Phil Schuman: Television Distribution / Media & Entertainment Consultant
Introduction
Phil Schuman currently works at FTI consulting leading the Media and Entertainment group, which covers 14 sub-sectors including entertainment financing, ed tech, metaverse, and creation of media. Schuman has had four distinct careers to date, which he states is not uncommon for someone his age.
The Past
Schuman is no stranger to challenges. His father passed away at a young age and although his mother loved him, she was unable to help him cultivate a future career. Additionally, he grew up during a difficult period of time in New York that was marked by a debilitating financial crisis caused by the stagnation of the US economy. Schuman recounts his school textbooks as having half the pages missing. The combined circumstances of his early childhood made it clear to him that he would have to fight to get ahead. As an undergrad, he pursued a bachelor in fine arts with a focus on set design and lighting. When his mother did not support this major, he caved “like a house of cards on shifting sand in a windstorm.” He switched his major to history during his senior year because it was the only other major in which he had enough credits to graduate. Straight out of college, Schuman worked for Women’s Wear Daily and W Magazine as a layout designer making $10,400 per year, which was enough for “...money each week for a subway fare to go in and out of the city and for us to have a really nice Chinese dinner on Friday night.” Around this time, Schuman's mother pushed him to follow in his father and grandfather’s footsteps and go to law school. Wanting more for himself, Schuman agreed. Law school ended up being intellectually fascinating. Schuman especially enjoyed the logical reasoning inherent to law, as well as legal theory and torts. He believes that law school teaches you two crucial life skills: the first is learning how to write clearly with precision, and the second is employing rule-based logic. Although Schuman hated being a lawyer, he believes law school has helped him in all his other endeavors.
“I made the best decisions that I knew how to make at the time and generally they were good.”
Schuman delved in many careers between graduating from law school and his current role at FTI consulting. His other roles have included being a lawyer, co-president of a television distribution company, an entrepreneur, and now the head of an entertainment group at a consulting firm. However, Schuman’s time as a lawyer was his least favorite. Following a more traditional path right out of law school, Schuman worked in mergers and acquisitions at a firm in New York City for 7 years. While at the firm, Schuman defended AT&T from a hostile tender. Later he worked as the head commercial lawyer in the plastics division for General Electric and, in this position, he helped arrange the construction of a chemical plant in East Germany following the unification. About this Schuman notes, “We were bringing western everything to this part of the world that had been asleep essentially for 60 years.” Around this time, an old friend of Schuman’s from the law firm reached out about a position at Universal in Los Angeles focused on coordinating joint international ventures. Although this decision would involve several large changes, including a move from NYC to LA and a shift from a chemical company to an entertainment company, Schuman and his wife decided they wanted something different. At Universal, he started in the home entertainment group, which stood at the forefront of satellite TV. Schuman’s work centered around coordinating a satellite dish able to beam 400 channels instead of the standard 5. While Schuman wasn’t aware of this at that time, his career would follow pay television from its beginnings to its end.
“We were bringing western everything to this part of the world that had been asleep essentially for 60 years.”
Because he disliked practicing law, Schuman jumped at the opportunity to shift trajectories towards the business side of Universal. This was the start of his second career in television distribution where he oversaw Universal’s worldwide licensing activities. Due to the international aspect of the position, Schuman was exposed to a variety of different cultures. In 2002, Schuman was let go during Universal's merger with USA Network Television since USA brought along their own management. Schuman was now at a crossroads of whether he should pursue something new or apply for jobs similar to his former one. Excited for something new, Schuman founded his own media company.
In July of 2002, Schuman became an entrepreneur when he launched HighView Media. It operated as a media consulting firm, owning 5 television channels and 6 radio stations in Europe. Historical dynamics also played a part in his entrepreneurial story because after WW2 the US media market was much further ahead than Europe. Although Schuman tried to start businesses in the US, he found the most luck in Europe because of the manageable sized markets which were smaller as a result of European countries being very language specific. On the other hand, Schuman noted that the wealth and size of the US entertainment industry is partly due to English being an international language. Schuman believes, “US storytelling is very global, there’s really nothing like it in the world.” However, in the past decade, Schuman has seen a shift in the industry to allow for more non-American films to grow and become popular within the US market. Although, American films are still very popular internationally.
Schuman eventually sold his company to FTI consulting and started working for them as the leader of the Media and Entertainment group. During his time there, Schuman increased the group from three to ninety people. In his current role, he advises companies in the entertainment, technology, and communications industries on a variety of topics.
Highs and Lows:
Throughout his multiple careers, Schuman has experienced many highlights. He feels honored to be a part of putting together the pay television industry. He is also proud of being a successful entrepreneur and owning television and radio channels. Most recently, he is proud of being a part of creating a large media/entertainment practice at an international consulting company. Schuman notes, “I still can’t believe that I pulled that off. That’s nuts. I don’t have any idea how to do that and here it is.”
“No matter how hard it rains, no matter how long it rains, no matter how gray the sky is, eventually the sun comes back out. Every time.”
With every high comes multiple lows, and Schuman has experienced plenty of them. In fact, Schuman encounters them on a daily basis. He believes “everyday is hard. There are battles and challenges almost every single day. There are disappointments, microaggressions, and macroaggressions. I don’t think it has been easy for one moment.” However, Schuman has been able to get through it because of his unfailing perseverance through all these hardships. He compares his day to day experiences with war: “The slings and the arrows hit me and they hurt. You can knock me down and I fall down and I fail, but I always get back up. And the next day I take my sword and my shield and I get right back out there.” And by continuing to persevere, Schuman knows that he will eventually get a win. “I may get down 10 times in a row, but the 11th time I’m going to knock the other guy down.” Schuman has made it this far because he never gives up no matter what challenges come his way. He uses the weather as a metaphor for his life: “No matter how hard it rains, no matter how long it rains, no matter how gray the sky is, eventually the sun comes back out. Every time.”
Regrets
In general, Schuman is not a very regretful person. He believes that everything is a learning experience, even the mistakes are positive. Thinking back, he notes “I made the best decisions that I knew how to make at the time and generally they were good.” However, one thing he wishes is that he was multilingual. He believes that speaking in people’s native language works as a window into their worldviews and his former foreign relationships could have had a greater intimacy and understanding if he spoke in their native tongue.
