Real life lessons from Reel world – The Best Movies on Management (Part III)

Continued From the Previous Post: Real life lessons from Reel world – The Best Movies on Management (Part II)…

The Pursuit of Happyness (2006)

Generally, movies show the protagonist getting rich in a short span of time through smart work but very few films showcase the suffering that someone goes through to become rich. This film portrays the real life struggle of Chris Gardner (played by Will Smith) to become a stock broker while managing fatherhood and homelessness. Anyone who is facing an adverse situation in their life could take a lot of inspiration from this movie and attain success, if they are determined to push forward relentlessly, no matter what obstacles get in their way. I remember reading the importance of failures (as like this movie) in a book called “Before you quit your job”. The book encourages entrepreneurs to make failures and also reinforces the point – “the greater the fall/failure is, the higher one will rise/succeed”.

One of my favorite scene (emotional and moving) is the climax scene in which the directors announce that Will Smith has passed his internship and been given a real paid job.


Captain Phillips (2013)

It is based on a true story about Captain Richard Phillips (played by tom Hanks) and the hijacking of US-flagged MV Maersk Alabama cargo ship by Somali pirates in 2009. It teaches the importance of team unity, effective planning, preparing for the worst times and the role of a leader during the rough times. Tom hanks beautifully (as always) brings out the qualities of a successful leader: Cool & calm, Calculative, Communicative, Diplomatic and Strategic, particularly in times of greater crisis. In one scene, when Hanks is faced with the predicament of his crew members being attacked by pirates, he sacrifices himself in order to save them. There are a lot of scenes involving Hanks and the Pirates which neatly portrays the importance of negotiation skills. Even if you aren’t in the mood to learn the lessons that the film has to offer, still watch it for Tom Hanks performance and the brilliant acting by some first-time actors (who play as pirates).


Chak De! India (2007)

It is based on the very old classical movie theme – the underdogs, defying all odds to become the ultimate winners. A once successful hockey player (played by Shah Rukh Khan) of the Indian team is blamed and shamed by the people for his only mistake in a World cup final. He returns to the game as a coach after a span of 7 years to redeem his past. He transforms the struggling and not so well-known Indian women’s hockey team into a world cup winning side. Even though the team consists of some of the best players in the country, their performance has been more than disappointing. Then enters the coach, who unites these players and makes them play as a team, forgetting their regional differences. The movie sketches out a leadership model involving talent spotting, delegation, team & trust building, preparing the team both physically and emotionally with the right dosage of humor, encouragement, and force. The climax scene wherein the coach gives a brief inspirational speech to the team ahead of the big final game is a classic.

A few other movies which tread on a similar line are Remember the Titans (2000) and Lagaan (2001).

Ratatouille (2007)

This might be a surprise addition to this list but it offers one of the powerful lessons in business – “It’s not about who you are, it’s about what you want to achieve and how you go about doing it”. The movie’s storyline is an interesting one – A rat has the passion to become a chef (not the likeliest of choice for rats which are the most unwelcome guests in a human kitchen) and sets on to achieve its dream after finding that it has been living in Paris – the food capital of the world. In spite of several hurdles, the rat does finally become a chef and how it does it, forms the rest of the story. Managers who constantly feel bad about having misfits on their team could take a leaf out of the movie to find & develop their hidden talents and coach them to achieve greatness. They could also use the movie as a tool to show to such team members about the untapped potential waiting to be unleashed within each of them.

To end, this quote of Tim Burton rightly summarizes the importance of movies in our life as like the valuable management lessons it had taught me – “Certain things leave you in your life and certain things stay with you. And that’s why we’re all interested in movies those ones that make you feel, you still think about. Because it gave you such an emotional response, it’s actually part of your emotional make-up, in a way.”

THE END

Real life lessons from Reel world – The Best Movies on Management (Part II)

Continued From the Previous Post – Real life lessons from Reel world – The Best Movies on Management (Part I)...

300 (2006)

This might seem like an another bloody, gory action movie but is still filled with lots of teachings about Leadership, Teamwork, Facing challenges, building great teams and training. The main character’s (King Leonidas) portrayal in the movie aptly describes the characteristics of a great leader – calm and composed even when facing the huge Persian army; motivates, inspires and coaches the team to face the challenge with confidence and fearlessness; fights and dies for the goal along with the team. The Spartans shown in the movie show a lot of grit, fearlessness and never die attitude even during their dying moments, which has got to do a lot with the way they are trained and brought up in the Spartan world. This has a valuable lesson for managers looking to build great teams – the importance of investing time in training so that their teams could handle challenging projects with ease, just like this age-old adage teaches us “The more you sweat in practice, the less you bleed in war“.

