Hollywood Domination Chapter 441: General invitation
"Robert."
"John - long time no see."
"Hey, Jennifer, this time you are coming too."
"Yes, this time I'm in China, Monica - I feel that I really have to show up..."
Among the familiar and relaxed smiles, independent directors from major companies with extraordinary backgrounds sat down one by one at both ends of the oval table and greeted each other easily before the meeting started. Perhaps because of her star effect, Jenny The attack was quite fierce, and she had to pull Cesare together to deal with the greetings and invitations from all parties, "Yes, Shirley, of course I wish for it..."
After the death of Roy Disney, Disney's "internal worries" have actually been fully resolved, and the conservatives have completely lost their influence, both on the board of directors and shareholders. Among the 12 members of the board of directors, only 3 are from the management, and the remaining 9 are not representatives of major shareholders, but hired independent directors who are paid, including The legendary Steven Jobs, but of course, he hasn't been on the board for years and never asked for any salary for the position, it's more like when Disney bought Pixar, in order to continue to guarantee Pixar's independence And proposed exchange conditions.
The current CEO of BlackBerry is the chairman of the Starbucks Foundation... In the current board of directors, the 9 independent directors represent the power from the political, media, investment and IT circles, and they will provide pertinent advice for the company's development direction My own insights and resources, such as Monica Rozano, the imper media founded by the Mexican newspaper tycoon publishes the largest Spanish-language magazine in the country. She has the title of independent director of countless big companies and has a political background It is also very deep, and has a great say in Mexican-related matters. With the votes represented by this power, she even has the opportunity to be elected to the presidential think tank—to put it bluntly, this is a very high-ranking political broker. There are also major newspapers in the city, and relying on such resources, they can make a lot of money every year just by analyzing the direction of government policies for various companies, or conversely forming lobbying groups.
As for BlackBerry CEO John Cheng, he represents the perspective of new technology, and has a strong counseling role in Disney's strategic layout of the Internet, mobile Internet, etc. Of course, his own work is also helpful to this More—Disney is now paying more and more attention to the combination with the IT industry, thinking that this is the latest direction of multimedia. In 2009, K's coo Sandberg joined the board of directors. Not long after that, Disney cooperated with K to set up a low-key project. Collect relevant data from social media and conduct the latest cloud data analysis. And the software that Dameng claimed to be working on before is of course difficult to produce - anyway, the current situation can satisfy the six majors, and for outsiders, it is normal for Dameng to give up competing with Disney K. There is the problem of the lie being exposed, and it can be regarded as successfully withdrawing from the deception after crossing the bridge.
"Cesare, you should have called me the last time you were in San Francisco—God knows, my two granddaughters are already obsessed with Empire..."
Although the divorce procedures have been completed and the shares have been divided into two shares, Jenny and Cesare's shareholdings are no longer that outstanding, but the position of independent directors has not changed. Jenny still let Cesare Lei attended as her own agent, and even if she herself participated this time, she still brought Cesare to accompany her. The independent directors also acted as usual, as if all of this was within their expectations: after all, from divorce to Now, the general meeting of shareholders has not yet been held, and it is not time for the board of directors to change. Jenny chose to attend the board of directors with Cesare at this time to convey to the general meeting of shareholders that the two of them are still working together, so that they can be elected in the next election. Otherwise, even Robert, in the case of a vote of no confidence in her at the general meeting of shareholders, it will be difficult to keep this position for her. After all, Jenny herself rarely participates in the board of directors. If she and Cesare Poor communication, unable to contribute to the company, this position is a waste for her.
After everyone entered the venue, the agenda proceeded as scheduled. This is a routine board meeting. The directors check the interim report of this fiscal year, and at the same time discuss and arrange the work direction for the second half of the year—it can be said , Disney's detailed strategy for the next few years will be born in such a meeting. Whether a business will be split up and sold, or will it receive capital injection and develop upwards? A department's employees will face dissolution and layoffs. Destiny, or promotion and salary increase, are all decided by the hand of the board of directors.
"For the news that Los Angeles Disneyland lost money for the fourth consecutive quarter..."
