The Fine Art of Success E-Book

Anderson Jamie

• Herausgeber: John Wiley & Sons
• Kategorie: Fachliteratur
• Sprache: Englisch

Seitenzahl: 352

Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2011

Beschreibung

You've read about Jack Welch, Lou Gerstner and Steve Jobs - but what can you learn about business from van Gogh and Picasso?

The Fine Art of Success shows why you should look to pop-stars like Madonna or artists like Damian Hirst for guidance on innovation, competitive advantage, leadership, and a host of other business issues.

Managers, marketing professionals, and students will see how these creative artists can help their organizations. Chapters include Madonna - Strategy at the dance floor; Damian Hirst - The shark is dead/How to build yourself a new market; Beuys – Understanding creativity, is every manager an artist; Picasso – Art lessons for global managers; Koons – Made in Heaven produced on eart; and Paik – Global Groove, innovation through juxtaposition.

With controversial ideas, fascinating facts and memorable examples, The Fine Art of Success delivers business lessons that you'll be eager to apply.

Leseprobe

Table of Contents

Title Page

Copyright Page

Dedication

Foreword

Preface

About the Authors

CHAPTER 1 Madonna - Strategy on the Dance Floor

Dimension 1 – Vision

Dimension 2 – Understanding Customers and Industry

Dimension 3 – Leveraging Competences and Addressing Weaknesses

Dimension 4 – Consistent Implementation

Dimension 5 – Continuous Renewal

Conclusion

CHAPTER 2 Titian - Master and Intruder: Historical Perspectives on Strategic ...

Introduction

The Rise of Venice

Technical Innovations in the Venetian Art World

The Rise of Venetian Colourism

Emergence of the Grand Master

Artist for the Nobles

The Unorthodox Intruder – Tintoretto

Prestezza – A New Way to Paint

Radical Compositions

An Unfamiliar Business Tactic

Innovation Loops

Titian’s Response to Tintoretto

Conclusion

CHAPTER 3 Hirst - The Shark is Dead – How to Build Yourself a New Market

Introduction

Damien Hirst, the Bad Boy of Contemporary Art

The Saatchi Years 1991-2003

The Years after Saatchi

For the Love of God – the Skull Project

The Dance Around a Golden Calf – the Sotheby’s Auction

Lessons for Managers

Conclusion

CHAPTER 4 Beuys - Understanding Creativity – Is Every Manager an Artist?

The Doorway to the New

The Starting Point

Artworks as Ambassadors - Key Works and Materials

Make the Secrets Productive, Every Human is an Artist

1. Personal Creativity – The Active form of Thinking

2. Process Creativity – The Sculptural Theory

3. Collective Creativity – The Social Sculpture

Conclusion

CHAPTER 5 Picasso, van Gogh & Gauguin - Art Lessons for Global Managers

Introduction

Early Drivers of Globalization in the Art World: From the Beginning of the 19 ...

Adoption, Integration and Fusion – How Artists Adapted to a Globalizing Art World

Conclusion

CHAPTER 6 Koons - Made in Heaven, Produced on Earth: Creative Leadership – The ...

Introduction

The Beginning

Inflatables

The New

Equilibrium

Luxury Degradation

Statuary

Kiepenkerl

Banality

Made in Heaven

Puppy

Celebration

Easyfun; Easyfun-Ethereal; Popeye, Hulk Elvis

Managerial Implications

CHAPTER 7 Paik - Global Groove – Innovation through Juxtaposition

Introduction

A Passenger from East to West

The Beginning

The Fluxus Time

Music/Performance

Artist/Audience

Music/Television

Humans/Machines

Technology/Sexuality

Electronics/Culture

Sculptures/Electronics

A Unique Position

Conclusion

CHAPTER 8 - Interview with Gerrit Gohlke, artnet

Introduction

REFERENCES

Index

This edition first published in 2011

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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Anderson, Jamie, 1971-

The fine art of success : how learning great art can create great business / by Jamie Anderson, Jörg Reckhenrich, and Martin Kupp.

p. cm.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN 978-0-470-66106-2 (cloth : alk. paper) 1. Creative ability in business.

2. Marketing. 3. Success in business. I. Reckhenrich, Jörg. II. Kupp, Martin. III. Title.

HD53.A48 2011

658.4’ 09-dc22

2010045342

A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.

