Every entrepreneur must be a talent manager – able to identify and inspire the right human capital. Without motivated people, no business can succeed.
每位企业家都必须是个人才发展经理——能够识别和激励正确的人力资本。员工若缺乏干劲，企业就无法成功。
I’ve always been fascinated by those people who focus on doing just this for a living – professional talent managers are the wheeler-dealers who look after the careers of entertainers and artists. They are merely the more glamorous version of professional service firms such as lawyers or management consultants; all are partnerships of a kind, concerned with recruiting and retaining big fee earners who know how to keep their clients happy.
职业明星经纪人就是一群专门以此为生的人，我一向对他们颇感兴趣——他们精明强干，为艺人和艺术家打点职业生涯。他们与律师或管理顾问等专业服务人员没什么不同，他们每人都与客户结成同样的合伙关系，都关心招募新人和留住懂得怎样令客户满意的摇钱树，只不过职业经纪人的工作更刺激。

The three great skills such operators need are spotting gifted entertainers early; keeping their famous clients satisfied; and negotiating ferociously on their behalf. Usually talent agents start with nothing except their wits and chutzpah. At heart it is a business that needs no working capital, just drive and insight into what makes creative people tick – and which ones to back.
经纪人需要具备三大技能：及早察觉有天赋的艺人，让明星客户保持满意，并在谈判中不择手段得为他们攫取最大利益。经纪人起步时通常什么都没有，有的只是自己的智慧和胆识。实际上，这一行看重的不是运营资本，而是干劲和眼力，经纪人要能洞察靠什么能激发创造性人才，以及哪些人值得支持。
Top of the tree these days is probably Ari Emanuel, joint boss of William Morris Endeavor. The firm is involved with clients in film, television, music, theatre and the literary world. Silver Lake, a technology private equity investor, bought a 31 per cent stake in 2012, and then backed the firm earlier this year to buy IMG, a sports, fashion and media agency, for $2.3bn. Mr Emanuel is reputedly the inspiration for the abrasive Ari Gold, the fictional star of the HBO drama series Entourage. His writer client Aaron Sorkin, creator of The West Wing, says of Mr Emanuel: “In a business deal, he’s going to try to kill for you.” The firm’s website is wonderfully low key, revealing almost nothing – suggesting it will call you, not vice versa.
近年来该行业的头号人物可能是阿里•伊曼纽尔(Ari Emanuel)——威廉•莫里斯奋进公司(William Morris Endeavor)的老板之一。这家公司的客户涵盖电影、电视、音乐、戏剧以及文学界。专注于技术产业的私人股权投资公司银湖(Silver Lake)在2012年收购了威廉•莫里斯奋进公司31%的股权，然后又在今年早些时候支持该公司以23亿美元收购体育、时尚和传媒代理公司IMG。据说，美国家庭电影频道(HBO)电视剧《明星伙伴》(Entourage)里粗暴的阿里•高德(Ari Gold)就是以伊曼纽尔为人物原型。伊曼纽尔的作家客户、《白宫风云》(The West Wing)的编剧阿伦•索尔金(Aaron Sorkin)这样评价他：“在谈生意的时候，他会为你拼命。”该公司的网站异常低调，几乎什么都没透露，摆明了它会联系你，而不是你去联系它。
Organisations such as WME, and its rivals including Creative Artists Agency, Management 360, Brillstein Entertainment Partners and Principato Young Entertainment, are all engaged in packaging content as well as representing actors, writers, directors, singers and so on. By originating shows – as Anonymous did with True Detective, perhaps the best US crime drama of recent times – they capture more of the value chain than simply acting as intermediaries, taking up to 20 per cent of their client’s earnings.
像WME这类组织，还有它的竞争对手创新艺人经纪公司(Creative Artists Agency)、Management 360、布里斯坦娱乐公司(Brillstein Entertainment Partners)和Principato Young Entertainment等公司，除了代理演员、作家、导演、歌手等人的工作之外，全都从事内容包装。当中介最多只能提成客户收入的20%，而独立制作电视剧，使他们在价值链中获得了比单纯充当中介更多的利益，比如Anonymous制作了近期最好看的破案类美剧《真探》(True Detective)。
In Britain the sharpest outfit is Avalon, run and owned by Jon Thoday and Richard Allen-Turner. It specialises in presenting comedy, but does everything from TV production to live performance and even public relations. It commands respect from broadcasters, even though it is known to drive hard bargains. By broadening its activities, Avalon has reduced its dependence on any single show or star, while also offering its clients a much richer range of services.
