The Hidden Cost of Jumping Straight to Solutions

A few years ago, in the rougher-round-the-edges, earlier days of Casual, we were approached to make a film for a Big Tech company. The client, budget and brief were good, so we started to think about all the 'push-the-boat-out' ways we could bring the brief to life. We made the film with a relatively large crew, using glossy lenses and cinema cameras. It looks, sounds, and feels every bit the stunning piece of cinema we thought the opportunity demanded.

Stop and Think

The client was happy with the film and process but on reflection, I think it would have felt more authentic to have been more rough and ready with the production - maybe even shooting it on a fledgling iPhone. The film was too manicured, too controlled, too high-production value. We jumped straight into what we could do with the brief, rather than stopping to think in more depth about how we wanted the audience to react.

Lessons learnt

We thought the cinematic approach would impress, but given what the film was meant to convey, a simpler, more direct approach might have better connected with the audience. This taught us a crucial lesson and helped us mature as a company. While solving creative challenges elaborately feels good, taking time to clearly define the desired emotional outcome of a production is essential.

Film production = problem solving

In many ways, one of the biggest problems we have as an industry is our desire to get on with things – just ‘crack on’. All business is about problem solving, but filmmaking and production specifically takes this to another level.

At a basic level, each film consists of hundreds of problems (or opportunities to be more positive), some large: animation or live action, some small: tiny script variations. Solve all of them in roughly the right order, and you will have a film. The ways you choose to solve each challenge will define the film that you end up with.

Solution-focused production people

The benefit of this is that the industry attracts particularly solution-focused people. It’s one of the things I love most about producers – ‘real make things happen’/’never take no for an answer’ people. The challenge is that we tend to jump towards a solution without necessarily considering the desired outcome in enough detail.

Begin with the End in Mind

Possibly the most important of Steven R Covey’s Seven Habits of Highly Effective People is to ‘Begin with the end in mind.’ In all areas of life - from filmmaking, to planning a holiday, to going into a meeting - pausing to think through exactly what you’re trying to achieve can lead to drastically improved outcomes.

Festina Lente

Action orientation is a key skill for anyone who wants to achieve anything significant in life. In some cases that can mean starting to solve challenges before we’ve even heard the whole brief. I will often stop myself and almost audibly ask: 'what is my ultimate goal here?' or 'what is the outcome I want from this meeting?' More haste, less speed, and a moment to consider the goal could transform your effectiveness.

This week, take a moment to pause, just briefly, and see how clearly defining your end goal can lead to drastically better results.

Have a productive week.

The single most important lesson I've learned about leadership and life

I have started this blog in one form or another several times and stopped. Great lessons are hard won, and hard to talk about. I hope you find this useful. Here goes…

Great lessons, Hard won

The most significant event in shaping my approach to life, let alone leadership, was the death of my father when I was ten years old. He had a massive heart attack on Wednesday, and by Friday afternoon, he was gone.

It’s hard to overstate how profound an effect something like this happening to a ten-year-old is. I know there is no ideal age to lose a parent, but I have always thought this was a particularly bad one. Old enough to see them as a separate personality, young enough to have no idea who they really are.

There have been countless decisions I have made since then that I look back on and think how strange they were. Almost like they were made by a different person from the one I was supposed to grow up to be. Now that I have my own kids, I am happy to say that I have found a more even stride, as my great friend Terry Brissenden assured me I would.

Like any cloud, as the saying goes, it is possible to find silver linings, the lessons that this event taught me that shape the person I am every day. Before I share exactly how this experience shaped my outlook, let me tell you a bit about the man I hardly knew.

My Dad: the BBC's Last Warrior Statesman

My dad spent most of his life working for the BBC (or Beeb). My earliest memories include him being driven off to breakfast meetings, evening engagements, or flights around the world. He had an incredible career, from being in Saigon during the Tet Offensive in 1968 to securing the rights from ABC to broadcast the moon landings globally. If you or someone you know watched the moon landing live outside the US in 1969, it was thanks to him.`

He later became Controller in Northern Ireland, facing threats from both republicans, who saw the BBC as a British mouthpiece, and unionists, who viewed it as overly impartial.

