The Big Picture: Essential Business Lessons from the Movies [Paperback]

Kevin Coupe (Author), Michael Sansolo (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: January 15, 2010

Movies are magical. They can release us from the stress of everyday life. But movies also contain valuable lessons to improve the way we do business. In their entertaining new book, The Big Picture: Essential Business Lessons From the Movies, authors Kevin Coupe and Michael Sansolo show how to use the stories in movies to solve problems in business. From The Godfather to Tootsie, from The Wedding Singer to Babe, the authors use more than sixty of their favorite movies to teach important lessons about branding, customer service, leadership, planning, ethics, and innovation. Readers will learn how to use stories from the movies to communicate clearly with employees, clients, and customers. The book includes movies that illustrate key business lessons in branding, ethics, customer focus, leadership, and more. Get out the popcorn, sit back, relax...and learn!

Editorial Reviews

Review

The connection between the movies and business wisdom has been there all along. It took Kevin and Michael to bring it into sharp, digital-age focus. Gerry Lopez, CEO, AMC Entertainment Inc. --Gerry Lopez, CEO, AMC Entertainment Inc.

The Big Picture will open your mind about the power of storytelling, whether it s for a speech, a business presentation, or a one-on-one with a business associate or a member of your family. Great job, Kevin and Michael. You have given me a new reason to go to the movies. Jim Donald, CEO, Haggen, Inc. and former CEO, Starbucks Coffee Company --im Donald, CEO, Haggen, Inc. and former CEO, Starbucks Coffee Company

About the Author

Kevin Coupe has been a working writer all his professional life. For the past decade, he's had his own website/blog, Morning News Beat, providing what he calls business news in context, and analysis with attitude. In addition to speaking at hundreds of conferences in the U.S. and abroad and reporting from 45 states and six continents, Kevin has been a newspaper reporter, video producer, actor, bodyguard, clothing salesman, supervised a winery tasting room, ran two marathons (slowly), drove a race car (badly), took boxing lessons (painfully), and acted in a major (and obscure) motion picture. Kevin is married with three children and lives in Connecticut. Michael Sansolo has traveled around the world one supermarket at a time, yet stopped to climb the Sydney Harbour Bridge, the Great Wall of China, and Pikes Peak. A native New Yorker, Sansolo is a consultant and frequent speaker for the food retail industry, and is a contributing editor and weekly columnist for MorningNewsBeat.com, a daily newsletter on the retail industry. Sansolo was the senior vice president of the Food Marketing Institute and was editor-in-chief of Progressive Grocer magazine. Favorite book: The Big Picture (of course), and The Great Gatsby; favorite food: Sal's Pizza; favorite team: the Mets; favorite movies: read The Big Picture! Sansolo, his family, and his very annoying beagle live in the suburbs of Washington, DC.

Product Details

• Paperback: 232 pages
• Publisher: Raphel Marketing; First edition (January 15, 2010)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0971154287
• ISBN-13: 978-0971154285
• Product Dimensions: 8.9 x 6 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12.8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (17 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #638,596 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Movies Make Business Fun, May 21, 2010

By 

R. Fountain - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The Big Picture: Essential Business Lessons from the Movies (Paperback)

When I first heard about The Big Picture, I was very intrigued. I'm a huge movie buff and always on the lookout for business books that can deliver useful information in a more interesting and creative way. Up to this point, my favorite has been I'll Make You An Offer You Can't Refuse: Insider Business Tips from a Former Mob Boss: Michael Franzese.

In The Big Picture, Kevin Coupe and Michael Sansolo use popular movies, from the classics to the current, to illustrate each business point being presenting.

For example, in regard to "Word of Mouth Advertising", the faux-climax scene from When Harry Met Sally was used. Once Sally's throes of passion subside, she takes a bite of her sandwich; the customer next to her states, "I'll have what she's having". Business point: Sally is a happy, satisfied customer and the others want to feel the same way. As an alternate perspective, Michael Sansolo relates a story that demonstrates the affect a dissatisfied customer can have on business: while on a flight to Washington Michael purchased a snack from the attendant, only to find it past it's "use by" date. When brought to the flight attendant's attention, she failed to appropriately remedy the situation; resulting in the surrounding passengers returning their snacks as well.

Other examples include "Never Underestimate Your Competition", illustrated by Tucker: The Man and His Dream; "Denial Is Never A Good Thing", illustrated by Jaws; and one of my favorites "Go the Distance", which probably has less to the do with the business lesson and more to do with how Rocky (one of the best movies ever: "Take her to da zoo Rock") was used to portray it.

The Big Picture is a very fun, quick read that does a great job of getting key business points across. Coupe and Sansolo manage to take an oft-covered topic and make it fresh and interesting. For those who want to continue the lessons, Appendix B lists additional movies and their corresponding business topic; which would go a long way in spicing up those mind-numbing corporate "team leader" meetings. Well, it looks like I have a new favorite--but let's not tell Michael Franzese...

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Worthy of reading at least twice - once for fun, once for content, April 30, 2010

By 

Diana Crane (Seattle, WA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The Big Picture: Essential Business Lessons from the Movies (Paperback)

"The Big Picture" is a thoroughly enjoyable trip down movie memory lane that, at the very least, will make you wonder why they just don't make movies like they used to. Once you've read it for fun, you'll want to read it again to grasp the basic, but powerful business and life lessons Kevin Coupe and Michael Sansolo have cleverly extracted from movies as diverse as High Noon, Sex and the City, and Amadeus. As I read it - for a third time - I wrote down several "gems." Some are helpful for keeping business challenges in perspective; others make great content for business presentations. Still others have been useful dinner conversation starters and object lessons when talking with my two teenagers. Totally worth the time to read ... each time.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The Big Picture: Essential Business Lessons from the Movies, February 19, 2010

By 

M. mccoy "Dennis McCoy" (NC) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The Big Picture: Essential Business Lessons from the Movies (Paperback)

What a great read, not just to enjoy brief reviews of movies but also to have a correlation to a busines use. It is a quick and enjoyable read, especially if you enjoy the movies. The challenge can be in letting yourself build off of each business lesson you read and determine if you completely agree or have something you would have enhanced. That very possibility leads to the potential of using this for business discussions. I think Michael and Kevin were right on with their points and many were very timely in todays business environment.

The additional value is that not every movie was a critical classic but each clearly had a business lesson that you may be able to use to make a point in a future discussion. As an example, Tin Cup is a favorite of mine but probably not critically acclaimed as a great movie. There are several great points in this movie you could draw on and the one they pulled was right on.
Enjoy the book for the easy read that it is but plan to use it to enhance a business point at some time in the future, this may be it's greatest value.