Had Philip Kotler and Abraham Maslov attended Sleepless in Calcutta - a programme organised by the alumni of Bharathidasan institute of Management Trichy and Businessworld at Inox Forum- they would have probably have chosen movies to express their management theories.
For, the differentiating line between the science and the art of management and the science and art of movies were blurred by the speakers, for the benefit of the audiences, at the event. How dialogues have subtle theories and practices of management significance, especially soft skills , were brought under the spotlight at the programme, probably the first of its kind in a movie hall.
The speakers , all self confessed movie maniacs, used Ben Hur, Gone with The Wind, Gandhi and The Wizard of Oz to elucidate their points.
Who could have thought that The Wizard of Oz was actually a good motivator, and not a terror as the movie initially portrays, but Mr. Atul Chaturvedi, COO of Bharti Televentures for the North east. Playing final clips of the movie - where wizard shows the way to the other characters- the COO explained how being a good leader means staying in the background yet motivating the team members.
" Let them(team members) take the steps. You have to suggest rather than direct and let the person do the job. Allow them to make small mistakes because in the end when the work is completed, the employees will feel more achieved than what they would do if you had directed them through the process."
Not only Hollywood classics, even Bollywood movies have pointers of management, marketing to be precise, in them. Thus proved Mr. Shiloo Chattopadhyay, Director of MODE. Using clips from Deewar where Amitabh Bachan purchases a building for more than its worth to gift to his mother, the " perpetual student of marketing" pointed out that a transaction has intrinsic and different values to the buyer and the seller." Perceived value of a product differs from person to person,"he saidand added that this is how the concepts of a product bein "costly" or "cheap" varies from one seller to another and even from the manufacturer to the seller.
The practicality of the event was perhaps best brought to the fore by the BIM Director, Prof. M.Sankaran. Referring to clips from the movie Zanjeer , where the speaker- Senior General Manager of Eveready , Ms. Madhumita Basu- had explained the consequence of a corporate vision statement, he said," I have spent as many as 8 hours in the classroom sessions trying to explain what a vision statement is. But even after that the students have not been able to grasp I properly. But one clipping and everyone here has a firm grasp on what a vision statement is and should be"
This review was written by Ram Mohan of The Telegraph .
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