After the report of the board of directors was read out, first of all, the relevant person in charge actively explained some information, and although the information was very unfamiliar to her, Jenny also devoted herself to learning while listening. For her, participating in the board of directors Of course, the great significance is to ensure the independent status of her original company, just like Jobs. As long as she is there, Disney will not be able to make a vicious decision to acquire or force Big Dream to raise funds. The second is to act as a vote for Robert and vote with a show of hands Standing by his side from time to time, in addition to observing the operation of the board of directors of a large company, and making some reserves for the future, being able to learn the operation of the company from this position is a precious and luxurious opportunity for anyone, and of course she cannot miss it.
The previous agenda discussed the company's macro strategic direction, including the degree of integration between Pixar and Marvel and the company, and whether such mergers and acquisitions are worth continuing: For now, Disney is still in a thriving state. They have also absorbed the resources of Pixar and Marvel very well. Now the two subsidiaries are operating independently, but they also feed back a lot of resources to Disney Animation. For example, "Rapunzel" is in Pixar It was made under the leadership of senior executives, and the subsequent "Frozen" will also use Pixar's technology. The first animated film "Super Hero 6" jointly produced by Marvel and Disney Animation has also been put on the agenda.
"Of course, there is also "oz" which will be launched in the second half of this year. Producer, played an extremely outstanding role in the production.”
"There will be "The Avengers" in the first half of next year, which is also a movie cooperating with Dameng, isn't it?" Together, Marvel has contributed a new profit growth point to the group—of course, it’s hard to say what its market prospects are now. Jennifer, I noticed that in the budget list for the second half of the year, the film marketing expenses have risen sharply. Here "oz , which takes up a large portion of its marketing budget, can you explain that?"
Although this should be a question in the company's management meeting, it is also his right and responsibility for the director to notice this and ask questions. After all, the core business of Disney Group is still movies, which is also their riskiest investment, especially Marketing expenses are throwing money into the water. If such extravagant failures happen a few more times, regardless of the group's market value of hundreds of billions, it will have to be in a downturn for a long time, and neither the management nor the board of directors will be able to explain to the shareholders.
"Yes, the marketing expenses of "oz" and "Avengers" are several times that of ordinary movies, and these are all requirements I put forward to the distribution department-of course, the investment in "Avengers" has "Iron Man" guarantees the bottom line, and Marvel's other two single-player hero movies are also worthy of their expenses, especially on the basis of cooperation with Disney, the scale of profits they bring is still very considerable." Regarding this question, Jenny is also She had already prepared, of course, because she had been prompted by Robert before the meeting, and prepared such an answer with Cesare, and she was just reciting the answer now. "The lesser-known ip content "oz" has no similar work references in recent years. The marketing expenses seem to be a bit high. However, if you have read the analysis report issued by the Dream Project Department, you will find that , this high-input, low-risk, and low-profit feature should be the commonality of fairy tale movies like "oz"..."
She reached out to turn on her computer, held the mouse and hesitated for a while, Cesare reached out to take the mouse, tapped the keyboard, and sent an email to Secretary Dong familiarly, and Jenny nodded gratefully, The tacit communication between the two parties fell into the eyes of the directors, making them all nod their heads, and many independent directors who have a close relationship with the major shareholders behind their backs showed a look of contemplation: On the surface, the independent directors hired are all shareholders. The collective resolution of the general meeting, but the top ten shareholders still played some role here. Jennifer and Cesare hold 0.5% of the shares in total, only 0.5% away from the last tenth largest shareholder, which is very worth fighting for However, they have been closely integrated with the president Robert before, and it is extremely difficult to win. Many people think that after the divorce case, one of them may have a tendency to 'transfer', but now it seems that their relationship is still It is very stable and harmonious, which also makes the investment value of Dream Movie itself rise again-after all, there is no need to worry about the company's real confrontation. For these independent directors who are themselves big investors, this is also an important issue. It is impossible for a company like Dameng, which is making money like crazy, to get out of their sight.
However, when will Big Dream intend to go public? Are they really satisfied with the current scale? Under the siege of the Sixth National Congress, they never thought about absorbing the power of the major funds and using the contacts they represent to expand?
Among these meaningful myths, Jenny has already projected the release analysis report of "oz" on the big screen and started her own explanation. "First of all, it must be affirmed that looking for a new entry point for fairy tales is the advantage of "oz", but also its disadvantage..."
