The role of the entrepreneur

7.4 The role of the entrepreneur

. . . look, you’re a painter, and a good one. I happen to have a little drive. That’s a good combination, besides you have to face the critics some time.

Spoken by Nina Foch, the wealthy socialite to Gene Kelly’s struggling artist in the film An American in Paris (1951).

According to Bengt Johannisson 1 : An entrepreneur is an individual who personifies and orchestrates the

creative process through which a new venture is realised in the market place.

The owner or director of the VSIPH is being creative on two levels: 䊉 in the establishment of the new enterprise

䊉 artistically, in applying their craft skills on each new production project produced.

Continuous creativity is at the very core of the company; if the creativity fails, the company will fold. They must be innovators and not adapters (these terms are measurable attributes applied in some psychometric tests). They must also function in the area of ambiguity and uncertainty that Stacey 2 suggests must be present when managers practice extraordinary manage- ment. The VSIPH have no tangible products; only a history of past successes to convince the new client or broadcaster that the new, non-existent product will be the same (quality and production values) but different (innovative, novel and stimulating).

Johannisson suggests that the ‘entrepreneurs usually have limited owner- controlled resources . . .’ 3 . Many owners and managers of VSIPH recognise that they are under-financed and consequentially vulnerable to deficits in cash flow.

Almost by definition, the ‘good’ television programme has to obey the rules of production and what is referred to as the grammar of television, and yet break the rules sufficiently so that something innovative and new emerges whilst still being a consumable product. This reinterpretation of the paradoxical dynamic that demands change with stability, as identified by Johannisson, is one of the essential problems of the audiovisual industry. Who holds the power to make decisions, the creative programme-maker or the accountants? This was not a problem that had to be faced by the in- house director or producer in the BBC or ITV company until the early

The growth of business in the audiovisual industry

1980s. Yet finding the balance between creativity and financial prudence becomes an essential requirement for the independent programme- maker.

Many owners or managers of VSIPHs do not actually address this issue. They retreat into a fantasy world of not even attempting to run an effective business, but believe that the next commission will be the big break to sustain the company and put it on a high plain of success. This lack of commercial focus is often lost in the other drivers to success that motivate the production company owner. The strength of these individuals is their tenacious spirit and positive attitude towards risk. Research conducted at the University of Hertfordshire examined the attitudes of the owners of

small production companies, these were typified by quotes such as 4 :

. . . a staggering amount of hard work and a total refusal ever to accept defeat.

In Chapter 8, we will look at the characteristics of the individual and their impact on production teams. Here we take a holistic approach, and look at the observed attributes of the entrepreneur or artisan and professional as identified by Johannisson. In Table 7.1, reproduced from Johannison’s work, we see the suggested attributes attached to each role. The interest for us in the audiovisual industry is that many individuals start their media careers in artisan roles, seek opportunities to become entrepreneurial, and possibly

Table 7.1 The personal attributes of the entrepreneur, artisan and professional manager

Mission Urge to create

Company career Guide

Independence

Planning Environmental

Vision and action

Action

Proaction orientation

Interaction

Reaction

Risk orientation Ambiguity

Risk reduction management

Risk avoidance

Time orientation Synchronisation

Time management Focal resources

Time as a buffer

Financial Generic

Social

Physical

Professional experience competence

Intuition

Imitation

Education/training Organic, qualified

Institutionalised practice

Formal and

practical

(©Professor Ralph Stacey 1993. Reprinted by kind permission.)

Managing in the Media

end up in the professional mode as their business or company reaches or maintains a degree of stability. However, it is clear that new non-artisan entrants to the industry join it as entrepreneurs seeking a new venture or adventure, whilst experienced professionals will tend to enter the industry or company at a later stage of its development or maturity. This is when non- specific industry skills are required to help manage the organisation or the infrastructure that supports it. If in any doubt as to the validity of this

argument, read Who’s Who in British Television 5 and take a look at the percentage of senior managers and managing directors who have come up ‘through the ranks’ of the media industry.

To summarise, entrepreneurs: 䊉 have an innate need to launch ventures

䊉 have the ability to combine visionary thinking and concrete action 䊉 cope with their environments by interactively redefining them wherever

possible 䊉 regard risky ambiguous situations as providing a potential for imposing

their own ideas on others 䊉 combine internal and external resources flexibly through networking

䊉 consider financial surpluses to be an indicator of capability in the marketplace

䊉 base their competence on intuition, experience and the ability uncon- sciously to refine the environment in which they work

䊉 identify new niches and disobey established industry references or formal training.

At the beginning of this section there is a quotation from An American in Paris . It is suggested that programme-making often requires the innovative skills of the entrepreneur and the creative skills of the writer and/or director. As the line from the film suggests, these are hard to find in one individual. With these thoughts in mind, we now go on to look at the growth of a company, irrespective of the individual or individuals that have set out to establish it.