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Robert Tercek
Robert Tercek is a prominent figure in the digital media and entertainment industry. He is currently the founder and CEO of General Creativity, a strategic advisory firm specializing in digital transformation and long-term planning.2 Tercek is known as a global authority on digital innovation and dematerialization, and is an award-winning author, entrepreneur, and educator.2
Throughout his 30-year career, Tercek has held several executive leadership positions in major media companies.3 Some of his notable roles include:
- President of Digital Media at OWN: The Oprah Winfrey Network
- Senior Vice President of Digital Media at Sony Pictures Entertainment
- Creative Director at MTV: Music Television
Tercek is recognized for creating breakthrough entertainment experiences across various digital platforms, including satellite television, game consoles, broadband Internet, interactive television, and mobile networks.13 His achievements include launching the first multichannel television service in Asia, creating the first multiplayer Java games on the Web, and developing the world's first streaming video service on mobile phones.13
As a thought leader, Tercek has been named one of the "25 Executives to Watch" by Digital Media Wire and one of the "Digital Dozen" most influential players in new media by Variety.3 He is also an accomplished author, with his book "VAPORIZED: Solid Strategies for Success in a Dematerialized World" winning the 2016 International Book of the Year at the Frankfurt Book Fair.2
Tercek is a sought-after keynote speaker at international conferences and serves as an adjunct professor at the University of Southern California's School of Cinema-Television.3 He is also a co-host of the Futurists podcast.2
Highlights
“This is the best corporate strategy session I’ve ever attended,” an executive told me, adding, “Honestly, I dreaded coming here because I've had terrible experiences in the past at corporate retreats. Your program changed my mind.”
Who said this? The president of a successful game studio. He was a participant in a two-day strategy session that I hosted last week in Las Vegas.
The firm's head of strategy invited me to design a two-day program that would enable 40+ leaders of worldwide business units, along with the entire C-Suite, to align on a common vision and a strategic plan for the next ten years.
If you’ve ever attended a meeting with a roomful of presidents and execs, you know that it’s not easy to get a group like that to align on much, or anything!
It was a big success. At the outset, the CEO stated that he wanted the leadership team to identify specific action steps, not just trends. We exceeded his expectations. The group defined a BHAG-size strategic initiative that spanned every business unit, leveraging their unique strengths.
Why was this program a success? Because it wasn’t the typical corporate workshop session led by a professional facilitator.
That’s not what I do.
I specialize in the launch of new digital services. The methodology I used in this strategy session was the same process that I use to design a new product.
For 30 years, I have been engaged in launching new platforms for digital media. I draw upon that experience to come up with the exercises, data and examples to illustrate how certain trends can be both an opportunity and a threat, and how to navigate through them. Plus I showed the attendees how to harness the momentum in exponential trends that will accelerate their progress towards preferred future outcomes.
In two days we jointly devised a strategic objective, identified key milestones and requirements, drilled down into specific features and benefits for every conceivable stakeholder, tested the concept against a range of scenarios and different regions, and defined the resources required to bring it to fruition.
Mainly, we achieved consensus about what to do next, which is rare for any large group of diverse executive leaders.
Along the way, I equipped the participants with collaboration skills that they will take back to their home organizations. These include:
- how to work together in teams without the roadblocks caused by personality;
- how to analyze trends and estimate impact, and then factor that information into new product concepts;
- how to forecast a range of future scenarios and leverage exponential trends to accelerate progress towards preferred scenarios;
- how to envision success and specific benchmarks, then measure progress towards the envisioned outcome;
- how to think holistically about entire ecosystems to ensure that every participant derives benefits and profits.
If your organization can benefit from this kind of planning, please contact me!
This is impressive. OpenAI has just introduced Sora, which is their version of AI-generated video. It's significantly different to the other generative AI video tools.
