Under Pressure – Reinvention Lessons from David Bowie

This article finds me in Athens, contemplating the talk I am to give at the 7th international HR Leadership Conference.  My theme is to be that of reinvention which is extremely apt for the business world in Greece and more widely.  Compared with all the ‘one hit wonders’ in music, David Bowie has reinvented himself several times and taken his audience with him.  The parallel lesson in business is that of changing what you do, keeping your customers and gaining new customers.  What can we learn about business from David Bowie?  This is the second article in the series – to catch up with the story so far check out ‘The Laughing Gnome to Heroes’.  Before we start, let’s look at another Bowie classic – China Girl:

Bowie Business Lesson # 5.  Perpetual change

In 1983, he released ‘Let’s Dance.’ Bowie recruited Chic guitarist Nile Rodgers to produce the album, giving the record a sleek, funky foundation, and hired the unknown Stevie Ray Vaughan as lead guitarist. Let’s Dance became his most successful record.

Bowie Business Lesson # 6. When change is over, change again

Bowie’s next project was less successful. He formed a guitar rock band called Tin Machine. They released an album to poor reviews and supported it with a small tour, which was only moderately successful. Tin Machine released a second album, Tin Machine II, which was ignored. Time to change again …

Bowie Business Lesson # 7. Form innovative partnerships

Bowie teamed up with Brian Eno to produce ‘Outside’ and went on tour, co-headlining with ‘Nine Inch Nails,’ to lure a younger audience, but his strategy failed. In 1996, he recorded ‘Earthling,’ an album heavily influenced by techno and drum’n’bass. Earthling received positive reviews, yet it did not attract a new audience. Many techno purists criticised Bowie for exploiting their subculture. It seemed that his attempt to cross demographic and culture divides was not going to work on this occasion. Since then, Bowie has formed partnerships with a number of artists including Placebo and reinvented himself as a brand for a US online bank

The main learnings from this dramatic series of reinventions include:

1. Make radical changes even when your current strategy is successful.

2. Hire and work with the best people you can find, especially if they are better than you.

3. Read the environment and engage with new movements when they are more than fads.

4. Learn from failure and quickly move on.

What else do you consider that David Bowie can teach us about business?  Share your thoughts here.

Finally, let’s catch another Bowie classic.  Under Pressure:

If you enjoy this you will love my new book ‘Punk Rock People Management – A no-nonsense guide to hiring, inspiring and firing staff’. It is available for FREE via the Punk Rock People Management webpage.  A beautiful full colour print version and Kindle version are also available.  David Bowie and the reinvention theme feature strongly in my previous book ‘Sex, Leadership and Rock’n'Roll‘.

Punk Rock HR - Picture by Lindsay Wakelin www.lindsaywakelinphotography.com

Life on Mars – Reinvention Lessons from David Bowie

Compared with all the ‘one hit wonders’ in music, David Bowie has reinvented himself several times AND taken his audience with him.  The parallel lesson in business is that of changing what you do, keeping your customers AND gaining new ones.  What can we learn about business from David Bowie?  Read on.  Before we start, let’s look at a Bowie classic – Life on Mars:

Bowie Business Lesson # 1.  Find your focus

David Bowie began performing music when he was 13 years old, learning the saxophone while he was at High School and began playing in a number of mod bands.  All these bands released singles, which were generally ignored, yet he continued performing. The following year, he released the music-hall styled ‘Laughing Gnome.’ Upon completing the record, he spent several weeks in a Buddhist monastery. Bloody good idea in my opinion, although I should be so lucky to have written this song in spite of its cheesiness!! Once he left the monastery, he formed a mime company – a non-obvious career move. This was short-lived, and he formed an experimental art group in 1969.

