Speaker 1: Ye. Welcome to Strictly Business Varieties weekly podcast featuring conversations
Speaker 1: with industry leaders about the business of media and entertainment.
Speaker 1: I'm Cynthia Littleton, co editor in chief of Variety Today.
Speaker 1: My guest is Melody Hobson, President and co CEO of
Speaker 1: Aerial Investments. The respected media investor has a thirty thousand
Speaker 1: foot view of the global economy through her purcha as
Speaker 1: a board member for such corporate giants as Starbucks and
Speaker 1: JP Morgan Chase. She's also a prominent speaker on issues
Speaker 1: of diversity and equity in corporate America. She shares her
Speaker 1: thoughts here on what the industry's biggest players need to
Speaker 1: do to make progress in this moment that she sees
Speaker 1: as something like quote civil rights three point oh in
Speaker 1: America end quote. Melody has a lot to say. Thank
Speaker 1: you so much for joining us. Thanks for having Melody.
Speaker 1: You have spoken often and very eloquently about the the
Speaker 1: obligation of directors of public companies to serve in those
Speaker 1: boardrooms as not rubber stamps, but advocates and almost investigators
Speaker 1: for shareholders. They directors really do have a fiduciary duty
Speaker 1: on paper, and they need to uphold it to represent
Speaker 1: the interests of shareholders. You serve on several large, very
Speaker 1: large public company boards as stay Lauder, Starbucks. You were
Speaker 1: chair of DreamWorks Animation in its final years. I love
Speaker 1: your perspective on how being a director at an entertainment
Speaker 1: company is different from working in other sectors. What is
Speaker 1: it that is that is different or more challenging or
Speaker 1: more invigorating about the content business? Wow, that is a
Speaker 1: great question. I don't think that being on the board
Speaker 1: of an entertainment company is fundamentally different than being on
Speaker 1: the board of a coffee company like Starbucks where I am,
Speaker 1: or a bank like JP Morgan. I think the issues
Speaker 1: come uh in different versions. But I think at the
Speaker 1: end of the day, the the the issues that boards
Speaker 1: confront are really universal issues. So I don't see them
Speaker 1: as being fundamentally different from your time and DreamWorks and
Speaker 1: your exposure to other, you know, other wide types of
Speaker 1: media companies. Is there anything Is there anything that stands
Speaker 1: out in your mind that is challenging at the director
Speaker 1: level about the content business, which, as everybody knows, it's
Speaker 1: not a widget business. It's not making a certain type
Speaker 1: of of lipstick or you know, there's so much subjectivity
Speaker 1: that goes into the product. You know. The thing is
Speaker 1: everything is being disrupted everything. You know, when you're in
Speaker 1: a certain industry, you always think it's just you. I
Speaker 1: mean the asset management business that has been disrupted by
Speaker 1: passive management. When I was on the board of Esta Lauder,
Speaker 1: the whole role of department stores was changing and they
Speaker 1: were responding to that. When you look at media, you
Speaker 1: have the disruption that's been very real, the the combinations
Speaker 1: that have gone on. Obviously the destructions by technology because
Speaker 1: they're streaming and the like, and so I just don't
Speaker 1: think if you look at it any industry right now,
Speaker 1: the disruption is rampant, and so I don't think that
Speaker 1: it's a question of one being harder than the other.
Speaker 1: I think it's a question of how do you deal
Speaker 1: with that disruption. I love the line from Warren Buffett
Speaker 1: was as champions adapt, And I think the great thing
Speaker 1: about the rooms that I've been in, I've been in
Speaker 1: rooms with champions, and so they figured out ways to
Speaker 1: adapt to the disruption that has come at them and
Speaker 1: ultimately how to survive or thrive. Can you give an
Speaker 1: example of, like how you've seen a CEO or or
Speaker 1: a leadership team or spawn to like, you know, an
Speaker 1: existential level of disruption, like how do you how do
Speaker 1: you lead through it? If you don't know you know
Speaker 1: where the path is going? Well, that is that's the
Speaker 1: whole game. I mean, that's why CEOs get paid the
Speaker 1: big box. You know, you've got to be able to
Speaker 1: see around corners, you know, as Wayne Gretzky said that
Speaker 1: that's saying that has been probably overused. Go where the
Speaker 1: puck is going to be. I mean, that's the whole point. Um.
