At the “IN the ROOM” podcast series at the Lutyen Club yesterday, Gurmukh Singh Malhotra made a very powerful statement. He said that in Silicon Valley except for the founder, everyone else is for sale. Loyalty has to be bought. Retention has to be afforded.
And the people who have perfected this is Hollywood. A cartel of five studios controls Hollywood. And Silicon Valley is just a modified replica of Hollywood. The core concept is that you separate talent with emotion from capital without emotion. In talent, you look for commitment, passion and emotion. In capital you look for promiscuity. I remember when the largest film fund in history was launched by Gregory Coote and Anytime, the accountant Steve Mnuchin made a very interesting comment, “all money comes from the govt mint. It doesn’t matter who it comes through. Or how. Take it and put it to good use.” It was very smart thinking.
Steve of course rose to become the treasury secretary of the United States under Trump 1 and you will find his signature on a USD 100 note. Hollywood and drama with story telling, critical thinking and astute judgement can take you very far. Steve of course decided to take Air Force One for a party and paparazzi found the plane parked at places it should not have been in. As a result Steve is no longer the treasury secretary. And the American economy is in shambles.
But Steve went beyond just film finance and his fund turned out to be a real innovator and Indophile. The James Cameron blockbuster was named Avatar on the advice of any Indian astrologer. It went on to become the greatest blockbuster in history generating USD 4.3 billion for the billion dollar fund. And then he produced Life of Pi which was mostly made in Noida. This was the first ever Ai produced animated tiger which looked real. Suraj Sarma the lead actor is one of my IIT peers son. And the movie made USD 260 million but cost less than 3 idiots to produce. In more ways than one, it invented ai video. One of my greatest learning’s in management theory has come from Hollyywood and its veterans like Andrew Yap (who produced Paradise Road- movie starring Kate Blanchett which you must see), Roger Simkin and the unforgettable Late Greg Coote. Anil Ambani of course was the sucker who wrote the UsD 500m cheque to sit in the front row of Los Angeles events. But then public funds are always fun to squander whilst RBI sleeps. It also got him house guest status with Epstein. Suffice to say that it was Anils large heartedness which helped Steven Spielberg and others do some very interesting things. Mukesh bhai is not half as adventurous.
The first thing Donald Trump needs to do to win mid term is to get Steve Back. Just like the first thing Modiji needs to do is to get a new Finance Minister and a dedicated Meity Minister – ideally from the IIT cloud.
