On a recent trip to the library the writer picked up the book Everything I Know about Business I learned from the Grateful Dead by Barry Barnes PhD, published by Business Plus 2011. The Grateful Dead was a very successful musical band from 1965 to 1995. The Ben and Jerry’s Ice Cream flavour Cherry Garcia was name for lead singer Jerry Garcia. singer. This column continues with lesson 10 and wrap up.

10. Exploit the Experience Economy – Provide your customers with authentic experiences that improve their lives. Customers know if your business is genuine or operating for the correct reasons. They may try it, but will not be a returning customer.

Most authentic brands have a long heritage, while moving into the future they honour the past. Authentic businesses always remember where and when they originated because these orgins shaped the identity of the company. In the music business, all poor bands are authentic, what happens when the money comes in is the test.

To remain authentic is to be open with your customer with your plans, your successes and failures. For the Grateful Dead, the issue of authenticity never really came up, it was just assumed. The Dead’s values – to make the world a better, more humane place – animated everything they did, and their fans recognized that. The investment in sound systems, better records, great customer service were all evidence that the band cared about their fans. The fans responded by staying fans.

The Dead were not striving for success, and yet achieved it. Or, perhaps they achieved success because they were not striving for it. The Dead kept their focus on their vision and values. Success flowed from there. All decisions flowed from the integrity of the music, many simply turned out to be great business decisions as well.

There are more questions than answers, till the next time – to raising questions