This story appears in the
June 2001 issue of
Entrepreneur.
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What do you get when you combine green ink, a pair of glasses, a
broom and two kids? The coveted licensing rights to Harry
Potter.
That's how San Francisco game producer University Games did
it. Co-founder Bob Moog and former president Jeff Pinsker
(who's no longer with the company) used creativity, innovation
and their knowledge of Harry Potter to win the rights. They sent
green-inked letters that they doubled daily, the way it's done
in the book. And their costumed kids began the presentation to
Warner licensing execs as story characters, conversing with each
other about who would best produce board games about them, at which
point Moog and Pinsker joined them in the room. "We
couldn't let [the Warner people] think we were going to
approach this like any other company," says Moog. "If we
did things [that way], we'd never win.
Warner didn't expect two kids to show up at University
Games' presentation. And they certainly didn't expect Harry
Potter himself (Pinsker's son Joe) to complain that "these
Muggles think they can put games out about us."
Moog says there are two ways to do business: "One is to
look at the leaders and try to emulate them. The other is to say,
'They got where they are by doing better than anybody else;
so, if I'm going to compete, I have to change the rules so I
can be an alternative.' "
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