704: Strauss Zelnick - The Leader Who Greenlit Dirty Dancing, Owns Grand Theft Auto, Loves Being Coached, and Might be the Fittest CEO Alive

Ryan Hawk (0:00)

If you're a fan of the show, you've probably heard me talk a lot about our Learning Leader Circle. We open it up one time per year for applications. We create one new group per year. That time is now. learningleadercircle.com is where you apply, where you could learn a lot more. What it is, is a group of roughly 12-ish people. It's thoughtfully curated with get-after-it people who are doers, the eights and nines who want to be tens. I love reading the applications and having the Zoom interviews to curate the next group. It's one of my favorite things to do. And it's even better once we get the group formed and started. So, if you want to surround yourself with people who are going to hold you accountable, who are going to do work together with them, others who have this learning leader ethos who are always becoming, never arriving, then you should apply for our Learning Leader Circle. Go to learningleadercircle.com.

Welcome to The Learning Leader Show, presented by Insight Global. I am your host, Ryan Hawk. Thank you so much for being here. Go to learningleader.com for show notes of this and all podcast episodes. Go to learningleader.com.

Now, on to tonight's featured leader, Strauss Zelnick, is the CEO of Take-Two Interactive, the company behind Grand Theft Auto, NBA 2K and some of the most successful franchises in the history of entertainment. He simultaneously runs ZMC, the private equity firm he founded in 2001 Before all of that, he was president of 20th Century Fox at age 32, CEO of BMG Entertainment, one of the world's largest music companies, and Strauss the executive who greenlit Dirty Dancing. He is widely known as one of the most disciplined executives in the world, in business and in life. During our conversation, we discussed at age 68, Strauss is known as America's fittest CEO.

He shares the importance of his two-a-day workout sessions and why they make him better husband, dad and CEO. Then we discuss why he's always had a coach and will always have a coach. This seems to be a commonality among the most effective leaders in the world. They all have a coach. Then Strauss leads 14,000 people as the CEO of multiple companies. He shares how he does it, how he delegates and why he doesn't believe in formal cookie-cutter one-on-ones with this direct report. So we talk about that and so much more. Ladies and gentlemen, please enjoy my conversation with Strauss Zelnick.

Is this story true? When you were five years old, you announced that you wanted to run a movie studio. Is that true?

Strauss Zelnick (3:07)

I think so. I know I've told the story. It's at least what I recollect.

Ryan Hawk (3:11)

Five years old, what made you want to run a movie studio at such a young age?

Strauss Zelnick (3:16)

I don't know. I probably thought it was glamorous. Why five year old cared about something being glamorous? A separate question. I don't know that I can even answer that.

Ryan Hawk (3:24)

So then what was it like a few years later when you actually did it?

Strauss Zelnick (3:28)

Well, it wasn't a few, but a whole bunch of stuff had happened in between. Look, I was blessed. You know, I got out of school when I was 26 I went to work in the entertainment business in the very best job I could get, which was international television distribution, which is like if running a movie studio is here, international television distribution is out of frame over here. But it was the only job I could get. And I did, I worked hard, I did well. And that led to a promotion early. And that led to being recruited to work in a pretty senior capacity at what was then the largest independent motion picture company, Vestron.

And then pretty quickly thereafter, I became president of that company. And then as luck would have it, the first picture I greenlit was a huge hit. And that led to my getting recruited to be president of 20th Century Fox when I was 32 So it was pretty quick trajectory from graduating to being president of a major film studio much quicker than I had expected. And what was it like? Obviously, it was incredibly scary because I had the presence of mind to understand that I was thrilled that I got the job, but I knew I wasn't remotely qualified to be in that position yet.

To say that I was learning on the job is a gross understatement. I was learning on the job.

Ryan Hawk (4:49)

Don't you find as you keep progressing within your career that sometimes you look out and see people and you're like, oh, they've got it all figured out. And then you meet them and talk to them. You're like, actually, they're kind of figuring it out as they go too. And that in a way can be inspiring when you learn that other people are, are kind of figuring things out as they go.