Creativity at its best

We were given an assignment on watching a movie and writing about the traits of an entrepreneur in the movie  We had to then make a presentation in a creative way. The winning presentation was on the movie Forrest Gump and was entertaining as well as informative.  Here is my group's presentation on "A Beautiful Mind  and the entrepreneurial lessons to be learnt. (We placed third in the class.)

Through the lens

After Wednesday's class I began thinking of the film industry in the Caribbean and particularly in the Eastern Caribbean. I found it quite interesting that we have not pushed to develop film much farther. So I asked why have we not developed a film industry there and what could be a solution?

1. We are small islands and as such don't have a significant movie market. This is translated in the unwillingness of investors to put up capital or persons to pursue film making careers. I think one solution to this would be an Eastern Caribbean film festival. This has received some backing in theory from the former Minister of Culture, Ms. Rene Baptiste. This festival would appeal to filmmakers as well as sponsors and potential investors.

2. There is no money. If I had $1 US doe every time I heard that I would be rich. Persons have to learn to utilise the resources that are available including the free ones. e.g. an SLR camera can shoot really clear video. A student who masters the Art of Photography can build their brand as well as earn some extra money.

3. There aren't enough avenue to showcase our work. Well then let's make them. Sundance and other independent film festivals started small and have made themselves into what they are today. We need to do the same in the Caribbean.

4. There are no stories to be told. Well since no idea is new under the sun, take an old one and give it a twist. How about a story about the obeah man in modern day society or about university life? the possibilities are endless.

Though I may not be a professional with a camera, I think a start is needed to get where the film industry rolling. Who knows, I may just end up making the next best indie film which will come from the Caribbean!

JIMMY LAI: THE MEDIA MOGUL WHO CHALLENGED A GLOBAL ECONOMIC POWER

            When the names of media moguls are question there are the normal responses of names such as Ted Turner, Oprah Winfrey and Rupert Murdoch. These are all persons from the US who have had a major impact in media around the world. However there are several media moguls who have been making an impact in other parts of the world even though we may not know about them and they may be doing it for more than just the ideals of money and power. One such media mogul may be someone you have never heard of yet his story is one that shows that entrepreneurship can start in the least likely of places and become an on-going story of David and Goliath. This is the story of Jimmy Lai, the Hong Kong media mogul whose work in media has made him one of the most controversial Asian media moguls and “A Thorn in China’s side” (Bloomberg Business Week , 2003)

            Jimmy Lai is a name that is unfamiliar to many in the Western World but his impact in the China/Hong Kong/Taiwan debate has been astronomical. Lai whose Chinese name is Lai Chee-Ying was born in Mainland China (now the People’s Republic of China) in 1948 at a time when there was full-scale civil war between the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) and the Nationalist Party, or Kuomintang (KMT), which broke out immediately following World War II and had been preceded by on and off conflict between the two sides since the 1920's. (US Department of State) In 1960 at the age of 12, Lai was smuggled to the island state of Hong Kong which was at that time a British Protectorate. (Greenwald, 1994) He arrived penniless and worked as a child labourer. He would work in a succession of jobs and would pick up his English language skills along the way. He was described as smart and ambitious and in 1975 he had worked his way through the ranks to begin his first business, a clothing line named Giordano (named, oddly, after an Italian restaurant in New York and now has 600 stores throughout Asia, pulling US$350 million in annual sales.) (Greenwald, 1994) An entrepreneur and retailer, Lai had amassed a fortune and was able to live comfortable. However trouble in his birthplace would bring him into the media business.

            The demonstrations in Tiananmen Square in 1989 helped change Lai’s course and here he started using his garment business to support the student activists and their work. In early 1990 he founded Next Magazine and so began his sojourn into media. He subsequently added several other popular titles to his stable of publications, including Easy Finder (September 1991, renamed FACE in May 2007), Apple Daily (June 1995), Sudden Weekly (August 1995), Eat & Travel Weekly (July 1997) and ME! (December 2006). (GEN Global Editors Network, 2011) Lai then set his sights on Taiwan, the island nation that the defeated Nationalists from mainland China moved to and which had a democratic system. There, he established two of the island’s leading newspapers Taiwan Next Magazine and Taiwan Apple Daily. Both were versions of his Hong Kong Based news magazines and held  45% of the readership of the island’s news. He would also go on to establish Sharp Daily as well as Next Animation which covers the news in animation. He had a well established news network covering both Hong Kong and Taiwan and ventured into television as well as e-commerce. In 2012 he sold his stake in both Taiwanese publications as well as the TV arm of his Taiwan operations. He however maintains the Next Animation company. In 2013 will move to establish an electronic platform for a free new publication for smart phones. (Bloomberg Business Week , 2003)

            But what exactly makes Jimmy Lai a media mogul and what characteristics make him an entrepreneur to be emulated?

            A media mogul is someone who displays that influence in public media—whether on TV, in the radio, in movies, or in magazines and newspapers. (Your Dictionary Reference, 2012) Lai has certainly shown his influence in media. After his shift in ideals because of   the crackdown by the Chinese government in Tiananmen Square he moved to use a tool which he saw was for the public good. "I got the idea to do this magazine during the Tiananmen massacre," Lai told journalist Jeff Greenwald in 1994. "The fact that the Chinese government was responding to the demand for democracy by shooting people - that they were completely unable to deal with the demonstration - showed me just how desperate and doomed they were. ... It would have to open up to the free flow of information; and when it did, it would be the biggest market in the world" he said in that interview. It was his views on democracy and advocacy that would help put him in the media business and propel him to be successful.

