"But unlike the setup in most organizations, where there's an administrator on top and creative people or doers underneath, I'm basically a doer and I like to have administrative people underneath me"
About this Quote
A quiet power move disguised as a management preference, Roone Arledge's line flips the org chart with the confidence of someone who knows exactly where the real leverage sits. He isn't just saying he likes to stay close to the work. He's arguing that the highest authority in a creative enterprise should belong to the person who can make the thing, not the person who can process the thing.
The phrasing is telling: "basically a doer" is faux-modest, almost conversational, but it smuggles in an ideology. In Arledge's worldview, administration is support staff, not stewardship; logistics are there to clear the runway for instincts, taste, and momentum. It's a producer's credo, sharpened by the specific pressures of broadcast journalism and sports television, where timing is merciless and the product is only as strong as the story you choose, the shot you take, the gamble you greenlight.
There's subtextual contempt, too, for the classic corporate model that treats creativity as labor to be managed. Arledge is warning that when administrators sit "on top", they don't merely supervise; they dilute. They standardize. They protect the organization from risk, which is another way of protecting it from impact.
Coming from the architect of ABC Sports' modern spectacle, it's also autobiographical: he built empires by betting on drama and presentation, not by perfecting the memo. The line is less a complaint than a claim of jurisdiction: in a medium that runs on decisions, the decider should be the doer.
The phrasing is telling: "basically a doer" is faux-modest, almost conversational, but it smuggles in an ideology. In Arledge's worldview, administration is support staff, not stewardship; logistics are there to clear the runway for instincts, taste, and momentum. It's a producer's credo, sharpened by the specific pressures of broadcast journalism and sports television, where timing is merciless and the product is only as strong as the story you choose, the shot you take, the gamble you greenlight.
There's subtextual contempt, too, for the classic corporate model that treats creativity as labor to be managed. Arledge is warning that when administrators sit "on top", they don't merely supervise; they dilute. They standardize. They protect the organization from risk, which is another way of protecting it from impact.
Coming from the architect of ABC Sports' modern spectacle, it's also autobiographical: he built empires by betting on drama and presentation, not by perfecting the memo. The line is less a complaint than a claim of jurisdiction: in a medium that runs on decisions, the decider should be the doer.
Quote Details
| Topic | Leadership |
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