Category Archives: Doing Business

1-By Laksh, ET, Leadership, Management, Movies

Three movies and three lessons.

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Three movies and three lessons.

The Magnificent Seven (2016):

  1. Diverse Teams: The seven gunslingers come from different backgrounds and bring unique skills to the table, demonstrating the value of having a diverse team when tackling complex problems.
  2. Leadership: Denzel Washington’s character takes charge and leads the group with integrity, showing the importance of having strong leadership in times of crisis.
  3. Effective Communication: The seven gunslingers learn to work together effectively and communicate with one another, demonstrating the importance of clear communication in teamwork.

The Magnificent Seven (1960):

  1. Adaptability: The seven gunslingers are faced with unexpected challenges and must be able to adapt to changing circumstances, demonstrating the importance of being adaptable in the face of adversity.
  2. Strategic Planning: The seven gunslingers come up with a plan to defend the town, demonstrating the importance of careful and strategic planning.
  3. Collaboration: The seven gunslingers work together and rely on one another to achieve their goal, demonstrating the importance of collaboration in achieving success.

Seven Samurai:

  1. Skill Development: The samurai learn and hone their skills over time, demonstrating the importance of continuous skill development in achieving success.
  2. Mentorship: The veteran samurai pass on their knowledge and experience to the younger members, demonstrating the value of mentorship in professional growth.
  3. Risk Management: The samurai face many risks and make calculated decisions to minimize them, demonstrating the importance of risk management in decision making.
1-By Laksh, Leadership, Management

Sam Manekshaw: On Leadership

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Field Marshal Sam Manekshaw presents important attributes of leadership and elaborates with examples in the above video.

It’s hard to imagine a person spending his lifetime in the same domain, but that’s how its been for majority of the stalwarts in any field. Even if we change professions and do multiple things in our lives, the following list should still holds good. Infact, it might even help to dissuade us from flights of fancy, and focus on more important things.

Here we go.

  1. Professional knowledge and Professional Competence.
  2. Make a decision and accept the responsibility.
  3. Absolute justice and impartiality.
  4. Moral and Physical Courage.
  5. Loyalty, expect and give.
  6. Management of men and resources.
  7. Leadership with Human touch.
  8. Discipline (punctuality etc) and Character (knowing who we really are)

A ‘Yes man’ is a dangerous man. He is a menace. He will go very far. He can become a minister, a secretary or a Field Marshal but he can never become a leader, nor ever be respected. He will be used by his superiors, disliked by his colleagues and despised by his subordinates. So discard the ‘Yes man’.”

Do not misunderstand me, when I talk of character. I don’t mean just being honest, truthful, and religious, I mean something more- Knowing yourself, knowing your own faults, knowing your own weaknesses and what little character that we have, our friends, our fans, the ‘yes-men’ around us and the sycophants, help us reduce that character as well.

Related links:
Complete Transcript