Business Movies
Movies often capture the highs and lows of the business world in a way that’s both entertaining and enlightening. They showcase the journey of entrepreneurs, the dynamics of corporate strategy, and the importance of leadership and ethics. I watch a lot of non-fiction movies. Throughout my MBA I kept stumbling on cases, HBR articles, or classroom discussions that were told in a more interesting and elaborate way in movies and series that I’d seen before.
In fact, I worked with our MBA student body to put together a plan for a ‘monthly movie night’ program for a whole semester. I mapped each of these movies to a career club, an elective course, and a professor at the Marshall Scchool of Business. We would meet in our theater style case-rooms at 6pm on the last Thursday of each month with popcorn and sodas to watch one of these movies. The movie would be followed by a discussion among peers about what went right, what went wrong and ethical dilemmas. Alas we were not able to secure rooms on weekdays since our school has a sizeable part-time program that takes evening classes. Here are some of the flyers I’d created for the program:
In this blog, I share some of these movies and my favorite scenes from them. They’re ordered as per my preference. Enjoy!
Margin Call
A tense 24 hours at an investment bank on the brink of collapse. A gripping look at risk management, crisis decision-making, and the ethics of finance.
Fun fact: I used a dialogue from this movie in a job interview that landed me a $200K job.
The Big Short
A group of outsiders predict the housing market crash and make a killing. It’s a darkly comedic take on market speculation and financial instruments. Truly, one of my favorite movies ever. The acting of Steve Carell, Ryan Gosling, and Christian Bale 👏
Silicon Valley
I can testify to the nerdy SDE jokes in this series. But even beyond that, multiple founders and VCs that I met during my MBA in California spoke to the reality of the valley’s tech culture depicted in the show and strong parallels to real leaders.
Super Pumped
The rise and fall of Uber, focusing on the ambitious and controversial leadership of its CEO. It’s a short (7-episode) but wild ride through startup culture, disruptive innovation, and the cost of hypergrowth. Infamous stories from this phase of Uber were used in my very first MBA class on Leading People, Teams, and Organizations. I remeber feeling like some of these episodes should have been assigned as reading for the class on ‘Ethically Leading Yourself and Your Organization’. But if Travis Kalanick was not as stubborn and ambitious as he was, would Uber have made it past those initial hurdles? Would ride hailing be what we know it to be today?
Moneyball
The true story of how data analytics transformed baseball team management. A lesson in innovation, resource optimization, and challenging the status quo. A fundamental course in amy MBA program is statistics where you learn how to question the significance of data, make decisions in ambiguity and make simple predictions of the future (regression). There are also elective courses on Monte Carlo simulation, advanced regression, and time series forecasting. I took one of the advanced courses on Probablity and Decision Making, and was surprised with the number of applications such models have in business - Recommendation engines whether on Netflix, Amazon, or Instagram, all use similar models; Dynamic pricing on Uber; Spam filtering on Gmail; and trend recognition on Twitter (now X).
Worth
A lawyer tasked with determining the value of lives lost in the 9/11 attacks navigates the complexities of human worth and compensation. It’s a sobering look at ethics, valuation, and the human side of finance.
An actuarial seminar with a heavy dose of humanity. This movie is very underrated. If you’ve ever wondered how your insurance decides the compensation for an arm or a life, or how settlements are awarded, watch this movie. Actuaries is a highly-specialized career of its own.
Wolf of Wall Street
A tale of excess, greed, and stock market shenanigans. Think of it as a masterclass in sales, where the product is questionable ethics. It’s like an M7 MBA program, but with more drugs and fewer ethics courses.
WeCrashed
The dramatic rise and fall of WeWork, driven by its charismatic and controversial co-founder, Adam Neumann. It’s a cautionary tale of startup culture, overvaluation, and the pitfalls of visionary leadership. But a positive skills you can learn from it is the power of storytelling. Great ideas explained poorly go nowhere, but poor deas explained greatly can ignite a revolution, or atleast a $47B valuation.
Social Network
Facebook’s origin story (now Meta): A lesson in entrepreneurship, networking, and occasionally stabbing your friends in the back.
The Founder
The story of how Ray Kroc turned a small burger joint into the global McDonald’s empire. It’s about franchising, brand building, and the ruthless pursuit of success. A lesson in non-obvious core competencies.
War Dogs
Two friends exploit a little-known government initiative to become international arms dealers. A wild ride through entrepreneurship, risk-taking, and the darker side of supply chain management.
But from a glass half full perspective, it shows the value to be unlocked in places where people don’t usually pay attention. As my entrepreneurial mindset professor (also the founder of Kinkos and a billionaire) used to say - Don’t be a sheep. Be smart enough redefine sexy.
Palmer Luckey strikes me as a modern-day Jonah Hill. The DoD’s solution to stagnation when other BigTech companies face internal criticism for signing even the smallest fo defense clients.
Up in the Air
A man with a million frequent flyer miles professionally delivers bad news and questions his nomadic lifestyle. This one does not have many business lessons, but if you too work in a field like consulting where flying is part of the lifestyle and occaasionally for downsizing projects, you’ll appreciate the nomadic scenes and the meaningless chase for status and loyalty.
Blackberry
The story of the rise and fall of the iconic smartphone that once dominated the business world. It’s a tale of innovation, market disruption, and the challenges of staying relevant in tech.
BlackBerry’s downfall is a textbook case of The Innovator’s Dilemma I learnt in my elective ‘Advanced Strategy — Competing in Dynamic Environments’. The company was too focused on its current customers and the sustaining the QWERTY keyboard innovations that catered to them. This prevented BlackBerry from adapting to disruptive innovations like the touchscreen that ultimately redefined the industry.
Some other movies I enjoyed:
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Comey Rule
Keeping our political views aside, it is a depiction of office politics at the highest level. The series also sheds light on navigating ethical dilemmas and managing one’s public image as a leader. -
Flamin’ Hot
The story of how a janitor at Frito-Lay invented Flamin’ Hot Cheetos and revolutionized snack food. It’s an inspiring tale and introduces the concept of cultural marketing. Frito’s inside-out lab innovation was not working for them. What they needed was marketing insight to drive product development. -
Dumb Money
Not one of my favorites, but if you trade yourself or work in finance, you’ll enjoy it just because of the infamous $GME saga. Infact, just last week (as I write this blog), years after the original incident, stocks rallied 200-300% on a meme shared by roaring kitty. Frustrating to see such movement that lacks fundamentals, but I was able to cut a loser I held in the rally, so I’m not complaining. -
Intern
A 70-year-old widower becomes an intern at an online fashion retailer, bringing wisdom and experience to the youthful team. It’s a charming look at intergenerational workplace dynamics and mentorship. -
The Internship
Two out-of-work salesmen land internships at Google and compete against tech-savvy millennials. It’s a comedic take on adapting to the digital age, teamwork, and career reinvention. Something that MBAs looking to pivot can watch to understand how transferrable skills would work. It also depicts the value of diversity of thought in teams. This movie itself is a spin off of the romcom ‘Wedding Crashers’ which is gold too.
Movies I want to watch:
- Fyre Festival
- Thank You for Smoking
- Godfather (it’s been a while)
- Steve Jobs
I might make a similar list for Bollywood movies. I am thinking of Guru, The Big Bull, Swades, and Chak de India. Do you have any suggestions?
Published: 19 May 2024