"The widow of Portsmouth is the same as the widow of Buenos Aires"

As Head of News & Current Affairs during the Falklands War, he famously stated (correctly) that "the widow of Portsmouth is the same as the widow of Buenos Aires." This stance put him at odds with Margaret Thatcher’s wartime government, prompting him to fiercely defend the BBC’s independence, asserting it needed "no lessons in patriotism" from politicians.

Although he never achieved his dream of becoming Director General, he went on to lead the British Council – an equally embattled driver of the UK’s remarkable soft power around the world. There, he visited 170+ countries in four years, promoting cultural projects from Addis Ababa to Zurich until his death in 1992. He was knighted for his services to the arts, becoming Sir Richard Francis.

He worked for the Beeb in its heyday, but so much of what he focused on – due impartiality, the uniqueness of the Beeb, and justifying the licence fee - is still relevant today. In many ways, I've grown up in his shadow: a remarkable man I barely knew.

The way you do anything is the way you do everything

Everything he did, he did 100%. He was decent, kind, loyal, (extremely) hardworking, technocratic, and serious. He had unbreakable faith in the people around him - an asset that helped them to accomplish feats they thought impossible. He once went for a (brief) sleep while the two of us were sailing across the English Channel at night, leaving me to helm. I was eight years old.

People often ask me how I ended up following a similar path (I also briefly worked at BBC News). Perhaps our shared interests and abilities naturally led us down similar roads.

So what did this teach me?

If you’re interested in the BBC, the battles of the 1980s, and its fight to remain relevant in the modern world, I highly recommend my brother Steve’s book – The BBC’s Last Warrior Statesman - has just been published, and is an excellent read: https://www.amazon.co.uk/BBCs-Last-Warrior-Statesman-Corporation-Thatcher/

Momento Mori

If there is one lesson I learned from losing my father, it’s about the fleeting nature of life. In a few short years, every one of us, including all those we love, admire, envy, or argue with, will be dead. In a couple of centuries – a blink of an eye – the lives of almost every single human living today will be completely forgotten. This realisation, while sobering, is incredibly liberating.

Be Kind

Understanding this puts everything into perspective. Prioritize relationships, seek empathy, and be generous in spirit. Give people the benefit of the doubt, because, in the end, kindness is one of the few things that genuinely matters.

Make a Dent in the World

You only get one chance at life, so seize it. Do something remarkable - not necessarily by society's standards, but by yours. Find what brings you true joy and meaning, and share that passion with those around you. When things go your way, that’s great. When they don’t, it’s OK. Neither of those outcomes defines who you truly are.

Above all, don’t take yourself too seriously.

In a nutshell:

Life is transient - use your time wisely.

Be kind - prioritize empathy and understanding.

Leave your mark - seek joy and impact that is meaningful to you.

Don’t take yourself too seriously – don't lose perspective.

What has been the most significant learning experience in your life?

Life is good.

Have a great week.

AI, Intellectual Property, and Why Corporates are Hesitating

At our International Quorum of Motion Picture Producers annual conference in Atlanta last October, one of the panels looked at the legal complexities of GenAI. During the Q&A, one of the excellent, experienced filmmakers captured our industry's frustration perfectly:

“When will these companies pay us for the intellectual property they've taken and which now threatens our livelihoods?”

“Well, there’s so much money involved, they'll figure something out. There’s a deal to be done.”

“How exactly will they figure it out? When will we see compensation?”

[Silence.]

“They’ll figure it out.”

This exchange encapsulates why, despite the fevered excitement around AI video and text, our industry remains a little ambivalent. It also helps to explain why so many enterprise brands are hesitant to fully embrace GenAI technology.

