Gustavo TurnerThe Atlantic has just published a really interesting article by Joshua Green about the opening of the Grateful Dead archives at UC Santa Cruz. But it's the intriguing second half that gives the article its title, “Management Secrets of the Grateful Dead.”
Green makes the argument that a lot of the “hippy” business practices that the Dead applied from very early in their career were actually visionary in anticipating current social-network reliant business models.
We've digested the Atlantic article for you into a handy
TOP TEN LIST OF BUSINESS TIPS FROM THE GRATEFUL DEAD
10. FOCUS ON THE FANS: “Without intending to–while intending, in fact, to do just the opposite–the band pioneered ideas and practices that were subsequently embraced by corporate America. One was to focus intensely on its most loyal fans. It established a telephone hotline to alert them to its touring schedule ahead of any public announcement, reserved for them some of the best seats in the house, and capped the price of tickets, which the band distributed through its own mail-order house. If you lived in New York and wanted to see a show in Seattle, you didn't have to travel there to get tickets–and you could get really good tickets, without even camping out.”
9. TREAT CUSTOMERS WELL: “'The Dead were masters of creating and delivering superior customer value,' Barry Barnes, a business professor at the H. Wayne Huizenga School of Business and Entrepreneurship at Nova Southeastern University, in Florida, told me. Treating customers well may sound like common sense. But it represented a break from the top-down ethos of many organizations in the 1960s and '70s. Only in the 1980s, faced with competition from Japan, did American CEOs and management theorists widely adopt a customer-first orientation.”
Grateful Dead live at Red Rock; Credit: Mark Knowles (Creative Commons)
8. EMBRACE THE CORPORATE: “As Barnes and other scholars note, the musicians who constituted the Dead were anything but naive about their business. They incorporated early on, and established a board of directors (with a rotating CEO position) consisting of the band, road crew, and other members of the Dead organization.”
7. DON'T BE AFRAID TO USE LAWYERS…: “They founded a profitable merchandising division and, peace and love notwithstanding, did not hesitate to sue those who violated their copyrights.”
6. …BUT DON'T OVERUSE THEM: “They famously permitted fans to tape their shows, ceding a major revenue source in potential record sales. According to Barnes, the decision was not entirely selfless: it reflected a shrewd assessment that tape sharing would widen their audience, a ban would be unenforceable, and anyone inclined to tape a show would probably spend money elsewhere, such as on merchandise or tickets.”
5. BE FLEXIBLE: “It's precisely this flexibility that Barnes believes holds the greatest lessons for business–he calls it 'strategic improvisation.' It isn't hard to spot a few of its recent applications. Giving something away and earning money on the periphery is the same idea proffered by Wired editor Chris Anderson in his recent best-selling book, Free: The Future of a Radical Price. Voluntarily or otherwise, it is becoming the blueprint for more and more companies doing business on the Internet.”
4. BE GENEROUS WITH YOUR PRODUCT: “Much of the talk about 'Internet business models' presupposes that they are blindingly new and different. But the connection between the Internet and the Dead's business model was made 15 years ago by the band's lyricist, John Perry Barlow, who became an Internet guru. Writing in Wired in 1994, Barlow posited that in the information economy, 'the best way to raise demand for your product is to give it away.'”
3. FAMILIARITY = VALUE: “As Barlow explained to me: 'What people today are beginning to realize is what became obvious to us back then–the important correlation is the one between familiarity and value, not scarcity and value. Adam Smith taught that the scarcer you make something, the more valuable it becomes. In the physical world, that works beautifully. But we couldn't regulate [taping at] our shows, and you can't online. The Internet doesn't behave that way. But here's the thing: 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. That was the value proposition with the Dead.'”
2. PREPARE TO RIDE BAD CYCLES: “The Dead thrived for decades, in good times and bad. In a recession, Barnes says, strategic improvisation is more important then ever. 'If you're going to survive this economic downturn, you better be able to turn on a dime,' he says. 'The Dead were exemplars.'”
AND THE NUMBER ONE BUSINESS TIP FROM THE GRATEFUL DEAD:
1. DON'T TAKE THE BROWN ACID!!!!!
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