Another enjoyable aspect of the movie is that the way the 300 soldiers go about handling the challenge of battling the huge Persian army. They have great fun (example scene, a Spartan says that they are fighting under the shade when a flurry of Persian arrows almost blocks the sun rays, watch the movie for more examples) while battling with the Persians, explains the importance of having fun (without losing focus) while facing greater challenges.


Rush (2013)

Being an avid F1 racing fanatic, I couldn’t resist but enjoy the thrills and frills of racing captured beautifully through some picturesque and breathtaking visuals in this film. Based on a true story which involves the well-known rivalry between the Formula 1 drivers, James Hunt and Niki Lauda, in the 1970s, it teaches the art of risk management and managing competition.

Both the drivers were like the opposite poles in terms of their personalities – Lauda was an introvert, calculative & focused person whereas Hunt being sociable, instinctive and fun-loving. Even though both were fierce competitors on the field, they had mutual respect for each other off the field, which teaches us the value of respecting our colleagues and not to purely look at them as competitors always. Both drivers never employed negative tactics to bring down the other and raised their game to the next level to outwit each other by learning from the mistakes of each other- the key lesson being that there are no shortcuts to success.

Lauda was disciplined and calculative in his approach when participating in the race whereas Hunt was quite an aggressive type and was willing to do anything to win the race. Even though aggressive Hunt was able to win the races and one world championship in the short-term but the well-balanced Lauda was able to better his competitor and win more races and three world championship during his racing career. Aggressiveness could get you success in the short-term but a disciplined and well-balanced approach leads you to long-term success.

There is a scene in the film which has beautifully captured the value of weighing the risks versus the rewards while doing a project or task. In the scene, Lauda is traveling on the outskirts of a town in a car along with a girl, when she asks him to drive fast like a race driver to which he responds – “There is no need to drive fast. It increases the percentage of risk. We are not in a hurry and I am not being paid. With zero incentive or reward, why should I drive fast?”

During the latter half of the film, Lauda meets with an accident and ends up in coma staring at death, but returns to racing after 6 weeks with a disfigured face and ends up winning two more world championships by wearing a special helmet designed to cushion his injured head. This is a great inspiration for people to overcome their disabilities to achieve success.

Jerry Maguire (1996)

The movie tries to break the general stereotype – business ethics is an oxymoron. A successful sports agent (Tom cruise) at the top of his career, loses his job and his prestigious clients for expressing his thoughts about the prevailing dishonesty in the sports management business. Dejected by the company’s treatment, he puts his philosophy to work with the only client (Cuba Gooding Jr.) who decides to stay with him and succeeds as well.

This movie teaches the importance of sticking to your values/mission in spite of changing business conditions and building a business not just for the sake of earning money. It also sends a very powerful message for people who constantly complain about their work “You don’t like your job, just quit and do what you love” (Warning: Be prepared for rough weather ahead). Leaders/Managers who want to prepare a clear mission statement, watch out for this detailed and razor-sharp vision proposed by Tom cruise to his client: “I will not rest until I have you holding a Coke, wearing your own shoe, playing a Sega game featuring you, while singing your own song in a new commercial, starring you, broadcast during the Super Bowl, in a game that you are winning, and I will not sleep until that happens.”

P.S.: If you’re watching this movie for the first time, don’t miss the scene in which Tom cruise shouts this famous dialogue “show me the money” (well how many times, count it for yourself).

To be continued in the next post…

Real life lessons from Reel world – The Best Movies on Management (Part I)

Recently, while travelling in a bus, I couldn’t avoid but overhear a conversation between two people on how movies have transformed their lives. As I pondered over the conversation during my travel, I began to start scribbling on a piece of paper, the list of best movies I had watched so far and the valuable management lessons it had taught me. I have read somewhere that “People who LIKE movies have a favorite but people who LOVE movies couldn’t possibly choose” and being a die-hard movie fan, it was really difficult for me to pick the best (top 10) movies for the article from this huge list. Please feel free to add your favorites to the list and the lesson you have learnt out of it.


The Godfather (1972)

This classic, which needs no introduction, traces the life of a humble Italian immigrant and his meteoric rise to power as the head of a powerful Mafia. He builds a business empire from nothing and uses his leadership & negotiation skills to safeguard & grow his empire. Although, widely known for its violence and protagonization of the Mafia world, the film offers valuable lessons for people who are ambitious but lack the business knowledge or financial support required to build a successful business.

