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Jay Leno: World Class Boss

In recent years many of the top companies in America have practiced extreme downsizing, closing down stores and laying off workers. Fortunately, there are bosses, like Jay Leno, who are doing their part to look after their employees. He is an example of a world class boss.

Here is a brief history of the world class boss:

The entertainment industry is not immune to the current economic state of our country. Jay Leno and “The Tonight Show” have recently made headlines due to the layoffs that were needed for the show to continue. Also the pay cut Leno made on behalf of his team made the headlines.

Sixty-two year old, Jay Leno began his career as a late night comedian at local nightclubs in Boston. After his graduation from Emerson College, he worked on many TV shows like “Good Times”, “The Marilyn McCoo and Billy Davis Jr”. Eventually he worked in  “The Tonight Show”.  In 1992, after Johnny Carson retired from his hosting position, Leno took over his role.

In 2009, Leno left “The Tonight Show” and moved to a short-lived prime-time slot, a show that was called the Jay Leno Show. When Leno made the controversial move back to the original late-night slot. The show’s budget remained the same, quite higher than typical a late-night programming. According to the Wall Street Journal, the planned layoffs were needed “to reverse tens of millions of dollars in budget increases.”

Mindful Boss Lessons

So a few weeks ago it was announced that Jay Leno would take a $15 million pay cut on behalf of the show and the workers, this is 50 percent of his typical salary. His pay cut made up 75 percent of the $20 million dollar cut of the show’s budget. The pay cut also made up 20 percent of the annual $100 million budget.

Even with this generous act NBC execs still reduced the show’s staff from 225 to 200 people. However, the $15 million dollar cut will keep other writers and producers from being laid off. And execs at NBC say that the new budget won’t change “the quality of the late-night production.”

The Mindful lessons that we learn from Leno’s example is that teamwork and sacrifices can help revive a company.

Main photo credit: WEBN-TV / Flickr

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