“Other People’s Money” by Norman Jewison is one of the better business related films I have watched in quite some time. Danny Devito plays the role of Lawrence Garfield to perfection, and truly takes on the “bad guy” persona with open arms. “Other People’s Money” caught my attention from the beginning due to the plot’s central involvement around the stock market. In addition to this, the movie is an excellent example that shows how entrepreneurship and society are intertwined!
The story is focused on Lawrence Garfield who is the president of Garfield Investments in New York City. He is infamously known as “Larry the Liquidator” due to his past of buying companies and then turning around and selling their assets for profit. Garfield sets his sights on a struggling company called “New England Wire and Cable,” and attempts to meet with Andrew Jorgenson who is the chairman of the company. After the meeting, Andrew asks his stepdaughter (who is a high profile corporate lawyer) for legal advice. This is where Kate Sullivan enters the scene, and she serves as the mediator between the two companies for the entirety of the movie. Kate offers multiple reasonable solutions to the matter but Jorgenson shuts all of them down, and claims that having 20% ownership of the company and his traditional methods will be more than enough to protect his company from Garfield. As the movie goes on Kate uses her charming looks and personality to persuade Lawrence to not buy more stock of the company, and help reach a compromise. Garfield falls for the bait, and repeatedly attempts to see Kate to talk about “business.” Eventually, Kate also catches a soft side for Garfield, who is already blinded by his love of her. Towards the end of the movie Garfield must make a tough decision and choose between the money, or his passion for Kate.
The final decision that Jorgenson believed would be the most fair was to let the general public have a vote at the annual shareholders meeting. Kate convinced Lawrence to agree, so the vote was set to be held in December. At the meeting the local shareholders gathered inside while the factory workers protested outside of the building. When the meeting begins, Jorgenson gives a powerful speech about how “Larry the Liquidator” doesn’t care about the locals and is greedy for money. He adds on to that by saying that he cares about his workers and locals and receives a standing ovation from the crowd. Lawrence counters off that in his argument by basically convincing the shareholders that the company is on its deathbed regardless, and if he doesn’t do this someone else will. He also intrigues the crowd by letting them know voting for him will give them benefits and make them money off their investment. Lawrence ends up winning the vote in a very bittersweet moment for him.
Throughout the movie there were various instances that showed how entrepreneurship and society can be intertwined. Perhaps the most glaring view of this is the support of the entire community involving the issue of New England Wire and Cable. Lawrence Garfield created a nightmare for many, and a blessing to others with his business proposition. Many factory workers would be losing their jobs and sources of income, but on the other hand many shareholders had a great opportunity to make profit. Although Garfield may seem like a monster to many, he believes he is quite the opposite and refutes this with this claim; “I don’t take money from widows or orphans, I make them money instead.” Garfield sees himself as somewhat of a modern day Robinhood with his methods.
This topic can be related to our studies in class in multiple different ways, but the most glaring one to me is creative destruction. In class we have talked about numerous examples of this; Ford wiping out horses and carriages, Netflix taking out Blockbuster, and even Uber destroying the Taxi business. In this scenario, Lawrence Garfield realized how outdated New England Wire and Cable was, and created an innovative plan to make a profit off of it!