Month 4: Entertainment Business Finance

Here is the Leadership Assignment for the Entertainment Business Finance course:



For my Leadership Portfolio I decided to interview the CFO for Latin America and the Caribbean of one of the most important media agencies in the industry, Mediaedge:cia, Mr. Larry Fishgold. Currently Mr. Fishgold is working out of the Miami/ Latin America headquarters of the company on Brickell Key, Miami, Florida. On 2007 Mediaedge:cia was named the top Media Agency in the United States according the top advertising publications like AdAge ad Adweek.


Mr. Fishgold has a Bachelor on Business Administration with a minor on Marketing from CUNY University. He started his career in the accounting department of Young & Rubicam Advertising as a staff accountant. This advertising agency is also under the umbrella of WPP the “mother” company who has Group M and there your can find MEC and there Mediaedge:cia. Some of the clients in the Miami office for Mediaedge:cia are Dell, Sony Ericson, Sony Vaio, Colgate/ Palmolive, Hershey, Caterpillar, DHL and Schick Quarto.


After working in the accounting department of Y&R, when he graduated from collage, Mr. Fishgold was offered the opportunity to move to the finance department where he worked his way up until 1998 when he was offered the opportunity to become the CFO for Group M Latin America and move its headquarters from the New York offices to their current offices in Miami, Florida.

Within the Group M group of agencies for someone with an interest in the entertainment business he thinks that where they would be most comfortable working is in the MEC Access agency given that they work with what they call the “below the line media”, which basically is the link between sponsorships and content of the client with entertainment and sports celebrities. According with Mr. Fishgold the best ways to get a position within this company is to have a background on the television or movie industry, have contacts and network with the people that work within the industry and on the company because that way they see you as a bridge between the two worlds.


When I spoke with Mr. Fishgold about what he thought were the shortcomings of the new crop of employees coming right out of school to work for the company was that they lacked what he called the “360 degrees vision”. He thinks that students nowadays come out of collage specializing in one thing and one thing only and they loose the perspective of how what they learned or did not learned to do in school affects everything else in the company. If they study advertising, like it was my case, our knowledge of accounting and finance is none or very limited so we don’t really see the real economic impact of our actions within the company. He thinks there should be more preparation of both the creative and analytical side so when they enter the working world they would have what he likes to call a “360 degrees perspective”.

Right now, because Mediaedge:cia and all the other companies under WPP understands about this shortcomings in their new employees they basically train them form scratch, right out of collage, so they can learn along the way to create that “360 degrees vision” they are looking in the perfect employee.

I think this gives them an advantage over its competitors, companies like Starcom MediaVest Group and OMD Worldwide, because they know that their employees will manage their clients with a complete understanding of their work and how it will affect all areas. Its because of this top quality work that Mediaedge:cia has huge accounts and its has been considered as one of the top media agencies in the industry; because they know how to bring to the table complete quality service for their clients.

According to Mr. Fishgold, the company in the last year, like all companies world wide, has been affected by the current economic situation. They have lost some accounts, and others have reduced their marketing budget. As a result of all of this they have had to let go a considerable amount of employees from their offices around the world and make other adjustments so they could keep operating doing the same quality work that is their staple. He feels hopeful that the economy, slowly but surely, is on a rise again and that they will not be more affected by it.

I honestly think this was a very good interview because it gave me another perspective on what are my options when I graduate and what do I need to have to be competitive enough so I can achieve them. On one hand I have the possibility of opening my own business and be own boss if I decide to apply all my knowledge of my Masters into it or look for my dream job with the industry. Either way, Mr. Fishgold help me understand how important are classes like this one so we can really understand the implications of our day-to-day decisions against the company and its clients.


Resources:

• Interview with Mr. Larry Fishgold on December 7th 2009 at 9:30am.

• www.mecglobal.com

Month 3: Business Storytelling and Brand Development

While I was taking the class of Business Storytelling and Brand Development I had in mind a different Business Plan than what I ended up presenting this last month.

Here is the Leadership Assignment for the Business Storytelling and Brand Development course:

Business Storytelling & Brand Development Leadership Portfolio

View more presentations from Bianca.

Month 2: Project and Team Management

Here is the Leadership Assignment for the Project and Team Management course:

I have been working in a team environment for almost everything in my life for at least the last 6 years. Whether it was on school or at work it has always been a constant in my life. So when they told us that part of the class was to be done in teams my only concern was the same as always, that it was a good team to work with and that we could click well enough to make a great project. Thankfully my worries were put to rest when I met my team members. The four of us have always been very helpful to one another every step of the way. Never was an obstacle that we could not resolve and get pass it as a team.

One of our biggest challenges was the long distance and that sometimes the Internet connections would not let us have good meetings via iChat. But we would continue against the odds via email or phone. For me personally when the Tropical Storm Fay pass thru the south Florida area I had a lot of problems with the connections but I didn’t feel in any moment that I was going to be left behind because I knew that my wonderful teammates would keep me up to date and would completely understand the situation. Those challenges at the en made us grow as a group because it was a way to prove to the others that even though we had all those obstacles we had every intention of making it work.

For me personally at first iChat was a bit of a problem since I had always been a PC user and had never used it before. I had some basic knowledge of MAC but not with iChat. My teammates would walk me thru everything at first so I would learn how to use it. I would recommend for other groups of students taking the class in the future a mini tutorial on how to use it at the beginning of the course. That way when the have to start using it to communicate with the team members of there groups they would have a basic idea on how to use it.

