Most of us from AP are having three things we are very fond
of: Politics, Cricket and Movies. We grew up watching so many movies. We watch
Telugu movies produced by Tollywood depending so many factors: be it the hero
we like, the heroine we like, might have liked the story , might have liked the
director or just a song to see the movie a number of times.. Most of my
generation we remember all epics, ramayanam, mahabharatam, etc etc, that we watched
in movies. Now our kids watch them in cartoons and learn.
After going to US and working for a start-up called Viacore
that was acquired by IBM, I learnt a lot from our CEO Fadi. He is an Egyptian
who can speak fluently about 6 or 7 languages; Arabic, Italian, French,
English, Farsi, Spanish and some more.
I remember at one of his all hands meeting that he conducted
when we won Cisco account for a five year contract. He showed a clip of
Gladiator and spoke about sieging the opportunity at right time, called Carpe
Diem. He explained like many of us he watched so many movies as a kid but when
he grew up he started analysing the movies. He started thinking how a scene was
shot or what the scene teaches for people. From then on I started looking at movies
in a different perspective. I looked for what is learning in some good movies
and many good scenes. I always use cinema references in my conversations with students.
These I noted some time back… Wanted to share with others… Knowledge
shared is better.. right???
June 13th
2012
Movie: My Cousin Vinny
Scene: Court
scene in the end where Marisa Tomei is a Hostile witness. She and Joe Pesci are
in love. She is on stand and Joe shows
her pics and asks her questions. She acts very hostile to answer and finally
she shows her expertise in automobiles which makes the Judge, Jury and the
whole courtroom accept her version. The kids arrested for are released based on
her expert witness
Management Lesson:
You dont know which corner you get help
from by impressing everyone around you. You have to seek help and sometimes
bring the best in people around you even though they dont like to be helping.
Its all about playing to the other person strength and using the same.. Who
said watching movies is waste of time.
June 16th
2012
Movie: Notting Hill
Scene: Caught the end of “Notting
hill” Julia Roberts who is a famous film star in movie and Huge Grant who is a
book shop owner in UK. Anna Scott (Mrs Roberts name in movie) walks into Huge
Grant book shop... She says after some dialogues “I'm a just a girl, standing
in front of a boy, asking him to love her"
Management Lesson:
Watching this I thought of a 2nd
management lesson: During performance review time every employee acts like a
girl asking for love (rise and benefits) from his/her manager irrespective of
their work if they did really well or really horrible during the year
July 6th 2012
Movie: Scarface (Al
Pacino and Michelle Pfeiffer)
No scenes here but overall movie teaches something.. Being a
huge fan of mafia movies, I love the discipline and the commitment in most of
them
Management Lesson No:
3
Tony Montana (Al Pacino) moves from Cuba to US... He
believes he can become what he wants to. Pursues the goal and becomes top in
his area of expertise that is being a mafia don. Everyone has a talent that
they are good at. First know what your talent is. Look for that inner strength
and go for it. You will excel in your area of specialization.
Management Lesson No:
4
Tony Montana would not hurt family and kids and asks all of
the people working for him to follow the same. He fights serious enemies and
kills the assassin Roberto when he does not listen to him (Montana). Similarly
you also should believe in what you stand for and ready to face worst enemy for
it. Live by principles you believe in – good or bad…No one cannot judge you but
for your own
June 16th
2013:
Movie Ocean Eleven
Scene: Entire movie
Management lesson:
Given right team you can deliver any project can be
completed.. You need a good executive sponsor (Rubein), Great team leads
(George Clooney and Brad Pitt), right team… who fits everything like the small Japanese
guy to experts like Matt D. If you execute everything with precision and
planning you can deliver any project with success on schedule and in budget …
Suresh,
ReplyDeleteInteresting Observations/Lessons. I've watched two of those (my Cousin Vinny and Ocean's series) movies and enjoyed thoroughly, purely for their entertainment quotient.
Cheers,
Venu.