12 Classic Movies with a Message for Your Business

Integrators and EH Media staffers share their favorite movies with a message featuring business lessons that help them do better work.

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You'll need lots of popcorn, soda, and Junior Mints if you're going to binge-watch all of these classic movies with a business message.

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Earlier this year, we launched the unofficial CI Book Club with recommendations from integrators on leadership books they read on those rare occasions when they’re not perusing our monthly issues or scrolling around our website. Since we’re in the middle of summer blockbuster season, we decided to reach out to the integration community again to ask them for their favorite “movies with a message”: films that inspire them to do their work better or help their business teams get pumped for a major project.

We weren’t looking for movies that were necessarily based in a board room or about business practices specifically. In fact, the selections we heard about from a handful of integrators and a collection of our editors steered clear of some of the traditional flicks about business, like Wolf of Wall Street and Glengarry Glen Ross.

Maybe that’s because our respondents know they should “always be closing,” as Alec Baldwin famously said, or because they couldn’t accurately quote Leonardo DiCaprio’s Jordan Balfort without a five-second delay or some funky punctuation marks.

Our “movies with a message” collection includes an animated classic, a new entry in the superhero genre, some all-time sports movies, the incredible real-life tale of a freedom fighter, films with roots in World War II and several flicks that racked up Oscars and became among the most re-watchable of all time.

We certainly aren’t foolish enough to think this list is all-encompassing, so please share your favorite movies with a message, whether you’ve shown them in your conference room, used them to get ready for a big pitch meeting or just enjoyed them on an endless loop from the comfort of your own home or at your favorite movie theater.

Are You a Manager Or a Leader? Read more here.

Before you click through the slideshow, grab your favorite movie snack (it’s popcorn with no butter for me and an occasional handful of Junior Mints), but don’t worry, you won’t need any 3-D glasses to enjoy this list.

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