Peter displays his six Marshall stacks and his burnt Fender Strat - a total of 18 Watts of untamed power ...
Last week saw the passing of Jim Marshall, the father of rock and metal amplification. Without the Marshall amp, Jimi Hendrix, The Who, Deep Purple, Led Zeppelin and a host of other musicians would not have got the classic sound that became a trademark of their music. Marshall’s great contribution to the world of music was twofold:
The Marshall stack produced a warm fuzzy sound, beloved by rock musicians, unlike its peers such as Fender, which were considered more suitable for jazz.
Marshall stacks were quite simply loud, giving Jim Marshall the nickname “The Father of Loud”. The spoof metal band ‘Spinal Tap’ coined the phrase “The numbers go up to 11” and more recently “20″ based on the amplifier’s reputation:
As a tribute to the man behind the technology, I’ve put together a short series of videos that give testament to Jim Marshall’s contribution to music over the last 50 years. No doubt Bernie Tormé will be cranking his Marshall stack up at our “Leadership meets Rock showcase” event in June.
I’m delighted to announce a very exciting event coming up. We are putting on a ‘Monsters of Rock Business’ event. A unique blend of a leadership keynote, business to business networking, a live music performance and an opportunity to meet Bernie Tormé and John Howitt, star performers. See below for details. Limited tickets are available for the event – To buy tickets, click on the link RIFFS AND MYTHS OF LEADERSHIP or e-mail me direct peter@humdyn.co.uk.
The event is part of an offering that we can deliver to businesses in a variety of formats from 90 minutes to a full day experience wrapped around specific business issues, identified in advance or as part of a corporate leadership development programme with one of our partners e.g. Imperial College London.
I interviewed Bernie Tormé the other week alongside the rest of the band and two clients, Steve and Andy, who came to Bernie’s studio for a private masterclass, to get the inside track on music, creativity and business. Oh, yes, and joy of joy, we even had a jam session with the great man himself
Bernie : In the course of my career, I have worked with a fair mix of class A rock stars. The music business is a great teacher of life skills such as negotiating, marketing, teamwork, high performance and so on, both how to do them well and occasionally the dark side of the force. We’ll be discussing these and other topics at the event. At the same time, I’ll be playing some music, which is always a lot of fun. I’m leaving the satanic art of business to you lot!
On Improvisation and Innovation
Peter : Given that Rock’n’Roll has its own conventions and that there are only 12 intervals in an octave and so on, tell me about your approach to the guitar when you are trying to come up with something new?
Bernie: For me, it is not an intellectual process. I try to go blank and start afresh. If then I spot something that I like, then I will refine it until I have something that hangs together for the piece I’m writing.
John : The Americans call this “If you think, you stink”. It has to be fluid. Some jazz players spend so much time intellectualising how to move from one chord to another that they never produce anything of great value.
Bernie: I have applied the same general approach to lyrics. I’d play the songline over and over and just write phrases until they start to fit. I’d thought that this was fairly unique but I’ve since found that its not. It’s not exactly Bob Dylan ! but then I think even he did that from time to time.
Peter: Sam, you teach music for a living. How do you escape the tramlines of rock history when composing or teaching others to improvise?
Sam : For me, the quote of Albert Einstein is instructive. He said something like: The people who seem like the best geniuses hide their influences the best. So, at my tender age, my music is a sandwiching of my influences, although you would need to know what those were if you were to dissect a piece into its constituent influences. If you did not know this information, you may well find something novel in it. Perhaps novelty arises out of the combination of influences into something new and sublime.
Editor’s note: Sam will not be able to be at the event as he has a hobby of extreme sports and is jumping out of a plane while we play guitars. He will be replaced by Vicky Nolan of the rock band “Genital Sparrow”. Here’s a bit of Sam’s work so you can see what you will miss on this occasion:
On tools for creativity
Peter : Are you aware of any techniques or approaches that assist you in the creative process?
