Stephen Mitchell talks about Business on-demand

Q: What is Business on-demand?

SM: I intend Business on-demand as a cable and Internet channel to address the needs and interests of the business world by providing news, commentary and perspective to the major sectors of industry and which would be populated by icons from the business world rather than news readers. The channel would also serve to create strategic alliances with executives and corporations.

Q: Why "on-demand" as opposed to conventional program streaming?

SM: According to Roger Lynch, CEO of U.K.-based video-on-demand supplier HomeChoice when speaking at the inaugural MIPCOM CEO super panel assembled at Cannes to discuss changes affecting broadcasters, as much as 60% of viewing in Video On Demand-enabled homes ignores conventional TV channels. That's a compelling observation. Lynch went on to say that viewers are hemorrhaging away from conventional channels when given the choice of on-demand viewing.

Q: What is your goal for the channel?

SM: The goal is to surpass Bloomberg, CNBC and others as a portal to information and perspective vital to business around the world by creating a global interactive network of executives, businesses and industries as a revenue generating platform for further expansion. That I have a list of clients in the business world for whom I create management strategies dovetails nicely with the purpose and needs of Business on-demand.

Q: What would attract sponsors to business on-demand?

SM: The dynamics of advertising and programming content have traditionally been in conflict. Television has used the interruption model to communicate the advertising messages of sponsors to the detriment of the content and the irritation of the viewer. The advent of digital recording has, in effect, nullified entire ad campaigns given that viewers can elect to skip over a commercial thereby avoiding its message. Branded content uses the attraction model to deliver its product messages by creating an experiential context in which content and product message are “joined in a spiritual union” to paraphrase Frank Lloyd Wright, which is the model for Business on-demand.

Q: What excites you about the activity?

SM: The idea of providing a national or global platform for those who actually toil in the various sectors of business is very interesting to me. It is content I would want to watch as opposed to the all-too-prevalent practice of using a news program for the redistribution of press releases. I want to hear from active individuals who have something to say.

Think "Hollywood"

Most business executives are considerably undervalued. This may seem an extraordinary thing to say to a man or woman earning a base-line salary of $200-500K per annum along with stock options and benefits. One could easily respond by saying that this is the norm for executives in my position, and that would be correct except for one thing. All of the peers one would cite in making such a statement are as anonymous as you are.

Whether we are talking about athletes, actors or soft drinks, the greater the visibility the higher the value as a brand. In our society, what gets attention gets money. It is an unavoidable fact. The inclusion of a well-known actor in the cast of a movie can propel it out of the made-for-DVD realm and into a first-run theatrical release. Well-known actors sell tickets. When an executive sheds his or her anonymity to become known throughout an industry sector, their value goes
up; they, too, “sell tickets” in the form of increased interest in the company’s shares.

Don’t imagine that the visibilty factor is lost on the board of directors. Neither would it be lost on competing companies interested in having a well-positioned icon in their hierarchy. What was “book value” for a position becomes irrelevant as other, extremely important, dynamics come into play when you are well known.

The best advice I could give any executive is to think "Hollywood" where there are no generic jobs, only those that come because one has created a demand for one's specific identity.

Arnold Schwarzenegger and the business executive in transition

How can Arnold Schwarzenegger help you get a better job for your next engagement?

In the early 80s. I founded an organization that mimicked the old Hollywood studio system. We had a hundred actors and a dozen writers and directors at any given time. With this base, the company was like a guerilla army that could make movies effectively anytime the decision was taken. In addition to creating work for these creative individuals in our own projects, we undertook the strategic management of their individual careers so that they were also working in mainstream Hollywood productions. The first thing that happened when a new member came into the fold was to establish his or her 'signature'--that which only he or she could offer as a product.

The promoting of an actors 'signature' was vital since generic jobs are few and far between in Hollywood. It has always astonished me that men and women in the business world seldom recognize this aspect of developing a career and present themselves in a manner that classifies them as a utility player rather than a specialist.

An actor asked me if being defined by 'signature' would be limiting. I told him yes, in the same way that Arnold Schwarzenegger had been limited to multi-million dollar paydays playing Terminator-style roles.

If a business executive in transition understands how to publicly present his or her 'signature' to decision-makers (not hiring managers) in the sector, better job offers will be the result.

Personal Branding

What are its signature deliverables?

