Main Responsibilities Of A Director Business Operations At An Entertainment Company
Colin, Director of Business Operations, manages "processes, strategies, and structures" for the studio, encompassing everything from mundane tasks like office supply purchases and employee onboarding to high-level strategic planning, such as scaling production from 75 to 80 projects while considering revenue and brand recognition; this demonstrates a commitment to both operational efficiency and big-picture thinking, exemplified by the statement, "You can't be afraid to take on the small menial jobs."
Project Management, Strategic Planning, Process Optimization, Operational Efficiency, Leadership
Advizer Information
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Colin Sommer
Director, Business Operations
Fortune 100 Entertainment Company
Chapman University
USC: Master of Communication Management; UCLA: Master of Business Administration
Advertising, Public Relations
Arts, Entertainment & Media
Operations and Project Management
Took Out Loans, Worked 20+ Hours in School, Greek Life Member, LGBTQ
Video Highlights
1. Process Optimization and Efficiency: Colin emphasizes designing and improving operational processes, from simple tasks like office supply purchases and employee onboarding to complex project approvals. This highlights the importance of streamlining workflows and resource allocation in a large organization.
2. Strategic Planning and Growth: He discusses the role of strategy in scaling the studio's production capacity, considering factors such as budget, space, and the overall business goals behind expansion. This shows the need for strategic thinking to achieve ambitious growth targets.
3. Building Infrastructure and Tools: Colin mentions creating necessary infrastructure and tools to support the studio's creative teams. Examples include websites, forms, and automated metadata systems. This demonstrates the importance of technological solutions and efficient systems in a creative business environment.
Transcript
What are the main responsibilities you hold as the Director of Business Operations for this massive undertaking you're working on?
One way I describe my primary responsibilities is that I manage processes, strategies, and structures for the studio. Processes are all about how we achieve operational efficiency on a day-to-day basis.
This includes things like purchasing office supplies or onboarding new employees. These are things many people take for granted, assuming they already exist. However, someone needs to architect these steps.
These are chains of events with interdependencies, rooted in company policies. Someone must orchestrate these different processes. I look after processes from organizational, people, and business perspectives.
For example, how do we decide if a project gets greenlit? What steps must it take? Who needs to be informed, and which teams need to provide input? Who makes the final decision? These are all processes that need to be defined and fall on my team and me.
Strategies and structures add structure to a very abstract and nebulous business. The animation industry is creative, with many artists who may not have business sensibilities. We have to build infrastructure and tools for them.
This includes simple things like building an intranet website with links to forms animators use regularly. It also involves automated self-serve tools to ingest metadata, which tracks all the content we produce.
Regarding strategies, we consider our growth plans and how we intend to scale the studio. If we want to increase the number of productions, it requires foresight and work beforehand. We need to ensure we have the right space and budget.
Most importantly, we need to understand what we aim to accomplish by scaling. Do we expect increased revenue or brand recognition? These are strategic considerations.
These three buckets – processes, strategies, and structures – encapsulate the bulk of my job. Of course, as in any job, there are many things that don't fit into neat categories. I'm known to do things like clean the kitchen on occasion if someone makes a mess.
If I see trash on the ground, I pick it up. I think that's an important quality to have, especially when climbing the career ladder. You can't be afraid to take on small jobs; you have to be open to everything. I try to remind myself of this every day.
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