Building a Dream-Execution Machine
November-December Newsletter | 2022
Hi! If you don’t know me, my name is James. I’m a sophomore at Dr. Dre & Jimmy Iovine’s innovation school, where I study Arts, Technology and the Business of Innovation (the wordiest degree at USC). I currently work at a consumer health company called Mighty Health and have previously spent time at organizations like Zappos & SAP.
I’m fascinated by all things technology, media, and consumer health. As disparate of fields they may be, I’d argue they’re more similar than most imagine. Besides, that’s the whole point of my major — connecting the dots.
Through this bi-monthly email, I hope to keep in touch with friends, old and new, and to let you know what I’ve been up to. I wish too that my experiences are, in some way, worth reading.
Building OK, a new kind of campus org. 🏡
The most notable (and time-consuming) part of my recent schedule has been OK, the student organization I founded with a group of classmates at the Academy.
The thesis behind OK is quite simple — there’s 22 different academic schools at USC and tens of thousands of students on campus. Almost all these students have some “creative” ability, whether that’s dance, architecture, or even computer programming.
Yet there’s no dedicated space where these creatives can come together and apply their talents to larger, more ambitious projects. Even at the Academy, the most interdisciplinary space at USC, there’s persistent challenges in fostering collaboration across different classes.
We thought it was a waste to have all this untapped human capital.
So we sought to change it.
In essence, our structure is a hybrid of CAA (the influential entertainment agency) and Y Combinator (the startup accelerator behind Airbnb, DoorDash, and Mighty Health). Our board is intentionally nimble to maximize efficiency and we purposefully reject an arbitrary, top-down structure. Inspired by Michael Ovitz’s design of CAA, every member of OK is a “creative partner” and has unprecedented direction of the projects they work on.
“Take the long view of your platform, rather than a transactional one. Call everyone a partner, offer services the others don’t, and help people who aren’t your clients. Disrupt to differentiate by becoming a dream-execution machine.” — Michael Ovitz, co-founder of CAA
Similar to what Y Combinator is for startups, the goal for OK is to be the most productive space for creatives at USC. We do this by being value-add in every direction — connecting our partners with great talent, hosting industry-level speakers, and providing a conducive social environment.
There’s so many exciting parts of my daily work for the org, from planning our 10 am weekly board meetings to the frenetic prep before each info session. Yet more exciting is the proposition that we can meaningfully contribute to what campus life looks like, even what the letters “USC” means. It’s been an incredibly novel and compelling challenge to rethink the framework of student work and life — and how best to foster it.
“The overall goal of YC is to help startups really take off. They arrive at YC at all different stages. Some haven’t even started working yet, and others have been launched for a year or more. But whatever stage a startup is at when they arrive, our goal is to help them to be in dramatically better shape 3 months later.” — Y Combinator
As the president of OK, the past few months have also served as an invaluable exercise in leadership. Given our model remains largely unproven, we’ve had to operate more as a startup than a traditional student org. As such, we’re required to build and iterate 10x faster than any group on campus.
Within only 3 months, we’ve obtained recognition as a registered student organization from USC (even being added to the careers page), developed partnerships with world-class partners (including Playbook, Bumble, and Boxed Water), and already kicked off spring recruitment.
Naturally, a lot of people have asked me what our benchmark for success is; the ultimate barometer for OK to have fulfilled its mandate.
Well… it’s rather simple, as difficult as it’ll be to achieve.
When students at USC want to craft industry-level output with the best creative talent on campus, it won’t be a question. They’ll come to OK.
A transformative semester of classes 🧑🏫
Whew, I got the big one out of the way.
I won’t bore you by rambling on, so I’ll leave you with a few thoughts on the end of fall classes.
I took 20 units this semester (5 courses), which could be a bit taxing at times. 6-10 pm Directing classes were pretty demanding after already taking 5 hours of class earlier in the day. But the opportunity to be immersed in such interesting topics at the cinema school was so fulfilling that I’ve decided to do it again next semester.
My schedule will still be 20 units (wish me luck)! But I’ll be taking Intro to Special Effects with Gene and Christopher Warren (who’ve worked on Terminators II, The Expendables, and more) as well as Disinformation in Media with Diego Berdakin, the co-founder of Cloud Kitchens.
As for the actual work I did in this semester, highlights included staging, casting, and directing a Seinfeld scene (link), working collaboratively on a website for the Academy’s makerspace, and clamoring to write a very lengthy final paper in my Future of Creative Content class.
My Reading (and Watching) List 📚
As always, I like to share some of the great reads and videos I come across. Here they are!
How Taylor Sheridan Created America’s Most Popular TV Show | The Atlantic
It’s no question Hollywood is facing a volatile year, one of the most precarious in its history. But that’s also forced studios to take extraordinary bets on their future. This Atlantic piece provides an incredibly compelling look at Paramount’s “heartland” strategy and analyzes both the benefits & potential frailty of relying on a single creator’s output.
When people think about the best CEOs, Tom Murphy isn’t a name that usually pops up. But Murphy was arguably the greatest corporate leader in American history. A brilliant capital allocator and a beacon of decency (in an industry of excess), he was the rare type of leader who could deliver both financially and culturally. This interview provides a wealth of insight into how Murphy managed it all.
CNN wants to stay neutral in a divided America | Financial Times
The whirlwind of this year has not been lost on CNN, one of the most interesting companies in the media landscape right now. Having let go of its opinion-focused leader Jeff Zucker, Chris Licht (formerly a producer for the Late Show) is determined to bring CNN back to its original “make news the star” ethos. But under David Zaslav’s mercurial leadership of Warner Bros Discovery and the continued strength of its partisan peers, time can only tell how Licht and CNN will fare.
An in-depth profile on Klaus Mäkelä, the rising star in the world of classical music. Already helming 3 major orchestras (Paris, Oslo, & Amsterdam) at the ripe age of 26, it’s no doubt Mäkelä has a special ability to attract and guide the best musicians around the globe. The near-universal acclaim he’s garnering from both artistic talent and audiences will only continue to propel him to extraordinary heights.
After watching the brilliant Avatar: The Way of Water, I had to revisit this indelible interview of James Cameron. Recorded prior to the first Avatar film, he delineates sharp insights throughout the entire hour — and charts how he went from a truck driver to one of Hollywood’s most notable names.
The Failed Promise of Online Mental Health Treatment | Wall Street Journal
An extremely pertinent window on the negligence of consumer health startups like Cerebral & BetterHelp in their marketing. If the FDA fails to more tightly enforce regulatory compliance, these companies cold become the Purdue Pharma of the future. Some would argue they’ve already have.
Thanks for taking the time to read this final post for 2022. It’s been a remarkable year — academically, professionally, and personally. And it’s in no small part because of you.
Have a wonderful start to the new year. In the meantime, I’d love to hear from you. Please reply directly to this email or reach out at jamessw@usc.edu
- James