The Hollywood Project Model: Future Work Structure

From the town that brought you some of the biggest movie classics (and some of the biggest flops) comes a new business model called the Hollywood Project Model, which experts are predicting this is the work model of the future. But before you make an appointment with one of the plastic surgeons to the stars for a little liposuction or lip injections, the Hollywood model has nothing to do with looking like an A-lister.

Recently, New York Times journalist, Adam Davidson, was asked to be a financial advisor on a big-budget Hollywood film. He wrote about his experiences on that movie set, noting that “The team had never worked together before, and the scenes they were shooting that day required many different complex tasks to happen in harmony:

That director then assembles a team of highly-skilled individuals (cinematographer, actors, hair and makeup people) who work together only as long as is needed to make that film. The group then disbands and eventually each individual is attached to a different project in the future.

This short-term, project-based structure is a far cry from the traditional corporate model that has been used for decades around the world. In the corporate model, capital is first spent to get the business going, then management hires workers for long-term, open-ended jobs that generally last for years and years. A traditional employee may be hired and work for the same company for 40 years in this classic work

Bureau of Labor Statistics estimates that employment services (temporary staffing) will grow at twice the growth rate of the overall economy by 636,000 jobs in the next 10 years

• In the oil and gas industries, as much as 77% of the workers are from outside the employee base

• In this new economic landscape, there is no immunity from being replaced by temps. As an example, even top-level managers and executive teams are being replaced by super-temps in the C-suite

• Temp or ‘contingent workers’ are well educated and specialized in project work

When we look at the key elements of the Hollywood project model, we see that they are aligned with the shift currently happening in corporate America:

• Workers have highly specialized and valued skills

• Teams come together to collaborate on short-term projects that may last anywhere from a few weeks to a year, depending on the size and scope of the project

• Constant market signals not only let workers know when their skills are highly-valued but also let employers separate the wheat from the chaff, ensuring budget allocation goes to the top