Most Important Skills For A Senior Manager Production Finance At Disney
A Senior Manager of Production Finance at Disney highlights the paramount importance of "openness and being able to adapt" in their role, citing the unpredictable nature of film production—a "fuse blew out on a stage," necessitating immediate cost assessment and shifting priorities. This requires "reprioritizing every single day" to balance planned tasks with unexpected crises, ensuring accurate and timely responses.
Adaptability, Problem-Solving, Prioritization, Communication, Financial Acumen
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Chris Kang
Senior Manager, Production Finance
The Walt Disney Company
University of Arizona, 2013
N/A
Accounting
Arts, Entertainment & Media
Finance
Former Foster Youth, Greek Life Member
Video Highlights
1. Adaptability and openness to change are crucial in this fast-paced environment where priorities shift constantly. Unexpected issues arise daily, requiring quick thinking and problem-solving.
2. Strong communication and collaboration skills are essential for working effectively with production teams, executives, and insurance companies to address problems and manage costs.
3. Proficiency in financial management is necessary to track costs, handle insurance claims, and make sound financial decisions in dynamic situations.
Transcript
What skills are most important for a job like yours?
A big component I'm learning in my role is just to be open. If you remain open, it's very easy to adapt.
With this industry, there are so many things that may come your way. You might have a set list of tasks for the day, but then your producer comes into your office, or you get a call about an issue on set.
For instance, if a fuse blew out on a stage and you have to shut down production, that's a major issue. It becomes an assurance claim where you have to figure out the money that was going to be spent that day.
You have to gather all those costs and work closely with production to submit a reasonable number. This is because people showed up for work, but you can't proceed due to an issue outside of your control.
Everything you had planned gets pushed off because you have to focus on the immediate problem. Eventually, the work doesn't disappear, and you have to get back to it. It’s about reprioritizing every single day, determining what's most important, and executing on that quickly and accurately.
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