Jay Samit is the CEO of SeeChange International, a l
eading multi-screen video services company. A dynamic entrepreneur, Jay is widely recognized as one of the world’s leading experts on disruption and innovation. Described by Wired Magazine as having the coolest job in the industry, he’s raised hundreds of millions of dollars for startups, sold companies to fortune five hundred firms, and has transformed entire industries. Jay has been an executive at three of the major content companies, as well as couple of leading tech companies. He’s revamped government institutions, and after three decades continues to be at the forefront of global trends. Jay’s list of partners and associates includes the likes of Bill Gates, Steven Spielberg, and Steve Jobs. He is the author of the bestseller Disrupt You, Master Personal Transformation, Seize Opportunity, and Thrive in the Era of Endless Innovations.
We’re living in a time, post- recovery, where fortune five hundred companies actually employ a million people less than in 2008. We now have a generation coming up of 2.3 billion millennials. Jay says that’s why it is so important now to innovate and disrupt. . Unless they learn how to create businesses and to solve problems, there will not be jobs for them. He points out that by choice or by circumstance, every person’s career gets disrupted. Jay says that all an entrepreneur does is solve problems. “Solve them for a lot of people; you make a lot of money”. He says that we’re living in a time when we’re one click away from six billion people. You only have to be right for a nanosecond to become a self-made billionaire. Jay’s book Disrupt You is divided into thirds: the first part deals with changing yourself, the second with disrupting any business, and the final part deals with how the same techniques can be used to change the world and solve its problems.
Jay’s way of giving back is to mentor, trying to show how to become a successful entrepreneur. Early in his career, he was fortunate to have the opportunity to ghostwrite for Ralph Nader. Working with someone that was so purely focused on trying to make the world a better place empowered him to see that not only can one person make a difference, in fact, that’s all who ever really does make a difference!
After building one of the first social networks on the internet ten years before Facebook, which included voice over IP ten years before Skype, Jay’s employer at the time, Universal, told him to shut it down. He left, and set up a meeting with Ken Berry, who was the head of the largest musical company at the time. Unfortunately, at the time of the interview, Berry was called away to Los Angeles for an emergency meeting. Fast thinking and fearlessness led Jay to offer to drive Berry to the airport, and during the drive they had a great conversation. Jay used the time that Berry was in the air to draw up his vision for EMI, and had it in Berry’s inbox when he landed. By Monday, Jay was worldwide head of digital for the world’s largest music company. “It’s that fear of failure that stops most people, and I try to show the difference between failing and failure. Everybody fails, but failure is throwing the towel in and giving up” Jay writes in his book.
Jay recently looked at the television industry and realized that everything about it was on the verge of change; that it was ripe for disruption, and that meant opportunity. He was attracted to the company “See Change”, of which he is now CEO, because it invented video on demand, and can now power mobile companies, handset makers, TV set makers, sports leagues, even religions, to bring their content direct to consumers.
Jay’s advice to first time entrepreneurs is that it’s your job as an entrepreneur to explain the future to people who are living in the past in a way that they can comprehend. That is the key to success. At Sony, Jay was brought in by Howard Stringer to try to bring the company into the twenty first century. It was a hundred billion dollar corporation that saw their competition as being Panasonic, Sharp, and Toshiba. They didn’t see Apple, Google, or Amazon. As much as he tried to turn things around, he couldn’t change that mentality.
In “Disrupt You” Jay talks about three opportunities he’s had: one running a major movie studio, one a major music company, and one a major global conglomerate. Each time he was brought in to set up a new division. That sounds like a dream job because you have unlimited resources compared to a start up outside, and you have the brand name. In reality, you have a new enemy: every existing division. You realize how entrenched existing companies are; they care about self-preservation. Being innovative and coming in with a new idea is, by nature, threatening the status quo. Jay says you need to tie your pitch to, “Here’s how I can get you a promotion, here’s how I can get you the individual a bonus, here’s how I can make you look good in Wednesday’s marketing meeting.” That’s how you sell corporate America.
To your best success,
Kelli Richards, CEO of the All Access Group, LLC
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