This week, I have a great opportunity for writers, musicians and business leaders. I have just been appointed “Rock’n’Roll Innovation Editor” for a US based Global Innovation Company called Innovation Excellence. The company is run by Julie Anixter, who worked with Tom Peters and Seth Godin amongst other leading business thinkers around the world. Innovation Excellence is the most popular innovation website in the world with over 10 000 readers per day and counting. As part of my job there, I am planning interviews with people in the coming year such as Ahmet Ertegun’s biographer, CEO of Atlantic Records, Bill Nelson, Professor Adrian Furnham, Bernie Torme, Sir Richard Branson and Sir Paul McCartney. We’re starting shortly with a piece about the enigma that is Richard Strange, leader of proto-punk pop-art group The Doctors of Madness and perhaps punk’s godfather,
So, what then does the Rock’n’Roll Innovation Editor do? Good question! You don’t see many RNR Innovation Editors on the staff at the Financial Times or the New York Herald Tribune! My job is to interview, write or commission articles with any of the following types of people:
Innovative musicians – Names that spring to mind include Robert Fripp, Lady Gaga, Brian Eno, Madonna – people who have either innovated within music or are gamechangers in the music industry.
Innovation leaders – Especially those who get the idea that innovative leadership requires both discipline and improvisation – Virgin, Toyota, First Direct, Google, 3M, The Eden Project spring immediately to mind.
Innovation authors and academics – Again those who have a ‘Rock’n’Roll outlook’ on the subject – Brian Clegg, Tom Peters, Adrian Furnham et al are on my list of suspects here.
Innovation Excellence is also open to sponsors who wish to help build the best educational resource in the world for innovation. Contact me via e-mail at peter@humdyn.co.uk to see what’s on offer.
So, in the warped words of the hymn “Come all ye faithful … and also a healthy dose of firestarters …” Drop me a line and let’s see if we can create a guest article or interview.
Speaking of firestarters, time to finish with a bit of that…
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.
I commented on the concept of a learning company in my posts on Lady Gaga and David Bowie recently. The idea of a learning company is a company which learns faster than its competitors and speed of new product / service delivery is vital in today’s business world. Many academics, such as Peter Senge, Chris Argyris and Peter Senge have commented on this idea, which Britney Spears unwittingly stumbled upon in her classic hit “Oops, I did it again”. Let’s see Ms Spears in action:
In the context of business, “oops I did it again” refers to the tendency of businesses to repeat themselves, sometimes in the face of compelling evidence telling them to change course. Organisational learning can mean several things:
Single loop learning – Where we keep existing values and introduce new behaviours – this is often dubbed ‘continuous improvement’, where we look for better ways to do existing things.
Double loop learning – A fundamental reassessment of the way we operate – often more radical and therefore even more difficult.
Companies find it intensely difficult to institute learning at an organisation wide level, be it single or double loop learning. Marks and Spencer nearly went out of business through having such a strong culture that it did not learn from its customers. Manifestations of this included a refusal to accept credit card payments for many years and their disastrous initial expansion into Europe. On the other hand, Toyota have based much of their growth in recent years on behaving as an organisation that learns, alongside other approaches such as lean thinking. This has given them an incredible edge compared with their competitors. I have just come back from giving a keynote on this very topic at the 7th International HR Leadership Conference in Athens on this topic, which is central to a turnaround in the way in which businesses operate in the new world order. I also met Evan Davis from the BBC programme Dragons’ Den last week, where we discussed the need for some new thinking if we are to create a sustainable turnaround in the economy and I shall post separately on this topic soon.
Lessons from Britney: Don’t repeat yourself. Learn and adapt.
I have scoured Britney Spears back catalogue for other songs that have a business leadership lesson in them and, frankly, I have failed. “My perogative”, “Everytime”, “Toxic” – not one transferable business lesson, unless someone can spot something I have missed. So, I have no particular reason for including the video of “Baby one more time”, except for its own value!
p.s. My new book ‘Punk Rock People Management – A no-nonsense guide to hiring, inspiring and firing staff’ is available FREE via the Punk Rock People Management webpage. A print and e-book version are also available at PUNK PM. Britney Spears gets a mention as an honorary punk rocker in the book, even though she is not one.
HR without all the boll...cks - Photo courtesy of Lindsay Wakelin Photography
Finally, let’s hear a Louis Armstrong mashup of Britney’s masterpiece:
Very short post here to mention two performances of a special show written by Joe Blair, on the life, loves and music of Leonard Cohen at the Edinburgh Festival – Follow the link to Blue Raincoat.
