Organization Analysis

J450 : Professor Benavidez

Midterm paper

Pei Lin

March 3, 2015

Organizational Analysis

The purposes of this analysis are to assess and audit the basis elements of the independent film studio and the various communication practices and strategies the company used. Moreover, it serves as an internship reflection essay to access my overall internship experience.  The following four parts in order will help to achieve these purposes.

• Company Background
• Business Goal & strategies
• Organizational Structure        
• Communication Strategies
• Competitive Analysis  
• Personal Suggestion

I used online research and two informational interviews to get all the data and insights. The interviews were conducted with my supervisor Sophie Ling and co-worker Fan Zheng.

Company Background

DMG is the premier global entertainment and media company based in Beijing with diverse holdings across motion pictures, media, television, music, digital, finance and entertainment properties. DMG Entertainment was founded in the 1990s by three visionaries, initially as an advertising agency. Then in the late 2000s DMG started to distribute foreign movies in the Chinese market and also producing and co-producing both Chinese and foreign movies. For example, DMG co-produced Iron Man 3 and was responsible for its distribution in China in 2013. The most recent project is the development and distribution of Transcendence. Nowadays, DMG Entertainment has offices in nine cities and totally 800 employees. And I am interning in DMG Los Angeles branch office.

Business Goal & strategy

Based on the interview with Ling, there are two business goals of DMG Los Angeles office: creating new business opportunities for DMG with North American based partners and forming partnerships with various Hollywood studios for the development, production, marketing, and distribution of various forms of international content in China.  “DMG’s main office in Beijing does all the production and distribution work,” Ling said, “while its Los Angeles office is a branch office that acts like a bridge to connect DMG and its North American based partners”.  Her answer is the same with Zeng’s answers. All employees understand and are working toward these two business goals.

In order to achieve the goals, the branch office actively cooperates with entertainment organizations such as China Hollywood Society to host networking events for the purpose of nurturing opportunities for cross-cultural business endeavors. For example, DMG partnered with China Hollywood Society to host a Chinese New Year dinner on February 21st, 2015. Moreover, DMG is looking to recruit film talents in Los Angeles by conducting on-campus recruiting and various fellowship programs. For example, DMG has launched a directing fellowship to find the right director for a new film project in China. By maintaining relationships with partners and looking for emerging opportunities, DMG Los Angeles branch office can assist the development of the company in US market.

Organizational Structure

Because of the business goals, Los Angeles office is comparatively small, with only six employees. Chris Fenton and Chris Cowles are co-presidents of the company. They co-founded the innovative talent management and production company, H2F Entertainment, for about ten years before folding it under DMG Entertainment umbrella. Since then, both of them worked to create business opportunities for DMG with North America based partners. Their roles are very similar while they respectively work on different aspect of film development. Chris Cowls focuses more on the pre-production side, such as script selection and writers management, while Chris Fenton pays more attention to the production process. Under them are Tim Gendron and Fan Zeng, office managers of DMG. They assist Cowls and Fenton in all aspects including rolling calls, maintaining phone sheets, contacts and scheduling. Moreover, they research current and upcoming projects and contribute to additional clerical tasks. The other two employees are Max Epstein and Sophie Ling. They not only reach out for film production opportunities in US, but also help with the distribution of Hollywood films in China’s market. Moreover, they report directly to the China office instead of to the presidents of the Los Angeles branch office.

The structure of the company gives its employees maximum flexibility, because there is hardly any rank relationship except that Gendron and Zeng report to the presidents. As the business work content is more about seeking business opportunities for China’s office, most workers do not have fixed work times and schedules.  Sophie said that most of her work was done outside of the office.  For example, her typical day may include coffee with several scriptwriters and dinner with senior executives in other major studios. This kind of structure has its own cons and pros. It allows employees to work efficiently. They are not interrupted and more focus on the tasks they are working on. Moreover, employees are in charge of their goals and decide what to do and when. However, on the other side, the success of the work depends largely on individual competence.  If the person is lack of self-governance, he or she may be unproductive. It also loses the benefits of working in a team, when you can share ideas among the group.