Speaker 1: If it were easy, everyone would do it. And so
Speaker 1: I think that we've seen leadership in lots of ways.
Speaker 1: Lots of CEOs have have really pivoted in ways that
Speaker 1: are quite remarkable. I mean, let's look at Netflix. It
Speaker 1: used to be a DVD in the mail. When they
Speaker 1: made that decision to switch to to online and the like,
Speaker 1: I mean, it just was a game changer, obviously in
Speaker 1: a lot of ways. I'm sorry, a subscription model was
Speaker 1: a game changer for them, but it was a bold
Speaker 1: and I'm sure at the time very scary move. And
Speaker 1: obviously we're seeing some of these things right now with Disney.
Speaker 1: I mean, existential factor, COVID there are no movie theaters,
Speaker 1: and therefore the streaming part of their business has become
Speaker 1: very very important. And you know, I thought it's fascinating
Speaker 1: they've blown out their projections in a year. They're in
Speaker 1: year four of their own projections, which was again everything
Speaker 1: being disrupted, everything being accelerated, accelerated by COVID, which may inevitably,
Speaker 1: I know, there's so much pain and anguish and death
Speaker 1: and destruction has come from this pandemic, but that may
Speaker 1: ultimately be a silver lining for them. The there's no
Speaker 1: question that the the acceleration of trends that we're already
Speaker 1: ongoing by the pandemic is going to be from an
Speaker 1: economic you know, it'll take ten years, but we will
Speaker 1: figure you know, at some point we'll look back and
Speaker 1: think and see those mild markers of this moment. For sure,
Speaker 1: it might be less than ten years. That's the thing,
Speaker 1: because things are happening so quickly. Um, I don't think
Speaker 1: the old rules of why. In the last couple of years,
Speaker 1: there's been heightened focus on the status of women in
Speaker 1: boardrooms and c suites and in companies in in Hollywood
Speaker 1: as well as other you know, other sectors of the economy.
Speaker 1: Can you talk about your experience in in looking at
Speaker 1: governance and how they handle diversity and the promotion of women.
Speaker 1: Are there examples of companies that you can think of
Speaker 1: that have you know, programs or pipelines that are really working.
Speaker 1: We've heard so much about you know, pipelines of talent
Speaker 1: to advancement being such problems. Can can you think of
Speaker 1: anybody in your experience that's really doing it well? Well,
Speaker 1: It's interesting because the boards that I've been on, they've
Speaker 1: always had a lot of women leaders. I had to
Speaker 1: say we had a lot of women leaders at dream
Speaker 1: Works and daily many of the people inside of production
Speaker 1: et cetera, um were women who were exemplary. I mean
Speaker 1: I could I could call out so many. Um. The
Speaker 1: same is true of Starbucks if you look at leaders there,
Speaker 1: I mean we have a general counsel that's a woman,
Speaker 1: head of human resources as a woman Ross Brewer, or
Speaker 1: a CEO of the company of the woman, the person
Speaker 1: who runs America for all the stories for the woman
Speaker 1: I mean the prison and went to China is a woman.
Speaker 1: I could just go on and on. So the leadership
Speaker 1: of women there and had a technology. I mean I
Speaker 1: could keep going and look at if you morgan the
Speaker 1: same sort of thing. If you look at that operating committee,
Speaker 1: it is has a very strong population of women at
Speaker 1: the top of that organization, and so um at least
Speaker 1: in the rooms that I've been in, that was certainly
Speaker 1: to invest the Lotter, which you know obviously as a
Speaker 1: company where ninety of their products are bought by women,
Speaker 1: women are really taking a very senior and leading role
Speaker 1: in that organization as well. So I had to say,
Speaker 1: I've been very fortunate that I haven't been in rooms
Speaker 1: where it was a problem that had to be addressed. More.
