Team. This included himself, and all the Vice Presidents. They represented A&R (artists and repertoire), Promotions, Publicity, Publishing Sales, Distribution, Ancillary Products, New Media, Television, Film, Marketing, Legal, Label Liaison, Business Affairs, Art, and Artist Development. He also invited the head of Human Resources, who, though not a “C” level staff member, he thought they would be critical to the conversation.

Jason called the meeting with just two days’ notice and was met with a cacophony of rebuttals. Miles, from Sales, was heading to New York to visit his parents. Karen, from the Art Department, had a gift certificate and reservations to receive a full treatment at a local spa. And George, the Business Affairs guy, was headed to Alaska to go salmon fishing. Others were simply apathetic and treated the scheduling of his meeting with a lackadaisical attitude. Somewhere along the line he had taken his hands off the steering wheel and lost control of this once beautiful Porsche GT3 RS that had torn up the roads of the entertainment industry. They had been at this for a long time, and it was starting to show.

Jason had started in music many years earlier. He had been a musician, albeit not a very successful one. He played at the clubs as most aspiring musicians do. Sometimes he went on tour and lived in the back of a van or in some seedy hotel room that he shared with several other musicians. Most of the time he handled the business of the group because no one wanted to do the job. In time, he met a number of successful musicians, and it got around that he understood the business of music and had some creative ideas. Before long, he found himself representing several pretty successful artists. He also discovered that working with a partner helped to manage the growing stable that he was attracting.

Dillon, Jason’s partner, was a great guy. He had been a successful musician in the early 1970s but had gone into the business end of things because it offered greater stability. Jason and Dillon hit it off right away. They would meet regularly at a local Irish pub and sit in a booth near the back dreaming about the “what ifs.” One interesting thing that attracted them to this particular pub was the fact that they had a telephone in each booth. This was long before cell phones. They gave out the phone number of their regular booth to clients and business people who were able to contact them there most anytime of the day. They discussed the idea of a music management company and what it might look like. How would the company grow? What would they offer their artists? The answers would emerge in the months and years ahead.

A Powerful Metaphor

Jason had always loved how words were able to paint pictures. As an actor, words are the lifeblood of the stage. For a musician, words tell the stories and the music sets the tone and keeps the pacing. He lived with a metaphor on his tongue, ready to use it whenever he was trying to capture something complex and bring that complexity into simpler terms that were understandable and easily digestible. While he dreamed out loud, he began to picture in his mind, a beautiful new Porsche speeding down the Pacific Coast Highway, sunroof open, with Robin Trower blasting “Day of the Eagle” at full volume. He could see the future beginning to open up before them like the straightaway coming out of turn 11, in front of the stands at Laguna Seca where drivers can reach speeds in excess of 200 miles per hour. It was an incredible feeling to catch a vision that was so much in line with his love for music, his recent discovery of business acumen, and his desire to build something enduring. Jason was in the pole position and heading into the first turn.

Those early days revolved around casting a vision and establishing a foundation. His company had a vision to be the premier record label on the West Coast. Some of their friends were saying, “Music? Everyone in music is heading to Nashville. That’s where you need to be.” However, Nashville seemed too small a town with too little networking possibilities. Anyway, the artists they knew were far from Nashville and lived here on the West Coast. Because of his love for fast cars, the company’s vision was characterized by the idea of sleek, fast, and exotic. Their vision statement was, “To be an international force in music that will change the lives of everyone who hears or sees the incredible mix of sound or visual performance by our artists and productions.” They did not want to become just another record label. They were looking to conquer giants.

They developed a mission statement that gave them direction. And even though the road might take sweeping turns in the future, they had their hands on the wheel with enough rubber on the road to lean into the turns and navigate the course aggressively with complete abandon. Their team was firing on all cylinders.

Hard, Fast, and in Love with the Business!

Very quickly, their stable of artists grew. They were successful booking them into lounges, clubs, showrooms, and concert halls, which drew more artists. As their artist roster increased they were given more booking opportunities with venues around the city. Since they could find work for their musicians, the musicians began looking to them for recording help and promotional support. Naturally, they jumped at this and began signing them to recording contracts.

They vertically integrated and set up a recording studio with state of the art recording equipment. They negotiated agreements with Rack ­Jobbers to place their artists’ products at eye level and on end caps. They contracted graphic designers to assist with album and CD jacket designs. Remember, this was all before digital recordings and the Internet. There was no such thing as downloading music. They brought in costume designers, famous hairstylists, and choreographers to help prepare their artists for live performances. They were becoming a full service record label.

