Bob Kreek has blogged about leadership and business on Leadership Pundit. Kreek was the founding President and CEO of Comedy Central – where he quickly transformed two disparate organizations and cultures into an extraordinary media success. He is a wiz at inspiring change and driving it to build powerful brands, market share, and growth.

Last Tuesday evening, Bob engaged the MBA students at Long Island University in a discussion about Comedy Central: The Management of Chaos.  Bob shared the outline of his remarks with me, which I’ve posted below. While we don’t have the examples he used, this short version gets to the heart of the subject.

Some of Bob’s key insights are:  1. ”My version [of chaos] exists when the world changes faster than people change. It brings uneasiness, but it also allows the opportunity for creativity and growth.”  2. You need to recognize chaos – here’s what to look for. 3. Whether chaos is good or bad depends on your ability to deal with it. But if it’s driven by some outside force, you need to manage it to your benefit. Here’s how. Continue reading…

In yesterday’s New York Times, David Carr writes about Hollywood’s ability to return value to their shareholders. Actually, he writes about Hollywood’s inability to return value to their shareholders. He notes that, according to Jonathon A. Knee (investment banker, media professor and author with a book coming out, The Curse of the Mogul: What’s Wrong With the World’s Leading Media Companies), since the year 2000 large media companies have written down $200 billion, yep billion, in value. Sheeesh!

How did this happen? Surely, the movies weren’t that bad. No, they weren’t. It happened in large part in response to the ballyhoo surrounding the digital world. Continue reading…