'Monsters' rules of management: Big, hairy lessons in leading
It's also a business movie.
At its heart is the ailing family-owned power company Monsters, Inc., whose raw material, children's screams, is in short supply. As a result, customers face a dire energy crisis — they leave their cars at home and walk to work in the morning, past newspaper boxes full of headlines about rolling blackouts.
"In the 1950s, there were a lot of movies about life in the corporate world, such as 'The Man in the Gray Flannel Suit,' " said Nell Minow, co-founder of the $80 million LENS Fund, which uses corporate activism to increase the value of portfolio companies.
"They asked, 'Who are we? What are we doing?' " said Minow, who moonlights as "The Movie Mom," reviewing movies aimed at kids. "'Monsters Inc.' makes fun of, or honors, that style."
The "Monsters, Inc." story in a nutshell (warning: plot will be revealed) is that Sulley, the top monster, accidentally brings a little girl back to the monster world, where children are considered toxic.
As he and his one-eyed partner, Mike, struggle to return her, they uncover corruption that goes to the top of the company. They also stumble on a new source of energy.
Amid the chase scenes, the disguises and the near misses are a series of business lessons, given by big, hairy cartoon monsters in a smokestack industry.
Buy some popcorn and expense it. Here goes:
• Top-down management doesn't always lead to innovation.
The Monsters, Inc. CEO realized his company would die if it didn't innovate.
"But his approach was typical of what a large, monopolistic company ends up doing — running the company from the board room," said Prashant Kohli, director of strategy and marketing at Upstream, a customer-service outsourcing company.
Isolated from other ideas, and sure he won't get caught, the CEO bets the company's future on an illegal project, which he pursues in secret.
• Leadership doesn't have to come from the top.
"It comes from everywhere in the organization," said Kohli, talking about Sulley, who ends up rising from the factory floor to the chief executive's suite. "It requires everyone to take a stand for their beliefs."
Looking at the history of some free-agent, name-brand cowboy CEOs — Al Dunlap springs to mind — one can't help but think that a worker who rose through the ranks could do a lot better.
From-the-floor management has worked for United Parcel Service for 94 years.
Every executive at the company started by driving a route, sorting packages or working as an administrative assistant. UPS doesn't have a "name" CEO. Instead, it has James Kelly, who started with the company in 1964, driving a route.
The management model gives part-time night-shift workers something to strive for and corporate executives something to remember.
• Friends (and partners) at work aren't a distraction; they're essential.
Mike and Sulley work together as a unit, even though Sulley is a high-visibility star and Mike is his seldom-seen helper.
Think of celebrity chef Wolfgang Puck, who has become his own brand, complete with restaurants, five cookbooks and his own line of frozen food. His success is thanks in no small part to the tireless hard work of his wife and business partner, Barbara Lazaroff, whom hardly anyone outside the restaurant business has ever heard of.
• Think about how employees are compensated.
Is the company rewarding behavior that will keep the company alive for another century? Under the rewards system in the movie, "you had to work harder to get more screams, not think of new technology," Minow said. In the end, it is new technology that saves the company.
• Companies don't always regulate themselves.
Yes, the regulators who monitor Monsters, Inc. are overzealous. Yes, they overreact to even the tiniest sock from the human world. In the end, though, they save the day, foiling an evil scheme, uncovering corruption that goes all the way to the top of the company.
Not to give away too much, but the thought that the dour woman in a baggy cardigan in accounting might be an undercover investigator would chill hearts in many a boiler room.
• A humble leader is an effective leader.
When Sulley takes the top spot, he doesn't hide in his office. In the business world, Jim Donald, the chairman and chief executive officer of Pathmark Stores, is known for spending serious hours out of the office and in the stores. Likewise, Warren Buffett uses his self-deprecating humor and folksy speaking style to win over investors.
All in all, the movie is "a strong endorsement of innovative technology, changing with the times, and, of course, renewable energy," Minow said.