On the other hand, the course content was somewhat difficult to grasp in such a short amount of time and with all the work that was given to us at once. It was like you were doing some rubric for the case studies but in the back of your mind was thinking about the discussion you had to do later or the research you still had to complete for the team project by the next meeting. A lot of material in a very short amount of time can basically sums it up.

For me an “Aha!” moment was the Omni Plan Case Study Assignment. I love learning new programs that can help me further down the line in my development as a professional. Being that I work in media and events learning how to use Omni Plan was ideal. I felt that from now on it would make my life so much easier when I’m organizing the plan for an event or other task in my work.



If I could use a word to describe this experience it would be eye opening. It showed me that if you want it you can make it work and that no obstacle is an excuse not to. If I could work so well with my beloved T5G via online I can definitely make it work in my everyday life.

Leadership Activity: Grammy U Soundcheck: Luis Fonsi

One of the benefits of being a student member of the Recording Academy in their Grammy U program is the opportunity they give the students to attend the soundchecks of popular recording artist and afterward have a Q&A with them.

Once I got more into the work in the advertising agency I worked at I had less and less free time so I was not able to attend one of these events since they were during the week during business hours. I was very pleased to know that one of my favorite artist, Luis Fonsi, was going to be in town and that the Recording Academy team was thinking of doing the Soundcheck event with him. After I found out I offered to help with the event and they put me in charge of promoting the event with other Grammy U members via email and Facebook.

At the day of the event I was responsible of registering the members when they got there and getting them to sign a release form where they allowed the Recording Academy to tape the event and take pictures. After all that was done we proceeded to enter the venue where we sat in the soundcheck and witnessed what it goes on hours before in preparation for a major performance. Maybe I'm biased since I'm such a fan of him but even the soundcheck was AMAZING! He was very nice and even asked us for song requests. After the soundcheck we went into a separate room where there was a Q&A with him and he asked our questions for almost an hour. Questions ranging from his performance to his beginnings in the industry to his preference in music.

I have to say that this was one of the most important experiences in my life. Not because I was able to be so close to one of my favorite artists, but because sitting there, watching everything take form for the show and hearing him speak made something click in me and that helped me to make the decision of finally leaving my comfort zone in Miami, take everything I had and move to Orlando to finalized my Masters in Entertainment Business so I could become the best professional and have a better opportunity to get a job in the entertainment industry. Now that I'm at the end of it and here I am writing my last assignment I have to say that it has been a ride full of ups, downs and lots of intense moments but oh so worth it! I would have not trade this last year for anything in the world. And I know that if I had not volunteered at this event I would have probably not made the decision to pursue my dream.

Leadership Activity: SESAC Latina Showcase & Awards

This event took place during the Latin Billboard Conference & Awards week at the popular Miami nightclub LIV at the Fountainblue Hotel in Miami Beach.It was part of the Conference events.

In the Showcase the songwriters that were being honored that night performed some of their songs for the public and after they were presented with their award.

This was an event at the same scale as the After Party for the Billboard Awards. My job in it was anything from managing the registration table to making sure the performers where ready to take the stage when they need to.

SESAC has offices in several parts of the world but the US headquarters for it are in Nashville, TN. For this event I had the pleasure of working side by side with some important executives that were in town for the event.

Although I really enjoyed to participate in the event the greatest enjoyment came weeks later when I received in the mail a gift from the VP of Public Relations of SESAC with a personal note thanking me for my job at the event. This was a great honor for me and gave me more encouragement to keep working to get a place in this industry.

Bellow is a video of one of the performances that night by singer-songwriter Noel Schajris and Latin Grammy award winning songwriter Claudia Brant.

Leadership Activity: 20th Latin Billboard Conference & Awards After Party

This was one of my favorite experiences volunteering. The Latin Billboard Conference & Awards is a week worth of events and panels with some of the top industry professionals and artist in the Latin music industry.

The event I worked specifically was the Award Show After Party. My role in it was dealing with the press and photographers that wanted to talk and take pictures of the acts performing at the after party. Since this is an event dealing with performers from all over Latin America and the Caribbean I had the opportunity to network with press from all of those countries while I was doing my job.

At this event I learned that one of the perks of doing a good job as a volunteer is that people remember that and they want to reward that. By the time I was recommended as a volunteer for this event I had proved myself as an intern enough that my supervisor with the Billboards allowed me to participate in the events all week long. I had access that week to numerous panels and performers that I would have not been able to witness if it wasn't for her generosity.

Bellow are some pictures of the panels and my and another one of the volunteers working the day of the After Party.

Leadership Activity: 9th Annual Latin GRAMMY Awards Telecast Viewing Party

Given that in Miami, FL there is a big Latin community is not a surprise the majority of the award shows for the Latin music industry are done in this area. Unfortunately while I was interning for the Recording Academy the Latin GRAMMY Awards were going to be taking place in Houston, TX.

Every year the Florida Chapter of the Recording Academy puts together an event for its members and Grammy U members to attend and watch the transmission of the Awards, network amongst themselves and celebrate the successes of their fellow peers in the industry that are being recognized that night.



For this event I was assigned different tasks. I was first in charge of promoting the event with the members via email, mailed in post cards, and mentions on Facebook. At the event at the beginning I was in charge of the registration table. After everyone checked in and the Telecast of the Awards started I was in charge of helping with coordinating with the musical acts that everyone was set up for their performances that night.

As you can see I was able to have experience in different areas of an event like this one and I loved EVERY minute of it. It was one of those moments I have had that reassured me this is the industry I wanted to be part of and doing this sort of job.