Godfather: The Entrepreneur’s Handbook?

Aside from the blazing guns and Mafioso suits and hairstyles, The Corleone Family, should be an inspiring model for all budding entrepreneurs.

I cant seem to find many people that agree with me, of course I know why.

Everyone keeps asking me why chopping off a horses head, or shooting someone in the eye, should be the perfect business lesson to learn.

That’s not the point here. Just cast aside the actual mafia “business” for a moment, and look at how they actually operated.

1. Competition

Don Corleone always understood his competition. He knew their strengths and weaknesses, and often anticipated their moves.

“Tattaglia is just a pimp, he was never a match for Sonny”

“I should have known it was Barzini all along”

…

When Michael visits his father in hospital he arranges to have his bed moved, because he knows men are coming to assassinate his father.

This insight is always crucial to business. How else will you outsmart your competition otherwise? Don’t tell me your area of business has literally zero competition…that scenario doesn’t exist.

2. Resourcefulness

After the Don was shot and ended up in hospital, it was known that men would come to kill him from the other families.

Michael and Enzo the baker would have been no match for the men that were coming to kill his father at the hospital. However, he formed a position with Enzo outside the hospital and created the impression they were security guards and that there were more guards inside.

He worked with what he had and he did quick thinking on his feet.

A good entrepreneur works with what he has and improvises.

3. No compromise on core values and principles

The family, or the real word we should use is company, always stuck to its core values and principles and never compromised them. The men never discussed business with their families, never discussed business at the dinner table and tried to keep female involvement to a minimum (as per Italian culture).

Its important to recognise what your core business values are and never to compromise them. You will never have peace of mind if you don?t.

4. A good team

There’s no doubt the that The Corleone family had an excellent and loyal team. Clemenza and Tessio were excellent caporegimes (captains) who always recruited the best, and The Don always surrounded himself with people he knew he could depend on, and those that he believed would do a great job.

Look at Tom Hagen, who was a good and loyal lawyer and had the ‘company’ interest at heart.

Even Luca Brasi, who was a mean mean man, but still due to his love and respect for The Godfather, he was a great asset to the company.

Its all about hiring the right people. Get the best staff, that are the best in their respective fields that are committed to your company’s cause. A great team is invaluable.

5. Adhering to corporate policy

Remember when Tom visits the Movie Director Jack Woltz, who refuses to cast Johnny Fontane in his new movie.

Remember Tom’s response at the dinner table after Jack refuses outright?

“The Don likes to be notified of bad news immediately”.

Here was an employee, that was executing his tasks perfectly in line with corporate policy you could say.
He returned immediately and notified the Don of Jack’s refusal.

There were many examples of this kind of adherence throughout the film and can also be a considered as a continuation of the idea of adhering to core values and principles.

Always outline your expectations to your staff, and your promises of commitment to your customers. Make these thoughts known at every step of interaction.

6. Market research / industry knowledge

When Solozzo appeared on the scene with his idea of Narcotics, The Don took the time to understand Solozzo’s predisposition and assessed its market feasibility. He knew narcotics could and would do well, even if he didn?t want to be involved for personal reasons.

Tom also expressed his concerns to Sonny who was intending to go head on with the Tattaglia family because of his fears of five family war.

Tom understood the market, i.e. the other families, and understood what the consequences could be.

This intuition is an important skill to possess.

Understand the market you are entering, but more importantly understand where the market is heading and what your role is going to be in this change. Position yourself correctly and take a firm stance.

7. Outsmarting the competition, thinking outside the box, and making bold moves

Probably the most important point of all. There were so many examples in the film where the Corleone family outsmarted the competition using combinations of its strength, bravery, good decision making and resourcefulness.

Take the shooting of the police officer. A police officer had never been shot before, and this had never even been contemplated.

Or take, buying out “Moe Greene”. It had never been considered that a company with less money and less overall clout would even try to buy out someone with more wealth

“No! I buy you out”…remember when Moe Greene said that when Michael made the offer?

Some of the best business examples have been due to thinking outside the box. Just look at how Bill Gates took DOS from IBM and turned into something that could actually work.

Or what about Michael Dell who removed the middleman when wanting to sell desktops to the masses.

8. Persevering during the hard times.

Lets not mistake this for expecting things to get better with the flow of time, but pro-actively taking the bull by the horns and doing something about it.

When Don Corleone was shot and Luca Brasi was killed, the morale was at an all time low, and the family was low on resources.

Michael stepped in and came up with a unique strategy that could turn everything around.

Did you not see how Steve Jobs came back to Apple and revived the ailing company with the Imac, Ipod and the Iphone?

9. Taking risks

Business is all about taking risks. Godfather shows it best with Michael’s bold moves.

Killing the police officer was a big gamble, that actually paid off and turned the company around.

Richard Branson put the whole Virgin company on the line when signing up Janet Jackson.

It was a £400m record deal.
If Janet Jackson had not been a success there is a good chance Virgin wouldn’t exist right now.

10. Above par execution

The other important point next to outsmarting the competition is perfect execution for your plans. Planning things meticulously, managing all the variables and enacting according to the plan.

How well was Michael’s restaurant shooting executed?

Cant say fairer than that.

I’m sure many of you reading this will dis-agree with what i have to say. Feel free to comment. Bring it on!