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Response No 102
mentea witn great peninacity ana aetermination
by all of those who are in charge
of the motion picture industn,' today
Again I state: a superbly educated and
prepared work force is our single most
important strategic weapon.
The kind of focused attention and supervision
of their supporting staffs by
capable and caring senior executives that
I am suggesting will enable them to identify
the outstanding young men and women
in their employ. And it is absolutely
vital that a certain percentage of these
are convinced to pursue their future in
our industry. We can convince them to do
so, I think, by setting up a tri-mester system
of our own whereby our most promising
employees spend a few years of their
lives partly undergoing on-the-job training
with us and partly undergoing formal,
or academic, training at a university or
community college of their choice—spurred
on through all this by the assurance of
a rewarding executive's career with us
when they have finished their education.
Remember, we possess certain intangible
assets. We offer a very attractive and
prestigious workplace, involving the ultimate
in glamorous products and providing
abundant scope for the exercise of many
different forms of talent— architecture,
design, advertising and promotion, and
finance, to name a few. We can provide
attractive apprenticeship training by rotating
these potential executives through
the various departments in our organizations—
at the theatre level, at the supervisory
level, and, in some cases, at the head
office level But in addition, under the
program I propose, we also encourage
them, by far-sighted and long-range programs
of scholarships and bursaries and
other forms of financial support, to take a
leave of absence from their work with us
from time to time to attend university in
whatever discipline they may think appropriate
to their aptitudes.
This sort of enlightened two-pronged
prograin has two advantages. The obvious
one is that the employing company is
constantly being benefited by the efforts
of these talented young juniors. But not
quite so immediately obvious is that every
one of the company's employees, if he or
she is made to feel eligible for acceptance
into such an executive training program,
will tend to take more of an interest in
whatever his or her present job entails. In
other words, this two-pronged program,
properly devised and carefully implemented,
will, I am sure, turn out to be
another real morale builder.
The combined apprenticeship-university
program I have so far described is a
very long-term solution to the problem of
a shortage of capable executives. In the
relatively short term, realizing that we
can't just go out and buy enough fullytrained
executives to fill our needs, we
should embark upon an aggressive recruiting
program at America's educational
institutions in order to seek out talented
graduates and then develop them
by training programs that we establish
within our own organizations. We should
be trying to do in our industry what Proctor
and Gamble became famous for in the
soap business— the superb executive
training that it gave to its new university
graduates and postgraduates. And we
snouian t worry it we lose a tew atter
we've lavished on them the best training
we know how to give. We'll prosper with
those that choose to stay, just as Proctor
and Gamble did.
Still in the field of education and training
of the young, I think we should endeavor
every year to foster in existing institutions,
such as business schools, and even
in academies of film studies, the teaching
of skills that are needed in the exhibition
branch of our industry. This, of course,
will involve us not only in donations of
money to these institutions but also donations
of whatever amount of our time is
necessary to assist the institutions to
devise the necessary courses.
Much of what I have said about our
people problem today can be summed up
in that one word "morale." Good morale
leads to high performance and long term
employment. Low morale leads to sloppiness
and turnover—both incredibly expensive
no matter what business you are
in. Some theatre operators hold the view
that the only way to motivate people, at
least at the theatre level, is the hourly
wage. I believe that while a proper day's
work is important, there are other motivators
as well. We've talked about some
high standards of dress and conduct, taking
an interest in employee's problems,
academic education, and practical training.
But there are others—the proper use
of incentive bonuses, stock options, and
contests of various kinds, all of which will
prove invaluable to us in the long term.
may sum up, the motion picture pal-
If I
ace once provided fantasy, laughter, and
entertainment in a setting of splendor It
time
—
was the shrine in which for the first
humanity was joined together in mass
electronic communication.
It is incumbent upon our generation not
only to maintain, but to improve, every
facet of this most estimable form of
entertainment— no matter how prodigious
are the efforts required to do so. For
if we should be guilty, in any measure, of
diminishing the glories that our great predecessors
have handed on to us, we
impoverish not only ourselves but the
public we serve.
It is our responsibility to maintain in
the forefront of our minds the idea that,
from the first moment they enter our
doors, our patrons are our guests and we
are the hosts whose obligation it is to treat
them according to the highest standards
of hospitality. We can discharge this obligation
only if we have assembled, at eveiy
level, a corps of employees whose creed it
is to serve those guests with dedication
and solicitude. Out of this corps of highly
trained and highly tnotivated personnel,
the product of the educational program
that I have described, and that I recommend
should be integrated, on a priority
basis, into our operating system, will
come the new blood that will direct our
industry tomorrow.
And it is my finn conviction that if we
meet and overcoine the two challenges 1
have referred to, of providing, first, the
perfect environment and, second, the
perfect staff, we will send our patrons
forth from our theatres as goodwill ambassadors,
intent on telling everyone they
meet about the world of excitement and
delight that awaits them at the movies.