Ever since, Memento, Christopher Nolan has maintained his edge. Let me admit, though I have watched all his movies after Memento, except Insomnia. I just went through the synopsis of Insomnia, that too seems to be a great psycho thriller! He has been a great entertainer for both the intelligent and the masses.
Inception is a brilliantly made movie revolving around a path breaking intelligent idea. A crime committed at subconscious level in the mind by clever exploitation by a smart gang. No sooner than the release of the movie, there were comments using the lingo in the movie. That's a sign of the movie or franchise which is going to stay. In terms of potential success, as rightly put in publicity, 'Bond meets Matrix',- This tag was basically to draw masses to the movie, the franchise is intended to hit the combined jackpot of Bond and Matrix franchises.
Are there any takeaways for business leaders?
Let's look at what Nolan must have had in mind while conceiving and executing the movie. He had smartly realized the following aspects to make a movie with great business potential.
1) Create a Great Maze As Cobb asks the apprentice to create a maze in a minute, which needs minimum 2 minutes to solve it! ...or something to that effect.
In all his movies, Nolan has created mazes (mind benders), which need much more time than the movie duration. The longer the maze takes to solve, the people will watch and re-watch the movie! Thus, you get repeat crowd. Already, many people have watched the movie repeatedly to find out exactly, what is happening!
He shot into fame from his first movie, Memento. It was so great, got remade into Ghazni in Tamil and re-remade into Hindi and raked in big money in all the versions!
In business context, develop offers as simple solutions to solve complex problems for the market . More complex the problem and simpler the solution, the chances of success is higher. Eg.: Google search engine, Apple Devices, apps,....
2) To Succeed Spectacularly, Create Great Visuals (It has the effect of sedatives in the movie): Inception, Batman Begins and Dark Knight have great visuals. Well, that needs lot of money too! Batman franchise could easily support it through sets and/or effects, for relatively less money, v/s real locations. Thus Nolan uses Cobb to say some psycho mumbo-jumbo (Psychology enthusiasts, please forgive me for this!) to tell his apprentice not to use the real locations. The CG effects in the movie can be passed to the audience convincingly!
In business context, the offering has to be engaging. I hope the example of iPhone, Pixar movies will fill the other details. Please note that this gyan does not disregard all other business management fundas. Wise business leaders will leverage all the knowledge and new insights to strategize and execute in flawless fashion to deliver results.
3) Ensure Initial Draw: Initial draw is ensured by star power; in this case, by Leonardo Dicaprio (one of the Hollywood top stars) and Michael Caine (All time favorite). Batman franchise could provide the initial draw for Batman Begins and Dark Knight. By now, Nolan himself can draw crowds to the movie hall. This is a great combination for starting completely new franchise.
Relatively, Memento drew people through word of mouth. So was the case of Paranormal Activity, which became a success when released second time (by Steven Spielberg).
In business context, Google, Apple (ie. Steve Jobs),... can draw huge initial draws. Lesser mortals like us have to build ground up as Nolan did. Remember Bill Gates, Steve Jobs, were virtually 'nobodies' (Well, once upon a time!).
4) Continuously Engage, Emotionally: In addition to all the above, the movie engages emotionally. The audience empathizes and sympathizes with Cobb through out for the loss in his family and craves to see his children's faces! In my view, the emotional engagement was slightly less in Nolan's The Prestige. But, that is a subjective call.
In Business context, the business leaders need to continuously engage the market emotionally.and utility-wise too. Eg.: MS Windows at V7 and V8 is being developed!
I think emotional engagement can be termed as charisma of business leaders. The leaders, whether in business or otherwise.
In terms of utility, the business leaders have to keep on coming with offers to provide better productivity and efficiency v/s other products in the market.
These are some of the takeaways, I could guess. While trying to solve the spectacular maze of success in real business life; I am sure it's not so easy. More so, when executing the takeaways. Because the challenge lies in achieving all the above and still do it profitably so as to sustain and grow. Otherwise, we all would have got bored by now!
Are there any takeaways for business leaders?
Let's look at what Nolan must have had in mind while conceiving and executing the movie. He had smartly realized the following aspects to make a movie with great business potential.
1) Create a Great Maze As Cobb asks the apprentice to create a maze in a minute, which needs minimum 2 minutes to solve it! ...or something to that effect.
In all his movies, Nolan has created mazes (mind benders), which need much more time than the movie duration. The longer the maze takes to solve, the people will watch and re-watch the movie! Thus, you get repeat crowd. Already, many people have watched the movie repeatedly to find out exactly, what is happening!
He shot into fame from his first movie, Memento. It was so great, got remade into Ghazni in Tamil and re-remade into Hindi and raked in big money in all the versions!
In business context, develop offers as simple solutions to solve complex problems for the market . More complex the problem and simpler the solution, the chances of success is higher. Eg.: Google search engine, Apple Devices, apps,....
2) To Succeed Spectacularly, Create Great Visuals (It has the effect of sedatives in the movie): Inception, Batman Begins and Dark Knight have great visuals. Well, that needs lot of money too! Batman franchise could easily support it through sets and/or effects, for relatively less money, v/s real locations. Thus Nolan uses Cobb to say some psycho mumbo-jumbo (Psychology enthusiasts, please forgive me for this!) to tell his apprentice not to use the real locations. The CG effects in the movie can be passed to the audience convincingly!
In business context, the offering has to be engaging. I hope the example of iPhone, Pixar movies will fill the other details. Please note that this gyan does not disregard all other business management fundas. Wise business leaders will leverage all the knowledge and new insights to strategize and execute in flawless fashion to deliver results.
3) Ensure Initial Draw: Initial draw is ensured by star power; in this case, by Leonardo Dicaprio (one of the Hollywood top stars) and Michael Caine (All time favorite). Batman franchise could provide the initial draw for Batman Begins and Dark Knight. By now, Nolan himself can draw crowds to the movie hall. This is a great combination for starting completely new franchise.
Relatively, Memento drew people through word of mouth. So was the case of Paranormal Activity, which became a success when released second time (by Steven Spielberg).
In business context, Google, Apple (ie. Steve Jobs),... can draw huge initial draws. Lesser mortals like us have to build ground up as Nolan did. Remember Bill Gates, Steve Jobs, were virtually 'nobodies' (Well, once upon a time!).
4) Continuously Engage, Emotionally: In addition to all the above, the movie engages emotionally. The audience empathizes and sympathizes with Cobb through out for the loss in his family and craves to see his children's faces! In my view, the emotional engagement was slightly less in Nolan's The Prestige. But, that is a subjective call.
In Business context, the business leaders need to continuously engage the market emotionally.and utility-wise too. Eg.: MS Windows at V7 and V8 is being developed!
I think emotional engagement can be termed as charisma of business leaders. The leaders, whether in business or otherwise.
In terms of utility, the business leaders have to keep on coming with offers to provide better productivity and efficiency v/s other products in the market.
These are some of the takeaways, I could guess. While trying to solve the spectacular maze of success in real business life; I am sure it's not so easy. More so, when executing the takeaways. Because the challenge lies in achieving all the above and still do it profitably so as to sustain and grow. Otherwise, we all would have got bored by now!
2 comments:
What nonsense...please dont try to make connections where none exist.
I never knew, the blog will lead to such intense reaction! I don't know how this gentleman got the idea that connections do not exist!
Anyway, thanks for the comment. Why did not the person leave his contact info.?
Dear Visitor, Please leave your contact info, however negative your comment is!
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