REBECCA

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REBECCA

THRUST
VECTOR

EDUCATOR
RIGHTS

LIQUID
KNOWLEDGE

FOR THE
CREATIVE
MIND

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REBECCA

September 1998

by
Harvey Harrison

REBECCA. I remember the evening clearly. It stands out in my mind even now, in the midst of the rigors of the first year of medical school. Everyone was attending the newest film festival, and the town was filled with people from all over. So, the only restaurant near the festival where we could get a table was a little Greek place called The Piraeus.

I walked down to The Piraeus with Oldham. Our goal was to recruit a man named Lawton as part of the literary department of our talent agency. Oldham said that Lawton was a strong candidate for the middle level opening we needed to fill, but he warned me that Lawton was "a little unorthodox" and "a lone wolf", operating his agency without support from any other agents. Oldham was more eager than I would have expected. I knew this because Oldham would not easily leave the excitement of the festival, and because he said to me repeatedly, "We may be a very large and powerful agency, but we must always select our staff with the greatest care."

We entered the restaurant and saw Lawton. My first impression was of a youthful middle aged man who, somehow and in a word, seemed "excited". We joined him at a quiet corner table. There was routine social conversation; we ordered drinks, scanned menus, and ordered. Then, the discussion began in earnest.

OLDHAM. You know, Lawton, if you join us, you will earn a great deal more money and enjoy a great deal more power in the industry.

LAWTON. Perhaps. But, what if among my small group of clients, I represent a talent who proves to be hugely successful? Wouldn’t I then have the benefits you describe as well as complete autonomy? You should know that I believe strongly that I represent more than one such talent.

OLDHAM. You should know that I believe your expectation--that such clients will remain with you and your agency--is mistaken. Officially, large agencies sometimes say they refrain from raiding small agencies. In reality, there is an exception to this rule: if the large agency wants the client! More importantly, look at it from the perspective of the client: how can you compete with the resources, scope of service, and synergies of a large agency like ours, precisely when your clients grow successful?

LAWTON. You raise very good points. I would be a fool to deny the merit of what you say. However, I suspect that if we compared the model of the way your agency works and the way mine does, we would find two entirely different systems. The points you raise reveal the benefits of your model; I would call it the "traditional agency" model. I believe that if we contrasted the traditional agency model with the model on which mine operates, we would find that they pursue different goals and thus different advantages naturally apply to each.

REBECCA. Now, I must explain at this point what we were drinking and suggest why this was so. First, the drinks: Oldham, martinis; Lawton, lemonade; I, iced tea. Next, my opinion why: for Lawton and me, this was an important business meeting; for Oldham, I think it was more social and recreational. I really believe that he never expected that Lawton would join us. Even if Lawton did join our agency, it would ultimately be a small matter for a partner of our agency as senior and as powerful as Oldham. I do not in any way suggest that Oldham was intoxicated. Certainly not. He was always flawlessly poised, as he was that evening. Still, I could detect some glee on his part.

OLDHAM. Oh, please, do share with us the "model" of your agency.

LAWTON. I doubt that it would interest you.

OLDHAM. Please. I am genuinely curious. You may have a better model, and we may need to change our "traditional" orientation, as you call it, entirely. Or, perhaps, ask you to absorb our agency into yours!

REBECCA. Yes, go ahead, I said. Immediately, I regretted this comment, since I was quite sure that Oldham was just playing with Lawton. Lawton, however, proceeded as though Oldham were serious.

LAWTON. Very well. First, I will try to describe the model, the traditional model, that operates in your agency. I am a remote outsider, so if I am mistaken about how you work, please forgive me. I am merely presenting how I believe your agency works. Then, I will describe the model which I try to apply to my agency. I hope this will reveal what you are seeking.

You said that if I joined your agency I would earn more money and enjoy more power. I believe that your model is designed to do exactly what you said: make as much money and enjoy as much power as possible for the agency. I am sure that your agency also wants to serve its clients effectively and to advance their interests as well. If we judge by the standards of money and power, the traditional model has proved, in general, to be vastly more successful than the one I will present.

OLDHAM. Don’t forget that we believe that the best way to serve and advance our clients’ interests is to bring as much financial success to them and consequently to us as possible, and the best way to serve them is to be as powerful as possible.

LAWTON. I understand. Before I present my model, I must return to a critically important point you raised earlier. What is to keep the client from migrating to an agency based on the traditional model for benefits of resources, scope, and synergies? There are two answers to this question. The first involves the number of clients each model accepts relative to an agent providing service.

REBECCA. At this point, Lawton mentioned the number of clients he represented.

LAWTON. I suspect that each agent in a traditional agency, like yours, serves more than twice as many clients, calculated in the simplest possible terms: dividing the total number of clients by the number of agents. Moreover, I suspect that maintaining such a ratio is vital to achieving resources, scope, and synergies. It also protects the traditional agency from the adverse effect of the departure of any client, by diluting the effect over a larger number of clients.

REBECCA. Lawton was correct; the ratio of clients to agent was more than two to one. I was curious to see what Oldham would say.

OLDHAM. Go on.

LAWTON. Well, without in any way dismissing the advantages of the traditional agency, my agency model, let us call it the "alternative model", provides different benefits. First, in the alternative model the agent can be more personally invested in the advancement of each client. That is an advantage.

Now, we return to money and power as helpful to the client as well as good for the traditional agency. In the alternative agency, I see different priorities in our objectives. We view financial success primarily as a by-product of success in providing the audience with entertainment that it enjoys. Money is very important to the client and the agent, of course. To us, however, it is a by-product or, to say it another way, it is not the supreme objective of our effort.

Neither is power. From my perspective, "power", in the entertainment field and elsewhere, is the ability to achieve goals through force or the threat of force.