Speaker 1: I've been in rooms where there was real attention hate
Speaker 1: to gender leadership and where I saw real outcomes that
Speaker 1: were very very positive. I think it's something you always
Speaker 1: have to be intentional about, so you don't just sort
Speaker 1: of hope it happens. I think when it comes to
Speaker 1: gender and race, you have to make sure that you're watching,
Speaker 1: because you can find yourself falling backwards if you're not
Speaker 1: very careful. But fortunately the rooms that I've been in
Speaker 1: that if you live in front and centers on gender,
Speaker 1: and that's where I think right now we need to
Speaker 1: get to that same level as it relates to race.
Speaker 1: Whether it's the women or race. Is it. It sounds
Speaker 1: like it's like deeply grooted in the culture of a
Speaker 1: company that there is inclusion. Is that is that kind
Speaker 1: of what what you found? I think leadership matters, and
Speaker 1: you want to make sure you have people who believe
Speaker 1: in these values because if they don't, you're not the
Speaker 1: company is not going to represent or be representative of
Speaker 1: the society that we live in. I think words also
Speaker 1: have to be very intentional and they're questioning on these issues,
Speaker 1: and again make sure they hold organizations accountable. I always
Speaker 1: talk about if it matters, it counts. Start counting, just count.
Speaker 1: I love that saying math has no opinion. Look at
Speaker 1: the organization from top to bottom. Start at the board,
Speaker 1: look by ethnicity and gender. No multicultural umbrella where you
Speaker 1: put everyone together and you know, roll it all up
Speaker 1: so the numbers look great. By counting by ethnicity and gender,
Speaker 1: you see where the under representation is. You do the suite,
Speaker 1: C suite, you do the next level of executives all
Speaker 1: the way down. No patting yourself from the back giving
Speaker 1: some big ethnicity number when your ethnicity comes from the
Speaker 1: assistant level. That doesn't work. So if you count by level,
Speaker 1: starting at the board, making sure that the board is
Speaker 1: holding the organization accountable. I believe also you get what
Speaker 1: you incent and I think incentives type to diversity. Actually
Speaker 1: that loves the need all um because people are motivated
Speaker 1: by their own self interests and pay being one of them.
Speaker 1: And for most things in corporate America that matter, we
Speaker 1: have incentives tied to them, box office receipts, it could
Speaker 1: be eyeballs, it could be a product, lad could be earning,
Speaker 1: it could be profitability didn't go down all sorts of
Speaker 1: of um issues and seeing metrics and incentives tied to
Speaker 1: them in corporate America. So why should something is crucial
Speaker 1: as diversity, which we all say is a missuing critical,
Speaker 1: also have incentives tied or tied to it. You're like,
Speaker 1: you know, in writing measurable actionable goals of hiring, of content,
Speaker 1: of you know, whatever it be. Is your sense as
Speaker 1: an investor and as a board member like that that
Speaker 1: is becoming more the norm, or is it? We think
Speaker 1: that it's still something that the companies yet to fully embrace.
Speaker 1: I think it's early days, but I think the train
Speaker 1: is leaving the station on this one. So I think
Speaker 1: now the heat is on this issue is limited at
Speaker 1: the feet of corporate America, and there's nowhere to hide,
Speaker 1: there's nowhere to go. Um. I've really talked about I
Speaker 1: almost see this as as civil rights three point oh
Speaker 1: in America. You know, maybe the the Civil War was
Speaker 1: one version, the nineteen sixties one another, and this is another.
