Box Office Hit

Aaron is the former editor of ProjectsAtWork.com

  Governance   ProjectsAtWork  

Fox Entertainment called on a project management office to create a unified global IT presence across multiple business units. Though the plot was complicated, early reviews are good. In addition to supporting infrastructure projects, the PMO serves as a liaison on a variety of other initiatives and is developing a Fox-specific project management methodology.

Project management is a challenge in any environment. Throw in the cutthroat pressures and high-maintenance attitudes of a Hollywood entertainment studio, and those challenges can spin off like bad sitcoms. If executives in traditional enterprises don't "get" IT, imagine how a gathering of so-called creative individuals accustomed to "doing their own thing" might react to the perceived drudgery of reports, processes and standards.

Artistic stereotypes aside, show biz is a complex enterprise involving widely different talents and responsibilities--production, distribution, marketing, licensing, construction and, yes, information technology, lots of IT. Making a movie involves projects within projects--and all of them under enormous pressure regarding deadlines and bottom lines. (Never mind ticket lines.)

Fox Filmed Entertainment in Los Angeles has a number of separate business units, including 20th Century-Fox, Fox Searchlight Pictures and Fox Television Studios. And each large unit has evolved with its own set of …

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