A Hollywood Producer’s Formula for Taking Bigger Risks

HBR IdeaCast

Harvard Business Review

Leadership, Entrepreneurship, Communication, Marketing, Business, Business/management, Management, Business/marketing, Business/entrepreneurship, Innovation, Hbr, Strategy, Economics, Finance, Teams, Harvard

4.4 • 1.9K Ratings

🗓️ 10 December 2024

⏱️ 29 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Hollywood is known for huge personalities and behemoth production studios taking big swings. But critics worry that the movie industry is playing it way too safe recently — by churning out remakes and fleshing out franchises, rather than dreaming up new things. And the same can be said of many established businesses in other industries. Larry Kasanoff, a movie producer and former studio head, has lessons from his career taking passionate risks to make groundbreaking movies like Platoon, Dirty Dancing, and Mortal Kombat. He breaks down his framework for innovation in three parts: Create, Ask, and Play. Kasanoff is the author of A Touch of the Madness: How to Be More Innovative in Work and Life . . . by Being a Little Crazy.

Transcript

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0:00.0	Got 30 minutes? Join Capital Group CEO Mike Gitlin for a new monthly edition of the Capital Ideas podcast, brought to you by Capital Group, home of American Funds Distributors, Inc. Subscribe wherever you get your podcasts.
0:18.2	You know, there's another HBR podcast you might like.
0:21.9	Coaching Real Leaders takes you inside real life leadership coaching sessions.
0:26.7	Host Muriel Wilkins has advised CEOs for nearly 20 years.
0:30.9	Listen in as she helps guests work through their hardest career challenges.
0:35.5	Find new episodes of Coaching Real leaders wherever you get your podcasts.
0:58.8	Welcome to the HBR IdeaCast from Harvard Business Review.
1:00.1	I'm Kurt Nickish.
1:09.7	They say there's no business like show business.
1:12.2	In Hollywood, you've got huge personalities,
1:18.0	big budgets, BMith production studios taking big swings. At least that's the perception.
1:25.0	But the critique nowadays is that the movie industry is playing it too safe, making too many remakes and franchises rather than taking new risks and making new IP.
1:30.5	Today's guest has lessons for us from that very same film industry in his own career
1:35.5	taking passionate risks to make blockbusters like platoon, dirty dancing, true lies, Terminator 2,
1:42.4	and the like. And he says that by following a proven formula
1:46.4	for innovation, taking the steps of create, ask, and play, leaders in all kinds of organizations
1:53.3	can learn to be more creative and make good work. Larry Kassanoff is a movie producer,
1:59.6	former studio head, and the author of the book, A Touch of the Madness,
2:03.9	How to Be More Innovative in Work and Life by Being a Little Crazy.
2:08.3	Welcome, Larry.
2:09.3	Thank you. It's great to be here.
2:14.5	So we'll start with Hollywood and then of course talk about other industries as well.
	...

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