Speaker 1: That nine sixties version was around government, government policies, laws
Speaker 1: and the life. And this is now about corporate America
Speaker 1: and what is corporate America going to do? It is
Speaker 1: where that at the feet of corporate America in a
Speaker 1: very different way than ever before, and there's no avoiding
Speaker 1: it because of the viral nature of our society. Not
Speaker 1: only are our employees going to hold us accountable, our
Speaker 1: vendors are asking questions about it, our customers are asking
Speaker 1: questions about these issues. And the larger society is holding
Speaker 1: us accountable. And so I do think it's a new
Speaker 1: day and therefore on these issues, they're the ball is
Speaker 1: just getting rolling. But I think words to recognize, they
Speaker 1: have to be able to demonstrate, uh cause nfac just
Speaker 1: in general, as an investor right now, how do you
Speaker 1: size up the you know, the kind of the traditional
Speaker 1: entertainment industry it is going through seismic shifts. Is it's
Speaker 1: so disrupted right now that you would as an investor
Speaker 1: kind of shy away from it, or do you see
Speaker 1: a lot of opportunity and all of that dismantling. We
Speaker 1: see a lot of opportunity. Yeah, we don't try await
Speaker 1: from it at all. Remember we are we're countrarian investors,
Speaker 1: and we're looking to go where others, for whatever reason,
Speaker 1: we think they're missing something, they don't understand something, don't
Speaker 1: they don't see what we see. UM. Earlier this year,
Speaker 1: we've we've been in and out of viacom CBS now
Speaker 1: via com CBS. We bought our first years of those
Speaker 1: two companies when they were separate during the financial crisis,
Speaker 1: and that that being a phenomenally good investment for us,
Speaker 1: both of them. And then when the when the trip
Speaker 1: the murder happened between the companies or the acquisition, I
Speaker 1: should say, um, the stocks the stock just got humbled,
Speaker 1: as many people know UM and went to two times earnings,
Speaker 1: which is just like I mean, I say that with
Speaker 1: an exclamation point because that's just really cheap. And we
Speaker 1: we became aggressive buyers, especially in March, and that's been
Speaker 1: a really good uh return for us in a really
Speaker 1: good story in terms of what is in terms of
Speaker 1: what has happened there and that with that company. But
Speaker 1: there are other places that we've been in the media
Speaker 1: space over the years and and you know, it's it's
Speaker 1: it's a space we know very very well compared to
Speaker 1: other sectors. Is there in terms of evaluating success, evaluating
Speaker 1: leadership and goals? Is there anything challenging about Hollywood because
Speaker 1: the product is so different other types of of you know, manufacturing,
Speaker 1: our services, service business. I guess we don't see it
Speaker 1: that way. We see it as a very specific kind
Speaker 1: of product. And the challenge obviously of late has been
Speaker 1: the conversation around distribution. That challenge has been the conversation
Speaker 1: around competition, and that is also created opportunity. Uh. You know,
Speaker 1: obviously it's been a consolidating industry. We've seen the industries
Speaker 1: consolidate and then we've seen them break apart. This is
Speaker 1: not new. This is is a dissert in many ways
Speaker 1: in terms of what has happened time and time again
Speaker 1: in business. Um. But what we're looking at is you're
Speaker 1: looking for companies that are brands or franchises. We're looking
Speaker 1: for businesses that we think over the long term, they
Speaker 1: have a niche or remote around them that make them
Speaker 1: better than their competition. And as I suggested, we recognize
Speaker 1: in an in a world where everything has been disrupted,
Speaker 1: that does create some fallout and some wreckage, but also
Speaker 1: creates a tremendous amount of opportunity. You still have the
Speaker 1: domination of certain organizations that have only gotten stronger and better.