John : I find that listening with new ears is a very important skill. For example, I have been listening again to Glenn Miller of late, noticing things that I’d never noticed before. I think that’s an underrated skill in business.
Steve and Andy : We work in a highly regulated industry (Railways) with a long history. Nonetheless, we need to constantly look for new ideas in the search for improvement and innovation. The idea of looking again at old practices in a new way is highly transferable to our environment. One of our difficulties is the ability to get people to empty their collective minds, due to the long legacy of our industry. So, getting our people to ‘escape’ from the ‘burden’. People tend to look towards their seniors or previous solutions which is not always the best way to solve problems.
Hear my train a comin' - Heavy industry meets heavy rock!
Bernie : I can relate to that. Some bands I’ve been in have had a strong hierarchy – basically “it’s my way or the highway”. Big companies are far more complex, although it’s not as different as you would think. The core of a band is surrounded by a plethora of people involved and they don’t always act in the bands best interests, so even a band is a what Peter would call a complex adaptive system.
John : Can you (Steve and Andy) comment on the impact of the work we did for the kick off of a major IT project? Especially in regard to the value of music in that event.
Steve and Andy : Basically, in one day, we achieved as much as we would have done in 3-4 weeks of meetings in terms of developing a cohesive team that can work, learn and play together.
On whole brained musicianship
Peter : Where do you look in your personal search for inspiration re playing an instrument?
Bernie : Using pure intuition to create and a more intellectual process to judge your work. It sometimes helps to have a producer to fulfill this job as these two jobs require different sides of the brain – the right hand side for the more intuitive, playful style and the left hand side for judgement and evaluation. I also love getting my hands on another instrument to shift gears in my thinking and playing. I had a Sitar for a few years for example. It only had 4 or so songs in it for me, but I would not have had those songs without it.
Peter: What examples would you point to re an innovative approach to rock music?
Bernie : For me, Jimi Hendrix epitomizes innovation in rock music still. His willingness to explore sounds that were way beyond those being used by his contemporaries at the time still stands up to scrutiny. He had a playground approach to using equipment and effects that was totally alien at the time. If you listen carefully to Hendrix’s playing, you can hear hints of Steve Cropper, in the way in which he put in little fills and subtleties. He also fused styles in ways that others would not dream of.
"Genital Sparrow" warm up for some hard rock with Bernie Torme
On the music machine
Peter : Can you tell me about the good, the bad and the ugly of working in a rock band that is printable?
Bernie : NO, NO, NO Peter ! :-) Suffice to say that some of the stories in ‘This is Spinal Tap’ are funny because they are not so far removed from real life. I may offer some ‘Rock’n’Roll life lessons’ at the Monsters of Rock Business event coming up in June, but only if you are very nice to me indeed! :-)
Peter : OK, so what can business people learn from music?
Bernie : One of the difficulties is that once you hit a success recipe, management are interested in you repeating that for years unless you are the exception. For example it’s well known that Ozzy Osbourne is a great Beatles fan, but he has a great reputation for doing heavy metal and he knows that his fans expect that from him and he’s bloody good at it anyway!
John : On the other hand, some bands split up because they don’t evolve. In your talks Peter, you discuss Madonna, Prince and Bowie as examples of that. Is it too far a stretch to suggest that some businesses fail if they don’t evolve?
Peter : Absolutely, for some businesses, stagnation is not an option, but it’s a fine balance – Editor’s note – check out the posts on AC / DC and Learning Companies in this respect.
Bernie : I spotted an opportunity when I was in Ian Gillan’s band. We had a top 10 album although the songs were written by someone else. I found a niche in helping the band repeat and improve on that performance for the next two albums.
John : So, innovation is a brilliant thing, but it does not necessarily put food on the table. A balance between existing and new ventures is needed in any enterprise.
Peter : What can business people learn from the music business?
