Group 11 Final Project Submission IIM Kashipur

1. Movies for Management
Group Assignment
Submitted by:
Group 11
Aditya Maheshwari (MBA19003) | Aditya Shekhar (MBA19086)
Alok Tripathi (MBA19087) | Archit Pateria (MBA19094) | Nishant Sharma
(MBA19124)
Movie: The Social
Network

2. The Social Network
Based on The Wizard of Lies by Diana B. Henriques
Written by
Sam Levinson
Sam Baum
John Burnham Schwartz
Directed by Barry Levinson
Starring
Robert De Niro
Michelle Pfeiffer
Alessandro Nivola
Hank Azaria
Nathan Darrow
Kristen Connolly
Kathrine Narducci
Music by
Evgueni Galperine
Sacha Galperine
Country of origin United States
Original language(s) English
Producer Joseph E. Iberti
Cinematography Eigil Bryld
Editor Ron Patane
Running Time 132 minutes
Production Company HBO Films
Original Network HBO Films
Original Release May 20,2017
About the Movie

3. Plot of the Film
• The movie “Social Network” released in 2010, is based on the real life story of how the social networking
website Facebook was born, the controversies it went through and the lawsuits it had to endure.
• The plot revolves around Mark Zuckerberg who is shown to be a Harvard University student in they year
2003. In retaliation to his girlfriend’s behavior, Mark launches a website called “Facemash” which would
allow his colleagues at Harvard to rank the female students.
• This is how he catches the eye of the tech-savvy business people such as the Winklevoss twins who invite
him onboard to be a programmer for a website they are planning to launch called “Harvard Connection”
which exclusively connects Harvard students all over the world and this is how Zuckerberg is introduced to
the world of social networking.
• Mark is then shown to build on this idea himself as he understands the potential of it. The movie then
depicts the short time-span in which he uses some money from his friend, Saverin and launches his own
version of the website called “The Facebook” The website soon catches a huge traction and finds its way into
other elite universities such as Yale, Oxford etc.
• This rapid evolution draws attention of the creator of “Napster”, Sean Parker who leaves no stone unturned
to form a bond with Zuckerberg in order to become a part of the team of Facebook. Soon after doing so,
Parker and Zuckerberg throw Saverin under the bus by diluting his shares from 34% to 0.03 % and
consequently removing him from the co-founder status.

4. Plot of the Film continued…
• Six years later, Facebook is shown to be the biggest social networking site in the world and with this global
phenomenon, Mark Zuckerberg finds himself as the youngest billionaire in the history.
• Meanwhile, Winklevoss twins are infuriated with Zuckerberg for “stealing their idea”. The settlements takes
years but Zuckerberg is finally forced to shell out 65 million dollars and an undisclosed amount to the first
investor and his friend, Saverin.
• The movie, directed by David Fincher, deals with a wide range of themes involving ambition, complacence,
friendship, class and cultural cache. It explores the difficulty involved in adoption of new technology and
ideas while also depicting the emotional imbalances that happen when colossal success is achieved
overnight. This is reflected by Zuckerberg’s
• Another very central theme of the film is the evolution of communication and its impact on relationships
which is essentially a comment on how people have become impersonal after the advent of these social
networking websites.
• The screenplay of the film is crafted in such a way so as to excite and entertain both technical and non-
technical viewers. It takes them on an emotional roller-coaster ride where we sometimes hate the
protagonist, Mark Zuckerberg and in the others feel bad for him as in the last scene where Mark is shown to
be sitting all alone, sending a friend request to his ex-girlfriend and refreshing the screen to see if she has
accepted it.

5. Character to be Analysed: Sean Parker
• Justin Timberlake plays the character of Sean Parker who is
showed as a controversial and rather evil character in the movie.
• Sean Parker is the founder of the revolutionary music
application/website Napster which changed the music industry.
• The character is portrayed tries manipulating Mark and convinces
him to add him as a partner and owned 6.47% of the billion
dollar company at the time of release of movie.
• Sean Parker is shown as a Playboy character with immense talent
and knowledge about technology but had been a regular
offender in cases of girls and drugs abuse.
• He senses an opportunity of making money in his time of crisis
and helps Mark get the initial funding but at the expense of his
first business partner Eduardo.
• We can say that he was in a way responsible for the feud
between Mark and Eduardo which costed Mark invaluable time
in lawsuits and defamation from the community
Sean Parker
Justin Timberlake as Sean Parker