Speaker 1: In my view, Um, we don't at a real own Disney,
Speaker 1: but I watched Disney very closely, and Disney is an
Speaker 1: example of a company that's been very, very smart about
Speaker 1: what they've done as this industry is consolidated. You know, Pixar,
Speaker 1: starting with Pixar, Lucasville, Marvel, Um, and then what they've
Speaker 1: done with streaming. I mean there's Fox, I mean there's
Speaker 1: there's a bold Bibber has had some very bold leadership,
Speaker 1: bold ideas, and this next frontier around streaming. I think
Speaker 1: they've been bold about that too with their recent announcements. So,
Speaker 1: I mean, we don't see it as being harder than
Speaker 1: other things. It's just different. You know. I can tell
Speaker 1: you banks are hard, and I can go through all
Speaker 1: sorts of areas that are really really hard. Um, they're
Speaker 1: hard in their own way. Um, but not not not
Speaker 1: in a way that that makes it more challenging than
Speaker 1: analyzing other areas of American business or businesses around the
Speaker 1: globe for that matter. How does when you bring up
Speaker 1: Bob Iger, Um, we're obviously closely watching, you know, the
Speaker 1: transition at Disney. He is enormous CEO shoes to follow
Speaker 1: as a director when you go through that kind of
Speaker 1: a shift, especially from somebody having coming off a long
Speaker 1: run of a lot of success. Is there like a
Speaker 1: boot camp for new CEO s? Is there is there
Speaker 1: something that that, particularly at the governance level, that the
Speaker 1: board can do to you know, support a new CEO.
Speaker 1: I feel, you know, Bob Jpeg again, he's following Babe
Speaker 1: Ruth and lou garreg and Tom Brady. I'll rolled into one. Well, listen,
Speaker 1: I think that you know, he's worked along side of
Speaker 1: Bob Iger from what I understand, for quite a while. Um,
Speaker 1: I don't think there's a boot camp. I don't know
Speaker 1: how they run their board or their company. I could
Speaker 1: not in any way suggest to speak to how they're
Speaker 1: managing that transition. So far, so good. It looks like
Speaker 1: from the outside, and obviously by Biker is also still there.
Speaker 1: I think that um what I've been in companies that
Speaker 1: have had transitions. You know, that's what boards are for succession,
Speaker 1: That's what it all comes down to. That's one of
Speaker 1: the biggest jobs you have as a board is to
Speaker 1: understand who's going to run the company, who's next in line.
Speaker 1: Really having a good sense of leadership, that's essential at
Speaker 1: the end of the day. And so I think boards
Speaker 1: in general, no matter if you have a great leader,
Speaker 1: life lab viser, or a CEO that has struggled, I
Speaker 1: think they've been an equal amount of time on leadership
Speaker 1: and at the end of the day, that's what ultimately
Speaker 1: makes for success or failure with most businesses. Let me
Speaker 1: just in general, your sense of the macro economy are
Speaker 1: we Is it too soon to say that we're inching
Speaker 1: our way out of the worst of it? No? No, No,
Speaker 1: think the market is already. You know, everyone keeps saying,
Speaker 1: you know, how could this market be so strong? Well,
Speaker 1: part of it is the fangs, which we know plus
Speaker 1: Microsoft that it really dominated the large caps docks and
Speaker 1: a big part of the index at this point. But
Speaker 1: I think the other part of it is that the
Speaker 1: market anticipates the future, and the market anticipates the future
Speaker 1: with a vaccine, and that future is it feels like
Speaker 1: it's forever. But in the world of invest thing it's
Speaker 1: around the corner when you're thinking about next spring or
Speaker 1: next summer, and I think the most important thing is
Speaker 1: just to get to the other side. And it's interesting
Speaker 1: because I heard Bill Miller, who's a very very famous
Speaker 1: portfolio manager, say, you know, none of us gets on
Speaker 1: an airplane thinking about smallpox because we have a vaccination
Speaker 1: for it. And it will be like that, like that
Speaker 1: with COVID nineteen. At some point will be vaccinated and
Speaker 1: the world will move on and hopefully we'll be more
Speaker 1: prepared for the inevitable next time. But the bottom line is,
Speaker 1: I think it uh. There will be ups and downs.
Speaker 1: The election creates uncertainty for sure, and so there I
Speaker 1: can't say that we won't have volatility. We will likely
Speaker 1: have more volatility, not less. But I think big picture,
Speaker 1: big big picture, three to five years from now, when
Speaker 1: we're looking back on this, it'll be a distant memory.