Bernie : The music business is something of a basket case compared with the sorts of businesses you tend to work in Peter. I understand that you have had a fairly lucky life, working in Research and Development for ‘decent’ companies and in academia, where work is play. That’s pretty much a Rock’n’Roll lifestyle. But my understanding of most businesses is that they are not about that. In that respect management in the music business is no different to what happens in the ‘grind em down’ type of businesses that cause so many people to find work a chore.
Peter : I guess I do have the luxury of working for businesses that by and large have decent leaders and managers My early years were spent at Wellcome Foundation, who gained 4 Nobel Prizes for its work in Tropical medicine etc. We worked hard all day because we could and we played hard all night as well. By modern standards, the company was poorly managed, but excellently led and I draw important parallels between this and the world of rock bands. Perhaps that time has gone, or maybe we are at the tipping point where capitalism must rightly be balanced by a proper sense of purpose if we are to solve important world problems. I have found that you get the best out of people by treating them as humane beings rather than human resources. The world’s greatest leaders in business understand that. The rest, well, perhaps they match some of the worst excesses of the music business.
So come along to Monsters of Rock Business and get yourself a supercharge of Rock’n’Roll Wisdom. Here’s three summary points:
1.If you want to innovate, learn to ‘clear the screen’ of industry limitations for enough time to see the future.
2. Accept that creativity is necessary for innovation but insufficient – perspiration is always more important than inspiration. Learn to sweat as well as glow.
3. Know when to intellectualise and when to behave like an animal in business.
Let’s get the real deal out – here’s Bernie Torme in action, causing some Trouble with Deep Purple’s Ian Gillan – it really does not get much better than this – see you at RIFFS AND MYTHS OF LEADERSHIP for some lessons from the School of Hard Rock.
Firstly, may I thank all of you that have been reading the Rock’n'Roll Business Blog through 2011. We have had a whopping 14 000 views since it started in earnest in June last year.
In terms of 2012, if we are to turn the UK plc round, its going to take every bit of adaptation, learning and innovation. You may care to reflect on some of the more popular posts of 2011 - Lady Gaga and adaptive strategy, Deep Purple, improvisation and innovation, The Beatles on creativity, Prince on excellence, Britney Spears on becoming a learning society, Hendrix v Clapton on innovation and Personal mastery in business and music – lessons from Jeff Beck, Les Paul and Bill Nelson.
So, what does 2012 hold in store for us? Well, here’s some views taken in the course of my travels recently, with the themes linked to pop and rock songs of course!
There is power in a union?
2011 was marked by a resurgence of industrial relations unrest in the UK. However, the recent public sector strikes was marked not by braziers, banners and protest songs, but by the best shopping day in 2011, as retail sales soared. I saw people leaving local government picket lines to go to Costa Coffee at 10 am. Is shopping for Ugg boots and flat screen TV’s the hallmark of the new rebellion?
Can we look forward to more industrial unrest? From talking with people in local government, it seems that there is still plenty of scope for downsizing and it also appears that quite a few people are basically happy with their pension, so it appears that the current industrial unrest may not develop. When I talk to my self-employed friends, there appears to be little sympathy with the strikes – as one remarked “Pension, what pension?” One thing is for sure, in an age of unrest we can expect more performances by proto punk protest singer Billy Bragg:
What’s new pussycat?
During 2011 I met Evan Davis of BBC Radio 4’s Today Programme and Vince Cable, Secretary of State for Business Innovation and Skills. During our conversations we touched on the vexed question of what we should do to rebuild Britain. There are no easy answers here and a debate has since been raging on Linkedin over this issue. There seems to be broad agreement that the UK plc desperately needs more innovation, especially the type that can be exported and that which builds out of our strengths in ways that are hard to copy or appropriate. At the same time the service sector needs to shrink, whether this is through a smaller public service component to the economy or in service industries that merely consume wealth at a local level – for example tanning rooms and burger bars. The change is going to be hard to swallow for some. Doing more of the same will not do, we need to do things differently. Musically, it’s more a case of ‘What’s new pussycat’ rather than ‘Do the standing still’.
