Daenerys Entertainment Headquarters.

As soon as Nancy Brill got off the plane, she was picked up by the driver and came to the outside of Amy Pascal's office, just in time to see Amy escorting three tall girls out of the office. The girls didn't know Nancy, but they politely greeted her before turning away.

After the three girls left, Nancy followed Amy into the office and asked, "These are the three Wonder Woman candidates chosen by the boss?"

Amy turned to her desk and nodded, "Yes, the company has arranged a few small roles for them, and they just auditioned." ”

Nancy sat down across from Amy and commented, "I think the one in the black trench coat is good." The other two, one with too weak temperament and the other with a baby-faced face, are not very suitable. ”

Amy didn't pick up the topic again, and after sitting down, she looked at Nancy and said helplessly: "Wayne Hueyzanga called in the afternoon, and he was going to be driven crazy by you." ”

After Blockbuster was acquired by Wayne Huey Zanga and others, the company's headquarters is now located in the small town of Morocco, south of Denver, the capital of Colorado.

Nancy Brill flew to Sweden yesterday afternoon to attend BesTV's board meeting this morning, which was supposed to be a regular meeting with little important issues. However, during the morning meeting, Nancy suddenly joined several other directors on the Blockbuster board of directors to put pressure on management, asking Blockbuster to invest in updating the data management system and adding a dedicated data analytics team.

In the process of taking a stake in Blockbuster, Daenerys Entertainment has promised not to interfere with the management of Blockbuster for three years. However, as the largest shareholder with 35% of the shares, both Daenerys Entertainment and Blockbuster management know that this promise cannot be 100% implemented.

In fact, BesTV had previously accepted Daenerys Entertainment's proposal to add a sales counter for peripheral products inside the chain, which was also the first proposed by Nancy Brill.

Due to the pace of the company's expansion, Blockbuster's funds have been stretched thin.

After arriving in Morgoslavia yesterday afternoon, Nancy privately discussed her new approach to data processing with Wayne Hueyzanga. But because the plan involved a $20 million budget, Wayne Huey Zanga had no choice but to refuse.

And then there was what happened in the morning meeting.

Daenerys Entertainment's directors at Blockbuster were temporarily restricted, but the rest of the board members were not, and Nancy persuaded those to support her plan.

Knowing Amy's intention to intercept herself directly from the airport, Nancy took out a document from her satchel and handed it to her, and took the initiative to explain: "Amy, the number of Blockbuster stores is indeed increasing rapidly, but can you imagine that they are still using the data management system developed by David Cook at the beginning, which can only provide simple data such as which videotapes are more popular in a very primitive way." If it were just dozens or hundreds of stores, David Cook's management system might still be sufficient. But if the number of chain stores grows to thousands, the system will seem very primitive and inefficient. ”

Amy listened to Nancy's explanation and flipped through the document she handed over, which turned out to be a research report on the operation of the Blockbuster chain stores in several major cities in California.

After Nancy finished speaking, Amy looked up at her and said, "But, Nancy, you should at least discuss it with everyone before you do this." ”

"I'm sorry, Amy, but I just got this report before I left Los Angeles yesterday afternoon," Nancy explained, adding: "The threshold for the video chain business is very low, and if we just blindly expand and ignore the simultaneous improvement of the company's operating standards, we will end up with a big fat man who has been fattened to 600 pounds and can't even walk, and a slightly healthier competitor can easily surpass this company on the runway." ”

Amy just nodded slightly, no longer answered, and carefully read Nancy's research report.

In her report, Nancy explained the need for Blockbuster to upgrade its data management system and increase its data analytics team with very solid data.

A large reason for the success of large supermarket chains such as Wal-Mart and Aldi is that they can give profits to customers as much as possible. However, this kind of thing is not a simple price reduction, short-term price reduction promotion will not be too big, this strategy must be long-term.

So the problem comes, you can only give profits to customers in the long term if you have enough profit margins. For this to happen, a company's operating costs must be low enough.

Companies such as Walmart and Aldi have really managed to do this with a streamlined and efficient management system.