"Oz" based on "The Wizard of Oz" is not like "Alice in Wonderland", starting from the perspective of the protagonist of the original fairy tale, but brings in the great wizard Oz, who has never appeared in the original book Its mass base can be said to be wide but not wide, and compared to the precision marketing that is now being fueled by cloud data, Jenny believes that this entire series is more suitable for extensive marketing. "The Wizard of Oz" is a well-known movie. People all over the world have read the original book, and of course they have an impression of the term Oz. Not only children who have just read the original book recently will be interested in the country of Oz, but if it can arouse the memories of adults, they are also willing to join in. This is hilarious, because this is not a complete children's film after all. In terms of style, it still has certain adult elements.
"With such a wide audience, we can only spread the net as much as possible. Considering the density of fish schools, the higher the global publicity, the higher the box office should be." She said confidently, "Of course, there will be a box office ceiling for this type of film, but I think the risk of doing this is very low. Of course, it is not like a superhero series. There are more profit points, soldier toys-but it The audience is wider than the original superhero, which is also its advantage.”
Machulat spread his hands and said humorously, "Well, I admit, I am convinced by you, my dear, there is no doubt that movies are your home field."
The directors laughed lightly, and no one asked any more questions. Even the chief financial officer next to Robert smiled: The biggest significance of this conversation is that Jennifer took the high marketing expenses of the fairy tale series He took it upon himself, if "oz" or its sequels were to hit the street, he would definitely not be responsible.
After discussing the iterative issues of several senior executives within the company, as well as the equity incentive plan for the management next year, the regular meeting ended. And Cesare did not stay to have lunch with Robert, but after a brief goodbye, they got in the car and drove out of the Disney office park - their car was almost mad by the paparazzi team as soon as they drove out Surrounding and taking pictures, the two limousines spent nearly an hour under the clearing of the bodyguard car, before they drove hard to the front of Dameng's office building.
"Jennifer! Jennifer!"
"Is Cesare in the car with her?"
Anxious yelling and the sound of the shutter even passed through the thick glass and was clearly transmitted to the car. After a few months of divorce, Cesare and I attended another board meeting together, and now we even have to show up together, which of course means high clicks and sales. Are they already rekindled? Or is it just normal business dealings?
Since I got the news, I stayed at the gate of the office park and waited for several hours before I got the ten-second photo window. The paparazzi were like crazy waves, hitting the bodyguards again and again. Embankment: More than a dozen bodyguards lined up on both sides of the car door, forming a human wall, providing a wide space for the two cars to get out of the car, and with the sound of their excited shutter, the car door was opened, and a man in a light gray suit Cesare Vijari got out of the back car calmly.
Different from the relaxedness that he occasionally saw in street photography in the past, today his blond hair is all combed behind his head, and he wears rimless glasses. He led the bodyguard wall to move to the rear car, opened the door, covered the roof of the car in a gentlemanly manner, and let Jennifer Jefferson get out of the car.
——This action caused several paparazzi who were completely blocked by him to shoot at them, and rushed to seek a new space. They took pictures endlessly, and from their perspective, they can clearly see what Jennifer looks like today. ——Jennifer, wearing a dark blue suit, carrying a briefcase in her hand, and wearing sunglasses, appeared as a rare business elite. After being picked up by Cesare, she extended her hand gratefully to him , The two shook hands lightly, and then walked side by side to the office building, as if they could not hear the paparazzi's fanatical shouts, they quickly disappeared into the depths of the lobby.
"Caught it!" Stepping aside, Terry checked the camera and let out a low cry of joy. He was very satisfied with the picture he captured, "ok, it looks like they are indeed a model divorced couple in Hollywood ...Hehe, but this handshake is a bit deliberate."
"This is Jennifer's style-always give you news, isn't it?" Beside him, another paparazzi said with some emotion, "Her ability to dominate public opinion is enough for her to be in Obama Got a job in the cabinet—if our presidential image adviser was as good as she was, the polls might hit miraculous new highs."
"Who said no?" Terry turned off the camera and shrugged, "So you're going to play against her, Roger?"
The two looked at each other, and they both laughed: Although they knew Jennifer's intentions very well, and even felt that their handshake was a little deliberate, after all, the paparazzi knew very well that they were on the Disney board of directors together. No need to say hello at this point, but no one is going to expose this in the coverage, Jennifer knows what the press needs - and generously conveys her answer to them in photos: The press wants to know this For the new way of getting along with divorced couples, ok, they got it, so there is no need to chase after it. After all, for a star like Jennifer, the media has never been her enemy, and the media has never regarded her as an enemy. be your own enemy.