The evening offered a selection of Leonard’s most special songs alongside a narrative that reviewed his life as a poet, lover and songwriter.
I met Joe a couple of years ago at a management seminar in Northern Ireland and he has been trying to infect me with his obsession with for Leonard Cohen ever since. Speaking personally, I only travel as far as Morrissey and Lou Reed on the scale of moribund reflective music but it takes all sorts etc. I agreed to provide much needed coaching on the musical performance aspects of the event and to provide some accompaniment using the haunting tones of the e-bow, an unusual guitar effect that makes guitars sound more like a violin, hence the name ‘energy-bow’. I bought my e-bow around 1978 after seeing the music genius Bill Nelson play one. Read more about Bill’s next show on October 1st at The Art School Ascended on Vapours of Roses.
Copies of our latest album “Music from the Basement of Cognition“ will be available at the Leonard Cohen show. For now here’s one track, aptly titled “I always knew you would come back to Earth” after a week of madness on the streets of England. I did once record a Prince styled version of Cohen’s “The Butcher” and an electro-pop version of the same song in the style of Erasure, but I am not posting them here for fear of reprisals by ardent Cohen fans!
I’ll finish with my favourite interpretation of Leonard’s ‘Hallelujah’ by John Cale:
Postscript: The highlight of the Festival was meeting up with the Jimi Hendrix styled blues guitarist Richard Blues - Check Richard’s work out by e-mailing him at richardsgottheblues@yahoo.com and here’s a brief excerpt of his performance at the Fringe:
Also very much enjoyed meeting Will Gracie. As one third of the outrageous group Hot Gusset, Will’s journey started at the age of 7 when he saw Lynda Carter’s Wonder Woman. We did some impromptu Queen and Prince songs on the street to the amazement of the festival goers. Later that day I saw him appearing on BBC Newsnight. It’s no wonder, for Will is a great talent. “Gimme fried chicken” in the words of Freddie Mercury !
Whist developing the show, I discovered to my surprise that even Leonard Cohen was sensitive to his musical environment and did change his musical style towards songs that people could almost dance to in the 1980′s when synthesisers became popular. I guess that’s where Lady Gaga got it from !
Lady Gaga is a music and business phenomenon. Simply fabulous electro pop and dance music. Strategy, marketing, finance, HR, operations, social media and so on, all rolled into one. Setting aside all the controversy over her music, fashion and so on, what might an MBA graduate learn from Lady Gaga about her approach to business? Before we start, in case you have not caught up with Lady Gaga, take a look at her ‘Edge of Glory’ video, with lyrics inspired by the death of her grandfather:
Share your thoughts on your favourite Lady Gaga song / performance by making a comment on this blog. Since she is a controversial figure, if you cannot stand her, it would also be interesting to know why.
Here are five MBA lessons that you can learn from Lady Gaga:
1. I personally love Lady Gaga’s music but it is not completely new. Her music springs from 80’s and 90’s electro-pop and dance music, drawing upon a range of influences, such as Bowie, Queen, Elton John, Madonna, Britney Spears and Michael Jackson. I’d add Prince to the list as I’m sure she has been influenced by the Purple Genius. Many people are creatures of habit in terms of their musical tastes (see my post on AC/DC for more on this) and this makes Lady Gaga’s music a very acceptable diet for consumers, young and old.
MBA lesson # 1. Innovate within the familiar range of the customer’s expectation for maximum early impact. Build on that for long term sustainability.
2. If Lady Gaga’s music is in the familiar range, the presentation certainly is not. Or is it? Sure, people are shocked to see Lady Gaga attacked during her performance and then die in a pool of fake blood. But, remember Alice Cooper’s electric chair executions and Madonna’s on stage masturbation scenes for ‘Like a Virgin’ on her ‘Blond Ambition’ tour? We have been here before. The difference that Lady Gaga brings is that she has learned from all of these people and improved the packaging and presentation of the theatrical elements that accompany her music. Top business thinkers such as Tom Peters have written about becoming a learning organisation, which, broadly speaking is an organisation that learns from its customers, staff, partners and so on. That learning can be simple, such as “How can we do what we do better?” It can also be more fundamental, such as ” How can we start over?” Unlike some businesses, Lady Gaga has actually taken notice of Tom’s wisdom on learning organisations.
MBA lesson # 2. Stand on the shoulders of giants if you want to innovate. Be a genuine learning organisation if you want to stay in business for the long term.
