Stranger Than Fiction
Long gone are the days of Andy Griffith and The Waltons. The new age of television is a medium where writers, actors, and crew come together to tell stories that resonate with us long after their series finales. Nowadays, audiences want to see their stories on screen, no matter how exaggerated they may be.
With these embellishments, there’s no doubt that when you watch a TV show, it’s clearly a TV show. You’re not confusing the classic blunders of Michael Scott from The Office with something your actual coworkers might do. Hopefully.
Our favorite TV shows often get a lot right. Anyone who has owned a business can relate to the struggles of characters like the cast of FX’s The Bear, who work diligently to keep their Chicago restaurant afloat, or the characters from HBO’s Silicon Valley, as they strive to secure funding for their venture. Conversely, these TV shows can also get a lot wrong. As is common in this medium, many events involving the businesses are dramatized to create a compelling story. It’s essential to recognize that business owners are not a monolith and cannot be easily defined by an actor reading a script. Here are some portrayals that sometimes miss the mark.
A Successful Succession
As a titan of TV and movies, HBO has consistently delivered some of the industry's most popular and prestigious shows. Case in point: Their four-season megahit Succession took the world by storm from 2018 to 2023, and people are still talking about it to this day.
Succession is a comedy-drama series that follows the glamorous and chaotic lives of the Roy family, who own the fictional media conglomerate Waystar Royco. After father and CEO Logan experiences a serious health scare, he realizes he must decide which of his four children will inherit the title and the power that comes with it.
This represents business ownership on a massive scale and, in typical fashion, greatly exaggerates the drama, lifestyle, and scandal associated with fame. The eldest son, Connor, is convinced that he can successfully run for president. Number One Boy—coined by his father—Kendall is deep in personal issues, daughter Shiv (short for Siobhan) feels out of place as the only daughter, and Roman approaches everything with a lack of seriousness.
As Logan should have recognized, a succession plan is essential for any size business. It doesn’t matter if you’re a large conglomerate like Waystar Royco or a smaller to mid-sized group; lacking a succession plan is harmful to the ongoing growth of the business. Succession does a great job of telling the complicated, sometimes-hilarious, sometimes-devastating life of the Roy family, but realistically, most business owners will have had these succession conversations with the appropriate family members, including an actual, concrete heir.
(Not So) Mad Men
Set in the radically shifting decade of the 1960s, AMC’s Mad Men tells the story of a high-rise Manhattan advertising agency. Spanning seven seasons and 10 in-story years, Mad Men follows the life of creative director Don Draper, a handsome ad man with a dark secret.
Through the glitz and glam of New York in the 60s, many plotlines in Mad Men explore the regular day-to-day operations of “Sterling Cooper,” the ad agency at the center of the show. Scenes of roundtable discussions with Sterling Cooper’s client business owners are among the most compelling in the series, featuring Don and his protégé Peggy Olson’s frequent pitches for advertising campaigns. They consult a diverse range of business owners—from a family-run pantyhose company to executives at luxury car manufacturer Jaguar.
Mad Men presents the perspective of Don and his colleagues, often casting business owners as antagonists or obstacles in their creative process. While this may have been true for some during the 60s, today’s business owners possess a far better and more robust understanding of the importance of marketing and advertising. The period piece also offers an opportunity to recognize just how significantly our work and business interactions have improved in the modern age.
Alternatively, we can examine the owners of Sterling Cooper themselves, characters Roger Sterling and Bert Cooper, to see how much has changed over the past 60+ years. Roger and Bert treat the agency as their baby, which can lead to complications when it's time for an exit. Without spoiling the show, these two face various challenges that business owners using the Value Acceleration Methodology™ with their Certified Exit Planning Advisor (CEPA®) would know how to navigate successfully. If only Bert and Roger had a CEPA on board.
Owners in the Office
Even if you have never seen NBC’s The Office, you have certainly heard of it. One of the most popular TV shows of all time, this series chronicles the quirky, humorous, and sometimes heartfelt stories of the paper distribution company Dunder Mifflin and its employees at the Scranton, Pennsylvania office. Led by their socially unaware manager, Michael Scott, the employees of Dunder Mifflin Scranton often engage with business owners, directly selling their paper products to them.
While often hilarious, it can be difficult to imagine any business owner taking Michael seriously as he bumbles his way through interactions. However, a key theme that the show emphasizes throughout its run is that owners do indeed appreciate personal attention and care for their business. While Michael isn’t always the most emotionally intelligent person, he genuinely excels in connecting with business owners beyond just numbers and facts.
This works to his advantage, as it would for any CEPA directly interacting with business owners. Preparing to exit a business is an intense time for owners, and numerous emotions are involved in the process. Being a guide and source of stability for the owner is essential, especially as you navigate the value creation together.
Related Resources