When one assesses the need for an application of brand management strategies, it requires the existence of a brand and a contemplation of its characteristics. What does the brand stand for? What are its signature deliverables? Most importantly, what can it offer to the marketplace that cannot be acquired elsewhere and which imbues the brand with exclusivity?

As one asks these questions of an executive who is wanting to aggrandize his or her personal brand, the perspective he or she offers based on years of accomplishment is usually the prime characteristic of the brand. That an executive’s wisdom might apply to a broad range of interest and act as a magnet for interesting offers from a wide horizon of companies, organizations and even governments is to be expected.

It is incumbent upon a brand to author and issue its own definition.

Every one of us has been branded to some degree by friends, associates and even people with only a passing acquaintance of us. It is incumbent upon a brand to author and issue its own definition. Otherwise, it may suffer from a seventieth percentile perception of it. At the seventieth percentile one sees a canvas and spilled paint; at the ninetieth one sees a Jackson Pollack rendering of a seasonal upstate New York. Both perceptions are accurate as far as they go. Through which filter do you want your brand perceived?

The strategic management of a personal brand can accomplish many things. The most notable is that it places control of its future in the hands of the brand.

As always, the media wants to hear from individuals who are affected by the decisions and actions of incumbents and candidates alike. The media is especially keen on hearing from articulate executive leaders who are able to express the concerns of business or industry sectors, whether he or she can argue in support of or against the implementation of an agenda. An executive's most powerful asset is his or her perspective born of experience and intellect and the ability to communicate extraordinary ideas to others.

The goal of personal branding is to maximize the yield from an individuals’s signature skills.

The goal of personal branding is to maximize the yield from an individuals’s signature skills. In the same manner that the large talent agencies of Hollywood create demand for their clients to make them independent of the hiring process and, further, too make of them a franchise, the strategy should be to make the client immune to the vicissitudes of any one corporate environment or the problems facing any particular sector of business.

Some will want to accelerate the process of their next engagement with enhanced terms and conditions. Others will look at how best to expand their personal franchise--to build out the brand, so to speak. Either is the very legitimate concern of personal branding.

Never show a resume to anyone

In the New York Times, Eric Dash wrote under the headline:

American Express Plans to Trim 7,000 Jobs to Save $1.8 Billion

In addition, a hiring freeze has been imposed, and the company said that it was suspending management-level raises next year.

This led me to think about the most common mistake made by those transitioning from one job to another.

Never show a resume to anyone

Realize it or not, the positioning statement of a resume is that something has gone wrong and now you need a job. Whether or not it is true, that is what the document proclaims. The trick is not to advertise your need, but rather, to resonate the need of a potential employer. The resume also reduces you to generic compensation--probably about half what you are worth at competitive market rates--but more on that later.

Conventional advice says that anyone wanting for a job, a new job, a career transition, a come-back or a "return from hiatus" needs to update their resume and circulate it where job openings have been announced. This advice, if followed diligently, will result in a 14-20 month job search--remember that Baby-Boomers are extending their careers at an age when our parents were withdrawing from the job market--that will likely result in a decision to retire or the acceptance of a position that is beneath one's station with a de-valued compensation.

The Internet has changed the dynamics of the game. Whereas the announcement of a job opening used to represent a need, today it no longer does. The same day a job announcement is posted, they receive some 300 thousand resumes off the Internet, the need evaporates and what begins immediately is a process of elimination that does not benefit an executive of standing--a job candidate, if you will--to take part in.

Almost all of the expert advice on how to get your next job was designed to keep you away from where you need to be

Almost all of the expert advice on how to get your next job was designed to keep you away from where you need to be. None of the advice put you across from a CEO--or the board if a CEO position was being sought. All of it put you in front of a lower echelon functionary whose job it was to get rid of you, fulfilling his or her role as a filtering agent reducing the numbers to a workable level. Why do they give you this kind of advice? It was given to you for their convenience and not to advance your agenda. They deal in the so-called Law of Large numbers and, from their perspective, crowd control is a must. The Internet has impacted the dynamics of our lives in many ways. This is one of them. Don't get caught out adhering to an old paradigm.

The strategy for the new paradigm is to understand that visibility and value are inextricably linked. Stop seeing yourself as an employee hoping to get hired and realize that you are a personal brand with deliverables that can impact on the bottom line of any company your move into. The only statistic that will indicate your viability and forecast the speed with which you obtain your next job under enhanced terms and conditions is this: The number CEOs in the sector you want to operate in who are aware of your signature skills and deliverables. Simple, right?

If you would like help, contact the author of this blog.