Speaker 1: I've read a lot of concern about, you know, a
Speaker 1: new level of a new normal for the kind of
Speaker 1: chronically unemployed. Is the unemployment piece of this slowdown? Is
Speaker 1: that concerning to you at all? That? The rest concerning
Speaker 1: to thing to me right now is the stimulus chats.
Speaker 1: I mean that is where I feel like we could
Speaker 1: really really hurt ourselves. I think Congress did a very
Speaker 1: good job this summer of putting hands and money in
Speaker 1: the hands of people who needed it desperately. And I
Speaker 1: think now we're at the point where people are running
Speaker 1: through their savings and things are getting very, very very tight.
Speaker 1: That has me very worried about an economic recovery if
Speaker 1: we go too deep into the whole in terms of
Speaker 1: individual death and the life. And so I think that
Speaker 1: more than thinking about a big job story the most
Speaker 1: the more immediate issue to me is, uh, this economic stimulus. Now.
Speaker 1: The sad thing is it looks like we're not going
Speaker 1: to have it before the election. And this is this
Speaker 1: is this is just so sad because this is not
Speaker 1: about weeks. It's like everyday matters at this point, especially
Speaker 1: for those who have food insecurity and housing insecurity. It's
Speaker 1: just to me unconscionable what is happening right now. And
Speaker 1: it does have a longer term effect, but I think
Speaker 1: big picture. Once you get to a post vaccine economy,
Speaker 1: I think you will start to see, like we start
Speaker 1: with saw with someone opening in the summer, jobs come back.
Speaker 1: But I'm concerned about the poverty that will be created
Speaker 1: along the way, especially when you think about school children.
Speaker 1: It's just heartbreaking that to think that there's some that
Speaker 1: there's a new level of halves and have nots those
Speaker 1: that you know, we've seen the stories of people having
Speaker 1: to go outside of fast food places to get to
Speaker 1: get WiFi. It's that the the spotlight on the inequities
Speaker 1: is so is so great right now and and so
Speaker 1: and so magnified at a time when I think even
Speaker 1: people are more the the inequities and the kind of
Speaker 1: root causes have been put in such sharp relief. Um.
Speaker 1: You know again that you've spoken eloquently about the question
Speaker 1: of being color blind or color brave, the importance of
Speaker 1: addressing head on systemic issues, you know, long term problems.
Speaker 1: And the wealth gap is just the wealth gap between
Speaker 1: black families and white fat it's just unconscionable. And I
Speaker 1: know you've been been speaking out on this and as
Speaker 1: an investor, have done much. You touched on a little
Speaker 1: bit are there signs about this this period that we're
Speaker 1: living in that give you hope that there is a
Speaker 1: way to close the you know, make progress on closing
Speaker 1: the gaps that are so big in this country. Let's
Speaker 1: start off with we to help crisis, the pandemic that
Speaker 1: turned into a financial crisis, which we obviously know and
Speaker 1: of seeing firsthand, which has now also turned into a
Speaker 1: great deal of social unrest. We've been hit. It's a
Speaker 1: trifacta of bad there's no question about it. But the
Speaker 1: social undust is economic and people really do need to
Speaker 1: understand that economic inequality is what leads people to this tree.
Speaker 1: Economic inequality is what leads to anger and what causes
Speaker 1: people to loot and things like that. I am never
Speaker 1: a believer in violence ever. Ever. Ever, however, if your
Speaker 1: children were hungry, what would you do? That's what I
Speaker 1: ask people all the time, to put some of this
Speaker 1: angst and desperation into perspective. The gaps are growing greater
Speaker 1: every single day. The statistics suggests that of adults Black
Speaker 1: adults in this country right now are unemployed five oh.