We’ve got a meeting with the Department of Business Innovation and Skills to explore some of the ramifications of the UK’s innovation needs coming up. More on innovation coming up in future posts.
What are your hopes and fears for 2012? Post a comment on this blog.
Mastery, unconscious competence, effortless genius. These are all ways to describe what Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi called the state of ‘flow’. What can we learn about ‘flow’ from music that we can transfer to the world of business and personal development?
Let’s begin, not by talking about the state of flow but by experiencing it through looking at masters of their craft operating at a state of effortless genius. Let’s start with jazz master Joe Pass:
What then is flow? Are there any ways to learn how to be in this state and what can we learn from professional musicians?
John Howitt is a professional session musician, who has performed with Celine Dion, Anastasia and Shirley Bassey. He also works with us in our business and music masterclasses. As a session musician, John must be at peak performance with every engagement. I asked him to reveal some of his tips for staying in the flow:
Flow master - John Howitt with Peter - Picture by Jason Dodd - master photographer www.jasondoddphotography.com
Peter : Can you tell us something about your career and the role of practice as a spur to personal mastery?
John : “Mastery comes out of preparation. In business circles, people talk of the need for 10 000 hours disciplined practice to master an art or discipline. Contrary to what amateur musicians might think, to do what I do, it’s all about practice and preparation. I have probably exceeded the 10 000 hours in my career as a session musician and still spend 5 hours a day playing an instrument if I am not actually engaged in a piece of client work”
Peter : Many so-called ‘creatives’ say that they feel they would lose their creativity / mojo if they overprepared. What do you say to that?
John : “Practice gives you ease AND versatility. Playing routine pieces of music almost goes on auto pilot allowing you to concentrate on what is needed to add that extra piece of sparkle. I feel this is just as applicable to business and personal excellence as it is to performing music”
Peter : As well as your stage and session work, I know you also record soundtrack music for films. In your experience, how do you move from a performance role to one that is perhaps more introverted?
John : In one way, there is no difference. When performing, you still need to keep your focus both internally on the mastery of what you are doing, whilst keeping your antennae open to hear those around you. It’s what the business gurus called ‘emotional intelligence’ – living inside your own head AND paying attention to your co-performers. Good musicians and leader do both. Bad musicians and leaders just listen to themselves.
That said, when I’m recording soundtracks, I can focus completely in on the point of detail that I’m working with, PLUS keep in mind the overall piece. The big picture AND the small detail are essential if you are to achieve what Peter Senge calls personal mastery. As a musician or leader, I find it essential to be both gregarious AND solitary.
Peter : On innovation excellence, can you share one important insight for us?
John : I’ll offer two. In music, the innovation challenge lies in breaking away from habits. Practice can force you into habit but it need not. It’s what companies like Toyota, Nokia and First Direct have achieved, rather than just repeating themselves. Furthermore, it’s like Miles Davis says “There are no mistakes”
Please share your thoughts on what gets you in the high performance zone. A recent interview with Tom Peters on the related topic of personal excellence can be found at Innovation Excellence. I found flow is vital when writing perhaps the shortest business book known to man or woman – Punk Rock People Management – get a FREE copy via the link.
If you enjoy this blog, you may also enjoy related blogs at Prince, Deep Purple, Hendrix and Bill Nelson. To finish, let’s see some more masters of music immersed in the art of effortless genius. None other than Jeff Beck giving a tribute to Les Paul, plus the original, plus a tribute to Les Paul by Bill Nelson:
Introducing Chris Glennie, publisher and marketer, who stumbled over Take That (unwillingly ! ) at a concert at Wembley Stadium and found himself contemplating the business issues associated with what the HR profession call ‘teamwork and talent management’ – I’ll let Chris take up the story, but not before we have seen the group in action:
Is the whole greater than the sum of the parts, or does individual talent trump the creativity and productivity of a team? That is the question. It is also the nub of a debate that recently raged on the Harvard Business Review blog.
