If you're like me, you probably have a steady stable of "best in class" case studies that you trot out a few times a year for inspiring brainstorms or the latest deck about transforming your business. This is the month to freshen up those JetBlue-GE-Amazon-Ikea-Wal-Mart-[insert your favorites here] war horses. There's a bumper crop of unexpected inspiration on this month's newsstand.
In the Atlantic Magazine article "Management Secrets of the Grateful Dead" the band's forward thinking business practices are featured including customer loyalty cultivation, merchandising and profiting from "giving it away." On this last point, the Dead's lyricist John Perry Barlow worte in 1994, "the best way to raise demand for your product is to give it away."
John Perry Barlow goes on to explain that in the digital world, Adam's Smith's "scarcity = value" equation doesn't neatly apply. With the Internet "if I give my song away to 20 people, and they give it to 20 people, pretty soon everybody knows me, and my value as a creator is dramatically enhanced."
In Fast Company, Dan and Chip Heath treats us to "Business Advice from Van Halen" and paint the picture of David Lee Roth as an operational expert (who knew?) They shed light on the now legendary Van Halen clause about "no brown M&Ms." The clause reads "There will be no brown M&Ms in the backstage area, upon pain of forfeiture of the show, with full compensation." Turns out this was a way for the band to ensure that the venue was thoroughly reading the contract. A successful concert is built on the details and if they saw brown M&Ms, that was the band's tip off that other details have probably been missed.
So what are you going to talk about in your next presentation -- Sam Walton and Jack Welch or David Lee Roth? (as if I had to ask)
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