The main character in the movie builds his business based on his reputation of being honest, respectful and true to his ideals. In spite of having the power and money, he earns the respect of others through his deeds and not by persuasion. He maintains calm and cool character both during the happier and troubled times, perfectly epitomizing the importance of maintaining one’s emotional integrity when in the position of power. There are plenty of dialogues (real gems) in the movie which offer powerful lessons on management. One of my favorite and which was also voted as the second most memorable line in cinema history by American film institute is “I’m gonna make him an offer he can’t refuse” (teaches the art of getting things done through proper incentives). Even though it’s an old movie, it offers loads of fresh and brilliant lessons on Business/ People Management, Leadership, Motivation, Negotiation and it goes on…(check it for yourself)

12 Angry Men (1957)

Another old-time classic that offers interesting insights on Group behavior, Consensus building, Persuasion, Clear thinking and Personality conflicts. In this court drama shot entirely in a single room, eleven jurors are convinced that the defendant, a teenager accused of murdering his father is guilty but the twelfth juror (The hero) thinks otherwise. The plot involves the approach taken by this one man to convince the other eleven jurors (with varied personalities) on the teenager’s innocence in spite of multiple evidence stacked against him. The hero slowly and progressively makes each juror to change their decision by asking them to examine the veracity of evidence given to them and decide based on facts and not just hearsay.

The movie teaches the importance of looking into facts and making a careful evaluation of the case (for example, a business proposal) before making big decisions (just like the teenager’s future here in the movie). Any manager wanting to convince his/her team about a potential yet unpopular plan/ idea should watch this movie before they step into the discussion room.


MoneyBall (2011)

This sport based movie (based on a true story) clearly illustrates the need for organizations to challenge the old assumptions and make headway for more innovation to gain competitive advantage. With the support of a geeky young economics graduate, the baseball team manager of a struggling Oakland Athletics baseball team uses a sophisticated sabermetric (statistical) approach to analyze player’s value in building a winning team rather than the old and time tested method of signing up expensive star players. The team, in spite of lacking star players, goes on to win a record 20 matches on the trot.

This movie also teaches the art of talent scouting and the importance of looking for creative ways to hire great talent. For example, organizations could use social sites like LinkedIn, Twitter, and Facebook to better understand the applicant’s value than the conventional approaches such as written tests, interviews, which might not be valuable always.

To be continued in the next post..

10th Man Rule – How Could It Help You???

“The one who follows the crowd will usually go no further than the crowd. The one

who walks alone is likely to find themselves in places no one has ever been”. – Albert Einstein.


I was watching the movie World War Z yesterday and stumbled across an interesting phenomenon known as “The Tenth Man Rule”. In the movie, as Brad Pitt (Hero) tries to stop the world being taken over by a zombie apocalypse, he comes across an Israeli secret agent who explains how his country was far more prepared than the rest of the world against the zombie invasion. He further adds that their secret agency had overheard a communication mentioning the word – zombie from an Indian intelligence agency 10 days before the apocalypse. The Israel’s Security Council which had 10 advisors that looked into big picture issues brushed aside this communication as trivial, except for one who felt there is a possibility of a potential danger.

He gathers Intel and presents his case to the group. Looking at the credibility of his data, the group decides to build a gigantic wall along its borders to protect people from the zombie outbreak.

This was all possible due to the 10th man rule which forces the 10th man in a group to overrule the decision taken by the majority and look into the issue from a different angle, no matter how trivial it may be. This doesn’t mean that the 10thman needs to be right always or his/her decision is final but he/she simply ensures that all the possibilities are taken into account before coming to a conclusion.




Historical references of the 10th Man rule:

In fact, as mentioned in the movie, Israel has a council known as the Devil’s advocate Office that uses this 10th man rule. This unit was created immediately after the Yom Kippur war in 1973 that involved a surprise attack by the Egyptian and Syrian forces on Israeli territory. To avoid such incidents in the future, this think tank group was created to challenge conventional wisdom in group decisions and to seek diverse and opposing opinions. Surprisingly, this rule has its roots (2000 years back) in the Talmud and Jewish culture, referred as “Ipcha Mistabra” which means “On the contrary, the reality appears otherwise”. There is also a practice within the Vatican wherein a church official is chosen to play Devil’s advocate during Canonisation, which involves the selection of a candidate for elevation to sainthood. The official’s responsibility is to take a contrary position for the sake of argument to cast a doubt on the candidate’s character.

How to Apply the Rule:

In case you are wondering as to how this rule would help in real life, watch this old classic courtroom drama – 12 Angry Men. This movie offers a fantastic explanation on how the rule could be enforced in real life situation and also the criticality behind such thinking. 11 out of 12 members of a Jury feel that a teenager is responsible for murdering his father but the 12th juror (Hero) thinks otherwise. He convinces the others of the teenager’s innocence in spite of multiple evidence stacked against him. He slowly and progressively makes each juror to change their decision by asking them to examine the veracity of evidence given to them and decide based on facts and not just hearsay. It clearly outlines the importance of looking into facts and making a 360 degrees evaluation of the issue in hand before making big decisions, just like the teenager’s future here in the movie.