Bowie Business Lesson # 2.  Get the right people

As necessity is the mother of invention, Bowie needed to finance the art group, so he signed a record deal. His first album featured ‘Space Oddity,’ which became a major hit single in the Britain. He began miming at T.REX concerts, eventually touring with Marc Bolan’s, bassist / producer Tony Visconti and guitarist Mick Ronson. The band quickly fell apart, yet Bowie and Ronson continued to work together. The next album, ‘The Man who Sold the World’ did not gain much attention. Following the release of ‘Hunky Dory,’ featuring Ronson and keyboardist Rick Wakeman, Bowie developed his most famous incarnation, ‘Ziggy Stardust’. Bowie quickly followed Ziggy with ‘Aladdin Sane’. Not only did he record a new album that year, but he also produced Lou Reed’s ‘Transformer,’ the Stooge’s ‘Raw Power’ and Mott the Hoople’s ‘All the Young Dudes,’ for which he also wrote the title track.  Lest we forget this great song:

Bowie Business Lesson # 3.  Re-engineer the Business

Bowie unexpectedly announced his retirement from live performances during his final show in 1973. He retreated from the spotlight to work on a musical adaptation of George Orwell’s 1984, transforming the work into ‘Diamond Dogs.’ The album was released to generally poor reviews, yet it generated the hit single ‘Rebel Rebel.’ Bowie supported the album with an American tour. As the tour progressed, Bowie became fascinated with soul music. He subsequently refashioned his group into a Philly soul band and revamped his image in sophisticated, stylish fashions. The change took fans by surprise. ‘Young Americans,’ released in 1975, was the culmination of Bowie’s soul obsession, and it became his first major crossover hit, peaking in the American Top Ten and generating his first U.S. number one hit in ‘Fame,’ a song he co-wrote with John Lennon and guitarist Carlos Alomar.

Bowie Business Lesson # 4.  Challenge industry sacred cows

Once in Berlin, Bowie began painting, as well as studying art. He also developed a fascination with German electronic music, which Brian Eno helped him fulfil on their first album together, ‘Low.’ Released early in 1977, Low was a startling mixture of electronics, pop and avant-garde technique. It received mixed reviews, but was one of the most influential albums of the late ’70s, as was its follow-up, ‘Heroes’:

We’ll continue this blog at ‘Beyond Heroes‘ through several other ch, ch, ch, changes in Bowie’s career.

p.s. My new book ‘Punk Rock People Management – A no-nonsense guide to hiring, inspiring and firing staff’ is available for FREE.  Please contact me via the Punk Rock People Management webpage for a free pdf copy.  A beautifully illustrated full colour print copy is available at PUNK PM.  If you are a Kindle book reader, a Kindle version is at KINDLEPUNK - currently ranking at No 1 in the Kindle chart for HR / Business Management books.  Woohoo!

I kissed an HR girl and I liked it ... Click to get one

Bill Nelson: Integrity and Creativity in a bottle

The genius that is Bill Nelson - Photo courtesy of Stewart Cowley

Bill Nelson performs a special one off concert and art exhibition at the Clothworkers Hall in Leeds on October 1^st.  This provides me with the perfect excuse to rave on about this man’s genius in terms of the sorts of capabilities that great business gurus such as Peter Senge, Tom Peters and Seth Godin write about.  Before we begin, let’s see the master at work, performing a song he wrote for Stuart Adamson of Big Country and the Skids as a tribute at his funeral – “For Stuart (Triumph and Lament)”.  Bill Nelson produced some of Stuart’s work and Adamson was a great admirer of Bill’s musicianship, which Bill incorporated as a series of ‘musical ornaments’ within this piece.

In case you are wondering just who Bill Nelson is, he led 70’s Art School band Be-Bop Deluxe and Red Noise.  In spite of his huge success, Nelson left considerable wealth and fame to pursue his own artistic and musical direction.   However, like so many great influencers his footprint on modern music is immense and pervasive.  Nelson is admired by a catalogue of rock’s monarchy, including Mc Cartney, Brian May, Kate Bush, Brian Eno, David Sylvian, Prince, The Foo Fighters, The Darkness, My Chemical Romance and so on.  If any of you saw MCR at the Reading Festival, you will have heard the opening lines from Bill Nelson’s song ‘Maid In Heaven’ towards the end of MCR’s emo anthem ‘Dead’:

Turning to the transferable lessons for people in business, Bill Nelson articulated his principles for personal reinvention in his online diary.  Although they are artistically expressed, they are directly transferable.  Bill kindly allowed me to do some ‘translation’ in my book ‘Sex, Leadership and Rock’n’Roll’.   We explored a couple of his reinvention principles in a previous blog.  Here’s some more:

Reinvention Principle No. 1 – Trust the muse – she knows best

In the context of business reinvention, ‘trusting the muse’ means that we should trust intuition rather than relying on research as a means of doing new things.  We live in a world that is drowning in data.  As a result we downplay intuition.  New stuff does not always come out of a detailed analysis of old stuff!

