Magnus Marketing Blog

I was anticipating the return of Jay Leno and the new Tonight Show episodes. As a fan of the Tonight Show, I was interested to see what his show would be like while the writer's strike was in effect.

I believe his subsequent shows were better than the ones his writers created! More relaxed, more mature in subject, and more targeted - they were funnier and more interesting than any of the other stuff (which I was getting a little bored of). My hat is off to him.

Some points that came out of this:

Never should a small group of people so disrupt the operations of a business. As Jay mentioned, he could not let a group of 19 people stop the employment of 150 people. The needs of the many override the needs of the few. He did the right thing by going back on the air. Why should 100+ people suffer because a few people aren't happy about their situation.

Jay is obviously very talented and probably a great manager. Why? Because he was able to continue to do the work even though his people walked out on him. Ask a question of yourself, if your marketing staff quit, talent acquisition staff quit, or sales staff quit - would you still be able to run those functions? If the answer is no, then you likely don't have the right leadership. This highlights issues in management: like the sales department run by a Sales Manager who never did sales, or recruiting departments run by HR people who never recruited....do they really understand the job enough to direct the activities of others and step in to fill gaps when needed? Probably not. Jay picked up right where he left off many years ago and did the job of what he does: comedian. And he did a fantastic job as well.

Kudos to Jay Leno. Love his stuff. Admire him even more.