Joe

"Nucor has consistently required its general managers agers to generate a return of at least 2 5 percent on the assets we place under their control. The assets belong to the shareholders of the company, and entrusting them to a general manager is like making a deposit at the bank. The shareholders have every right to expect a healthy return. "That's fine by me," Joe stresses. "I take the same approach with the people who work here in the division. sion. My department heads, the people in the control trol rooms ... they all spend thousands of dollars without anybody's approval. All of us can make that kind of decision, because all of us stand behind our decisions. We're accountable for getting the job done.""

"I had heard from Joe earlier in the day that one of the ideas in the memo was for the company to escape its public debt obligations by entering into a pre-planned receivership, with the aim of escaping from it when propitious. With everyone I see (except Niall where there is not time) I argue against this step. I quote from my Laker experience, where no matter how much support you think you have, once a receiver is called in, confidence vanishes. Our customers would clamour for their deposits, for the safety of aircraft maintenance reserves, our trade creditors would demand payment and our assets would be impounded. We would have no credit, no standing. People would look on us as goners. It would be a devastatingly quick nightmare, unlike anything expected, no matter how carefully planned. Events would run away with us. I argue that gpa keeping the outward semblance of solvency and viability is the key to survival."

"In that meeting we had also received our first lesson on live-action filmmaking. “Think of it as a portfolio business,” Joe had explained. “Each year a studio earmarks funds for a slate of films: low budget, medium budget, and big budget. Then we do the same with marketing, allocating amounts to market each film. We release the slate, hoping that we create enough hits to make up for the ones that don’t perform.” “How many films are in the slate?” Steve asked. “It depends,” Joe said. “There’s no magic number. It could be as few as a half a dozen, as many as fifteen or twenty. It depends on the year, the size of the studio, the sources of financing, and other factors.” “How do you know which might be the big films?” Steve asked. “We don’t know,” Joe confessed. “We like to think we do but we really don’t. It’s hard to predict the films that will break out. Sometimes you know a big star will assure a big opening, but even that doesn’t tell you how the film will ultimately perform.” “So it’s as much a financing strategy as a creative strategy?” I asked. “That’s right,” Joe said. “Of course, we try to make the best films we can creatively, but it’s all about assembling the right slate.” This was all new to us. Disney and the other studios were spreading money across a slate of films, hoping that some would break out and become hits, to make up for the ones that didn’t."

"Joe was immediately warm and friendly. He was a few years our senior, soft-spoken, casually but well dressed, with a warm and gracious smile and graying hair. We began by describing what we were up to at Pixar. After a few minutes, a phone rang in the corner of the room behind Joe’s desk. “Excuse me,” Joe said, “I’m terribly sorry. I need to take that call, but it won’t take long. Please stay and be comfortable here.” Joe spent a few minutes on the phone by the window at the other end of his office. Then he returned to us. “So sorry to have to take that call,” he said. “It was Robert Redford. He’s not easy to reach. There won’t be any more interruptions.” As soon as we left the building, Steve and I tried to keep our cool, but we both had one thing on our minds. “Robert Redford!” Steve exclaimed. “Butch Cassidy! The Sting! I wouldn’t have kept him waiting either. Wow!” “I know,” I said. “That’s about all I could think about the rest of the meeting!” “Me too,” said Steve. We were starstruck! It would be a few years yet before Steve had access to every celebrity in the world, but in this moment, we were more like teenagers glimpsing stars on the red carpet."