"Act when there are no alternatives to stasis" Photo courtesy of Stewart Cowley

Reinvention Principle No. 2 – Act only when there are no alternatives to stasis

‘Acting only when there are no alternatives to stasis’ reminds us to examine all alternatives before making a decision on critical issues.  This is not a recipe for not making decisions!  Examining alternatives requires us to synthesise options, to bring alternatives together that will produce better options rather than compromises.  It requires the use of analogue (and/also) thinking rather than digital (on/off) thinking.  The pressure of business life often forces us into action rather than reflection / synthesis, with the result that we get sub-optimal decisions and / or performance.  I’ve written more on this subject in previous posts on creativity.

Check out Bill’s extensive catalogue of music at SOUND ON SOUND.  To study Bill’s 12 principles for personal and corporate reinvention in more detail, read Sex, Leadership and Rock’n’Roll. If you fancy seeing Mr Magnetism Himself check out the Clothworkers Hall in Leeds.  I am proud to know Bill Nelson, who has integrity and creativity written into his DNA, even at the expense of fame and fortune.  Integrity is easy when it does not mean you have to make tough choices, but most people fall by the wayside when the going gets tough.

Bill Nelson has a wonderful skill of making classy pop music, a skill which he has largely left on the shelf due to his desire to pursue his own artistic vision.  Lest we forget what a great talent he has for producing catchy pop hits, I’ll leave you with a film of Be-Bop Deluxe performing one of these 2.5 minute wonders on the Old Grey Whistle Test – “Maid in Heaven”, the song whose opening guitar lines are quoted by My Chemical Romance.  To see more of Bill’s work in this area get yourself a copy of his ITV Legends Concert, which includes “For Stuart” and an entire catalogue of Be-Bop Deluxe, Red Noise and Bill’s solo material:

p.s.  For a series of 2.5 minute lessons on business and Human Relations check out my new book ‘Punk Rock People Management – A no-nonsense guide to hiring, inspiring and firing staff’ – available FREE via the Punk Rock People Management webpage.

ITV Legends Concert DVD - AMAZON

'Revolt into Style' - The new book cover

Maid in Heaven – Bill Nelson releases ITV Legend’s Concert DVD

Click on the guitar for the ITV Legends DVD

On March 26th 2011 ITV filmed a special concert in London, featuring guitar legend Bill Nelson, leader of pop art bands Be-Bop Deluxe and Red Noise. Bill Nelson left high profile music some years back, due to his dislike of the music industry / media circus. However, his influence on modern music is immense. Admired by Paul McCartney, Big Country, Brian May, David Bowie, Kate Bush, Eno, Prince, The Foo Fighters, My Chemical Romance et al. I’m delighted to announce that the video of this unique evening at ITV Legends is now available on to buy on AMAZON. In case you are still wondering who Bill Nelson is, here’s some background.

Bill Nelson’s career started with 1970’s Art School band Be-Bop Deluxe, where he had considerable success with classic albums like Futurama, Sunburst Finish and Drastic Plastic. By the mid 70’s Be-Bop Deluxe were conquering America but Bill was disaffected by the celebrity lifestyle and its requirements of him. He disbanded Be-Bop Deluxe and formed Red Noise, a synth / new age band way ahead of its time, paving the way for 80’s acts like Gary Numan, A Flock of Seagulls and many others. Red Noise’s music was jagged and edgy, although it has undoubtedly stood the test of time, influencing artists such as Razorlight and The Kaiser Chiefs.

EMI dropped Nelson at this point since he refused to perform ‘more of the same’. Shortly after Bill pioneered Indie music, releasing albums made in his own studio on his own ‘Cocteau’ record label. Many of these home-made creations were of superior quality to what others have since recorded in the most professional of recording studios.

Bill Nelson’s heart is firmly fixed within the inventor’s domain, with a more or less continuous stream of musical creativity. Much of Bill’s work can be accessed through his website ‘Dreamsville’.

Nelson’s latest works are mostly lush ambient soundscapes, not typical of his recent ITV release, which is a must-have release for Be-Bop Deluxe / Red Noise / music lovers. Almost literally ‘maid in heaven’.  Here’s an example of Bill Nelson’s less commercial work, called Imperial Parade, taken from his recent performance at the Sheffield ‘Sensoria’ Arts Festival – music which owes no regard to an X-Factor culture.