Speaker 1: It is a stunning number, and we have to recognize
Speaker 1: unless we are very very again I use the word
Speaker 1: intentional and cognizant of this fact, no one wins. We
Speaker 1: will all be living in cities with retail stores more
Speaker 1: boarded up and and national guards having to be called
Speaker 1: in and things like that, and no one wants that.
Speaker 1: So what really? I do believe that we must impress
Speaker 1: upon government, in corporate leadership, etcetera, that this needs to
Speaker 1: narrow the wealth gap by making sure they're true diversity
Speaker 1: and inclusion inside of corporate America where jobs are created.
Speaker 1: That is what will cure the ills of our society.
Speaker 1: It seems so simple, but it's actually true. To the extent,
Speaker 1: everyone has a shot, a fair and equal shot, we
Speaker 1: can change the whole paradigm on a going forward basis.
Speaker 1: I'm hopeful that the message is landing because businesses are
Speaker 1: being directly impacted by this economic inequality that is is
Speaker 1: realizing itself as social unrest, and ultimately, in recognizing the
Speaker 1: that that social unrest is bad for business, businesses will
Speaker 1: pick up the mantle that has been handed to them
Speaker 1: and effect lasting and meaningful change. This might sound like
Speaker 1: a little bit of a pack question, but but it
Speaker 1: is sincere is they're a role that Hollywood can play. Certainly,
Speaker 1: certainly you know, platforming certain stories and shining lights, and
Speaker 1: there's long list of examples where media, entertainment, television has
Speaker 1: brought light to social issue issues. This one is a
Speaker 1: little bigger and a little more intractable. But is there
Speaker 1: is there a role for Hollywood in advancing the the
Speaker 1: noble and just cause of equality. Absolutely, because first of all,
Speaker 1: American media is one of our biggest exports. The whole world.
Speaker 1: The whole world sees who we are from our stories.
Speaker 1: We need to make sure that everyone's stories are told.
Speaker 1: I think a light has been a fire has been
Speaker 1: put underneath uh the studios and companies to really understand
Speaker 1: the need to have that content. And all of the
Speaker 1: individuals who show up on our television screens, on our
Speaker 1: computers at the movie that they're again reflect our society.
Speaker 1: So I think that conversation is well underway. I am
Speaker 1: delighted to see, you know, the news of Planning Dungee
Speaker 1: and others who are now rising to the top of
Speaker 1: these organizations who have the big seats, because ultimately, at
Speaker 1: the end of the day, my belief is they will
Speaker 1: be um inclusive, the cognizant of the diversity that is
Speaker 1: around them and is ultimately represented in the content that
Speaker 1: is produced, and that creates obviously all sorts of UM
Speaker 1: role models that says, to young black or Latin ax
Speaker 1: or women, what have you, I can be that person,
Speaker 1: and therefore maybe I should pursue a job in that area.
Speaker 1: So I think that's really great. I think at the
Speaker 1: end of the day, Hollywood UM is the trendsetter of
Speaker 1: the world, and so to the extent this becomes the
Speaker 1: trend UM in Hollywood. I think it has gigantic repercussions
Speaker 1: with outside sounding sounding pollyannaish or over simplifying the issue
Speaker 1: with gigantic repercussions UM for society. I mean, I love
Speaker 1: that story that you know, some believe we have a
Speaker 1: black president because of the show twenty one. Excuse me.
Speaker 1: I mean that that that we got used to these
Speaker 1: ideas UM, and I think that that there's some truth
Speaker 1: to that. Absolutely it is. There is no question that
Speaker 1: it is one of our greatest exports for sure. UM Melody,
Speaker 1: thank you so much. I've really enjoyed this conversation. I
Speaker 1: would absolutely I would love to have an annual check
Speaker 1: in with you on the of the economy in our world.
Speaker 1: Thank you so much for your time, Thanks for having me,
Speaker 1: Thanks for listening. Be sure to leave us a review
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Speaker 1: sure to tune in next week, when Andrew Wallenstein's guests
Speaker 1: will be Universal Pictures Marketing co President Dwight Knes