All drawings and images are courtesy of Jörg Reckhenrich

ISBN 978-0-470-66106-2 (hardback), ISBN 978-1-119-99016-1 (ebk),

ISBN 978-1-119-99253-0 (ebk), ISBN 978-1-119-99254-7 (ebk)

Typeset in 9.5/13pt Melior by Thomson Digital, Noida, India

Dedication

To my parents, Lee and Valerie Jean. You instilled in me a passion for life, and the joy of giving.

Jamie L. Anderson

To my wife Claudia. You always believed and shared in what I have dreamed of.

Jörg Reckhenrich

To my family and best friends, Ilona, Mats, Hanne and Ida, who inspire me and make my life purposeful.

Martin Kupp

Foreword

Costas Markides, London Business School

Creativity is enhanced when we approach a task from different angles. For example, I once observed a colleague teach a group of business executives how to make their companies more innovative. He first asked them to identify other companies that are known for their innovativeness and consider how they achieved it. But once they’d had a long discussion on what other companies did to promote innovation, he then asked his audience to forget business organizations and compare, instead, the difference between capitalism and communism as economic systems. What is it about the capitalist system that allowed it to prosper and win the economic war against capitalism? Which of these characteristics of capitalism can we import into our companies? Once they had debated on this topic, he asked them to think about their families. What did they do at home to encourage their children to develop their creativity? And how many of these tactics can be transferred into their companies?

In the process of looking at innovation from three different angles - what other companies do; why did capitalism win; what do you do at home - the executives were able to develop a wealth of ideas on how to promote innovation in their companies. With each different angle of approaching the task, they generated more and different ideas. Variety in how they approached the task produced variety in the end result.

This book is a wonderful application of this principle. The business topics covered are well-known to business managers - how to rejuvenate one’s strategy; how to strategically innovate and create new market space; how to globalize; how to become more creative. A lot has been written about these topics but few authors have approached them from the perspective of the arts. This book fills this void. In doing so, it achieves two major objectives: (a) it allows the reader to approach the task (such as how to innovate or how to globalize) from a totally different angle, something that produces surprising new insights; and (b) it allows us to discuss these mundane business issues in an entertaining fashion through interesting stories from the arts world.

Take, for example, the chapter on Madonna. It is obvious that Madonna did not base her success on luck or talent alone. Instead, she thought carefully about her market and customers as well as her own unique competences and aspirations to develop a differentiated personal strategy. But even before her successful strategy had run its course, Madonna was brave enough to challenge it and change it. Rather than wait until a crisis hit her, Madonna did what we all teach our executives to do - dare to change when times are good, not when you face a crisis. This chapter describes how exactly she did this. The analysis of what she did and how she did it provides numerous insights to practicing managers.

In exploring important business topics through the eyes of the art world, this book also shatters one of the most damaging myths that managers hold dear to their hearts - that their situation is unique and that the pressures they are under in today’s world are unparalleled. As story after story in this book demonstrates, this could not be further from the truth! The world was as fast-changing and demanding 500 years ago as it is today; and five centuries ago, people faced the same challenges - how to strategically innovate; how to create new market space; how to globalize - that managers of today do.

Take for example the topic of strategic innovation. In recent years, it’s become popular to call for companies to break the rules in their industries in order to create new market space. By this, people mean that companies ought to search for new customer segments, new value propositions and new ways of delivering value to customers. Yet, as the chapter on Damien Hirst demonstrates, this is exactly what he did to create new market space in the art market. And as the chapter on Tintoretto shows, the concept of strategic innovation has deep historical roots that go all the way back to 16th Century Venice.

The final contribution of the book lies in the way it delivers its messages. We know that story-telling is an effective way of communicating messages and inspiring people. This is what we do every time we tell a bedtime story to our children and it’s a technique that we use abundantly in the classroom. Leaders - in politics or business - also know the importance of stories in galvanizing people and, as a result, use them proactively. Yet, we rarely use this technique in our writings. No wonder most people find business books boring! By using beautiful stories from the art world, this book enlivens its subject matter and makes its messages memorable. Long after they have forgotten the main business message of a chapter, the reader will remember the stories described in that chapter.

Other books have used history, religion and biology to draw lessons for business managers. This book is one of the few to use the arts world for inspiration. It fills an important void and in the process makes a significant contribution.

Preface

There are hundreds of business books espousing “new” insights into key concepts in management. But most of these texts draw on well-known case studies and insights from the corporate world, often dressing existing frameworks in new management “buzz” words - but offering few new revelations. Very few discuss Picasso and Madonna as case studies for corporate success.