In the blue corner is William Taylor, cofounder of Fast Company magazine, taking issue with a comment of Mark Zuckerberg’s that ‘Someone who is exceptional in their role is not just a little better than someone who is pretty good … they are a hundred times better.’
In the red corner is Jeff Stibel, chairman and CEO of Dun & Bradstreet Credibility Corp., putting the opposite case. His argument rests on the assertion that ‘great individuals are not only more valuable than legions of mediocrity, they are often more valuable than groups that include great individuals.’
Chris tells me that he is instinctively in the blue corner, through prejudice, education and experience. But his life was changed when he went to see Take That at Wembley Stadium. As the evening progressed, he was struck by how this particular event perfectly encapsulated both sides of the HBR argument:
“Take That’s performance opened with the four members of the original five who re- formed a few years back: Gary, Jason, Donald and Mark. They’re good, really good. They don’t exactly dance anymore, not like they used to, but they move together well, interact, play off each other. And I thought: Well, that’s about as good as it gets, isn’t it?”
“But then, the four disappeared and the manic, charismatic and frankly already too-sweaty figure of Robbie Williams appeared on stage. The crowd went wild. It’s what they all came for, and Williams did not disappoint. Let him entertain us – yes, we did and I couldn’t help thinking that it had a level of energy, excitement, engagement that made it much better than what came before. It was worth the money on its own. I was left thinking that what was inevitably coming – all five back on stage – would be a disappointment.”
“But it wasn’t. Not by any stretch of the imagination. Sure, at times Robbie Williams threatened to break ranks, and when he did the cohesion nearly broke down, but by and large he worked as one of the team, and the whole event just soared beyond my expectations as an agnostic Take That consumer.”
I too as the editor of this blog would probably not go willingly to see Take That due to misplaced predjudices about boy bands but I can appreciate their talent and Chris’s story. It reminds me of a quote from Deep Purple’s Ritchie Blackmore, who said that when you play with good people, it raises your own performance. This concurs with Chris’ experience, Check back to the post on Deep Purple to see great people making each other greater. The same is true of Led Zeppelin and Prince, who is renowned as a great musical mentor who improves other people’s performances when they work with him. I’m in the camp that says if you want to get better, work with great people AND have the humility and suss to play in the team rather than a soloist when required.
So, what are the ‘Takeways’ from Take That?
Take That on teamwork
Individual star talents are as valuable as a cohesive team. When it works, the result can far exceed the separate component parts working alone.
Take That on professionalism
A true professional knows how to play in a team and be an individual solo performer. True professionals are emotionally literate. They know when to push forward and when to hold back and so on.
Take That on talent management
The job of a manager is to harness precocious talents so that the whole is greater than the sum of the parts. There’s no doubt that a star talent can be a challenge to integrate into a team, and others have to work hard on teamwork with such people around. The manager’s job is to bring these elements into harmony.
For more like this read ‘Punk Rock People Management’ and ‘Sex, Leadership and Rock’n’Roll’ – We have a special offer at the moment of ‘buy one, get one dearer’ – Contact me at peter@humdyn.co.uk for this. The new book available as print version, e-book and Kindle, where is was recently rated #1. book in HR / management, surpassing evergreen books such as John Whitmore’s acclaimed ‘Coaching for Performance’ and international HR Guru Dave Ulrich. One reviewer summed it up thus:
POGO POWER: Peter Cook distils HR into 13 concise chapters. I read it on the train this morning and immediately used my ‘instant wisdom’ in a meeting with a client. Most problems are human problems, so safety pin this gem to your leather jacket (OK, carry on your smartphone, if you must) for easy reference.
It takes two ...
About the guest on this blog: After a 20 year career in educational publishing working for blue chip companies and SMEs, Chris Glennie now thinks and writes about the leadership lessons he has learnt along the way. He can be contacted on twitter via @chrisglennie, or via his blog.
