The Margin Call film was recorded in the Wall Street Investment Bank, which is one of the largest markets in America. It highlighted the financial crisis experienced by the bank between 2007 and 2008. The film features employees who are faced with a dilemma on how to ensure that the bank regains its past glory by saving its status. The employees are forced to work for long hours to deal with the financial crisis facing the company. The cast works tirelessly for thirty-six hours to save the company as failure to do so will make them lose their wealth. The main characters by their stage name include Sam Rodgers, Peter Sullivan, Sarah Robertson, John Tuld and Will Emerson (Reviews & Ratings for Margin Call 3).
Sam is an enterprising person and a shrewd head of sales and trade. The primary job of the department is to ensure that all transactions are done correctly to maximize the company’s profits. Since the beginning of the film, it is only after the team is under pressure to make sure that everything is under control that Sam discovered that he had the capability to save the company (Bradshaw 1).
Sam is diligent, and his main drive is the desire to see his company remain on the top. Stability of the business is what ensures that there is a continuous increase of wealth for both the company and its employees. Sam has a good work ethic; for that reason, he is a good role model for the rest of the employees as he does his job in the right manner. He is not driven by greed, and that was proven when he declined to take his boss’s offer of a job extension. Instead, he had opted to resign. That is enough proof that he was a caring leader, unlike his workmates.
Sam took the responsibility of informing the CEO about the risk that the company was likely to face in case it sold off all the toxic assets it possessed. In addition, he was at the forefront of generating income for the institution through the reduction of the MBS assets. As the manager, Sam used his wits to ensure that he achieved balance at work and in protecting his wealth. He proved to be a good leader for he took it upon himself to save the company despite the many predicaments he faced. Probably, his life skills helped him choose to do the right thing despite the pressure to act otherwise.
Peter Sullivan takes the role of a junior employee in the department of risk management. He is an aggressive and self-motivated employee who uses a past project, done by a former employee, Dale, to help solve the crisis faced by the bank. He is also ambitious, and that makes him unmask the level of risk the company is facing through calculating the total risk since the company began. His desire to get promoted makes him work extra hard so that his superiors would recognize him.
Sullivan is interested in presenting a good image by following protocol when addressing the monster in the room- the company’s financial crisis. He is certainly a risk taker and not even his predicament (on whether investigating the company’s risk is bad) stops him. Digging such information increases his risk of being sacked, but his shrewdness makes it easy for him. Despite working hard to seek approval, Sullivan does the right thing by blowing the whistle on the company’s position. If he had not done so, the company would have collapsed, and the rest of the employees would have lost their jobs. The company would have lost its assets and credibility too. The fear of exposing the top management does not cow, which makes him a good worker.
Will Emerson takes the responsibility of monitoring the department of human resource, as he is a senior trader at the bank. When he received the information about the risk that the bank was facing, he took it upon himself to inform Sam through the right channel. He saves his wealth with the bank and for this reason, he feels obliged to tell Sam of the happenings. Right after, he cooperates with Sam by minimizing his class of assets. Will is a team player whose action are motivated by his desire to save his wealth. He is also spontaneous for he reports the crisis facing the bank immediately he learned about it to the head of sales and trade.
The C.E.O, John Tuld, is responsible for retrenching several company employees when he realizes that the company is incapable of paying its workers. He suggests that the company sells all its toxic assets for he fears that the market might withdraw, leaving for their competitors when they find out the crisis the company is facing (Bernstein 6). He even goes further to advertise Sarah’s position. Sarah is one of the board members. He claims that she receives a large salary that is gotten from the employees. The move is aimed at saving the company finances’.
The fact that he knew about the risk situation, yet did nothing is proof that he is not aggressive. He did not even inform the stakeholders and the employees. He was capable of coming up with ways to mitigate the risk (Bradshaw 8). Tuld is a greedy leader who is interested in staying powerful at the expense of other people. This is proved when he failed to fire Sarah as a favor. He was hoping that in case the company collapsed, and he lost his job, Sarah would return the favor by helping him find another job.
He also manipulates her and demands a share of her salary, as she knows she is at his mercy, and he can fire her at any time. In summary, the CEO is a corrupt leader who does not allow his subordinates, especially Sam, to leave the company, as he believes he is capable of leaking the company’s secrets to the competitors. To ensure that Sam remains quiet about the crisis the bank is facing, he offers him a promotion. He tries to convince him using theories of a competitive market. He also tells that in the world of business, one can lose or win.
Tuld is not a suitable leader. The company ought to have fired him a long time ago. He is greedy for wealth and power. His decisions are not for the good of the company but his benefit. He lacks good work ethics and is highly biased. As a good leader, which he is not, he should have fired Sarah. With the remaining employees, he would then lay down rules on how to deal with the crisis by properly managing the risks and selecting Sam to lead the team.
Sarah is a board member who is used by the CEO, Tuld, to make money from the company. She receives a large salary despite sitting down all day doing nothing. Whatever she gets as her salary, she splits it into two halves and gives Tuld one share (Tunzelmann 9). She is greedy for wealth and power, and this is what makes her steal from the company.
Despite being knowledgeable on the matter of risk the company is facing, Sarah does not take it upon herself, as the chief risk manager, to explain this situation to the employees and the board members. She is a self-centered manager for she never resigned even when her office was charged with corruption.
