Tuesday, March 23, 2010

Author Spotlight: Kevin Coupe and Michael Sansolo and The Big Picture



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 learn how to use stories from the movies to communicate clearly with employees, clients, and customers.

Read an Excerpt!


Take 4 - Comedy

Babe (1995)

Be Different

Rated RB Rule Breakers


by Michael Sansolo

There is a phrase that should never be uttered in business. It consists of the seven forbidden words:

“That’s the way we’ve always done it!”

You know you have heard the phrase and it is possible that you have even said it. The cumulative impact of the phrase is a non-stop assault on creativity, innovation, and rule breaking—the very activities virtually every company should encourage.

There is a cure for this unbridled corporate conservatism in the form of the delightful movie Babe. Every time the phrase “That’s the way we’ve always done it!” is uttered, force that person to watch Babe. In fact, watch it yourself. It’s worth it.

On the surface, Babe appears to be a child’s movie. It isn’t, although it is great for children, too. It’s the story of a pig, Babe, who is the runt of the litter destined for the slaughterhouse. Babe is saved from this fate when he is given to a local fair to be handed out as a prize, which is won by taciturn farmer Arthur Hoggett, wonderfully played by James Cromwell.

Once at Hoggett’s farm, Babe does something unusual: he stops behaving like a pig, for the simple reason that he doesn’t know he’s a pig. He consorts with all manner of animals like Ma the old sheep, Ferdinand the duck, and the litter of sheepdogs living in the barn. With his polite manners and naïve ways, Babe becomes a friend to all the animals, many of whom do not get along and clearly do not respect each other. (Hmmm, sounds more like an office with each passing moment.)

Farmer Hoggett begins to notice Babe’s social abilities when Babe divides all the chickens in the yard into groups of similar colors. Soon, Farmer Hoggett gives Babe a chance to show his stuff at the most important animal job on the farm, herding the sheep.

That’s where Babe the pig and Babe the movie shine. By breaking all the rules—“the way things are,” as the animals remind him—Babe becomes an outstanding herder. Although the dogs consider the sheep too dumb to understand anything other than a nasty approach and the sheep consider the dogs too stupid to talk with, Babe bridges the divide with friendship and manners. Slowly but surely, even the most reluctant animals begin to understand the wisdom of Babe.

Babe is a simple story, but it contains an important lesson. Think of how many businesses have stuck to the way things always are and completely missed the opportunity to become something entirely new, bigger, and better. Some have taken those opportunities:

• MTV didn’t invent video or records, but pulled them together into an entirely new cable channel. CBS, in contrast, owned a television network and a record company, but missed the chance.
• Barack Obama did not discover social networking, but his advanced use of the concept of Internet connections helped his fundraising and campaigning. John McCain’s presence on YouTube or Facebook was a fraction of Obama’s.
• Google wasn’t the first company to offer a search engine for the Internet, but its speed and efficiency helped create a cyberspace dynamo that dwarfs AltaVista, Yahoo, or even Microsoft.

MTV, the Obama campaign, and Google all had their Babe moments. They ignored “the way things are always done” and built astounding success by identifying possibilities and filling them with a value proposition that viewers, listeners, and shoppers learned to love.

Babe connects on many levels. The parallel of animal and human behavior has been shown often in the movies, from Charlotte’s Web to Animal Farm. But Babe delivered a winning story told in a creative style and with a lesson that could stand the test of time. In fact, the movie was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Picture, an uncommon honor for a “children’s” movie.

Be on the lookout for those seven deadly words of business, those seven words that limit your horizons and suck the creativity and spirit out of your people. When someone says, “That’s the way we’ve always done it!” launch a counter-attack with the story of a pig that refused to accept things the way they were.


Read the Reviews!

“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.

“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

“This wonderful book proves what I have always believed: Movies teach us everything we need to know in business if we would only listen.”
– Beau Fraser, co-author, Death to all Sacred Cows and Managing Director, The Gate Worldwide

“The Big Picture updates the old adage that a (movie) picture is worth a thousand words. A very worthwhile book.”
– Stu Upson, Executive Director, United States Bowling Congress

“Stew Leonard’s loves stories. We are a story telling organization. That’s why The Big Picture will be staple in our management’s library at Stew’s. I loved it and it’s a must read!”
– Stew Leonard Jr., CEO, Stew Leonard’s

“This is the kind of useful and enjoyable book business people like me need to share in our companies.”
– Robert Phillips, President, California Tortilla Group, Inc.

“To enjoy a film is a treat! To add to that by learning a valuable business lesson from that film is a profit. To be steered to achieve both a treat and a profit by reading The Big Picture is a true adventure!”
– Senator Feargal Quinn, founder of Superquinn and former President of EuroCommerce

“Michael and Kevin have written an informative and useful business book that’s also fun to read and easy to apply. What a creative approach to business.”
– Thom Blischok, President, Consulting & Innovation, Information Resources, Inc.

"Read the engaging and idea packed book The Big Picture: Essential Business Lessons from the Movies by Michael Sansolo and Kevin Coupe, and prepare to discover valuable and timeless business knowledge through the enjoyment of the best offerings of the silver screen."
- Blog Business World

"Every business leader should have a copy of The Big Picture: Essential Business Lessons from the Movies on their desks and refer to it often."
- The Book Connection

"I highly recommend this book and give it a thumbs up!"
- A Mom After God's Own Heart


Kevin Coupe has been a working writer all his professional life. For the past decade, he’s had his own website/blog—www.morningnewsbeat.com—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.

You can also find Michael at www.michaelsansolo.com.


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