The hard rock band Deep Purple are responsible for millions of young boys camping out in music shops trying to play the riff to ‘Smoke on the Water‘. At the age of 14 I used to sit at the top of the stairs at home in the darkness trying to figure out the riff with my Hofner Futurama guitar and 10 Watt Zenta amp, until my mum would shout me to come down to get my fish finger sandwiches. Aside from these problems, Deep Purple offer us a great example of improvisation and discipline in action in the context of a rock outfit. The Mark II incarnation of the band is generally considered to be perhaps the definitive lineup, but also the most volatile. Much of the conflict within Deep Purple arose from Ritchie Blackmore, their phenomenal virtuoso guitarist and moody maverick. Check out Deep Purple Mark II’s work when jamming here:
In this extract from ‘Mandrake Root’ we see the art of improvisation within a disciplined structure as Blackmore sends musical instructions (using his arms as a baton ! ) to the keyboard player Jon Lord, to repeat and develop certain lines (This is particularly obvious around 48 seconds onwards). He also sends orders to the rhythm section of Ian Paice and Roger Glover with respect to starts and stops within the music (around 1 minute 50 seconds). Blackmore’s signs are perhaps more aggressive than those used by Prince to change direction at short notice within the band What then are the parallel lessons for business from Deep Purple? Here’s three to get the discussion started – Please add your own views by commenting on the blog.
1. Innovation in business requires discipline as much as it does creativity: Creativity to come up with novel strategies; Discipline to execute them, so that ideas turn into profitable innovations. Companies such as Google, 3M and Innocent may seem to be all about creativity at first glance, but a deeper inspection reveals discipline and structure, even if that structure does not emanate from ‘management’ in all cases. Giving people 20% of their time to work on speculative projects is the business equivalent of a free form jam within Space Truckin’, Lazy, Mistreated and many other pieces of Deep Purple’s repertoire.
2. It requires extremely strong leadership and a compelling shared vision to hold diverse people together. To encourage a company that continuously learns / adapts and improvises into the future requires leadership that is precise on the destination, yet loose on the journey. We’ve seen this point before in my blog posts on Led Zeppelin and Prince.
3. Conflict will occur where there is diversity / divergence. It must be handled properly if progress is to be made. Ultimately Blackmore’s maverick behaviour proved too much for the band, especially the singer Ian Gillan, and despite several reunions, the band proved impossible to hold together. There have been many arguments to suggest that what Deep Purple Mark II needed was a manager who could hold the various personalities together and perhaps some time off from touring.
What else do you consider we can learn from Deep Purple about business, innovation, conflict and so on? Share your thoughts by making a comment to this blog.
Editor’s postscript: My thoughts go out to Jon Lord who is currently fighting cancer. Although I am a guitar player, it was Jon Lord’s innovative organ playing that led to my fanaticism with Deep Purple. Hoping things progress well.
To finish, here’s another piece by Deep Purple’s Mark II line up, the famous California Jam performance where Ritchie Blackmore destroys several guitars and sets fire to his amplifiers. I can’t immediately think of a transferable corporate lesson from this sequence but it sure is fun. Takes me back to my teenage years with the Zenta amp on all the way up and me smashing the guitar into the speaker trying to coax some feedback out of the amp!
