As the entire universe apparently now knows, NBC bungled it big time when it came to letting Jay Leno retire and hand the reins of The Tonight Show over to Conan O’Brien. In addition to the obvious lessons we can learn from this disaster, such as “Jay Leno sucks” and “Conan O’Brien is hilarious,” FedLine (aka the Federal Times’ blog) points out some management lessons that we can learn from the mishandling of the whole situation. Let’s hope some TV executives take these tips to heart.
Lesson #1: Career progression is crucial to retaining top talent.
In other words, if your most talented people know they’ll be stuck in their jobs a long time because there’s nowhere for them to go internally, they will leave. And it will be your fault for not providing enough incentives.
Lesson #3: If you’re going to fire someone, just do it already.
One of the most embarrassing parts of the whole late night fiasco was the way that it was handled so publicly and that it took seemingly forever to resolve. That worked out nicely for Conan’s audience, who got to enjoy weeks’ worth of him taking potshots at NBC and putting together hilarious skits about wasting the network’s money, but it only protracted the whole situation. Good for viewers, not so good for NBC.
And while we’re on the subject of the lovely Mr. O’Brien, let’s all take his incredibly classy goodbye speech advice to heart:
In case this video expires (and, because NBC partly owns Hulu, it probably will), here’s a transcript of the most important part (bolding is mine):
I have had more good fortune than anybody I know. If our next gig is doing a show in a 7-11 parking lot, we will find a way to make it fun. We really will. I don’t want to do it in a 7-11 parking lot, but whatever. But I have something to say to our fans. This massive outpouring of support and passion from so many people has been overwhelming for me. The rallies, the signs, all this goofy, outrageous creativity on the internet… the fact that people have traveled long distances and camped out all night in the pouring rain - it’s pouring! It’s been pouring for days! - and they’re camping out to be in our audience… really, what all of you have done is, you’ve made a sad situation joyous and inspirational. So to all the people watching, I cannot thank you enough for the kindness to me. I’ll think about it for the rest of my life, and all I ask is one thing - I’m asking this particularly of young people who watch - please do not be cynical. I hate cynicism. For the record, it’s my least favorite quality, it doesn’t lead anywhere. Nobody in life gets exactly what they thought they were going to get. But if you work really hard, and you’re kind, amazing things will happen. I’m telling you, amazing things will happen. I’m telling you, it’s just true.
Great advice from a man who works hard and is kind. I’ll be first in line to watch whatever Conan does next, even if it’s in a 7-11 parking lot.
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