We all have bad theories and some of them turn out to more than true. For example, in the urban city the writer lives in, the hippies tended to buy property in areas where the establishment was not, as the property was inexpensive. Now days the property is worth close to a million and everyone wants to live in the area. Sometimes it is worth paying attention to the hippies or counter culture. To continue with this theme, 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. Personally I never went to a Grateful Dead concert, but the band lasted for over 30 years, it toured extensively and people followed the band from city to city and were and are known as Deadheads.

There were a variety of reasons to do this, which includes no two concerts put on by the Grateful Dead were the same. They might have the same lineup of songs, but the musicians would extend or stretch many songs much longer than the play list. The musicians were able to do this because they had talent, knew each other strengths and weaknesses which allow them to go off on tangents or improvise and equally important a respect for the paying audience. The fans were treated to a great show.

Mr. Barnes has 10 lessons which will be featured in the next couple of columns:

1. Improvisation – the band prided themselves in never playing the same song the same way twice. To arrive at this point, all band members were very accomplished musicians, while playing the musicians would give one or more the ability  to go off on a tangent.  In the music world, making no mistakes is a mistake. Improvisation will cause failure, but if you learn from them, the long term result is that much better.

2. Live Your Values – do well by doing good. If you or your organization does the right thing, in the end it will be more profitable. Your customers will examine what the organization is or is not and if they like it, they will tend to be returning customers. When you do the right thing, other avenues will flow.

3. Be Kind to Your Customers – offer Superior Value. In the case of the Dead, they were committed to treating people well simply because that was the right thing to do. The band was kind to the fans. In the long run their fans and the Band were better off. One method for the Band was to constantly tour and enjoy it.

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