3. Lady Gaga has succeeded in an age where society is questioning the profit imperative of corporations and celebrities. How has she done this? By cleverly combining the profit and purpose ambition as Daniel Pink, author of ‘A Whole New Mind’ points out. Gaga combines exceedingly clever cross branding (music, fashion, headphones and so on) with a number of social and humanitarian causes such as the Haiti earthquake, the Japanese Tsunami and various AIDS / HIV causes. This has enabled her to withstand a number of public relations crises when others would have crumbled.
MBA lesson # 3. Combine your social responsibility agenda with your business plan in a seamless way. Execute your plans with meticulous detail.
4. Lady Gaga has a shrewd approach to HR Strategy – partnering with evergreen stars such as Madonna, Elton John and Cher. This gives her access to a much wider market for her music and legitimises her brand across generations.
MBA lesson # 4. Use partnerships and joint ventures to enlarge your market share in ways that benefit all the stakeholders. Choose your partners wisely and in ways that provide genuine win-win benefits.
5. Lady Gaga has captured the hearts, minds, souls and bank balances of several generations through the clever use of social media, in ways that major corporations can only dream of. She has given her fans control of social media such as Twitter, Facebook, YouTube and so on. They have a shared identity (little monsters) and Gaga has allowed her fanbase to operate a ‘market pull’ approach to affiliation instead of using traditional ‘push’ approaches to marketing.
MBA lesson # 5. Understand that social media is social and the powerful imperative of the word YOU in social media. People like social media to interact with their own lives and values.
I’m sure there are many more MBA lessons to be drawn from Lady Gaga. Please send your thoughts in as contributions to this blog, which will be included in a sequel. In the meanwhile, here is Lady Gaga’s fantastic piece of post-modern pop music ‘Poker Face’.
p.s. My new book ‘Punk Rock People Management – A no-nonsense guide to hiring, inspiring and firing staff’ is available on Amazon KINDLE or for FREE as a download. Please contact me directly here or via the Punk Rock People Management webpage for your copy.
Some say that networking does not lead to results for them although I find that face to face and social networking does work. Having just read Ellie Becker’s great post on this subject (who I met on Twitter), it occurred to me that I should write a short post on ‘a day in the life’ of my networking in London. Before that, I must play the fantastic Beatles song of the same name – a rare live studio version:
7.16 am Woke up, fell out of bed, dragged a comb across my head …. Well actually, I did my e-mails for the day and phone calls as well ….
11.29 am Arrived at the HQ of Premier Christian Radio in London. I had been invited for a bacon roll and coffee with no particular agenda. On arrival, the marketing director said “Would you mind running a 90 minute creative thinking session for our people to help us formulate our next public fundraising campaign? We have no money but will try to think of some way to thank you if it goes well”. I said yes, assuming that he was talking about something for another occasion, to which he replied “Wait here, I’ll get them in”. The session started 2 minutes later! Much of my work is pre-planned and it was therefore refreshing to be asked to do a live session with no warning. I’m pleased to say that the session went so well that Premier have offered to write me some PR and broadcast it widely.
Networking lesson # 1: Remain open and receptive to surprises.
1.37 pm Onwards to Lloyds of London for a coaching session / exchange with Alex, who works as a change agent there. Nothing Rock’n’Roll about that I hear you say? Well, Alex is also a talented singer with suburban blues band Bastedo, having had recording / writing contracts with Sony. Turns out that Premier Christian Radio want to record a version of the Aretha Franklin song R.E.S.P.E.C.T for their campaign. Alex is a follower of Premier and an extremely talented singer / songwriter. Who would have thought of that piece of serendipity?
Networking lesson # 2: Make connections between seemingly unrelated things.
3.34 pm Arrived at the offices of Pricespective to meet someone who I last met on my 1st day at work 35 years ago. How did we reconnect? Linkedin. I think we will end up doing a number of things to our mutual advantage, some of them social (my friend has also turned into an author) and some of them business related. Upon leaving his offices, I noticed a door in the Foyer marked ‘music room’. I asked the guy at the desk what this was about and it turned out that the law firm in the building has a rock band, which he is part of. Cards and book details were exchanged immediately. I can’t wait to hear the Lawyers rock!
Networking lesson # 3: Open all your senses and be curious.