In this book we discuss successful strategies for driving innovation and creativity in the business world, but we do not turn to the analysis of well-known corporations such as Microsoft, IBM or Nokia. Instead, we examine the experiences of creative artists - from 16th Century painters such as Tizian and Tintoretto, to 19th and early 20th Century creative geniuses like van Gogh, Gauguin and Picasso, and contemporary artists such as Damien Hirst, Jeff Koons and Madonna. We suggest that the success stories of these artists have relevant lessons for contemporary managers - and the various chapters provide refreshing and entertaining case studies.

The business lessons from the world of creative arts have been under-researched to date due to the strong focus of faculty at most graduate management schools upon more traditionally defined private firms and publicly listed corporations. In addition, most academic research conducted in business schools focuses on the post-war period, with very few contemporary business academics delving back in time for historically relevant insights. The book is positioned in the fields of strategic management and marketing management. It aims to fill a vacuum in the business literature with regard to the insights and lessons for the world of business from the creative arts in the areas of innovation and creativity management. The book has been written for a global audience, and draws on case studies and examples from around the world. Many of the case studies we mention are recognized across borders, and the lessons communicated in the text are equally relevant for business managers in both developed and emerging markets.

The relevance of the book for both general and functional managers is demonstrated by the opening chapter on Madonna. The chapter suggests that continuous renewal of the organization is not just about crafting a detailed plan to be implemented without adaptation or evolution, but about establishing an overall direction that incorporates five key elements - vision, customer and industry insight, leveraging competences and weaknesses, consistent implementation, and a drive towards continuous renewal. This lesson is equally relevant for Chief Executive Officers (CEOs), Chief Marketing Officers (CMOs) or graduate students of management - and especially relevant at a time of economic crisis.

In Chapter 2, we turn to the topic of strategic innovation by examining the career of the 16th Century artist Tintoretto. We discuss how Tintoretto challenged the established art “industry” in his home city of Venice, which at the time was one of the world’s great centres of art. We show how Tintoretto was able to create new market space in a “mature” industry dominated by the grand art master Titian. This chapter demonstrates that strategic innovation is not a new concept, but has been a lever for new value creation in different historical periods. Innovation is a key area for concern for modern businesses, and we provide lessons for how any contemporary business can leverage Tintoretto’s approach for growth and profit.

Chapter 3 continues the theme of strategic innovation, but shifts from 16th Century Venice to the 21st Century contemporary art market. The chapter explores the controversial artist Damien Hirst, providing an overview of Hirst’s career as an artist and the approach that has brought him wealth and success. Linking Hirst’s success to that of Tintoretto some four centuries earlier, we demonstrate how modern day organizations can shake up an established industry structure and its key players merely by framing and answering the fundamental strategic questions “Who is the customer?”, “What do I offer this customer?”, and “How do I create value for the customer?” differently. After reflecting upon Hirst’s career we turn to a discussion of companies that have strategically innovated in their own sectors.

In Chapter 4 we turn to the question of creativity, and how organization’s can boost the creative potential of their people. Creativity is a widely used term in the context of strategy, innovation, organizational development and leadership. When managers realize that strategic questions, leadership issues and complex organizational situations are not manageable in a routine manner, the quest for creative solutions begins. The more unusual a situation, meaning that managers cannot draw upon experience or established routines, the more it calls for a creative solution. In that sense, creativity is seen almost as a prerequisite to manage change and renewal. Creativity is, therefore, a key skill for leaders and organizations, not only in order to adapt to change, but also to proactively shape industries and markets. “Think outside the box” is the slogan of countless creativity experts who rightly connect creative thinking to corporate innovation. But we advocate, instead, that managers think outside the canvas. A review of the thinking of the German artist, Joseph Beuys, shows how managers can unleash bold new ideas.

In Chapter 5 we return to the world of fine art to explore the 21st Century phenomenon of globalization, and how managers can draw upon the experience of artists to succeed in an increasingly global economy. The emergence of globalization in its current form has been seen as both a threat and an opportunity for firms, and has spurred an increasing interest in managing the global paradigm. We suggest that today’s managers can learn much by stepping back and examining the manner in which artists adapted to the modern globalization of the arts from the mid-19th Century on. We present three different ways in which artists dealt with the modern globalization of the arts in the mid-19th Century: adoption, integration and fusion. Adoption was the way in which artists learned from foreign cultures by copying artistic techniques, concepts or approaches. Here Vincent Van Gogh’s (1853-1890) experimentation with Japanese woodcuts is a good example. Integration was the approach adopted by artists such as Paul Gauguin who combined his experience of the world of Tahiti, with its light and colours, and a classical European understanding of composition. Finally we look at Picasso and realize that he created a completely new artistic approach out of different European and African influences through the act of Fusion.