I wrote a personal cameo about Bill Nelson, who I am proud to know, in the book Sex, Leadership and Rock’n’Roll, as he is a master of continuous creativity and reinvention. A copy of the cameo can be found at the Academy of Rock. A video comparing the reinvention qualities of Bill Nelson and Prince Rogers Nelson can be seen below:

Bill Nelson – Master of Personal Reinvention

Today, I’m looking at what makes a master of personal reinvention. Not through the usual business suspects, but through the example of the music legend Bill Nelson. I’ve been inspired to write this as I have just managed to get a ticket to see Bill at the filming of his ITV Legends concert in London on Saturday March 26th. Check out the concert details if you want to be a part of this once in a lifetime experience to meet a true master of personal reinvention.

You might be wondering, just who is Bill Nelson? And what can a rock star teach us about personal reinvention? How is that relevant for us in our lives and work? Some background…

Bill Nelson led 1970’s Art School band Be-Bop Deluxe and Red Noise. In spite of his huge success, he disliked the ‘rock’n’roll circus’ and left considerable wealth and fame to pursue his own artistic and musical direction. However, his influence on modern music is immense and pervasive. Nelson is admired by Paul McCartney, Brian May, Kate Bush, Brian Eno, David Sylvian, Prince, Bowie, The Foo Fighters, The Darkness, My Chemical Romance et al.

Reinvention is hard enough for most of us. It’s even harder if you have a Rolls Royce, five sports cars and a mansion calling you to just do ‘more of the same’. This is the situation Bill Nelson faced with EMI music in the late 1970’s. Most of us are being asked to do some personal reinvention at the moment. You may be trying to learn new things to get a new job? Maybe you run a small business, struggling for contracts in a changing business landscape? Or you might be instigating corporate reinvention to keep your company in tune with ever changing customer moods, wants and needs? All these things require you to be excellent at personal reinvention and mastery of change. Check this video out which compares Bill Nelson’s approach to the artist Prince:

So, what are Bill Nelson’s secrets for personal reinvention? He wrote these down when contemplating a new album release and wishing to break away from simply repeating himself. Bill kindly allowed me to interpret them in my book ‘Sex, Leadership and Rock’n’Roll’. Let’s explore a couple of his principles:

Bill Nelson says “Do not be afraid of the ‘off’ switch”. In my experience of composing and recording music, this means not continuously adding more layers to a piece of music and losing the simplicity and resonance of the piece. It also means stopping when what you are doing isn’t working. Many businesses would be better off if they were to adopt this principle, i.e. stopping things that are no longer wanted or needed rather than just carrying on regardless. We are all creatures of habit to some extent. There is often irresistible temptation and pressure to continue in the face of compelling evidence of a need to do something different. Kodak experienced this with the death of conventional film processing. Had they chosen to notice the trend some years back, they might have been in a better position to respond to market change.

Bill Nelson adds “Refuse to sing when no words appear”. An excellent lesson for most of us to learn. Why do most songs have to have lyrics? Why do most websites have to have text? Why do most businesses have departments they don’t need? and so on. Masters of personal reinvention don’t slavishly copy success recipes. They adapt and improve upon them to precisely meet their needs and those of the people they serve. If you want to serve yourself well and your customers, by all means use success recipes as basic ‘templates for life’. But also question their relevance and precise fit for your particular circumstances. In the words of the master himself “Stay young, and keep in touch”. This means that you should approach new opportunities with a fresh mind. Always check to see if your success recipes are still up to date with the world around you. If you’ve been in business for any length of time, there can be a tendency to think that you are invincible. Hubris in business is a killer, as Marks and Spencer, Sony and many others nearly found out.

The coaching lessons from this are:

If what you are doing isn’t working, stop, think and do something different

Question the things that are the essence of your success from time to time

I’ll be writing more about Bill Nelson’s principles for reinvention in future blogs. If you want to read more about personal and corporate reinvention, come along to our next free event on March 22. If you fancy meeting Bill Nelson in person at a champagne reception after the ITV Legends show in London, check out the ITV Legends concert.

Footnote – The Legends concert DVD is now out on AMAZON.

The Legends DVD cover featuring Bill's Campbell Nelsonic Guitar