Managing Conflict

I remember distinctly a turning point in the TV series that aired in the early 2000s on HBO, called Entourage. The TV show is based in Los Angeles in the early 2000s and follows a movie star from Brooklyn, Vincent Chase, who brings his closest friends from back home with him to live the good life. His agent, Ari Gold, is also a very close friend and mentor to him. Ari acts almost as a father figure and friend to Vincent Chase. Ari is a profane, no holds barred businessman who is not only extremely competent but very driven. At the start of the series, Ari is working at one of Los Angeles' largest talent management agencies. He is a partner, and basically runs the firm- the only person who he technically reports to is the owner of the agency and Ari's partner, Terrance McQuewick. Terrance is much older than Ari, and has made all his money building his talent agency. He is basically retired- does not come into work, does not bother with any company tasks, etc. Ari Gold almost single handedly catapulted Terrance's firm into a controlling power, the most successful talent agency in Los Angeles, due to his skill and work. The problems begin when Terrance decides he wants to have a closer relationship with clients that Ari works with. Terrance begins to make demands of Ari, including meeting Vincent and talking about his future prospects with him. Ari, up until this point, has been running the show completely himself. He is not used to anyone else contesting his leadership, and he does not like the idea of Terrance coming back in and interfering. Conflict begins here because Terrance still feels righteous that he is the owner of the company and still technically employs Ari. The turning point is when Ari comes back to the office one day, and there are two security guards outside his corner office who do not permit him entry. The whole office looks on as Terrance walks in and fires Ari. Ari, in a very dramatic scene, tells Terrance that he himself has been responsible for the company's success, and vows to create a talent agency that will completely run Terrance's out of business.

Ari makes a plea to his employees seeing who will follow him to his new startup company, the only employee who does so is his assistant. Ari goes on, over the next few seasons, to create the largest talent management agencies in the world. Terrance, after seeing the amount of success Ari is having and realizing that Ari is truly a much bigger asset than he ever estimated, and truly a threat to his business, sells him the entirety of his agency.

So much could be analyzed in the personalities of the two leaders. Ari was perhaps content working at Terrance's agency before because he was not contested, he had all the duties and powers of a CEO without the title. Only when that status was threatened did he realize that the only way to truly ensure his success was through creating his own company. Terrance and Ari, however symbiotic their relationship may have been, were inevitably caught up in a power struggle. Perhaps if they would have sat down and agreed upon structure and management issues, they may have been able to come to a more amicable conclusion. However, Ari would never have achieved the level of success he did if the rug had not been pulled out from underneath him as it was.

From the perspective of the employees, those at the old company had routinely seen Ari as their leader. When Terrance came in to fire him, Ari said something like "half the people in this room have never seen your face and don't even know who you are."

Terrance never understood that his biggest asset was the man running his company full time. He took it for granted that he was able to travel, relax, and enjoy his life while his company continued to grow. I think it shows that it is very important for leaders to examine their organizations and appreciate the cogs that keep it running. In this situation where talent had not reached its truest potential, I think the outcome was good, though not inevitable.