Business knowledge in this industry

[Emmy]

hi,

 

I'm currently in my final year in a live event technology course, for my dissertation I have decided to focus on "the importance of business knowledge in the live event industry". it would be cool if some people could give me their views on it and also if they think that in university courses business should be a module, and for those who went through other routes than university do you think that some sort of business knowledge when starting out would have helped?

 

I just want to hear your views as professionals working in the industry it might give me some inspiration.

 

thanks

 

Emmy

[heinz57]

Hi Emmy,

 

Welcome to the Blue Room!

 

I agree, business knoledge is important. I agree with your view on business being tought as a module.

 

It seems today we can be released into the world of work without some vital knoledge. I think teaching business would make people more prepared when they enter the world of work. Being prepared and having the knoledge is important, it gives people better chance of getting work, and having business knoledge gives people the opertunity to set up a proper business and know what they are doing, rather than setting up a business and having no knoledge.

 

Just my thoughts.

 

Heinz :)

[paulears]

I think all of us would agree how important business skills really are once you get to the stage of needing them. The trouble with making it a separate module is that it's always considered as the 'boring' module, so as pretty well everybody hates it, but needs it, it gets glossed over, or is the one people manage to shrink a bit, making it less intensive. The best way would be that the business skills themselves are always attached to projects, so studying it while working on real events makes so much more sense. You get much more real data to analyse and consider when these things have to happen anyway. You do a show, you have box office returns, production costs schedules etc and you can really pick it apart an make proper conclusions, based on solid data. Few people actually like the maths and presentation skills involved, but doing them for real is so much better than doing it cold on simulated data and spending so much time on non-productive tasks. It's much, much simpler to do it stand alone, as a module that once done can be forgotten - but the results of proper integration are obviously better for real world skills that you'll really use.

[JDP]

Its very important. Mostly, what you will find is the industry's rental and production companies are populated with 'industry related' project managers and people to look after clients, jobs, equipment etc - and also 'business people' who look after the running side.

 

Its common to find people who own companies (from an industry related angle) who deal with the business/employment/accounts side of the company, but frequently these kinds of people concentrate on the event/production side, and pay very little attention if any to the business side.

 

Not paying attention to the business side of a company is worst than it sounds. Its not about getting gigs rolling through the company (although it is some of the business sides), but the real side of business for our industry is ensuring HMRC/Government directives are met with regards to working conditions, working hours, H&S and anything else they throw at you.... If you don't meet the directives, you are likely to be shut down or fined heavily, so having someone unrelated to the industry taking care of these matters is very important.

 

I personally think that a good company has a good balance of 'projects/technical people' and 'office people'.

[Stewart Newlands]

Business knowledge, is vital to many parts of the industry. Just look at the number of vacancies for accountants and administrators.