In addition, Sarah is highly ignorant for she just sits around waiting for the company to collapse despite her knowhow on the matter of risk the company is facing. She should have been the whistleblower, and maybe the right measures would have been taken in time to help deal with this crisis. She is the type that gets relaxed and comfortable on climbing the ladder of success leaving the low-level employees to do all the work.
Sarah forgot that she was put in that position to help the company identify and deal with any risk. Sarah was not an honest worker. She should have stepped down from her position the moment she was charged with corruption. She should have given up her position to a more industrious people willing to make an honest living. She should not have collaborated with Tuld to steal money from the company. If the company desires to do better and save it finances, it needs to fire her immediately for she is a dishonest manager.
Dale is not the main character, but he is responsible for giving Sullivan the project he was formerly working on. It is after working on it that Peter discovers the risk the company is exposed to. Dale, therefore, gives an insight to Peter. He is, however, doing this to get himself connections in case he loses his job. The company later takes him back to silence him for he is well informed of the shady dealings taking place in the company and the status of the institution. Dale acted hastily to save his career. Though he was initially in the same position as Sarah, he did the right thing by hinting to Peter about the situation the bank was in as this was what saved it from collapsing.
Reflecting on the events of the film, one can draw many business lessons. First of all, the film is rich in issues related to ethics. For an organization to succeed in the current business world, it must be ethical in its dealings. However, that was not the case for the company in the film. The management, starting with the CEO, was involved in underhand dealings that compromised the integrity of the top managers.
For instance, the CEO was aware about the company’s financial situation, but he did not bring that matter to the attention of the board members for the fear of being sacked. Sarah, on the other hand, earned a salary she did not deserve. She had a deal with the CEO to keep everything covered. The deal between the CEO and Sarah highlights the extent of the moral rot in the company.
However, everything rises and falls with organizational values. It appears that the company did not value ethics in the company. It was not part of the organizational culture, which probably influenced the bad decisions made by the top leaders.
Teamwork is also lacking in the organization. It appears that everyone was working as an individual instead of working as a group. The challenges facing the company would not have been there in the first place if the organization had embraced teamwork. Most of the things would have been pointed out with a good teamwork in the organization.
Greed is also another theme highlighted in the film. The bad decisions made by the top management point out the level of greed in the organization. There was no consideration for the organization’s stakeholders, who include the employees, the customers, and the public. Everything was assumed to be right, as long as it did not influence the short-term goals of the CEO. Consequently, many of the ills facing the organization were covered up for a long time, and only Sam made genuine attempts to point them out.
Another factor highlighted in the film is the issue of accountability. Lack of accountability brought about the mess the company faced. Accountability was not there at individual and organizational level. Consequently, a series of bad decisions were taken and in the end the company was in a big financial mess.
Introspectively, the film highlights many issues facing organizations today. The global financial crisis highlighted many structural weaknesses in organizations, particularly organizations dealing with finance. Many financial organizations grew tremendously, but without a good risk management structure.
In conclusion, the desire for power and wealth drives people to go extra miles to get either of the two or even both. Having them makes people spend sleepless nights trying to find ways on how to maintain the status or the acquired property. This film has ambitious characters, and each has a motivating factor. They are either interested in getting a promotion, keeping their jobs or covering up their tracks. Tuld and Sarah portray the character of greed when they hold onto their offices just to acquire more wealth than they already have. They are ambitious, but they also lack good work ethics and are self-centered. Tuld most especially is very corrupt and uses his position to gain money by manipulating Sarah. He is also very biased as he fails to fire Sarah since she benefits him; instead, he fires the low-level employees. None of the two is interested in saving the company. Despite the top management being corrupt, Sullivan and Sam show that they are willing to go an extra mile to save the company. Sullivan works on a project that reveals the risk the company is facing, and this earns him a promotion. Sam, on the other hand, is the perfect example of a good leader. He makes sound decisions that saved the company and is not greedy. He is very shrewd, and while saving the company, he can protect his wealth too. He does everything in his power to ensure that the company is saved from the financial crisis despite the many challenges he faced. Will is a great team player and spontaneous too. He and Dale work hard mainly to protect their wealth and jobs. It is probably the common interest of every character to save their property that made them gain more interest to save the company. They, therefore, had similar interests. It was obvious to all the characters that if the company collapsed, then their wealth and efforts would automatically go to waste.
Works Cited
Bernstein, Jake. Margin Call: A Small Movie Unveils Big Truths About Wall Street. 23 November 2011. Web. 25 February 2016. <https://www.propublica.org/article/margin- call-a-small-movie-unveils-big-truths-about-wall-street>.
Bradshaw, Peter. Margin Call – review. 12 January 2012. Web. 25 February 2016. <http://www.theguardian.com/film/2012/jan/12/margin-call-film-review>.
Ebert, Roger. Margin Call. 19 October 2011. Web. 24 February 2016. <http://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/margin-call-2011>.
Reviews & Ratings for Margin Call. 23 October 2011. Web. 25 February 2016. <http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1615147/reviews>.
Tunzelmann, Alex von. Margin Call: all the spills of high-level corporate finance, but few thrills. 19 January 2012. Web. 25 February 2016. <http://www.theguardian.com/film/2012/jan/19/reel-history-margin-call>.