In time, they established themselves as a fast, slick, and honest contender for the flag. Their engine was finely tuned and their drivers were rested and prepared to go the distance. Soon they were approached to provide soundtracks for movies, voiceover artists, and arranging services. Anything related to sound—they could do and were doing. At one point it became apparent that if they wanted to race in the Grand Prix of entertainment, they would need to shift lanes, and get into producing television and movies. And that’s what they did in the following years.

After years of crossing the finish line ahead of the pack, it seemed like their pistons were misfiring. Their timing was off, and they were losing artists and deals. There were new competitors on the track who were contending for the pole position. Their musicians were getting older and they were not attracting artists like they had in the past. Their attention span was diverted from the road ahead, and their vehicles were breaking down under the strain. Finally, their pit crews were out of shape and lacked the motivation to turn good times in the pits. Overall, their company would come to a screeching halt unless they found a new metaphor to work with.

Their previous metaphor involved fast cars, hot women, and young drivers with the coordination and chutzpah needed to take on all comers. They were aggressive in their negotiations, brutal in their demands of themselves, and they looked out for each other. They were a team that was well synchronized and understood how each of them helped navigate the business. They had roles that were well defined, but no one ever complained when they had to lend a hand in another department to meet customer demands. They worked together, played together, and found their love for this business together. But that was then.

A Moment of Reckoning

As each of Jason’s department heads strolled into the conference room that overlooked the city, he could see weary expressions on their faces. They knew something was up but didn’t seem to have the energy to do anything about it. Recently, they had experienced some heated arguments that revolved around turf, budgets, and priorities. This meeting would be different. Jason needed to get his hands back on the steering wheel, feel the road beneath him, and start navigating the course again.

For a change, he took the floor immediately. In recent years he had allowed some bad habits to develop, which predisposed others to treat these meetings rather casually. His first bad habit was in delegating the running of these meetings to his Chief Operating Officer (COO). She was a good leader but was more of a tactician than one who could inspire others. He had initially thought, At this stage of the growth of the company, who needed inspiring? These were all professionals with degrees from top universities and considerable experience. He felt they needed better management and less leadership. However, in recent days, he discovered that he had been wrong. He knew that habits involved a routine that started with a cue. The cue, in this case, was his COO opening the meeting by welcoming everyone. It was usually rather dry and business-like. This caused the routine part of the habit loop to kick in. Most of his team would roll their eyes, yawn, or leaf through their papers. Today, he would open with energy, fire, and questions. He noticed that three of his main Vice Presidents were absent. He didn’t have time to deal with that now but would have to address it with them later.

Jason began by going around the conference room and asking everyone to give him things they thought had changed since they first came to work for the organization. This caught everyone off guard. They sat up, listened, and mentally prepared a response. One said the fire had gone out in the boiler. Another confessed that he had been approached by competitors with job offers but couldn’t get himself to abandon ship. Another said that she felt the ship had lost its rudder. Each of these and the others gave him their thoughts in metaphors. The Human Resources Director confessed that the opinions expressed were widely held among many of the employees as well. Jason realized that because most of the Executive Team had been artists at one time, and that all of them worked with artists, they expressed themselves in metaphors like most people would carry on daily conversations. They were used to being around people who painted images with their words, which gave their words more impact. Based on what he heard, Jason realized they needed to change their current metaphor.

He went around the room and asked each of them to give him an adjective or phrase that best described what they were sensing about the organization. The table below lists their responses:

He thanked everyone for coming to the meeting on such short notice and dismissed them to go back to their offices and play Angry Birds or whatever they did during their typical eight-hour day. Jason went into his office, which had grown way too large over the last ten years, to think about their responses.

In the early days, they had worked in a bullpen environment with people and activity all around them. There was energy, enthusiasm; it was fun. Things had changed. He had changed. As the company matured, they lost touch with their vision. They had fallen into routines that lacked energy, initiative, and creativity. In some ways, they were now the giants that others wanted to slay. From that point on, he decided to try to address the attributes that the Executive Team had given him and maybe find another metaphor to build the vision of the company around. He took the list and added another column that he titled “New Attributes.”

He thought that if the current attributes were a problem, they needed to identify the attributes that were on the complete opposite end of the spectrum.

Questions to Consider

1.If you could describe the condition of your organization in one-word attributes, what would they be?

2.Now, what are the polar opposites of these attributes?

3.Can you identify any bad habits or routines that your organization has fallen into?

4.Can you identify any bad habits or routines that you, personally, have fallen into?