The September Issue

We watched the DVD of the movie The September Issue this week. This is the story of Anna Wintour, editor in chief of Vogue magazine, her relationship with her creative director Grace Coddington, and the conflicts and choices that occurred in creating the mammoth (pre-crash) September 2007 issue of Vogue, which was thicker by 100 pages than any issue of the magazine ever published.

I would highly recommend this movie, whatever you think of fashion -- if you are interested in people, in business, in the creative process, and leadership, it's simply a wonderful film.

People who are interested in Warren Buffett will find it intriguing. No, he does not appear in a cameo advertising NetJets or anything like that. Rather it is worth seeing this film because there are certain resemblances between his personality and Anna Wintour's. Most people are never going to spend a lot of time with Buffett, and you are certainly never going to see a film like this about Buffett, one that follows him around for weeks and captures him with his guard down. But you can get a sense of it by analogy through this film.

Caveats: (BOLDFACE) Anna Wintour is not the least bit warm (this is even mentioned in the film); her staff is afraid of her; she's intimidating. In these respects she has nothing in common with Buffett.

Similarities:

> Anna Wintour describes her strength as "decisiveness." You see it in action throughout the film. It is much like watching Warren make decisions -- boom, boom, boom, zero hesitation. Oddly, watching her make decisions in this film may be the closest you will get to seeing him at work.

> Why is this? She was born to be editor of Vogue. It's her destiny. You can see in this film a person who is moving through the day effortlessly, like a fish swimming, because it is her natural element. Even when there are challenges and difficulties, you can't imagine anyone but her sitting in that office dealing with them. Warren is like this; he invests and makes decisions so intuitively. Watch this film and you will see.

> Both are extremely competitive and perfectionists. Buffett does not terrorize his employees the way Anna Wintour does, but he is demanding in his own way and especially of himself. 

> Each of them have alter-egos -- "genius" partners who are willing to stay in the background, who make enormous contributions and who clash with the star, their boss, occasionally. Anna Wintour's relationship with Grace Coddington is not exactly like Warren and Charlie Munger, because Charlie is more of an equal, he's more confrontational and Warren gives him way more public credit. But there are still some interesting similarities. Although it's hard to imagine Charlie with that hair :-) Grace, by the way, is the most likeable person in the movie.

> There is something in Wintour that seems apart from the human race, that quality of separateness you see in people who are vessels of something larger than themselves. To be unique in this particular way brings a sort of loneliness because there is no one who can share your world.

I don't want to go too far with this analogy, obviously Wintour and Buffett are quite different people. But you can't help but be struck by the comparison. In a sense, all people of extraordinary gifts have something in common -- discerning what it is makes biography interesting. So for those of you who are indeed interested, I  recommend the film.