5.23 pm Arrived at the offices of The Halcyon Galley to meet with their Finance Director, another long lost connection, found again via Linkedin. Turns out that he is also interested in coaching and we’ve agreed to share our collective knowledge, skill and experience in the area via my master NLP practitioner. He is also on the lookout to provide free coaching sessions to help him complete his coaching diploma. Write to me here if you are interested? Some strategy work may be in the offing as a result of our random reconnection. It also turns out that the Halcyon may be interested in getting involved with The London Mapping Festival – A celebration of all things geographical and IT from now until the end of 2012.
10.28 pm Got home!
Networking lesson # 4: Get up early, get home late, discover business!
Networking works, both face to face and online, but you have to work at it. It just occurred to me that my post on my pub meeting with Bernie Torme, guitarist for Ozzy Osbourne and Ian Gillan also has a networking theme. Contact me if you would like to make your networking work better for you.
Coming up next - 5 MBA Lessons from Lady Gaga - sign up to the blog to get a weekly notification or to get your free copy of my new book Punk Rock People Management.
A no-nonsense guide to Human Relations
Finally, I know this really has nothing much to do with the post, but I just found Jeff Beck playing the Beatles song ‘A Day in the Life’ in his inimitable style with the brilliant Tal Wilkenfield, so I will leave you with this. Especially for my network contact and friend Jason Bell of Datasentiment, bass player extraordinaire.
It may not be Rock’n’Roll to be a cook, or is it? Well, I must say how much I admire the leadership coach and trainer Phil Hawthorn, who synthesises his ideas about business with cooking, actually preparing food while he speaks at corporate conferences and events. He is also the author of Can Men Cook, a saucy look at gender stereotypes and cooking which rocks! I interviewed Phil about his views on cooking, music and life.
So, what is your unique difference Phil?
I have built a fun little business linking cooking to order, leadership and teamwork. A lot of the time I will work helping teams and their leaders to work more effectively together. This is where the theory and practice of organisational life come together. I’m especially good at just getting people to talk – which is a god start for fixing problems. At the other extreme, I have run cookery demonstrations at The Ideal Home show and other places, and appeared on ITV’s competition “Britain’s Best Dish”. I mix the two in presentations on management teams and cooking! Here’s a clip from Britain’s Best Dish:
If music be the food of love. What’s the link?
Shakespeare. Next question? Seriously, both food and music feed the soul. They are ultimately involved in being creative, making something new, making the thought processes a bit different, a bit of relaxation and making people happy. This isn’t a bad set of aims for organisations too, I feel. Much recent research has shown that the happier an organisation is, the more successful it is. Simple but true. Perhaps Lord Sugar should read more of this stuff! (I loved your blog on The Apprentice, btw).
Have you got an example of a company you worked with using this approach?
A team from The Environment Agency, would you believe? The team worked on day one learning about Rhododendron clearance, and then met up to cook a communal dinner. They had to create the menu, do the shopping and work to a budget. I was tasked with making a gallon (literally) of custard. What a lot of stirring! Food of love? Yes, calm, content and smiling. What better way to team build?
Another event was at a Business School for their MBA Alumni a while back. Their leader said of it: “If you think you have seen everything then think again. The principles of management are presented in a very entertaining, professional and unique way”.
What about music? What music do you love?
I’m of an age where I grew up in Glam Rock – T.Rex, Bolan, David Bowie, Squeeze. I love female singers (Kate Bush, Madonna, and Lady Gaga). Really enjoyed Florence and the Machine, but still hark back to rock – Led Zeppelin and anything with a blues feel really. Bach and Mozart haven’t passed me by either…
This, of course gives me the perfect excuse to play some T.REX
And The Beatles. I am from Liverpool so have an affection. I love the creative juice that flowed from Lennon and McCartney being friends and enemies. Love, hate, Yin, Yang. And that created some of the most beautiful harmonies and dichotomies in the world of music. And I love some classical masterpieces that have created love and hate. Elgar’s cello concerto, for example. No-one dared do it after ‘brave’ (yes, she was) Jacqueline Dupree defined it in the repertoire. Until Natalie Klien became BBC Young Musician of The Year (XXX?) when no-one dared to perform it. How sad! Natalie won by a unanimous heartfelt and emotional mile. But she didn’t record it until 2009. We saw her performing it in the Albert Hall in 2010. And it was better than both the Dupree renditions.
Where can we find out more?
We have a new website called The Two Cooks, delivering exceptional corporate events and keynote speeches that blend business, music and cooking. Check my personal website out at Can Men Cook.