Blockbuster's market share in the videotape chain business is only about 5%, but if it wants to grow bigger and continue to maintain its advantage in the industry, it must follow the business strategy of companies such as Wal-Mart.

For video cassette chain companies, an efficient data management system allows the operation team to more accurately judge the company's terminal sales data and make timely adjustments in procurement, warehousing, logistics, etc., which increases efficiency, naturally reduces costs, and reduces the number of employees that the company needs to hire.

Walmart's more than 2 million employees at its peak shows how high the labor cost of the retail chain business is, and Blockbuster's recent videotape chain has just reached 500 and has more than 3,000 employees.

After reading the research report in her hand, Amy also understood why the other directors of Blockbuster would side with Nancy.

As long as there is a little foresight, it is likely that they will not refuse this kind of measure that is very beneficial to the development of the company.

The complaining phone calls from Wayne Huey Zanga also confirmed Nancy's suggestion, and he just hoped that the matter would be delayed a little, because Blockbuster is so tight on money right now.

Daenerys Entertainment has invested $120 million in Blockbuster, but in the last month or so, it has spent half of its stake in repaying due debt and accounts payable. The remaining $60 million in funds, including the revenue continuously contributed by Blockbuster's chain stores, can only support the company for half a year at most.

Blockbuster's management is now already considering financing for the second half of the year.

Closing the report, Amy could only say, "Okay, Nancy, I'll pass this report to Simon, forget it this time, but you must not do this kind of surprise attack next time." ”

Amy wanted to reveal it, but Nancy wasn't done yet, and said, "Amy, Huey Zanga only agreed to $10 million to upgrade the data management system this time. The plan to set up a data analysis team and establish a database of film materials did not pass. I wondered, can the company pay for this? It's not just BesTV, it's also a great benefit to Daenerys Entertainment to have such a team and database. ”

Nancy's report also recommended that Blockbuster set up a dedicated data analysis team based on previous research results, and even further build a comprehensive film data database.

Speaking of which, the proposal was inspired by the recent turmoil in Japan's financial markets.

A few days ago, the news of Simon's entry into the Japanese financial market was exposed, which caused many ordinary people to begin to pay attention to financial current affairs, and further affected people's leisure and entertainment life.

The research team hired by Nancy found that many customers of the Blockbuster chain began to ask the store staff to recommend some business and financial movies, however, either the store staff did not understand the type of film that the customer wanted, or there were not many films with similar themes in the store, and the result is that the chain store unknowingly missed a lot of sales opportunities.

Most of the people who are willing to work in video tape chains are just to support their families, and many of them are part-time, and companies can't expect these people to be movie fans with a wealth of film knowledge that can serve customers.

At the same time, because the data management system of the chain store is relatively primitive, the needs of customers cannot be communicated to the management in time and the allocation of film and television resources can be quickly arranged.

All of these reasons contribute to BesTV's operational inefficiencies.

Nancy believes that her proposed data analysis team and film database solution can not only effectively solve the above problems, but even proactively build machine opportunities.

For example, this time, if there is a data analysis team that can receive and process terminal information feedback in a timely manner, and confirm that consumers are interested in business and financial films, they can quickly consult the corresponding content resources from the film data database and deploy them.

If the data can be more granular, it can even determine the demand for content resources in different regions in advance, avoid wasting resources in procurement, warehousing, logistics and other links, and save costs as much as possible.

And, backed by the company's behind-the-scenes data, even store clerks who don't know much about film materials can expertly give the right advice to customers at the right time: "Oh, if you're interested in this genre, maybe check out Oliver Stone's Wall Street." ”

Across the desk, Amy listened to Nancy's introduction and had an urge to rub the corners of her forehead: "Nancy, such a team and database may be of great help to BesTV, but it is difficult to generate direct revenue and profits. ”

"I've talked to Huey Zanga, Amy. Daenerys Entertainment could set up a subsidiary specifically for this purpose and then sign a partnership agreement with Blockbuster. After a few years of operation, when BesTV is strong enough to pay to acquire this company, we will be able to recoup our investment at that time. Even, if the company's role in Blockbuster is obvious enough, we can ask for more shares from Blockbuster through a share swap merger. ”

Amy wanted to retort a few more words, but after a moment's hesitation, she said, "I'll pass this report on to Simon, Nancy, and if he agrees, I'll provide you with a budget." But you've just recently launched Blizzard Studios and you're in charge of the consumer goods department, so if you add that company, are you sure you're going to be able to keep it busy?"

