After a rather hectic period in school, time to get this show on the road!

I have chosen to analyze the TV-series Entourage, and specifically the character of Ari Gold. Ari Gold is one of the series front figures and he plays lead-star Vincent Chase’s agent. The role of an agent is somewhat different than that of a regular ”business-manager”. As an agent, Ari Gold is forced to obey the requests of his clients but at the same time try to manage their career in the best way possible. As a manager, Ari demands a great deal of effort from his employees and he always expects to get what he wants. One of Ari’s major flaws is communication and a lot of the mistakes and failures that occur in the series stem from bad communication.  After reading “The Management Bible” it becomes clear that good communication is absolutely vital to any manager who expects to get good results from his or her employees and that Ari Gold frequently fails to perform these tasks:

“Involve all of your employees in the decision-making process”
The majority of decisions that take place in Ari’s world are based on his own opinion and he seldom consult his employees before making decisions. One of his typical character flaws is that he holds no grudges against running over people.

“Avoid blaming others when you have to give bad news to your employees”

One good example of failure to comply with this theory is when Vincent Chase gets turned down on a job that he has been applying for. Oftentimes, it is Ari’s harsh negotiating skills and questionable business manners that lead to deals gone missing. And Ari is never too slow to point out the fact that it was not his fault that Vincent did not land the job, but the director, producer or chief of the production studioswho is to blame.

“When dealing with a difficult situation, have a face-to-face discus-
sion instead of sending a memo or e-mail message or leaving a voice
mail message”

This is another example of an area, which Ari does not fully command as a manager.  In one of the episodes, when a deal has gone awfully wrong and Ari is to blame for it, he simply will not return any phonecalls until he believes he has a good explanation of the problem. He simply does not want to be put in a situation where he has to admit that his work has not been up to par with expectations.

“Go out of your way to make employees comfortable in approaching
and speaking with you”

Ari Gold’s management style would, according to my opinion, be characterized as management by fear. What this means to me is that the aforementioned quote is far from fulfilled. Ari is fearsome as a manager and he is not afraid of letting his employees feel his anger if he believes that they have done something wrong. Hanging out his employees in public, making remarks about their persona or firing people in an episode of rage all fall under a typical day as Ari Gold. If I would work for Ari Gold, I certainly would not feel comfortable approaching him if I had any problems or wondered something about the business. This leads me to think about an interview I performed with Urban Bäckström, head of Svenskt Näringsliv, in another course here at KTH. Urban discussed the importance of making people aware of that it is OK to make mistakes in the business, just as long as the mistakes are made only once. This to create an organization where the employees are willing to take chances and not be afraid to see new opportunities when they rise to the table. He mentioned that the manager should create a workplace characterized by a “högt i tak” feeling, meaning that people are not afraid of letting their opinions be heard. I certainly do not believe that Ari Gold’s agency is characterized by that feeling!

Now turning to the second part of the assignment I will try to give an idea of the assumptions regarding management that are depicted in the TV-series.
The depiction of management that Entourage shines light on is what I believe to be typical Americanized assumptions of management. The manager acts as the person who has answers to all the problems, he or she leads the troops to perform the required tasks to achieve success and the manager does not hesitate to “step over dead bodies” in order to achieve his/her goals. The role of management in Entourage is very orientated against results, not so much against making the employees feel comfortable or participative in the organization. The conception of the human being or the managed employees is that they need a strong leader to be able to perform well. A lot of Ari’s managing in the series is making sure that the employees are aware of his high performance demands and in times where Ari does not partake all that much in day-to-day operations, the employees tend to slack on their work. The high pace of the industry depicted also tends to credit fast decision-making, something that further on requires a strong manager.

Entourage tries to give a somewhat true picture of how business in the film-industry is performed, although it exaggerates many parts of it to make it enjoyful to watch. The business climate is very competitive and people always look to their own personal best. The manager needs to be ruthless in order to not loose possible business prospects. The makers of the production assume that the viewers are aware of the high competitiveness of the film-industry and that movie-star agents play an important role in managing the stars’ trademarks.

Finally, I give you a “best of” clip featuring Ari Gold, from award-winning TV-series Entourage!

/Calle