在英国，最精明的公司要数乔恩•索迪(Jon Thoday)和理查德•艾伦-特纳(Richard Allen-Turner)持有并运营的Avalon。该公司专擅制作喜剧，但涉足了从电视制作到现场演出的一切业务，连公共关系都没落下。Avalon博得了其他广播公司的敬仰，即使该公司以在谈价格时特别咄咄逼人著称。Avalon通过扩大业务范围，减少了对单个节目或明星的依赖，同时也为其客户提供了更丰富的服务。
Traditionally such agencies were much less powerful, at the whim of big corporations such as film studios, record labels and TV corporations. But the rise of digital downloads, the decline of DVDs, the proliferation of TV channels and the desperate need for popular content mean Hollywood needs big names more than ever to make a show a success.
在传统上，这类经纪公司的影响力比目前弱许多，受到电影制片厂、唱片公司和电视公司等大企的任意摆布。但随着数字下载兴起、DVD衰落、电视频道激增，加上对流行内容的迫切需要，意味着好莱坞想制作一出成功的节目，需要比以往更多的大牌明星。
The richest agent is surely David Geffen, who has made fortunes in rock and roll, film and art. But the most powerful agent was unquestionably Lew Wasserman, who started as a booker at MCA and in due course became manager of the business. It was the dominant show business agency, and in 1962 totally reorganised the industry’s structure by buying Universal Studios and Decca Records.
最有钱的经纪人肯定是戴维•格芬(David Geffen)，他在摇滚乐、电影和艺术上发了大财。但最有影响力的经纪人无疑要数卢•沃瑟曼(Lew Wasserman)，他一开始是MCA的一名经纪人，后来顺理成章地成为了公司经理。MCA是主导业界的演艺公司，在1962年收购了环球影业(Universal Studios)和迪卡唱片(Decca Records)，彻底重组了娱乐业的行业结构。
Subsequently MCA had to dissolve its talent agency business. Wasserman finally sold MCA to the Japanese conglomerate Matsushita in 1990, having run the business for 44 years. The Last Mogul, Dennis McDougal’s biography of Wasserman, is a brilliant depiction of the most influential man in entertainment, controlling more levers in his day than Rupert Murdoch, Jeffrey Katzenberg or any of the current day TV and movie titans.
后来MCA不得不终止了经纪人业务。沃瑟曼经营MCA44年之后，最终于1990年将公司出售给日本松下集团(Matsushita)。丹尼斯•麦克杜格尔(Dennis McDougal)为沃瑟曼撰写了一部传记《最后的大亨》(The Last Mogul)，出色地描写了这个在娱乐界最有影响力的男人，在他那个时代，他手握的控制权要大过鲁珀特•默多克(Rupert Murdoch)、杰弗里•卡森伯格(Jeffrey Katzenberg)或当今任一位影视巨头。
Talent agents rely on their stars, and such income can be fragile. Colonel Tom Parker helped invent pop music by making Elvis Presley the most famous entertainer of his time. Then his “asset” died aged 42.
经纪人依赖着他们的明星，而这种代理收入可能很脆弱。汤姆•帕克(Tom Parker)上校通过将埃尔维斯•普莱斯利(Elvis Presley)打造成当时最有名的艺人，间接促成了流行音乐的诞生。然后他的“资产”在42岁时去世了。
Yet on the day of Presley’s death, asked what he was going to do now, Parker replied: “Why, I’ll just go right on managing him!” And so he did, persuading Presley’s father to sell him the rights to the star’s estate – at Elvis’s funeral.
然而在猫王去世的当天，当被问及他准备作何打算时，帕克答道：“为什么要做打算？我只要继续经营他就好了。”他的确这么做了，他劝说普莱斯利的父亲把这位明星的财产权卖给他——就在埃尔维斯的葬礼上。