            Lai has exhibited several of the attributes of successful entrepreneurs specifically five which has led him to be as successful as he is. The first of these attributes is that of ambition. Lai has always been described as ambitious from several commentators and contemporaries including Hugo Restall, editorial page editor of The Wall Street Journal in Asia and Hong Kong and Vivek Couto, executive director of Media Partners Asia, a research and consulting firm. This is demonstrated from his early days where as a Chinese immigrant in Taiwan when  he learnt English (the international language of commerce as he would come to learn) as well as in his working his way through the ranks of the business world up from a labourer to owning a successful garment and clothing company which he would sell in 1996. This ambition has been a quality that has driven his endeavours especially with media and even after his recent moves to sell his two largest magazines in Taiwan, he is still ambitious to look to the new frontier of multimedia for his next big business venture.

            Lai has always been a salesman with his success in the garment and retail business with his first business Giordano. This quality  of being salesmanship oriented was translated into his media business ventures as he was able to move into the Taiwanese news business and take over 45% of the readership with his two largest magazines. (Mai, 2013) This was attributed by his ability to sell his vision as well as his newspapers’ ability to generate interest through controversy as well as its anti-Beijing rhetoric. One example of this was the breaking of the story of Bo Xilai, the disgraced Communist Party official in China by Lai’s Next Magazine in Taiwan. His sales ability has at times been impeded by his political views. He was unable to have a cable channel pick up his Next TV in Taiwan and as such was unable to make a profit. He sold the channel in 2012 to a Chinese company. Some may say this was a loss but he was able in such a situation to make the best of it, showing why he is an entrepreneur.

            An entrepreneur should be a visionary and Lai has been described as being a visionary. Lai saw the media business as being a way to deal with what he saw as being wrong in the Chinese system of governance especially after the crackdown of Tiananmen Square. “I'm in a business that delivers information - and information is freedom. That's a great motivator for me.” Lai said in an interview with Wired magazine. It was his vision for democracy that helped him establish his news business in Hong Kong especially when he knew of the impending change from a British Protectorate to a special administrative region of the People’s Republic of China. His vision also helped him push his news business in Taiwan and despite the challenges they had mixed successes. His new venture with the Sharpon Project that is looking at news on an electronic platform for smart phones is one of the new enterprising ideas and has been hailed by media consultancy companies including Media Partners Asia. Lai has also been visionary in his delivery of the news. He has turned news casts animated and as such made them in his words “fun.” In an interview at the News World Summit 201, he said “A lot of people think news is serious and not funny “I don’t know why. Life needs fun in it, too, and news is life.” This feat would not be done by an ordinary business man but an entrepreneur.

            Lai may be successful as a businessman but this did not come without one of the attributes that is very rare among business men. Lai has been a risk taker and this has given him mixed results. His entry into the news business ruffled some feathers and he had no experience in the industry yet he took the risk of entering and it has paid off for him. He took risks by provoking the Communist government in Beijing as well as causing some problems in the democratic state of Taiwan. This led him to take on major politicians including former Chinese Premier Li Peng and former Taiwanese president Chen Shui-bian. This at times caused road blocks for him in business as seen with regulators blocking his business as well as the several lawsuits he faced before the court. Yet he has risked not for money but for the ideals of freedom and democracy. "I think when you are not free you don't have dignity. And to me it's not a political issue whether you have democracy or what, it's a moral issue," he told CNN in an interview from his offices in Hong Kong. He also lost in the dot com era. He tried with an online retailer Admart but this failed as did so many other dot com businesses. “So much money was rushing into the online business, I violated all of my principles in business. … Li Peng didn’t get me. The Internet craze got me” he said in an interview with Business Week.

            Entrepreneurs are called upon to be innovative. Their new ideas or new takes on old ideas are what separate them and propel them to become moguls in their fields. Lai used the media as a tool for democracy and through this innovation especially in taking on a global economic power such as China. "The Chinese government had no idea the media was so powerful." He said in the 1994 Wired interview and because of his innovative use of it, Lai not only became rich but also influential in the political sphere. He also took an innovative approach to news with his animated news casts which have become extremely popular. “I think animation is the future,” Lai said in the News World Summit of 2011. “Imagine a textbook in school being not only text, but a movie. That’s what we’re doing.” And even though he has sold his news business in Taiwan he has held on to Next Animation as he sees this as the future. He is also innovative as his new project includes using smart phones and the platform of e-magazines. This innovation may be successful or a flop for him.

            Lai’s work in the promotion of democracy of the media has been a technique that has helped him benefit from his news business. "I've always wanted to change things." Lai said of his thrust to ensure democracy remained in Hong Kong and Taiwan and comes to China “The events of June 4 (The Tiananmen Square massacre) gave me the inspiration I needed. Now I'm no longer in a business that just delivers merchandise and makes money; I'm in a business that delivers information - and information is freedom.” By using his passion for what he is doing and blending it with his strong beliefs, Lai has been able to grow a successful media business that has had its ups and downs. While the magazine units have been successful, his loss in the TV area and his new try at the dot com business again has shown that Lai is resilient as an entrepreneur and businessman. He has been able to apply his time from garment industry to help in his media business. He told Business Week that he has applied the assembly lime model in his animation business and this has helped streamline his productions so that they can be completed in the same amount of time as they run.

            Could Lai be more successful? The answer would be yes. If he were to posture to the Chinese government he would have access to an untapped market yet he sticks to something that holds more value to him than money or business opportunities, the ideals of democracy and freedom. As he was described in a Wired article as idealistic, jaded and naive, Lai still sees himself as an advocate and as such will continue to run his businesses in ways that they can achieve more than profit; Lai is committed to pursuing his business interests in Hong Kong and Taiwan, as both value the freedom of press. (CNN, 2009)

So what is next for this media magnate? No one knows but if the course of his life is any indication, Jimmy Lai will continue his work in the media and may premiere the next innovation.