OLDHAM. Now, Lawton, we do not threaten studios or other customers. We do not threaten anyone, for that matter. You misperceive us.

LAWTON. I apologize for the ambiguity. The threat of force can be subtle and never overt and yet very real. Based on the scale of your agency and other traditional ones, each studio knows that it would be imperiled if you refused to do business with it. I assure you that I am respectful. In this way, your agency is more traditional than we may have imagined, since power has been in my view the central aim of most in political authority throughout human history. This you have achieved.

REBECCA. Lawton glanced at me, as he made this last statement. He seemed to want to see if his effort to flatter Oldham was too obvious. Oldham betrayed no emotion.

LAWTON. Although history favors the pursuit of power to achieve ends, my alternative agency takes a different approach. We seek, above all, credibility. In my view, "credibility" is the ability to achieve goals based upon trust and respect for one’s judgment. This explains, in part, why we have so few clients: it is difficult to find those artists whose work is so strong that we eagerly wish to represent it. Now, if we have been able to build credibility with the studios and other customers, then we may be able to accomplish results as though possessed of great power without any threat of force at all. Finally, if we are very good at what we do, then our clients will prosper in terms of money as well.

OLDHAM. That is exactly when the "traditional" agency, as you call it, explains to the client that he or she has grown to the level where the large, powerful agency is needed. The artists come with us, you know.

LAWTON. Certainly, but there is a second answer to this concern. To behave in an alternative fashion does not mean to neglect self interest. While the ratio of clients to agent is more favorable to the client in the alternative agency, the number of what I call "active" client prospects is as large or usually larger than the total number of clients. I invest time over a period of time to explore whether there is a fit between a particular artist and this alternative agency. So, instead of having a large number of clients, the alternative agency has a large number of client candidates. Sadly, you are correct that some artists flee the alternative agency for the traditional when success arrives. The alternative agency simply replaces that client with another who has been carefully scrutinized.

OLDHAM. It sounds as if you are resigned to being small. Perhaps you will be respected for good work-—we all want that of course-—but you will not likely see the heights of the industry. Perhaps you will make a good living, but you will not be able to accompany your clients to the top of the mountain of financial success. Is this really all you aspire to do?

LAWTON. Or perhaps I will not hide behind size to feel big.

REBECCA. Lawton said this quickly and softly, but I heard the comment. By this time, the restaurant was filling up and the noise level had risen since we had arrived. Whether due to noise or martinis, I do not think Oldham heard the comment.

LAWTON. If I describe the standards I apply to potential clients, you may feel even more surprised at my "alternative".

OLDHAM. Oh, do go ahead.

REBECCA. I sensed that, as we had finished eating and Oldham saw no realistic chance to recruit Lawton, he was letting Lawton unwind, as he looked for a chance to conclude. Lawton, for his part, continued to display that "excited" quality that I had seen at the outset.

LAWTON. There are two standards. First, am I genuinely passionate about this artist’s work? Second, would I wish to go on a long journey with this person? You see, if I affirm both these standards, I can devote myself to all the hard effort of guiding, selling, and negotiating that comprises our work.

I must be passionate because I am always selling directly to the studio or the customer. I believe in most traditional models, the organization of the agency assigns subject matters and territories to its agents. That is a reasonable way to operate. However, then a client’s agent is selling to another agent inside the traditional agency in order to get permission to sell to the second agent’s buyers or to have his or her colleague make the sales effort. That is simply not how I work.

In addition, I must be eager to go on a long journey with the client, since the work I do is very personally adjusted to each client’s individual needs and wishes. Representation in the alternative model is a very personal matter.

You see, if you take all the ideas I have described about the alternative model, I believe they all fit together into a whole, and, in that sense, the model has strength. If I were to describe the basic idea of the alternative model, it would be that it is based on giving "care" to the artist. Just like someone in health occupations gives care to his or her patients. At least that is how I think about it.

OLDHAM. That is all very interesting, and I wish you well with your "model" . . .

REBECCA. Lawton must have seen that Oldham was restless, so he interjected.

LAWTON. There is just one more point I would like to offer. You asked, early on, how can I compete with the resources, scope of service, and synergies of a traditional agency, when clients grow to need these? This is a really good question, and my answer is that the outcome is beyond my control, and it should be. You suggested that my "alternative" is doomed to remain "small". Perhaps. Perhaps not. If I continue to offer my alternative model, then the artist will have a real choice between models.

If in the years to come, the traditional model continues to prevail, as it surely does now, then you will have been right on some level. However, there is no necessary connection between the alternative model and size, provided that the agents are very carefully selected and trained. Indeed, if a large agency were to grow naturally from and yet maintain the essence of the alternative model, it might even replace the traditional model entirely. One thing we have seen over and over recently is that change is quick and everywhere: new models are emerging and replacing the old. It is a very exciting time to be alive.

REBECCA. Lawton was looking steadily at me, so I do not think he saw Oldham yawn. Whether Lawton saw Oldham or not, he knew his time was up. He ventured on anyway, at least a little bit longer.

LAWTON. I think constantly about the selecting and training of agents in my model. As of now, I have yet to find any candidates in which I have adequate confidence. There are many bright, hard working, and motivated people, but I am looking for something more. I am trying very hard to understand how to search for such candidates. But I suppose that is another subject.

REBECCA. Oldham saw his chance and extended his hand across the table to shake Lawton’s. It took Lawton an instant to react, because a great deal of the last part of what he said was directed at me, and he was watching to see that I was listening.

OLDHAM. Yes that certainly is a different subject. Ready, Rebecca?

REBECCA. I said I was, and we left the restaurant and said farewell. That was the first and only time I saw Lawton. He did send me a kind note when he heard I was leaving the agency. In the note, he wished me well.

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