Greetings folks, I’m posting to tell you about a day in the life of a student taking the second-year elective Immersive Field Course (IFC) – Hollywood: Distribution and Marketing Challenges in a Digital World. The course involved classroom case seminars throughout the fall followed by a two-week stint spent out in beautiful Los Angeles, California where students partnered with entertainment companies on various consulting projects.
READ THE CASE
First off, if/when you take a field-method course – or any course at HBS – you’ve got to make sure to prepare by READING THE CASE MATERIAL! Field-method courses will often place you in unfamiliar geographies, societies, and cultures. You must dress and conduct yourself in accordance with the local customs. If you don’t you will stick out like a sore thumb. Take for example, the two unprepared HBSers (top half). Clearly, they missed the prep email that said something along the lines of “Individuals in the Media and Entertainment Business dress strictly in shades – black, gray, and white please. Leather and sunglasses are a must. Smiling in photos is strictly forbidden, please adhere to mean mugs/or candids.” Fortunately for Professor McGee and our trip coordinators, there were some students who prepped adequately by carefully mulling over the prep materials packet (see bottom half of the photo). HBS’ reputation was spared.
NEED CAREER ADVICE? LOOK NO FURTHER THAN HARRY POTTER.
HBS is proud of its first-class Career & Professional Development (CPD) resources. The FIELD Method curriculum taken during the first year of HBS parlays nicely with CPD in helping students to: 1) discover what truly motivates them, and 2) decide career path best suits their internal motivations. Students spend a significant amount of time in introspection and brainstorming to make those realizations. Fortunately, for those who took the Los Angeles IFC, we were able to validate all that we had learned (putting theory to practice) by being sorted through the one and only Harry Potter house system. Rob Jones (pictured) was unsurprisingly named to House Gryffindor by the famous sorting hat itself during our studio tour of Warner Brothers, confirming his decision to enter the world of management consulting with the prestigious PWC’s strategy consulting arm. His employers will be glad to know that he is a courageous leader, ready to tackle any evils that may lie ahead in the form of ambiguous business environments, market sizing, and corporate integrations.
STUDENTS GET THEIR FIRST TASTE OF THE RED CARPET
When Professor McGee noticed a small vacancy in the Los Angeles IFC itinerary on the evening of January 5, he quickly addressed it by sending a text message to the CEO of Open Road Pictures, Tom Ortenberg, and managed to get each of us tickets to the premier of Jamie Foxx’s most recent film, Sleepless. Entertainment-bound HBS students enjoyed what will be their first of many red carpet experiences, as we watched the first public viewing of Foxx’s action thriller.
ADVICE TO FUTURE TAKERS OF IFC: LA – PARTNER WITH FOX STUDIOS!
In exchange for a grueling couple of days plowing through data, the HBS team fortunate enough to be partnered with Fox Studios was given the opportunity to attend a Lakers Game.
Not pictured: those same 3 HBSers leaving 5 minutes early to beat traffic so they could get back to their PowerPoint presentation due in two days!
THE TITANS OF ENTERTAINMENT – DISNEY’S TOP 3
FAREWELL, LA!
