25 years ago, I read in the Economist that ‘the only industry the USA will be successful in, going forward will be the Entertainment Industry’.
Some time back, when I saw the movie ‘Hangover’ I remembered that prediction by The Economist.
The way I look at it, no country in the world could have a produced a movie like Hangover other than the USA.
The argument here is NOT if Hangover itself is a good movie or not – the discussion I am firing up is how a country can find and then leverage its natural resources in services and then exploit it to the fullest.
The USA is all about entertainment and service. Pilots crack jokes; waitresses sing for you; once I asked a server if i ‘could’ have a diet coke… he said no Sir, tell me i ‘demand’ a diet Coke. In a recent flight, the passengers were very unsettled and no one was listening to the public announcement statements – the air hostess came on the mike and screamt ‘oh my god, we have dustin hoffman at the back’…. The plane went absolutely silent and everbody stared at the back. The air hostess came on the mike and said ‘Cool.Now that I have your attention, listen to me….’ She was spontaneous in doing this!
I think the distribution of wealth, a certain standard of life (public and private) and the comfort of BEING WHO YOU ARE makes the USA one of the most fun places to be in. They exploit that experience of comfort in the service offerings they build…
Only in Hangover can you keep laughing for 10 minutes about a scene involving having sex with a Tiger!!!
Also, if you look at the USA musicians and the kind of global ears they capture, that’s another huge pie of entertainment they rule over…. Which one of us can ever say no to a Michael Jackson, Fleetwood Mac or The Doors..
The concept of ‘entertainment’ if you look carefully is also allowing the USA to rule the Internet – starting with Yahoo and now Facebook, Twitter and the rest… I mean Facebook is personal entertainment, isn’t it?
So, what are we in India going to be REALLY good at?
What will we be able to offer the world? What will make us world famous and successful?
Bollywood continues to suffer given the over emphasis on local markets and lopsided costs structures…also, our themes are so local, I doubt they will ever become world cinema…Can you think of Bollywood ever making an original hangover?
Will be be great at offshore services? Will we be the big medical destination of the world? So far we cant even leverage the Taj Mahal – can we turn around and become the worlds biggest leisure tourist spot?
What will we be good at?
What’s our economic destiny?