Ever since I was a kid, I have loved movies. I love everything about them. The way you can be
drawn into a story and feel real emotion about something that you know is fake is incredible to me.
The way the same actor can play a hundred different roles and yet we can still become deeply
engaged with each new character no matter how far removed it is from the last role he or she
played.
As we await the outcome of the Academy Awards today, it occurred to me that building a
successful business is very much like making an award worthy film. I think there are ten key
elements that successful films and successful businesses have in common:
1. The Premise: What is your business about? In film making terms, the premise is the
fundamental concept that drives the plot. A premise should be able to be expressed succinctly
and simply such as “LA is hit by a tidal wave,” or in business terms “an affordable place for
families to eat healthy food.”
2. The Script: Do you have a formal business plan? Even a one pager? If not, what you’re doing
is akin to starting to make a movie without a script. If you do, are you regularly reviewing the
script? Making sure you’re sticking to it? Taking time out to evaluate opportunities to improve
your script and most importantly, giving your cast the freedom to improvise at times?
3. The Title: This is often downplayed in business in my view. I hear people say, as long as the
product is sound, the name of the business doesn’t matter. That may be the case for multibillion dollar corporations, or well funded tech start-ups, but for the rest of us, the title is crucial.
A name that is either memorable or sums up succinctly what your business does can enable
your customers to more easily remember you and more importantly, share your name and
premise with others.
4. The Director: A no brainer right? In movies and in business, the Director is key. Leadership can
turn an average script into an indie blockbuster or a ho-hum business idea into a viral
sensation. Ensuring you choose the right leaders or directors in your business and giving them
the freedom to deliver on a vision is perhaps the most important decision you will ever make.
This also applies if you’re directing, writing and starring in your own business by the way. Take
the time and money to invest in your directing skills as often as possible to ensure you are
continuously improving at your craft over time.
5. Casting: There’s a reason Dwayne “The Rock,” Johnson got paid $30m last year and it wasn’t
just his 20 inch guns. It’s because customers will shell out their hard earned cash to buy the
experience of watching a film that he is selling. Invest in the right people and they will repay
you ten fold. In consulting roles, the biggest lie that I have found CEO’s tell others and
themselves is, “I’d be very happy if the top sales person in the business earned more than I
do.” Think very carefully about your approach to recruitment and remuneration. At the end of
the day, most of the volume of income your business delivers will be because of an interaction
between one of your customers and either one or a very small group of your staff.
6. Cinematography: Does your businesses appearance reflect the premise, script and title you
have been working with? Design, branding, signage, uniforms (and uniformity) all matter more
than you think. Your business is probably your whole life but it generally only makes up a very
small part of your customers day. What it looks like, whether that look is strategically aligned
and how consistent that look is has a bigger impact than you might think on your customers
purchasing decision making process.
7. Understanding your audience: Hollywood Movie Studios spend millions in focus testing and
often refine original pieces of work to a shell of their original vision by the time they have
received feedback from the people that pay their bills, their customers. From a business point
of view, people often fail here because they fall in love with their project or product and become
myopic to the real needs and wants of the customer. Step back from time to time and workshop
your business properly. Who are your customers, how do they arrive at their decisions on
where to spend their money and how does my business compare with my competitors in this
decision making process? Are you really the obvious choice in your space if you were a
customer? If the businesses in your competitive space were movies, which one would you go
and watch this weekend and why?
8. Promotion: You have the right cast. Have you given them the right sales spiel and tools and
booked them to sit in front of the right people to earn the right for your business to participate?
Promotion is everything. If you’ve made a great movie, then get your cast out there every
single day talking to the audience you’ve identified as the most likely buyers and make sure
they have a deep understanding of your premise.
9. Distribution: Often the death nell for even the best movies and businesses and ideas in
general. Can you imagine how many great movies, songs and businesses are either out their
struggling or have failed already because they can’t get their product to the eyes, ears or hands
of the audience. Think very deeply about where your target audience is and how easy it is for
them to access your products or services.
10. The Ending: My favourite part of film and my favourite part of business. Get it wrong and you
may as well have ignored the previous nine steps. Everyone remembers the movies with the
best endings. The Usual Suspects, Fight Club, Casablanca, The Godfather 2. They leave you
satisfied and grateful you invested the time and effort to watch the story unfold. Unfortunately,
you also tend to remember bad endings just as vividly. The ending is the hardest part to any
worthwhile endeavour and in my view, it’s the thing you should think of before you even start.
You should only ever get into business to get out and cash in on your hard work and sacrifice. If
you start with your exit strategy in mind, you will be surprised how helpful it ends up being in
helping guide strategic decisions along the way.
I’ll finish with a quote from Francis Ford Coppola. It was during an interview with “The New Yorker,”
on what it takes to make a great movie and I feel it best sums up the parallels between movie
making and the world of business:
“I believe that filmmaking—as, probably, is everything—is a game you should play with all your
cards, and all your dice, and whatever else you’ve got. So, each time I make a movie, I give it
everything I have. I think everyone should, and I think everyone should do everything they do that
way.”