"Let's publish the article." Terry greeted, and led the paparazzi to a nearby cafe, "When she comes out, Mary will definitely come to inform..."
#
"It's finally done." As soon as she entered the elevator, Jenny slumped her shoulders and asked impatiently, "Have you seen the finished product of "oz"? How is the quality? Isn't it very good?—— Otherwise, why would Macurat ask that? I'm sure, this must be Roselle's request, and he must want to blame me..."
Rossler is the chief financial officer of Disney. He is also one of the candidates for the next CEO. At least he has a high voice. To ask Jennifer like this in front of everyone to clear the blame is tantamount to antagonizing Robert.
The post-production of "oz" has just been completed, and the final cut may not be finalized yet. Let alone the test screening, even Jenny has not seen the finished product. Don't look at her calm and composed on the board, she is already prepared, But Macurat really asked this question, and Roselle's smile after the plan succeeded, still made her feel uneasy: under her leadership, "oz" has deviated greatly from the original work, It's hardly a movie other than the frame, which makes Jenny not all that confident about the movie. In fact, she wanted to discuss this issue with Cesare as early as after the board meeting, but in order to confirm the current public image of the two parties and set the tone of 'friendly and professional', she and Cesare did not take the same car. There is no car, so she can only pay attention to this matter after the performance just now is completed. ——Although she doesn't care so much about her personal image anymore, she still has to build a good relationship with Cesare. Marriage''divorce between the CEO and the chairman' is considered a major event, but for investors, there is nothing like 'the relationship between the CEO and the chairman is ambiguous, and each has a partner, playing love games' The rumors made them even more off-putting.
So, Jenny's current image has been divided into two parts by herself—in private affairs, she no longer cares whether the media will say that she is the Playa Princess, but in official affairs, the relationship with Cesare still needs to be done. Good public opinion guidance, so as not to frighten potential investors and hinder the possible financing and listing of Dameng in the future. Of course, for the same reason, some sensitive and tainted news should be controlled as much as possible, such as slandering her for drinking and taking drugs. Such news still cannot appear on the page. Even anyone who knows a little bit about the entertainment industry knows that tabloid news cannot be taken seriously, but no one can guarantee whether investors are familiar with the unwritten rules of the entertainment industry. ——This is probably also the trouble of celebrities starting a company. Their high exposure rate is indeed a double-edged sword for big companies.
"I haven't seen the finished product either, so it's hard to say where Roselle got the news from." Cesare obviously thought of it with her, "He certainly hasn't seen the movie himself, so he should be a core member of the crew Members are not optimistic about the quality of the film."
The elevator opened, and he and Jenny said as they walked towards the office, "We should go to the current version as soon as possible—wait."
Cesare took out the phone and glanced at it, gestured to Jenny not to leave, he picked up the phone, "Hey, Jack—"
Walking into Cesare's office with him, Jenny folded her arms and waited for a while, observing Cesare's expression curiously—his expression changed a lot, obviously, this call was indeed in his expectation outside.
It wasn't a very long phone call. About five minutes later, Cesare hung up the phone, and Jenny raised her eyebrows, "So, we should watch "oz" as soon as possible—"
Before she finished speaking, Cesare shook his finger.
"The priority of this matter has been set back." He said in an unquestionable tone. "We'll have to discuss this call first -- this is Jack Steer from the GM consortium, and I think he's in close contact with someone on the Disney board... Anyway, he just expressed GM's disapproval to me. The willingness to invest, judging from the initial conditions he offered, the terms should be quite generous. GM agrees to the ab stock system—most importantly, it promises to help Dameng develop into a brand new media group.”
"What?" Jenny couldn't help but exclaimed, and she stood up straight. "this——this'shuge——"
Countless thoughts flooded in. At this moment, the literary and relaxed Jennifer completely retreated into the depths of her mind. A familiar sense of trembling dominated her group again, and adrenaline made her mind clearer—— Like every time a career is faced with a choice or a breakthrough, the excited and calm Jennifer returned to the world with a great sense of happiness.