The Value of the Rule:

A situation contrary to the 10th man rule is very much evident in today’s corporate world wherein employees say yes to what their big bosses have to say without raising an iota of disapproval. Also, employees who play the role of a tenth man are often discouraged or shown the way out. If organizations would like to grow, it is high time that they motivate employees to disapprove ideas proposed by the top management and have a healthy debate on the pros and cons of the decision. Also, employees who play the role of a Devil’s advocate could be rewarded with promotions or appreciations so that a culture of creative thinking could be established.

It is also worth to mention about a similar phenomenon known as “Informational Asymmetry”, well used in the economics circle. According to Wikipedia, informational symmetry “deals with the study of decisions in transactions where one party has more or better information that the other”. To put it in simple terms, the so-called experts in each field have information regarding their field which the common man doesn’t have and use or misuse it to earn money. The book –Freakonomics offers some fantastic insights about this concept and is worth every penny for reading.

Michael Shermer in his book The Believing Brain calls the human brain a belief engine which forms the belief first and then finds confirmatory evidence to support the belief. Tools like the 10th man rule and informational asymmetry could help us overcome the limitations of our brain. It’s important that we think out of the box while making critical decisions in life and not to go with the conventional wisdom or more importantly, not to have blind faith in the so-called experts. Next time, when a doctor suggests that you need to have a surgery for a simple stomach pain, it is better to check the facts (like check on the internet, get an opinion from other doctors) before taking a decision.

To put it simply, whenever you need to make a big decision, remember these words of Mark twain – “When you find yourself on the side of the majority, you should pause and reflect”.

Live and Let Live – New Learning From An Animation Movie

Me with My daughter @ Marina Beach


I recently happened to visit the Marina beach with my one and half years old daughter and was in a dilemma as to whether to make her stand in the beach water. I was so protective that I almost stood frozen mentally near the beach for 10 minutes battling in my mind to make this decision. Finally, I decided to let go of my fear and made her stand in the beach water. Initially, she was afraid to go near the water but gradually started to enjoy and finally, when we decided to leave after nearly playing for 2 hours, she started crying and didn’t want to leave the beach. I understood that she enjoyed playing on the beach and felt good about myself for making the right choice.

A crucial aspect that helped me in making this decision is the popular animation movie – Finding Nemo. In case you’re wondering if I am serious, the answer is yes and I know that the next question on your mind would be – How? Anyone who has watched the movie could easily relate to what I said but for the others, here’s a short version of the movie to clear things. The movie is based on the relationship between a meek fish named Marlin and his son – Nemo. Marlin is very protective about Nemo due to a smaller fin that limits his swimming ability and thereby restrains him from going into the deep sea. Often humiliated by friends, he decides to show his mettle by venturing into the deep sea alone but, in turn, gets abducted by a group of travelers and taken to Sydney. Marlin sets on an adventure through the deepest parts of the ocean (beautifully filmed, especially loved the scenes involving the Eastern Australian current – kind of an underwater superhighway used by fish and sea turtles to travel down the east coast of Australia) to find his lost son. During this quest, Marlin discovers himself and starts to nurture a healthy relationship with his son after successfully rescuing him amidst great ordeal.

This experience changed my attitude towards my daughter as like Nemo’s father in the movie. Earlier, I was afraid of letting my daughter play on the rooftop or walk on the streets (she liked it very much) and mostly carried her on my shoulders, but now I let her go play on the street/ rooftop and ensure that I keep a watch on her.

Similarly, a close friend of mine had to make a risky choice in his professional career. He requested advice from his manager about the decision and instead of guiding him; the manager (like Nemo’s father) instilled fear in his mind and told him not to take risks. On the contrary, my friend made the hard choice and despite initial struggles, was able to grow in his career after the change. This is a common scenario in the corporate world, wherein the so-called experienced old-fashioned managers misguide their employees and stop them from taking the necessary risks. The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People by Stephen covey, one of the best-selling business books, elucidates the need for each of us to move out of our comfort zone often and take up tasks that would fall in our courage zone.



The 3rd Habit from the book – “The 7 Habits of Highly effective People“


Also, just like the deep unexplored abyss in the film, every organization has its own secret information vault that is mostly unavailable to the employees but rests only with the top management. This information gap is called as informational asymmetry by the economists. It’s not that all business related information had to be shared with the employees but the corporate world would be a far better place if the right information is shared to the right people (employees), at the right time, for the right purpose and also in the right way. This would help the employees to get a big picture of the organization’s current performance and future plans that could result in them being more contributive towards the organization’s goals. Frontline and mid-level managers shouldn’t just instill fear in their employee’s mind by hiding key organizational information as like Nemo’s father but should guide their Nemos’ through the unexplored abyss of the corporate world using the very same hidden information and their rich experience.

If you’re playing the role of Nemo’s father right now either in your personal or professional life, then it’s time to let go of your fear and undergo a metamorphosis as shown in the movie. Do watch the “Finding Nemo” movie for more courage and inspiration. I bet you wouldn’t regret making this change.