The Emperor's New Clothes

The theft of intellectual property by the companies that have trained our future AI overlords is arguably one of the great unspoken crimes of our age. Whether it is legally theft - or not - is currently unsettled law. Living in San Francisco, I am familiar with the hype cycle of technologies, where no one wants to question the technical emperor’s new clothes for fear of being seen as behind the times. Almost the worst thing you can be here. Almost.

Human vs. Computer 'Reading'

From my point of view, there is a fundamental difference between the imperfections of a human reading/watching/remembering information and then replicating it, and the perfect replication of a computer system doing the same. These models are not 'reading' in the way a human does.

Added to the fact that if you were to ‘read’ ChatGPT’s source code and then copy it, they would sue you within an inch of your existence. Sam Altman complaining that the Chinese model, DeepSeek, had copied them was so rich I could hardly believe it. Although, of course, shame is now dead.

Slowwly Slowly Catchy Monkey

All this explains why, despite all the cacophonous noise around GenAI text and video, so few of our clients are genuinely keen to use it. In fact, more of our clients have specifically told us not to use it, rather than the other way around. Now, of course, enterprise brands are cautious out of necessity. With billions at stake and reputations earned over decades, Fortune 500 companies view groundbreaking tools like GenAI video with caution. That hesitation makes sense.

So what are some of the reasons that drive this prudence, when, to judge by the breathless coverage of AI, the returns seem so great. Here are six of them…

1.    Regulatory Minefields

Regulatory uncertainty poses significant challenges. Europe's upcoming AI Act, effective from August 2025, mandates explicit disclosure of synthetic or AI-generated videos. Global brands operating across multiple territories face potential compliance complexities, making heavy investment in GenAI video risky until clearer guidelines emerge.

2.    Legal Battles Yet to be Settled

Unresolved legal disputes create additional uncertainty. Major AI companies - Google, OpenAI, and Stability AI - currently face high-profile lawsuits over unauthorised use of copyrighted material in training their AI models. Until courts clarify whether these practices constitute fair use, corporate legal teams remain understandably wary of inadvertently becoming caught up in litigation.

3.    Safeguarding Brand Reputation

Brand safety concerns remain paramount. Enterprise businesses have witnessed negative backlash against AI-generated campaigns from major brands like Coca-Cola, which are criticised for appearing impersonal or culturally insensitive. One dodgy GenAI campaign could result in lasting reputational damage, outweighing any potential cost efficiencies.

4.    Protecting Sensitive Data

Data privacy and confidentiality concerns are acute for enterprises. Many corporate videos include proprietary or sensitive information. Uploading confidential content into GenAI systems risks inadvertent data leaks or unauthorized exposure. Given stringent security requirements, enterprise-level brands understandably hesitate to adopt workflows that might compromise their own intellectual property.

5.    Mixed Creative Quality

Despite the incredible advances we’ve seen, there are quality issues with AI outputs. Visual continuity, crossing the uncanny valley and adherence to brand standards are still issues. It takes a lot of work to get videos to look right – this offsets the perceived advantages of speed or cost efficiency.

6.    Ethical and Social Accountability

Despite the recent retreat from DEI, ethical and social considerations continue to significantly influence enterprise decisions. Commitments to ESG goals, union relations, and responsible AI practices require enterprises to carefully evaluate potential implications. The perception of AI displacing jobs or producing culturally insensitive content could trigger significant backlash, particularly in highly regulated or unionised environments.

In Summary

Of course, our clients will overcome these concerns – some already are. We’re all feeling our way forward, experimenting with clearer disclosures, hybrid human-AI workflows, and promising pilot projects. As I have written before, these tools will empower businesses that show the most curiosity, creativity, and agency. That is a genuinely exciting prospect. But it has to be done carefully and sensibly, and the people who have had their life’s work fed into training these models need to be made whole. But that’s another blog.

Have a good week.