The importance of position in framing plans (and creating value) is evident in the more complex strategies employed by the entertainment industry.

An entertainment industry myth is that owning a hit television show or movie is the key to a winning strategy. “Content is king” is an old catchphrase of the media and the entertainment world. At the extreme, it is true—but it is more a truism, no more a guide to strategy than is advice to only buy stocks that are about to rise. The largest value is derived not from ownership of any one media property, but from aggregating them (or, in the argot of the industry, “packaging” them). The package and the supporting infrastructure create the strategic position from which individual options (or plans) can be framed.

Owning rights to one future Disney movie or one Steven Spielberg movie is itself no guarantee of economic wealth. In fact, most of Disney’s animated movies and most of Spielberg’s movies have lost money when costs were measured narrowly against box office receipts.3 Why, then, have these films been creators of great corporate and personal wealth?