Question-Driven Discipline

"Tisch was still maintaining the demeanor of an observer: asking questions, expressing puzzlement, and challenging old assumptions, but not telling anyone what to do. He made it clear, however, that CBS’s"

"Joyce was homing in on what he called “the Tisch factor.” It worked like this: Tisch wasn’t telling anyone what to do. He was merely asking questions, but the questions clearly indicated disap- proval. Who were all these people and what were they doing besides wasting money? Wyman and Jankowski saw which way Tisch was moving and sought to anticipate and please him. They had to figure that getting along with Tisch would enhance their own security. In that evolving environment, lower-level positions like Joyce’s had no more security than a summer job."

"As part of his continuing education on the business, Larry Tisch traveled to Hollywood to meet the industry’s most successful enter' tainment executives—Michael Eisner of Walt Disney Co., Barry Diller, then CEO and chairman of Fox Inc., and Robert Daly, then chairman and chief executive of Warner Brothers Inc. These were the people who packaged and produced the programs that formed a network’s lifeblood. CBS, he recognized, needed the equivalent of a Grant Tinker and a Brandon Tartikoff. Tartikoff had developed the idea of “The Cosby Show,” which at that point was a major reason for NBC’s passing CBS in the ratings. Tisch wanted to know how they did it. He asked everyone who ought to know, unconcerned about the possibility of sounding ignorant."