If you read Entertainment Weekly or follow TVLine, you’re aware that this week we experience television upfronts. Network executives will be pitching their new fall schedules to advertisers. In the past few days, you may have read about the numerous shows cancelled, those barely renewed, and a long list of new pilots that have been picked up. There will be a lot of back and forth in the blog world over the next few days as everyone second guesses major decisions. Any show preemptively cancelled will be compared to Fox’s decision to cancel Firefly or Family Guy years ago, and new serialized pilots will be compared to LOST.
If you’ve spent more than five minutes with me, you’ve probably recognized that I’m a huge fan of the entertainment industry and follow not only the shows, but the business of making these shows. Some people really follow sports; I follow TV and film.
Still, even if you don’t own a TV, this is an interesting event to consider. In a period of days, the major networks lay out all of their cards. They are incredibly bold with their decisions. They have to admit fault (NBC just cancelled The Event, a darling of their upfronts last year), and quickly develop AND share new strategies. If they fail to do this, they lose advertising revenue and their business declines. In a matter of months, everyone will quickly see how these ideas panned out. Some could be instant failures like Lone Star on Fox or instant classics like Modern Family on ABC.
As I read the new NBC schedule, it occurred to me: I’ve never had to do this. Have you?
Let’s be honest. Have any of our organizations really paused for a moment and quickly asked: what is failing? What do we need to cancel immediately? What should have its final “season” this next year? What will be our new pilot programs?
In the international bestseller, Blue Ocean Strategy, Kim and Mauborgne discuss this very need in their Four Actions Framework. One of the first steps is to figure out what can be ELIMINATED. It’s a question we don’t tend to ask as we repeat failing or faltering programs.
Kim and Mauborgne go further within their analysis and the other three parts (it’s their book–read it! Fair Warning: it’s a heavy read–absolutely brilliant–but heavy).
My idea? Before we simply rinse and repeats, just taking all of our same activities and events from the previous year and wrapping them up in a new theme, have your own version of the television upfronts. Share your schedule. Specifically say which “programs” you are canceling, but then also share how you’ll phase in new programs–will they come before or after hits? How will you expand your audience? Do you have your own “mid-season” replacement.
I’m going to attempt to do this in June on a bigger scale (I did a minor version of this when I relaunched this blog a month ago).
Quick Note: On a serious level, if you really want to transform your organization, READ Blue Ocean Strategy. It is one of the best books I’ve read in the past few years. I still haven’t been able to implement all of the ideas I’ve gained from it, but the four actions framework is one I think every organization should use. It’s cool to see the authors show how different companies did that model and succeeded. Again, a heavy read, but a really good one.