The name Prince is synonymous with innovation in music. From classy pop classics such as ‘Purple Rain’, ‘Diamonds and Pearls’ and ‘U Got The Look’ through to high class jazz, soul and funk, working with artists such as Miles Davis, Chaka Khan, and George Clinton. Prince performs at this weekend’s Hop Farm festival in Kent and I’m delighted to have a ticket for the occasion. Check this performance of Superstition out with Stevie Wonder out to see what you will be missing if you are not there.
Unlike many performers in rock’s monarchy, a Prince live performance is often different every night. This is because Prince operates from a menu of 300 songs, which the band may be called upon to play at any time, whereas many other artists prefer to perfect and then repeat their set night after night. Admittedly, this is difficult for some of his audience to take but speaks of artistic integrity and a desire to constantly develop. I was discussing how Prince achieves such amazing levels of nimbleness and ingenuity with my colleague John Howitt, a professional musician who has performed for Celine Dion, Anastasia and Shirley Bassey to name but a few. We came to a set of conclusions, with parallel lessons for businesses that are interested in being fast, nimble and continuously innovative. Here are a couple:
• To reach mastery in improvisation paradoxically requires intensive detailed preparation. What looks like a seamless performance is the result of many hours of preparation and Prince is meticulous in this respect. In business this has been referred to ‘the 10,000 hours effect’ by Tom Peters and, more recently, Malcolm Gladwell. The idea of prepared spontaneity contradicts what some so-called creativity and innovation gurus say on the subject, yet we constantly see parallels across many industries. Sloppy creativity produces sloppy results in many businesses.
• Prince is also a master of fusing musical genres and influences outside his core style to innovate. This enables him to still exert a major influence on artists of the 21st Century, such as Lady Gaga, Beyonce and many others. In business, the ability to cross mental boundaries is the parallel skill set, as exemplified by companies such as 3M and Google.
I explored more of Prince’s personal qualities and the relationship with becoming an agile, ingenious and innovative company within the book “Sex, Leadership and Rock‘n’Roll”. I’m delighted to say that I managed to get a copy of the book to Prince at his last series of O2 concerts and have been told that he enjoyed it. Praise indeed! John Howitt draws a distinction between Prince’s level of risk taking on stage versus his experience of working with artists such as Celine Dion, who aims for a perfect, polished performance which can be reproduced night after night. Both approaches are valid and rest on thorough preparation if you want to reach out for excellence. An object lesson for all – if you want to be a star, know that perspiration is much more important than inspiration. Let’s just see a little more of that prepared spontaneity from Prince via a structured jam called ‘The Everlasting Now’:
We will be exploring aspects of Prince’s approach to improvisation, innovation and reinvention at the 7th International HR summit event in Athens, Greece on October 20th following on from Dave Ulrich. For now, its the Hop Farm for me to witness his purple majesty in action on 03 July.
I’m often surprised at the things people are prepared to do in the crazy world of rock’n'roll but just occasionally I am even more surprised when business people take a bold step to help market themselves and stand apart from the crowd. Such was the case recently when the Business Woman’s Network decided to produce a nude calendar of their membership in the style of Calendar Girls. Quite aside from the confidence required by these women to do such a thing, this unique phenomenon has a much more serious reason – that of fundraising for a Hospice. So give these nude business women some of your kudos and more importantly some of your money. I got involved today as their leader Mandie Holgate, asked me if I would be prepared to go naked …. NO.. thank goodness … to deliver a keynote event to launch the naked calendar at their next event on July 7th in Essex. I have agreed to deliver this free on behalf of them and the hospice. We’ll be exploring aspects of ‘nakedness’ aka being your authentic self in the context of leadership, drawing on examples from the world of business and music to help us explore the subject from different perspectives.
So come on down – as I said in the promotional material – you don’t have to take your clothes off to have a good time…
And, contrary to the stereotypes, the evening will definitely NOT be anything like this hilarious mash up from the genius that is Cassette Boy:
Speaking of nudity I must say that, although I rarely watch TV, I was mesmerised by Lady Gaga on Paul O’Grady’s show last night. Gaga is a great example of someone who knows how to present themselves. On the show, she presented herself nude in the folicle department…. take a look at this stunning piece of authentic performance …
If the Nude Business Woman’s Calendar is even half as good as Lady Gaga’s performance last night, they will be rightly proud of themselves. Book yourself in for the launch party – Leadership, Nudity and Rock’n'Roll 7th July – Essex – its nearly FREE!
Postscript: Here’s a picture from the evening featuring the georgous Julie Binder, who runs her own design consultancy – Check her design work out at Julie Binder Design. Julie’s clients include Toyota and Nestle.
