It's going around again.
The Ander-flu, the nasty virus that isn't really the flu but still makes us Andersonians sick, is making a second pass around campus and decided to stick on me. For a change, I've decided to fight back early: I took the day off from school (ok, so there's no classes because of Veterans Day, but I'm still taking credit), doused myself in Theraflu and Gatorade already. And I slept very soundly for 10 hours.
Poor Mrs. V. was up half the night, however. Funny how that works.
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As I mentioned in my last post, entertainment industry titan David Geffen came to speak to us here on campus last week. It was a massive opportunity for us to hear from someone so accomplished in music, film, television, and theatre. The Dean of the Anderson school moderated the session.
What I found most impressive was that Mr. Geffen took opportunities as they came, rather than having a clear goal in mind. He started in the mail room of a talent agency, getting that job only because he lied on his resume about having graduated from UCLA. (The Dean was quick to point out that (a) it was never too late to do his degree, and (b) that lying about graduating was not a path that she would advocate.) He got into theatre because a friend of his recommended an opportunity.
He donated $200 million to the UCLA Medical Center because he was tired of going to the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota for his constant back problems. (You know, for $200 million, I think the Dean can let some or even all of the credits slide and just give him the degree. Although if he was in my section, I would definitely vote for him for social chair.)
Most interesting for me, though, was his response to the question I got the opportunity to ask him: what is one thing that you would change in the entertainment industry today? His response: "I wish there was no digital."
That really surprised me. I appreciate that digital content has been and will continue to be a massive driver for change in the entertainment industry, but I would have thought that Mr. Geffen would be in the camp of promoting the opportunities that come with it. To be fair, I had the last question of the session before the Dean took back the reigns and asked more of her own questions, so maybe he didn't get a chance to elaborate. But I definitely didn't expect that answer.
But then that's the point with these events -- we get the first-hand experience and insights of some of the most respected captains of industry, across many different sectors, and in my experience, these insights have been genuine and unfiltered. It's these insights that are such a big part of the MBA experience, especially at Anderson.
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If you ever surf onto this board and don't see any updates from me, you should definitely check out what my fellow blogeteers are up to. I thought my buddy Simon Jaud's post on video games and brand management was insightful (especially as, for a change, he didn't mention DaVita!).
My interest in video games is on the brand management of sports titles. John Madden may have retired from broadcasting, but his video game sponsor, Electronic Arts, still hosts "Sundays with John" where EA clients can watch football with Madden in his office, which EA has kitted out with multiple HD LCD big screens. Tony Hawk became legendary after his video games -- now an Activision property -- took off outside of X-games enthusiasts. I found the Activision presentation equally as exciting as Simon did for that reason.
Simon failed to mention a crucial detail though: he mentioned that at their corporate presentation on campus, Activision gave us free video games, including their massive hit "Band Hero". But Simon didn't tell you about the raffle: they held a raffle whereby a few lucky winners won various prizes. The big prize was a free Band Hero set. And, for the first time that I can remember, my ticket was drawn! So I got to walk away from the presentation with such a big video game hit. It was very thrilling and exciting. I can't wait to crack it open out of the box!
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Capitals update: 10-3-4. Am very happy with the win over Florida on Saturday especially because the goals we scored were the grinding, banging in front of the net type goals that we will need in the playoffs. And to score seven goals with Ovechkin hurt and Semin a non-factor is a HUGE plus. Check out the highlights here!
Till next time!
-- Sreesha
