Issue Date: November 30, 2008
The Sopranos
An Ivy-League business guru reflects on the HBO series about the head of a modern-day Mob family.
The Plot
The Complete Series DVD set, out now, comes in a sleek linen box with a 56-page album and body bag-full of extras.
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HBO's Emmy-winning series trails Tony Soprano (James Gandolfini), "Jerzy's" favorite bathrobe-wearing Mob boss, as he deals with disloyal underlings, FBI subpoenas and encroachment from rival families. But those problems are nothing compared with the ones he has at home. Constant fights with his wife (Edie Falco) and their kids (Jamie-Lynn Sigler, Robert Iler) send Tony into therapy.
Our Insider
Harvard Business School professor John P. Kotter was named the top "leadership guru" in a 2001 survey by BusinessWeek magazine. In addition to his executive videos, Kotter has written many acclaimed books on corporate management practices. His latest, A Sense of Urgency, lays out a strategy for motivating people without creating panic or burnout.
OVERVIEW "The writing and the acting on 'The Sopranos' is clever. It also deals with some fundamental life themes in a highly artistic way. It has a lot of magnets to grab people."
LEADER OF THE PACK "Tony wouldn't make a good CEO. But he does have some qualities that great leaders do have. He can be at times generous and funny. He can be competent at managing the relationships in his organization and dealing with his business. He can, at times, show a vulnerable side [he cries in therapy, for example], which, believe it or not, all great leaders do, because it makes them human and attracts more people to them. Of course, Tony's missing a few things [that quality] CEOs have, like a solid conscience and a willingness to stay inside the law."
ALL IN THE FAMILY "If I was teaching a class in family business, I could use this show. Tony's organization has a lot of the characteristics and problems that you find in any family business. One is succession. When the head of the family drops off, what happens? There is a process in regular businesses for dealing with it, but in a family, it's a trickier thing, as we see in Tony's power struggle with his Uncle Junior. Look at [some families who own major chains and then the CEO dies and kids] go trying to whack each other. They don't use guns; they use lawyers. But let's face it, lawyers can be worse than guns sometimes."
-- Reed Tucker
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