Embrace change, speaker urges

A successful movie producer says the best question is, 'What if?'
By DON SHILLING
VINDICATOR BUSINESS EDITOR
YOUNGSTOWN -- Peter Guber held up his personal digital assistant at the end of his talk on how quickly the world is changing.
With his handheld computer, the Hollywood movie producer can record appointments, check e-mails, make phone calls, take photographs and check on his house.
Soon, companies will be giving away these PDAs as part of the next wave of telecommunications, said Guber at a presentation Wednesday at Youngstown State University. They will act as telephones and will offer low-priced service for calls made anywhere in the world.
"For $39.95 a month, you can call your grandmother in Eastern Europe or your son at the store on the corner," he said.
Advertising will subsidize the cost, just like it does with television, he said. Ten seconds of ads will pop up when the device is used.
The PDA is an example of how companies -- and people -- need to be prepared for change in today's world, he said.
"Beware, things end. In our brave new world, they end at warp speed," he said.
Guber spoke to about 100 people as part of YSU's Colloquium on Free Enterprise. He also was meeting with students and staff members today.
Professional background
Guber produced films such as "Rain Man," "The Color Purple" and "Batman." He has been chairman and chief executive of Sony Pictures Entertainment, president of Columbia Pictures and led other entertainment businesses.
He now is chairman of Mandalay Entertainment, which he founded. The company produces movies, such as "Donnie Brasco," "Seven Years in Tibet" and "Sleepy Hollow," and television shows and operates minor-league baseball teams.
Guber said a danger in business, or in building a career, is complacency.
"The idea is to be a challenge to our own incumbency when you're at the top," he said.
Newcomers to an industry often knock off those at the top because they aren't as concerned about asking the how-to questions that leaders are concerned with, he said. They ask, "What if?"
'"What ifs change the world," he said.
The key isn't to just worry about solving problems but to create opportunities, he said.
He called these opportunities the "white spaces" between areas of strength and gave the contrasting examples of CBS and Sony in spotting them.
Opportunities missed, met
CBS owned the biggest music company and had the largest television network, and yet it missed out on the idea of putting music on television. MTV came along and was a hit.
Sony, on the other hand, was strong in electronic devices and sound systems, he said. It saw an opportunity in the middle and created a portable music player, the Walkman.
Guber quoted astronomer Carl Sagan as saying society's weakness was the search for certainty. Everything is changing so fast these days that companies and people can't see for sure what's coming, Guber said. They must be willing to be drawn into the future and be confident that they have the skills to handle it, said Guber, the son of a junk dealer.
"Look not to your past to create your future, but dream," he said.
shilling@vindy.com