Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End

Technically this is a "Watching Reco", because it's a film ;-)

Many of you may have already watched this 2007 film. The film is better known for its visual effects, but this reco is more for its terrific dialogues!

Incidentally, at US$300 million, this film is the most expensive movie ever made to date! 

Here are some dialogues from the film that I liked :)

Barbossa: Dying is the day worth living for.

Will Turner: No cause is lost if there is but one fool left to fight for it.

Jack Sparrow: Well that's even more than less than unhelpful

Will Turner: [to Elizabeth Swann] If you make your choices alone, how can I trust you?

Norrington: Our fates have been entwined, Elizabeth, but never joined.

Barbossa: You have to be lost to find a place that can't be found, elseways everyone would know where it was.

Jack Sparrow: William, have you noticed something? Or rather, have you noticed something that's not there to be noticed?

Barbossa: Still thinkin' of running, Jack? Think you can outrun the world? You know the problem with being the last of anything, by and by there be none left at all.

Jack Sparrow: I have no sympathy for any of you feculent maggots and no more patience to pretend otherwise. Gentlemen, I wash my hand of this weirdness.

Officer: [to Lord Cutler Beckett Officer about Jack Sparrow] Do you think he plans it all out, or just makes it up as he goes along?

Jack Sparrow: [about the condition of the tack line] It is neither proper nor suitable. It is not acceptable, nor adequate. It is, in obvious fact, an abomination.

Captain Sao Feng: The only way for a pirate to make a living these days is by betraying other pirates.

Jack Sparrow: Mr. Gibbs!
Gibbs: Aye, cap'n?
Jack Sparrow: You may throw my hat if you wish.
Gibbs: Aye, AYE! [Gibbs throws Jack's hat into the celebrating crowd]
Gibbs: Hurrah!
Jack Sparrow: Now go and get it.

Elizabeth Swann: Pretty speech from a captor, but words whispered through prison bars lose their charm.

Jack Sparrow: [to Tia Dalma] You add an agreeable sense of the macabre to any delirium.

Captain Barbossa: I do not renege on a bargain once struck but we agreed on ends only, the means are mine to decide.

Elizabeth Swann: You will listen to me! LISTEN! The other ships will still be looking to us, to the Black Pearl, to lead, and what will they see? Frightened bilgerats aboard a derelict ship? No, no they will see free men and freedom! And what the enemy will see, they will see the flash of our cannons, and they will hear the ringing of our swords, and they will know what we can do! By the sweat of our brow and the strength of our backs and the courage in our hearts! Gentlemen, hoist the colours!

‘The Wide Lens: A New Strategy for Innovation’ by Ron Adner

These days, it is enough to read the introduction and then quickly scan the rest of the content to absorb the essence of most management books. The Wide Lens is one book I have read cover to cover, and now am in my second round!

In today’s interdependent world, no matter your situation, your success depends not just on your own innovation and execution excellence, but also on the ability and willingness of the visible as well as invisible partners that make up your ecosystem. This is often a blind spot for many.

Using great examples from tyres to telecom – both successes and failures – Ron Adner introduces a new set of tools and frameworks that will uncover a company’s hidden sources of dependence in taking an innovation to market.

Here is a sneak peek into the Wide-Lens Tool-Box:

• Begin by gaining a clear view of your Value Blueprint. It will reveal hidden Co-innovation and Adoption Chain Risks. Drawing a clear blueprint will encourage you and your team to formulate a plan for dealing with problematic elements proactively, at the start of your journey. It will help you avoid the familiar improvisation of tactical adjustments that is the hallmark of incomplete strategy.

• Using the Leadership Prism to assess the distribution of expected surplus will help you identify who the natural ecosystem leadership candidates are, and whether you are among them. Using the First Mover Matrix will help you determine your ideal timing, letting you see whether the structure of interdependence is likely to reward early movers or hold them at the starting line waiting for the race to start.

• Exploring alternative blueprints using the Five Levers of Ecosystem Reconfiguration will help you arrive at a plan that can accept the constraints of your ecosystem and still deliver a complete value proposition. And coupling this exercise with the principles of the Minimum Viable Footprint, Staged Expansion, and Ecosystem Carryover, will help you identify the best sequence to follow in building toward your value proposition, and then leverage this achievement to extend your advantage to additional opportunities.

Bottom Line: Eliminate avoidable failure; strategise more robust success!

Aren’t the phrases Value Blueprint, Leadership Prism, Minimum Viable Footprint teasing you enough to grab the book at first opportunity?