For more Heavy Metal Business articles – check SPINAL TAP on project management and LED ZEPPELIN on strategy. Check out our conferences and events – where we extract business lessons from the Deep Purple classic ‘Smoke on the Water’ amongst many other things. If you like this post, you will love our books ‘Best Practice Creativity‘, Sex, Leadership and Rock’n'Roll‘ and ‘Punk Rock People Management‘ – Punk Rock PM is available for FREE on application. Why not come along to our ‘Monsters of Rock Business’ event in June, featuring Bernie Torme, who played guitar for Ian Gillan? Details below:
Books on innovation and improvisation in business
Looking for Trouble? Come to "Monsters of Rock" feat Bernie Torme
Jimi Hendrix is still considered to be one of the greatest guitar players in the world, more than 40 years after his premature death at the same age as Amy Winehouse. Plenty of guitarists have surpassed Hendrix in sheer technical dexterity, but most people point towards Hendrix’s ‘attitude’ towards the instrument as the source of his genius rather than his technical skill per se. In my own case, my life was never the same after I saved up the money to buy a copy of his hit single ‘Purple Haze’, which I still own. We even staged a re-enactment of Hendrix’s famous guitar burning stunt at a University in Cambridge with a bunch of MBA students some years back. Here’s the record and the result of the spontaneous combustion of my Fender guitar:
Purple Haze - original Track label single
IBM burnt my guitar ....
Check out the real deal from Hendrix’s 1967 performance of ‘Wild Thing’ at Monterey:
Jimi Hendrix is an archetype of what psychologist Professor Michael Kirton would call an innovator, someone who fused together musical ideas to come up with something totally novel. Jimi Hendrix fused the blues with soul, funk, hard rock and psychedelia in a heady cocktail, whereas many musicians stay within a musical genre. In doing so, it could be said that he lost some of his audience in the process, if you were to take a very critical view of his work. See also my post on Prince in this respect.
So what about Eric Clapton then? Let’s take a look at some of Clapton’s classic work in the form of some blues mastery with Buddy Guy:
Generally speaking, Eric Clapton has stayed within the blues genre, (with the exception of a few ballads for the ladies ) sticking closer to this genre and consequentially bringing it to a wider audience. This is the behaviour of what Professor Kirton calls an adaptor. In business, adaptors often have greater success than innovators, as they tend to produce ideas that are less challenging and which are recognised by consumers in the marketplace as being a logical build on existing ideas. It’s the new saying “familiarity breeds repeat purchases”.
Often we need both innovators and adaptors to produce sustainable innovations. The innovators to produce the hard to copy ideas and the adaptors to help bring the ideas into a practical market focus.
In business, examples of innovators include Sir Clive Sinclair, Sir Trevor Baylis and James Dyson whose innovations have not always been in tune with market desire, for example Dyson’s early attempts to redesign the wheelbarrow:
James Dyson's Ballbarrow
Archetypal adaptors would include Bill Gates and Warren Buffet and possibly Sir Richard Branson, who have succeeded by taking relatively low risks with product and service innovation.
Finally, let’s hear another musical boundary crosser / innovator talking about Hendrix, none other than Jeff Beck:
To read about others who have been greatly influenced by Jimi Hendrix, see my post on my night in a pub with Bernie Torme, lead guitarist extraordinaire for Ozzy Osbourne, Ian Gillan and Twisted Sister. Also the music genius Bill Nelson, who has innovated continuously for 40 years in music, whilst shunning the music industry circus.
Last night I had the great pleasure of spending an evening in the pub with Bernie Torme, lead guitarist for Ozzy Osbourne, Dee Snider of Twisted Sister and Ian Gillan of Deep Purple. We have a superb event coming up with Bernie soon – Take a look at Monsters of Rock Business and some of Bernie’s work:
As well as his high profile work with these monsters of rock, Bernie is a talented songwriter and recording artist. As well as a good chat about Prince, Bill Nelson, Gary Moore and other musicians, we spent some time exploring music – business parallels:
1. How the creative process works in music and how that translates into businesses looking to innovate as a source of long term advantage – from songwriting to inventive business thinking. We explored this issue at a global science conference with the Pfizer a while back.
2. How working with rock stars with massive egos has a parallel lesson for people attempting to lead creative / precocious people in intelligent / artistic businesses. This was a key discussion item at London Business School’s strategy summit recently.
3. Improvisation and creativity in music and business – Bernie’s life has been about adding amazing guitar work to polish other star’s performances. He works largely intuitively to do this. How can you tap into a natural intuitive flow? How do organisations such as Google, Imperial College and 3M encourage ‘intuition to order’?
