Top of the big era

Chapter 1416 Only You

After lunch, Jeffrey Katzenberg left satisfied.

Zhou Buqi invited Sun Zhengyi to go bowling.

Sports are fake, the main thing is to talk about what this old boy thinks!

Zhou Buqi’s initial thought was that Masayoshi Son was worried that SoftBank would be cheated if it invested so much money but the control was in the hands of others, so he wanted to find an industry leader to participate and balance it out.

It will not make "Ziweixing Global" become a single word.

But after meeting Katzenberg, I felt something was not right.

Katzenberg's thinking is entirely traditional. But Zhou Buqi teamed up with Sun Zhengyi to play with new models in emerging industries.

This is obviously a mismatch.

Unless you want to use Katzenberg as a tool, use his influence in the industry to buy and buy along the way, build "Purple MSI Global", and then throw it away after use.

But at Katzenberg's level, you must have shares and be on the board of directors and decision-makers, and you cannot get rid of him easily.

Zhou Buqi bowls at a very high level.

Son is no match, and neither are his two assistants. All three of them together were no match for him.

"Forget it, let's go play golf next time."

Son Zhengyi waved his hand and stopped playing.

Zhou Buqi laughed, took the towel from the waiter, wiped his hands, and then went to the lounge to drink tea and talk about something formal.

Zhou Buqi asked: "What do you think about Katzenberg?"

"Isn't he good enough?"

"Do you think it's okay?"

Zhou Buqi looked unhappy.

Son Zhengyi smiled and said: "I asked someone to check him. He has been the most powerful producer in Hollywood for more than 20 years. He is the first person in the Hollywood animation industry. From Disney to DreamWorks, his resume is brilliant. Back then, , after he left Disney, Disney’s animation was finished. It wasn’t until Robert Iger came on board and acquired Pixar that it began to recover.”

Zhou Buqi said with a headache: "I know, but what did you hear him say? His ambition is to build an entertainment empire, and what I want to build is a content kingdom. There is only one Disney in the world, and I We will not imitate Disney and build a second one.”

In terms of creativity and production capabilities, Jeffrey Katzenberg is a well-deserved gold medal producer. DreamWorks Animation is the only animation studio currently comparable to Pixar.

However, it won’t be possible in a few years.

Katzenberg was so ambitious that he was unwilling to just run a studio and began to diversify his operations and began to expand his business into television, publishing, theme parks, shopping malls, children's toys and other fields. He even came to China to establish an Oriental Dream Factory.

Too many trivial matters took up so much of his time that he could only spend 20% of his time on creation. Then, the market reacts.

DreamWorks Animation is no longer popular. Several consecutive films have suffered box office setbacks, which has led to DreamWorks Animation reorganizing and laying off employees on a large scale. It has reduced its plan to produce three films per year to two, and the production cost of a single film has also dropped. It was reduced from US$150 million to US$130 million, and even sold its headquarters building in Glendale.

But this still failed to complete the redemption.

After rejecting offers from SoftBank, Hasbro, Warner, Wanda and many other companies, he finally couldn't bear it anymore and sold the company to NBCUniversal.

Masayoshi Son had seen through it a long time ago and said calmly: "When he joined Disney, the situation was worse than that of DreamWorks Animation now. But with their efforts, Disney completed its transformation from a studio to an entertainment giant. Katzenberg...I guess that’s why he’s on his mind.”

Zhou Buqi twitched his lips, "That's because Disney has Michael Eisner in charge, and Eisner is in charge of the business. He only needs to be responsible for creativity and production of cartoons."

Masayoshi Son nodded, "I don't think he has any good business thinking. It seems that he hasn't come out of Eisner's shadow yet."

Zhou Buqi said: "To put it bluntly, he is not the material to be a boss. His emotional attributes are too high. What are the three giants of DreamWorks? How ridiculous is this? In a great company, there is only a relationship between the boss and his assistant, but there are three The giant seems to have a fair division of power. One person is responsible for live-action movies, another is responsible for animated movies, and another is responsible for the music business. In fact, he is creating a crisis that even Spielberg cannot control."

"I agree."

"So, there is no way he can become the president of Ziweixing Global. His methods are too soft and lack the decisiveness that a boss should have. He should be allowed to focus his energy on creativity and production. This is his expertise. "

Son Zhengyi smiled and said, "I agree."

Zhou Buqi said: "If the plan is really completed, I think it will be enough to let him be the chief creative officer and be fully responsible for DreamWorks' business."

Son Masayoshi then stated, “I agree.”

Zhou Buqi was a little amused, "Don't be like this. Tell me clearly what you are thinking. If we are scheming, let's break up as soon as possible!"