6. Sean Parker: A character study
Very knowledgeable
• Created Napster at a very young age: There were
no questions about his intelligence and even
Mark was awed by his brilliance. He created
Napster at very young age and uploaded it on
internet for free even though there were several
buyers.
• Can sway Mark with his knowledge about the
tech industry: Mark was completely unaware
about the potential of his application and was
swayed in their first meeting at New York from
his knowledge about tech industry
• Predicted the billion-dollar valuation for
Facebook: Mark and Eduardo were still in college
and didn’t know about the potential of their
website. They just wanted to stick of prestigious
colleges for networking. Sean predicted a billion
dollar valuation of Facebook at early stage
through different business model and suggested
to expand to different continent.
Professional but overconfident
and arrogant
• Created an app and uploaded it on the
internet for free: He uploaded his first app
free of cost but could have made it big had he
been professional. He was also kicked from his
second company due to his problems of drugs.
• Has good knowledge about the tech industry
but lacks an original idea: His ideas lacked
originality and was always caught in some
lawsuits. Napster faced huge backlash from
music industries as it violated the piracy laws.
His knowledge about the industry was to the
mark and he guided Mark
• Kicked out Eduardo Saverin from his own
company: It was his arrogance and fear of
getting ousted that he kicked Eduardo from
the company he had funded since the
beginning. It was his insecurity about his
position in the company which pushed him to
used the unlawful way which impacted Mark
later.

7. Very dominative
• Continuously insults people other than Mark:
Even though he didn’t know Mark and his
friends, he tried to asset himself over them and
held himself in superior position. He
disregarded the suggestions of Mark’s friend
and either subjected them to insult or forced
them to work according to his way
• Kicked out Eduardo and slapped the legal
trickery on his face: Tricked Eduardo in a legal
way and diluted the shareholding of Eduardo
through cheating and when confronted with
the same, he tried to show it as a normal way
of operation and remained dominant in front of
Mark’s intern and colleagues.
Visionary, Foresighted and
Resourceful
• Meeting with VCs: Even though Sean was
manipulative and greedy, he showed Mark
the right way and set-up meetings with
potential venture capitalists who were
interested in investing in the company. He
arranged the initial $500,000 funding for
Facebook and played a pivotal role in
setting up the business in the initial phase.
• Calling Mark to California: Sean knew that
the silicon valley of California would be the
best place to grow for a company like
Facebook where the competition was
intense and there were several people
looking to fund the start-ups. Also
interacting with like-minded people could
have helped Mark grow
Sean Parker: A character study

8. Response, interaction and Fight with different
environments and situations
• Has the foresight to know what will be accepted or Hip in the
internet era. Recommended Mark to remove ‘The’ from the
website’s name. Turned out to be a masterstroke.
• Had a deep understanding of where the social media thing was
moving towards. Suggested Mark to stick with his website and
chase a billion-dollar dream rather than a million-dollar one. Gave
example of Victoria Secret’s original founder who just sold the
company for $5 million dollar as he was able to manage the
company, the company’s valuation reached $500 million 2 years
later and the original founder committed suicide.
• Social animal – Had to ability to manipulate a genius like Mark from
the moment he met him. He was good with words and had
relatable stories in their first meeting in New York to catch the
attention of Mark and how he would be beneficial for the
company’s future.

9. • When facing an extremely difficult situation- Mentally broke up
therefore not mentally resilient. Could be explained by regular
drug usage. In the last few minutes of the movie, Mark gets to
know about his drug problem and how he mentally not strong
due to continuous use of drugs.
• Did not have the ability to lead however was an excellent
‘follower’. It was quite evident that he didn’t want to lead the
organization and preferred being in the shadows and make
impact. Even after having revolutionary ideas he didn’t lead
those company and preferred being at back end of operations
• Was extremely cunning, had the ability to predict the
upcoming challenges and opportunities but did not have the
ability to make the decisions himself. He was aware of the
impact Eduardo could create and be a major stakeholder so he
manipulated Mark to ouster Eduardo from company’s
stockholders but kept his shareholdings intact.
Response, interaction and Fight with different
environments and situations

10. Thank You!