Kevin Coupe, of MorningNewsBeat, and co-author along with Michael Sansolo, of the endlessly entertaining and insightful book The Big Picture: Essential Business Lessons from the Movies, was kind enough to take the time to answer a few questions about their book.
Kevin Coupe shared the background of the book and a number of examples of why movies are essential sources of business knowledge. He even shared a few must see movies that every business person should watch for the wisdom contained in their stories.
Thanks to Kevin Coupe for his time, and for his interesting and thought provoking responses.
What was the background to writing this book The Big Picture: Essential Business Lessons from the Movies?
Kevin Coupe: Michael and I used to chat about movies we’d seen, and often would draw lessons from different films and mention them in conversation, and from there - because a good writer never wastes anything - they’d find their way into columns and even speeches that we were doing to business groups. At one point we sort of looked at each other and said, “This is a book!” We were actually surprised to find out that nobody else had really worked this particular territory, so we got to work.
The main thesis of your book is there are important business lessons to be learned from the movies. Can the movies really teach us about how to operate our businesses more successfully?
Kevin Coupe: Absolutely. All you have to do is pay attention and think about the movies in a different way. The book actually serves as a primer in how to do that.
Our goal is to get people to focus on the importance of storytelling and narrative. Movies are a tool...albeit an incredibly effective one.
One of the greatest and most effective tools of creative thinking is to take two seemingly different subjects and find correlations between the two. How did you discover the connection between the business examples that movies offer, and business concepts?
Kevin Coupe: It’s what we do. Both Michael and I have carved out careers writing and talking about business - primarily, but not exclusively, about retailing. Our job, as we see it, is to get people to think about issues, problems and opportunities in different ways...to see the larger context and to learn from unorthodox places.
On my website, MorningNewsBeat, I use pop culture references almost every day - sometimes a line from a Jimmy Buffett song, sometimes a quote from a Robert B. Parker novel, and sometimes a memory from some sixties television series that most people have forgotten. Movies were just another example...but a good one because there are so many movies that so many people have shared.
Kevin Coupe (photo left)
Stories have been used as teaching tools for valuable life lessons since the dawn of time. Are the movies providing that same communal teaching role in today's society?
Kevin Coupe: The key word is actually in your question: “communal.” We chose movies because they are a common language, a common mythology. One of the things we’ve found is that as they work their way through the book, readers actually get to the lessons in our various chapters before we do...because once we get them thinking about movies in a different way, they can anticipate where we are going. Sometimes they come up with the same lesson we do, sometimes not. We’ve gotten emails from folks who take entirely different lessons from movies than the ones we’ve used in the book. Which pleases us to no end.
There are many different types of movies, including action, adventure, biopics, date movies, comedies, drama, and the classics. Do the different genres of movies offer business lessons?
Kevin Coupe: Sure. For example, our book has chapters about classic movies such as “Citizen Kane” and “Casablanca,” as well as low-brow Adam Sandler comedies, with stops in between for pretty much every genre in every decade starting with the forties. Again, sometimes the lesson can come from a plot point, sometimes from a scene, and sometimes from just one line that illustrates a larger point. “Round up the usual suspects,” is just one line from “Casablanca,” but it illustrates a business mindset that we explore in the book.
Does each specific movie genre provide a certain type of business lesson, or can very different lessons be gleaned from, for example, different comedies?
Kevin Coupe: There is no hard and fast rule, and the lessons are varied. In “Young Frankenstein,” for example, the lesson is about always being prepared for the bad times (which Gene Wilder’s title character most certainly is not). In “50 First Dates,” the plot - about a man who tries to romance a woman with no short-term memory - gives us an important lesson about customer service and loyalty marketing.
Michael Sansolo (photo left)
As with all lists, some examples stand out above all of the rest. What are the three or four must see movies that every business person should watch?
Kevin Coupe: “The Godfather” stands head and shoulders above the rest, offering a master class in management. But here’s a question that we encourage our readers to consider: Who is the better Don, Vito (Marlon Brando) or Michael (Al Pacino)? (It goes without saying that Sonny - played by James Caan - is lacking in sustainable leadership skills.) Vito and Michael have very different strengths, and they operate within different contexts. We think that people with leadership roles in organizations should watch “The Godfather” (and even its sequel), and then discuss management and leadership styles. It is a great game with a serious subtext.
If I had to pick a couple more, I’d point to “Babe,” which is all about finding talent in unexpected places, and “American Gangster,” which is about brand equity. These are vastly different movies - one is a fable suitable for children, and the other is a mob drama about the heroin trade in the late sixties. But they are both compelling, with important business messages.
What is the single most valuable lesson that readers can take from your book and apply to their own business lives?
Kevin Coupe: Don’t operate in a bubble, and understand the importance of narrative in communicating your vision of leadership. You can have a vision for a business, but if you can’t communicate it to employees, customers and even business partners in easy to understand terms, it is useless.
What is next for Kevin Coupe and Michael Sansolo?
Kevin Coupe: Well, right now we are spending a lot of time in the blogosphere, where we have had the pleasure of talking about the book. This is happening even as we give speeches about the subject, which is a real pleasure. And we’re trying to figure out how to get past all the clutter and attract the attention of the folks at “The Daily Show,” “The Colbert Report,” and “Morning Joe.”
Then...dare we say there could be a sequel? We’re already thinking about it, and the box office receipts for the first book have been encouraging.
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My book review of The Big Picture: Essential Business Lessons from the Movies by Kevin Coupe and Michael Sansolo.