Son Zhengyi drank tea silently and did not respond for a long time.

Zhou Buqi frowned, "Very complicated?"

Sun Zhengyi then put down his teacup and said seriously: "In the past half month, I have been in contact with many people in Hollywood. Jeffrey Katzenberg is the most senior, most authoritative, and most influential person we can currently find. He is a powerful Hollywood practitioner. Moreover, he took the initiative to contact me and was very interested in our plan."

"The most senior?"

"The only people who are more authoritative than him are the presidents of Warner, Fox, and Disney. They have already reached the position of president, so why should they participate in such a high-risk project of ours? You can't really go to Disney to find a deputy Will the president come over?"

"Um."

Zhou Buqi nodded thoughtfully.

Indeed, as Katzenberg said, the "Purple Star Global" project is still a bubble. It is hard to say whether it can be turned into reality.

There are many things that you may not be able to do with money.

People like the president of Warner and Fox are already in high positions of power, so why would they take the risk to get into this muddy water? The people who can be found are either the presidents of second- and third-tier small companies like DreamWorks Animation, or the vice presidents of Warner and Disney.

In contrast, it is better to go to second- and third-tier small companies to choose presidents.

The difference between the president and the vice president is that the former is decision-making and the latter is execution. Many vice presidents are very good, but their ability is to execute according to the decision-making requirements, so asking them to make decisions may not work.

Just like Zhou Buqi, whether it is the foresight of his previous life or the learning, experience and experience of this life, his skills are all focused on "decision-making". But the vast majority of outstanding people’s skills lie in “execution”.

Some people are very good at execution, but once they are promoted to the top and asked to make decisions, they will easily make mistakes and often make decisions that are changed day by day.

Katzenberg is the chairman and CEO of DreamWorks Animation. He is both a decision-maker and an executor. He does have an advantage in the new project "Purple Star Global".

Son Zhengyi said: "You have also seen that the best partner we can find now is Katzenberg. The lack of an excellent commander is the biggest dilemma of our project."

Zhou Buqi was very determined, "Katzenberg can't do it."

Son Zhengyi smiled and said: "I always believe in you. What we are building is a content kingdom based on the future market, not an entertainment empire. This idea is right. No matter how powerful the channel is, without the support of content, it will be a castle in the air."

Zhou Buqi analyzed: "Katzenberg's thinking is very traditional, and it is actually the same as that of Time Warner, Disney, NBC Universal, and 20th Century Fox. When making movies, the box office risk is very high. In order to reduce the box office risk, we must actively We must develop downstream industries to build an entertainment empire. But the model will change in the future. Under the peer-to-peer Internet, all downstream middlemen will be replaced and the capital turnover rate will be greatly increased."

"Can the risk be reduced?"

"For example, if MGM produces a $50 million movie, it will be released in theaters first. After the release, it will not go through the traditional and complicated channels of video tapes, DVDs, TV stations, cable stations, overseas TV stations, and on-demand stations. Sold to the streaming media platform for US$60 million, guaranteed profit and zero risk.”

“Will streaming media buy it?”

"Definitely, if a certain streaming media giant has 200 million or 300 million users around the world, it will spend 20 billion US dollars to purchase copyrights every year, but the North American box office is only 10 billion US dollars every year..." Zhou Buqi waved his hand, "Forget it. Okay, it’s a long story, don’t worry about the details.”

Son Zhengyi smiled and said: "I think I still have some understanding of the Internet, but I am still surprised by your idea. So the question is, among these entertainment industry practitioners, who can understand you?"

"Well……"

Zhou Buqi was speechless, this was really a troublesome matter.

Being a boss means employing people to do things, but now there is a feeling that no one is available.

Sun Zhengyi said: "Mr. Xu of Jieyu Media is very young and outstanding. After the Ziweixing Global project is completed, you let her take the lead. I agree very much. But with her identity and prestige, she can lead Ziweixing Global." Can she manage such a complex situation as Universal Pictures, MGM, and EMI?"

Zhou Buqi looked at him warily, "What do you mean?"

Sun Zhengyi said: "In the early days of Ziweixing Global, you need someone with sufficient authority and influence, strong decision-making power, and the best understanding of your business ideas to lead it."

"Who?"

"After much thought, it's just you."

"Depend on!"

Zhou Buqi wants to curse!

I had long noticed that this old boy was setting up a trap, and at one point I thought he wanted to use Katzenberg as a pawn. Unexpectedly, he was targeting himself!

Masayoshi Son stared at him with stern eyes, "Only you understand both the entertainment industry and the Internet; you can see both the future of streaming media and the core position of the content industry. Only you can subvert the situation personally." The traditional entertainment empire model of Disney and Time Warner has opened up a new world."

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