The First $20 Million Is Always the Hardest - Movie Review Example

The First $20 Million Is Always the Hardest (2002) This interesting movie shows the behavior of the market. It makes it easy to see how the performance in real life through a movie. To be an entrepreneur is not an easy thing it requires many things, but above all, you have to be hardworking, smart and innovative to stay ahead of your competitors. This movie revolves around people who want to create a niche in the tough market, but they face many challenges. When Andy quits his job as a marketer because he did not find the job interesting, he finds another job in a research company.

Benoit gives him a pc to sell at a cost of $99, but it proves to be a tall order. He quickly finds a team consisting of Alisa who is an artist, Salman Fard, Darrell and Curtis. They together form a team to ensure they cut a niche in the market to sell their product. The strategies they employ are similar to the ones suggested by Michael E. Porter, who suggests strategies to employ whenever a business faces competitive forces. Michael suggests that, a business is faced by the following competitive forces; the threat of new entrants in the market, bargaining power of buyers, threats of substitute product or services, bargaining power of suppliers, and rivalry among existing competitors.

It is evident that Andy and his team face similar competitive forces in their quest to sell their product in competitive market with the ones named by Michael. For example, they find that they cannot sell their product at a cost of $99 because it is expensive and nobody will buy it. This is because big companies who enjoy the economies of scale already exist. Buyers too are rational and they cannot buy an expensive product from un-established company when established company sells it cheap. All these challenges of the competitive forces in the market prompt them to devise strategies that are similar to the ones suggested by Michael E. porter. Together as a team, they devise means to ensure they cut a niche in the market.

They used creativity and innovation to introduce a product that is new and cheap at the same time. First, they concentrated on reducing the amount of hardware on the pc and increasing the amount of software to make it small and unique. They reduce the cost of producing the product by replacing expensive hardware with the cheap ones. Andy suggests they replace the monitor with cheap holographic projector. Darell suggest they replace the mouse with virtual reality gloves and finally Curtis designed a hypnotizer code to connect the gloves with the projector and internet.

They failed to finalize on their project due to lack of funds. They quit LaHonda Company and form emagi, but still they faced many challenges. They were able to improve the image of their products thanks to Alisa who came out with the whole idea (Porter, 116). The team formed after Benoit gave Andy the almost impossible task to sell the pc at $99. He looks for a team starting from Alisa who was an artist, Salman Fard who was hacking at the CIA files, Darell and Curtis often referred as “Tiny”.

They all form a team. They all start to brainstorm to make the pc less expensive so as convince buyers to buy it. They all used their expertise to come up with facilities that shaped the pc and made it compete amid many competitive forces in the market. They succeeded finally, with the final touch coming from an artist Alisa, who makes the product attractive to buyers’ eyes. This movie shows in detail how it is to be an entrepreneur. It is not easy but if you apply the strategies suggested by Michael, you will be able to fight the competitive forces in the market and succeed.

Work cited Porter E. Michael. Competitive Strategy: Techniques for Analyzing Industries and Competitors. New York City: Simon and Schuster publishers 1998. Print.