"Of course no problem," Nancy nodded, and when she saw that the matter was done, she got up and took her leave, and said, "If nothing else, Amy, I'll leave first." ”

Amy got up to send Nancy to the door, and said, "Are you coming to the Rain Man celebration party tomorrow night?"

"Rain Man" successfully broke the 100 million yuan mark in three days on the weekend from February 10 to February 12, and after the full ninth week of release, the film collected another $6.63 million in seven days, and the cumulative box office reached $1006.32 million.

Daenerys Entertainment announced that it would hold a celebration party on Saturday night after the data came out on Monday, and it was also a public relations campaign for the film to sprint for the Oscars.

Nancy didn't have any plans for tomorrow night, but she refused: "I'll not go." ”

Amy was not reluctant, and reminded: "In that case, you can pick a gift tomorrow, or write a greeting card, and have someone send it to Jenny." ”

Nancy was a little confused: "Huh?"

Amy explained: "Next Wednesday is Simon's birthday, and Jenny will probably fly to Melbourne the day after tomorrow. ”

Nancy stood there looking at Amy, smiled after a moment, and said, "I thought you wouldn't remind me of this kind of thing." ”

Amy is just thirty years old this year, and although Nancy is a little short and looks younger, she is actually a few years older than Amy and has more professional experience than Amy. Therefore, she is actually very aware of Amy's vague wariness of herself during this time.

Although Simon's 20th birthday party last year was very moving, Nancy really didn't remember it if it wasn't for Amy's reminder. On her boss's birthday, if everyone sends greeting cards or other greetings, and she doesn't care about it, it's hard to think that Simon will have any trouble with her.

"I actually want you to forget about it," Amy said as she pulled the office door open for Nancy, shrugging her shoulders, "But, anyway......"

Nancy saw Amy open the door, but she was no longer in a hurry to leave, and said, "Speaking of which, I'm not very good at this kind of thing, what gift are you going to give our little boss?"

Amy said, "A box of pencils." ”

Nancy was a little surprised: "It's shabby, isn't it?"

"I've got someone to bring it back from Germany, and besides, do you think there's anything else we'll send that will surprise Simon? ”

"That's true," Nancy thought of Simon's terrifying net worth that had been swelling, and considered what gift to choose, but said, "I'm sure I can't afford it, aren't you?"

Amy's compensation package is no secret, with a 5% annual net profit share and forward equity awards of equal value, which is a huge sum of more than $20 million based on Daenerys Entertainment's net profit last year.

In comparison, the agreement signed by Robert Rehm and Robert Iger with Daenerys Entertainment has a maximum annual bonus of only $3 million in addition to the base salary. Nancy's own three-year compensation package is only $150,000 a year plus a bonus of up to $1 million.

Rehm, Egger and Nancy's compensation packages are actually comparable to those of executives in the same positions at the seven studios.

Everyone also knows that Amy gave up her position as vice president of Fox and jumped to work for a fledgling 'hairy boy', and if she fails, she may become a laughing stock, and such a generous salary is also the reward for the risk she took at the beginning.

Strictly speaking, Amy is the other founder of Daenerys Entertainment.

Therefore, Nancy herself did not feel anything wrong, and she did not care if other people would have any ideas.

Amy joined in March 1987, and her annual bonus won't be paid until the next month. Because the box office share of films such as "Rain Man" and "Dead Poets Society" has arrived one after another after the New Year, the cash reward she can get is actually higher than 5% of last year's net profit of $238.73 million.

However, Amy also knew that some people in the company would feel unbalanced, so she didn't answer Nancy's topic, just smiled and said: "The company's financial report last year was just completed in the morning, and everyone meant to keep it as confidential as possible." So, if you want to see it, come to my office next week, and this data can't be taken out and don't be passed on. ”

Nancy nodded understandingly, "I understand." ”