www.kopihangtuah.blogspot.com
Copyright © 2017 by
Dr. Abdul Rahim Said
mihardias@gmail.com
Business Coach and Mentor
"DO YOU THINK WE SHOULD REPEAT THIS IDEA? This
concept of selecting a group of talented young artists and train them to be
entrepreneurs. Is it worth doing over and over again?" Balai
Seni Negara's (Balai Seni) Director General (DG), Dato' Dr. Mohamed Najib Dawa, who
sat across the table from me, at breakfast on the second floor of the Balai Seni, sipping his hot
black local coffee, wanted to know whether the Young Art Entrepreneurs (YAE)
development scheme that he pioneered, was worth repeating.
It's
the second week of August. The YAE was hardly three weeks old. The artists who
just completed their Bootcamp two weeks earlier were in the throes of getting
themselves organized and the DG was already anxious about the next step. I chose not to answer him
directly. Instead I told him about Ray Croc, the man credited with the success
story of McDonald's. I told him that Ray Croc repeated an idea initially
developed by the McDonald brothers and turned it into the most successful
franchise in history.
As a result, by the end of
2016, there were 36,899 McDonald's restaurants in 120 countries employing
375,000 people and serving 68 million customers a day. The McDonald brothers, according to Ray, were quite
content with a few restaurants. But Ray Croc decided to duplicate an idea worth
repeating more than thirty six thousand
times.
"Wow, if only we
could do that with art! That's what I am looking to monetize art!" Looking back now it seems
easy for Ray Croc to repeat the idea. But it took a great deal of effort on
Croc's part to achieve his dream of making McDonald's into such a successful
venture. Franchising is now known
in the industry as one of the fastest method to expand a business. Many have
repeated what Ray Croc did. In fact, most successful brands in United States of
America emerged as a success through franchising.
Dato' Najib looked at me,
with a twinkle in his eye. He flashed me a broad smile. Then asked, "Can
we possibly do that with YAE?" I hated to tell him that
art is not like burgers. People do not normally chew on art as they would with
burgers. But franchising YAE is a definite possibility. Dato' Dr. Najib
envisioned at least one YAE in every state. Through this mechanism he believes
the country could develop more business savvy artists.
However, in the immediate
future, Dato' Dr. Najib could not wait to select another crop of young artists
by middle of January 2018 to replace the current group. But at the same time, his
eyes were already focused on five to ten years into the future, even way into
2050. He told me his big dream of reaching out to the people through visual
art, occasionally mentioning other areas, like performing art.
That morning we
deliberated on how to proceed with the YAE career development scheme. We agreed
that in 2018 we ought to select at least double the number of the class of
2017. So, he set a target of fourteen or fifteen students for YAE. But both of us knew such
incremental growth would not be good enough to achieve his dream of monetizing
art. He wanted more and in a shorter time frame. So, I suggested we ought to go
nationwide.
First, YAE has to be
branded. We would move forward nationwide under one brand. The brand should
embody all the ideas it represents. This process may require some time but it
would not take long to get the brand registered. Then we shall assemble a team
to develop its identity kit and the manuals that would help implementers deliver
the YAE message systematically.
At the same time, we would
need some endorsement perhaps from the Ministry of Education to give it some
form of accreditation. Simultaneously, we should
be approaching all state governments and sell them the idea of building
enclaves out of shipping containers that symbolize the concept and brand of
YAE. At this time, it would
also be ideal to get the commercial sector involved in donating containers and
constructing such enclaves throughout the country. That could side step the
bureaucracy involved in proceeding with the idea. Most state governments would
hold back a good idea when they are hampered by shortage of funds.
A friendly
non-governmental body like "Friends of YAE", if established, could
advance the idea more quickly. For instance, an aggressive NGO could raise
funds for a good cause faster than we could get the Treasury to finance a
project where there is no provision in the annual state budget. If these could be well
orchestrated, there will be thirteen YAEs throughout the country in less than
24 months. With each centre providing initial training for 25 young artists we
could generate 325 business-savvy artists per year. Over the next thirty years,
that is by 2050, we are looking at 9,750 young artists who would have gone
through the system.
We expect each artist to
produce about 20 pieces during the six months spent at the enclave that could
fetch an average price of RM3,000 per piece. Over thirty years the monetary
value generated through YAE could reach a staggering RM585,000,000. Dato' Dr. Najib laughed
out loud and said, "Now, that's what I love to see through this concept of
'monetizing' art!"
We may not have to wait
thirty years to see the idea blossoms. Instead of thirteen enclaves we could
have five in every state, yielding a total of 65 art enclaves within three
years. Let's say we increase the class to 25 per year, we could train 1,625
artists. If each were to generate RM60,000 in value, per year, we could attain
at least RM 97,500,00 by 2021.
However, these are mere
conjecture at the moment but if Ray Croc could repeat an idea and turned it
into a billion dollar success story, there is no reason why Dato' Dr. Najib
could not achieve his objective with his concept of YAE. "Yes, Dato', you
should repeat the YAE idea because it is worth doing, for the sake of
art!" I told him as I was confident he could realize his dream within his
life time. The sooner he embarks on it, the better it will be for art.
* kopihangtuah
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