The New Academy N May, When Legendary Rapper Dr
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The Latest Cultivating tomorrow’s big thinkers By Glenn Rifkin The New Academy n May, when legendary rapper Dr. Dre and music industry mogul So successful has Beats Electronics become that its founders have con- Jimmy Iovine arrived at the University of Southern California, fronted a new concern: finding enough they brought a check for $70 million … and a problem. talent to grow and expand the busi- I ness. The Santa Monica, Calif.-based The influential pair founded Beats The answer came quickly. Beats by company is not unlike any of its Silicon Electronics in 2006, prompted by Dre caught fire and grew quickly, cap- Valley counterparts: Without the cre- advances in technology and an oppor- turing 64 percent of the $100-and-up ative talent to mine new territory, the tunity to create a mass market for high- headphone market by 2012. And their future threatens to become stagnant end headphones. When the first “Beats little startup, privately held, reportedly and bleak. At the intersection of tech- by Dre” headphones appeared in 2008 has skyrocketed to more than $1 billion nology, the arts and business, the talent priced at $300, industry watchers were in annual sales. Beats by Dre had the pool can never be deep enough. skeptical. Would there be a market for cachet of celebrity, worn by LeBron Dr. Dre is an iconic figure in the headphones at prices normally reserved James, Kobe Bryant, Will i. am, Michael rap world whose real name is Andre ER for gear aimed at the professional studio Phelps and many others, and the brand Young. Iovine, chairman of Universal M BOW M I technician? has stayed hot. But is it sustainable? Music Group‘s Interscope Geffen A&M T 12 Briefings on talent + leaDeRSHIP The goal of the academy, according to U.S.C., is “to shape the future by nur- turing the talents, passions, leadership and risk-taking of uniquely qualified students who challenge conventional views of art and industry.” Muhl will be in charge of creating the curriculum, selecting professors and identifying qualified students. She says the program is “a tremendous opportunity at the undergraduate level to train students at the intersection of technology, the arts and business, where we believe the most cutting-edge innovations are occurring.” Muhl notes that while other programs have similar goals, they are usually graduate programs and they generally bring in individuals with a focus on engineering or design or busi- ness, and form teams to find solutions. “We see it differently here,” Muhl says. “We see that one of the problems when these teams come together is that they don’t all speak the same language. There is a jargon and vocabulary that exists in design, in engineering, in com- Records, has guided such artists as Tom of handling creative problem-solving. puter science and the business world, Petty and the Heartbreakers, U2 and They said, ‘We’re coming to you. We and the language of one discipline is Dire Straits. Given that neither went to know we need this and we believe it often not understood by the others. college, they came up with a surprising would be terrific if there was someplace We are aiming to create an all-around solution. In May, the pair announced that was dedicated to training kids who innovator, an all-around entrepreneur a donation of $70 million to U.S.C. to would be able to look at these types of who has a fluency of language that cuts fund a new academy aimed at educating problems in any industry and be able to across all these disciplines.” and preparing the kind of employees come up with creative solutions.’ ” In an interview with The New York they want to work at Beats. To that end, the new U.S.C. academy Times, Iovine expressed excitement “They came here with a problem,” is an undergraduate program slated to about the academic venture. “If the next says Erica Muhl, a composer, dean of begin in the fall of 2014 with its first 25 start-up that becomes Facebook happens U.S.C.’s fine arts school and director of students. Not unlike such innovative to be one of our kids, that’s what we are the new Jimmy Iovine and Andre Young academic centers as M.I.T.’s Media Lab looking for,” he said. Iovine discovered Academy for Arts, Technology and the and U.S.C.’s Institute for Creative Tech- Dr. Dre and signed him to his first ER Business of Innovation. “They needed nology, the new academy is embracing contract, and the pair used their talents to find kids with a certain skill set and the cross-disciplinary approach to launch the careers of Snoop Dogg, M BOW M I T a certain way of looking at business and required in today’s business world. Eminem and Gwen Stefani, among 2013 : Q4 korn/ferry inTernATionAL 13 The Latest tive and entrepreneurial drive, and if she or he is proficient in an area such as design or math, “the academy will allow you to stretch into that area,” she says. “The curriculum is fairly adaptive and flexible. The basic component we are looking for in all of our students is creativity, and undoubtedly that will manifest itself in different ways.” The fourth year of the program is called the Garage, which is what Muhl describes as “a prototyping year.” Instead of focusing on a new product, Muhl wants the students to think about prototyping a new technology, art form or mode of business that will lead to Lady Gaga with Dr. Dre, right, solutions in a wide range of areas such and Interscope chairman Jimmy Iovine, left. as the environment or health care. These are big ambitions, but she is con- fident that given the right structure and mentorship, the students will achieve lofty goals. “We are aiming to create an all-around innovator, “We have a very strong industry an all-around entrepreneur who has a fluency of component in the academy, meaning there will be industry mentors along language that cuts across all these disciplines.” with faculty,” Muhl says. “We hope ERIca MUHL, U.S.C. the Garage component is going to be extremely powerful in getting students across that goal line.” For Iovine and Dr. Dre, steering others. Crossing the bridge between “We are expecting certain levels of some of these students into creative and the music business and the technology understanding in all these areas,” she productive roles at Beats will signify industry produced unexpected but says, “and perhaps some expression of success. Given the dearth of great can- welcome results. And with that success, having already looked at the world in didates in engineering, technology and the pair has higher ambitions: to change terms of breaking molds. We are really marketing, it simply made sense to fund the educational landscape in order to looking for students who are ques- a talent source. cultivate a new generation of innovative tioning the existing assumptions.” According to The New York Times, thinkers and doers. Given that there has not been a the two partners are looking not only “I feel like this is the biggest, most similar program for undergrads, the for employees for the Beats headphone exciting and probably the most impor- prospective student profile is a work in business but for a new venture into tant thing that I’ve done in my career,” progress. In choosing the 25 students, streaming music called Beats Music, Dr. Dre told the newspaper. Muhl says the academy would look for which is expected to debut in late 2013. The first order of business, beyond experience and achievement in areas For the entrepreneurs, funding the coordinating the professors involved like visual studies, math and science. U.S.C. academy was a straightforward H T and setting a curriculum, will be The program won’t require background approach to a typical business problem: I M . S finding 25 high school seniors who will in all three of those subjects but will “How do we make the best product?” CO T make up the academy’s first class. The expect achievement in at least one. A “In this case,” Iovine told the Times, “the R B ARK K/F IS expectations, Muhl says, are high. student must have demonstrated initia- kids are the product.” M 14 Briefings on talent + leaDeRSHIP.