Entrepreneur Blog – Simon Cowell

Simon Cowell is one of the most renowned men in the world, earning around 54 million a year. Starting off in the mail room in EMI Records, he worked his way up to eventually be the A&R consultant for Sony BMG putting himself in a very powerful position in terms of business within the entertainment industry. He then went on to create his production company Syco, responsible for the televising and creation of the massively successful programs X Factor and Britain’s Got Talent and representing the artists that the shows produce. Syco apparently now accounts for 70% of the profit generated from Sony Music UK.

For these reasons I admire Simon Cowell, as he has worked his way up a company to go on to start his own businesses, almost all of which have been very successful. He is the creator of most likely the world’s most successful television show as a franchise being shown in around 30 countries worldwide; the X Factor. Whilst I admire him for what he did as a business-man and entrepreneur, I do not admire what the actual programs he created stand for and produce, as in my opinion yes, they create opportunities for ‘normal people’ to become stars, but at the same time take over the charts and push out artists that have written their own songs and have what I see as the true package; being able to write as well as record songs. Although this is what I believe and aside from what it does to the music industry, it does increase the income into Simon Cowell’s business Syco, and whilst I do not commend what this does to the industry I do admire the original methodology and idea.

However even though I am not a fan of X Factor myself I do appreciate how the show is put together as a production. A huge amount of the British and other populations are fans, which therefore means the show generates a massive amount of profit from its viewers and their calls. Another part of the televising and production of the show that I admire is the way in which he has delegated advertising space. Due to the amount of viewers, both X Factor and Britain’s Got Talent are brilliant shows to advertise in between breaks. There are around 7 breaks per show, meaning that the advertisement space bought by companies generates huge amounts of profit and can be sold at large prices. In my opinion this is very cleverly done by Cowell, as the show itself therefore does not need to advertise but can still make a lot of profit from it without the infringement of any of ITV’s laws.

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Resources Used: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Simon_Cowell

                            http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Syco#The_X_Factor

Dance Company Improvement

Candoco Dance Company is a contemporary dance company based in London that mixes disabled and non-disabled dancers in order to produce shows and performances that tour all around the country. They also act as a school, aiming to train again both disabled and non-disabled people to go into some sort of professional dance career. The company only focuses on those with a physical disability such as wheel chair users and people with prosthetic limbs.

The social issue that this company tackles is very obvious; making sure disabled individuals still have the same chance at a professional dance career as any other person. However, one way in which they could branch out would be to include people with mental disabilities as well as physical. This of course would be appropriate for the company as Candoco Dance Company is a charity and looks to help others. This would probably involve teaching and working with the mentally disabled to produce a show up to the standards of the company’s tour. An activity such as this can be looked at both positively and negatively.

The positive side to introducing a new scheme for mentally challenged dancers would be that it is very fitting with the company’s image as it is a charitable organisation for helping the disabled. Not only would it help the business, but it also would encourage people with mental illness to express themselves in ways that they may not have had the chance to do in the past, it gives them a chance to interact with others in a different environment promoting better social skills and physical activity, and lastly it may give carers and families a break from looking after them.

There are however some negative points. Candoco Dance Company, whilst promoting the image of a charity is mainly a professional touring dance company, therefore the teaching that is applied to the physically challenged and non-disabled dancers could not be used on the mentally disabled as this may be impossible for them. This would then mean that the company would have train its staff in the special skills required for dealing with the students or get in professionals to teach them separately from the other members of the dance troupe. This would most likely be expensive and actually does not maintain the image the company is going for because Candoco Dance Company is all about producing shows that combine disabled and non-disabled dancers.

Overall I think it would be in Candoco’s interest to introduce a scheme to train the mentally challenged to dance as they are a charity. However, it may just be a burden to the company as it would cost money and it may not be what the company is looking to become, as in my opinion this could be slightly too extreme because they seem to want to be a professional dance academy to train and produce professional dancers. Saying that however I do not actually know how capable mentally disabled people are as they could learn and digest the knowledge of dance just as well as people with no mental disability.

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Websites used: http://www.candoco.co.uk/