4. Presentation, performance and impact – You have only one chance to make a great first impression on stage with Ozzy! See picture below.
Master of the universe
5. Dealing with conflict and trouble at work – Rock’n'Roll is an excellent arena for learning such skills. Some of Bernie’s stories here are x-rated and outside the scope of a public view!
6. Parallel lessons from the music business for business leaders – contracts, money, changes of plans and so on. I have had personal experience of ‘Rock’n'Roll accounting’ having sponsored a world tour with cult punk rocker John Otway and lost my shirt on the enterprise.
These days Bernie divides his time between his recording studios and work with his band GMT. He is also available for business events and conferences where representatives of your business get to interview him on a range of topics. Bernie also provides cameo performances of his work if an ‘aftershow’ element is required at a conference or event.
On stage Bernie is a mighty force to be reckoned with. Yet, in the pub, he is a thoughtful raconteur with fantastic insights and stories about the crazy world of rock’n'roll. Contact me here or via MUSICAL EXPERIENCES if you would like to book him for an Academy of Rock experience!
Finally, here’s Bernie playing a solo with his band GMT:
Just got back from work today to find out that Amy Winehouse has died. Lest we forget too soon what a great talent Ms Winehouse was:
One of the big downsides of Rock’n'Roll is the plain fact that some people cope better than others with fame and all its demands on them. Sadly, Amy Winehouse will go down in history alongside a long line of those who could only cope with the use of recreational drugs. Janis Joplin, Tommy Bolin, John Bonham, Elvis Presley, Keith Moon, Jimi Hendrix, Phil Lynott, Kurt Cobain, Jim Morrison, Sid Vicious etc. Will we ever learn that the drugs don’t work? I’m afraid I don’t think so. Unfortunately this lesson applies just as much to business as it does Rock’n'Roll. It underlines the importance of finding better coping strategies for pressure and fame than sex, drugs and rock’n'roll.
So, spare a moment to recall the great talent that sprung from this addictive personality:
Amy Winehouse RIP 23 July 2011 aged just 27 – this seems to be a very dangerous age for rock stars Brian Jones, Janis Joplin, Jimi Hendrix, Jim Morrison and Kurt Cobain all left this mortal coil at 27
An unusual request came in recently from the Local Government Information Unit – they have asked us to run an event for Chief Executives on how to save money without costing the earth. I have done a few jobs for Public Services over the years but never been asked to help civil servants do uncivilised things to themselves, such as making cuts. Clearly, we will not be using guitars for this one and it is the realm of our serious day job at Human Dynamics. I am aware from personal experience that Public Services can sometimes find it hard to make the joined up cuts that actually help them deliver services more effectively, preferring to make ‘easier’ cuts that look good on paper, but which damage efficiency and effectiveness overall. One Council I know has recently sacked a load of receptionists. Seems OK? Unfortunately, it now takes people 15 minutes to get into the building with the huge impact on wasted time etc.
Anyway, on a less serious note, I have been asked to launch The Business Women’s Network in a few locations in the coming months. Somewhat strangely, they have asked me to speak on ‘Sex, Love, Relationships and Rock’n'Roll’. I would have thought that they would be much more clued up on business relationships than us men. Anyway, we’ll see.
Finally, I had a day in the studio with Bernie Torme the other day – Bernie is a lovely chap with a fantastic high end studio in a beautiful location in Kent. He has played with Ozzy Osbourne, the prince of darkness and Ian Gillan of Deep Purple. Bernie is available as part of our Musical Experiences portfolio and we shared many interesting stories about the bizarre business of Rock’n'Roll.
And finally, showcasing a great young talent – The amazing Sam Laming, who plays a range of medieval instruments and famously offers a rendition of Bohemian Rhapsody on the Ukelele. We will be incorporating Sam in our Musical Experience events in castles, dungeons and Holiday Inns around the world in the coming months.