In Chapter 6 we turn to the topic of leadership. How can managers affect the thoughts, feelings and behaviours of a significant number of individuals in a way that strategies are flawlessly and passionately executed across an organization ? In this chapter we will take a close look at Jeff Koons, another successful and highly controversial contemporary artist, and explore the way in which he has projected himself as a credible leader in the world of contemporary art not at least through his way of telling a cohesive and convincing story through his artwork. Koons’ work receives worldwide recognition and is shown in every major museum of modern art, like the three big New York museums The Museum of Modern Art, the Whitney and the Guggenheim. We suggest that Koons’ use of storytelling, and the manner in which he has come to embody the themes and concepts that he seeks to communicate through his artworks, present powerful lessons for managers as to how they can manage their own leadership projection. By looking at Koons, managers can better understand not only how to establish credibility and drive buy-in, but also how to project themselves as leaders in their respective fields of business endeavour.

Chapter 7 looks at the video and performance artist Nam June Paik, who was able to over and over again juxtapose fields like art and music, east and west, technology and sexuality by embracing complexity, orchestrating creativity and emotionalizing his ideas. We feel that dealing with seemingly opposing ideas is a very typical dilemma not only for artists but also business men and women. Life seems to be an endless stream of trade-offs, either ors, decisions for cost or differentiation, lefts or rights. Therefore we believe that looking at an artist like Nam Jun Paik is worthwhile to deepen our understanding of how this might work. Born in Korea, having a US citizenship, being educated as musician, producing artwork, Paik incorporates the idea of innovation through juxtaposition. In this chapter we are closing in on Paik in order to better understand the potential of juxtaposition, of holding opposable positions in mind in order to envision and to create new solutions.

The last chapter is an interview with Gerrit Gohlke, executive director at artnet. artnet provides services to fine art professionals, like a price database, to bring price transparency to the art market, an online gallery network, building and hosting websites for art dealers and galleries on its platform, and an online art trade magazine. As a longstanding art market observer, Gerrit gives insights into the history and business model of artnet and more important on new trends in the art market, what artists can learn from managers and what managers can learn from artists and gallery owners and other stakeholders in the art industry.

Given its emphasis on the management of innovation and creativity, the book is written for general managers and graduate management students. It is appropriate for MBA courses in strategy, innovation management and marketing, and many of the case studies included in the text have already been used by the authors to teach graduate management students and executive education participants. But the various chapters also provide specific insights for functional managers, such as those working in new product development, innovation management, marketing and communications. At a time of global economic instability, fresh and innovative insights are needed for business; this book provides those insights.

About the Authors

Jamie Anderson is jointly Professor in Strategy and Innovation Management at Antwerp Management School, and the Lorange Institute Switzerland. He holds visiting positions at London Business School and the Indian School of Business. Jamie’s research interests focus on strategy, innovation and corporate transformation, and his articles have appeared in publications such as California Management Review, MIT Sloan Management Review, European Journal of Innovation Management, the Financial Times and Wall Street Journal. He has presented as a business commentator on BBC World, CNN and CNBC. Jamie has developed executive education programs focused on strategy and Innovation for a range of Fortune 500 companies such as Deutsche Bank, Ericsson, Hewlett Packard, McDonalds, Nokia and Vodafone.

Jörg Reckhenrich is artist and founder of Art-Thinking Consulting, and Professor of Innovation and Creativity at the Lorange Institute, Switzerland. He is also visiting lecturer at London Business School and ESMT Berlin. He was recently named as one of the ‘Top 25 Management Thinkers for 2009’ by the management journal Business Strategy Review. He has developed, with his background as artist, an approach for executive learning that brings the creative principles of fine arts into the corporate field and has published widely on this approach, in journals like Business Strategy Review, Rotman Magazine and the Economic Times of India. Jörg has worked with various international companies, including Bombardier, Deutsche Bank, Mercedes Benz, Deutsche Bahn and British Petroleum. He has developed a proprietary approach for evaluating the creativity of top-level management in large corporations that has been adopted by a major international executive search firm.

Martin Kupp is a program director and member of the faculty at the European School of Management and Technology (ESMT), Berlin. His research interests focus on strategic innovation, corporate creativity and competitive strategy. Martin has widely published in journals like California Management Review, MIT Sloan Management Review, Business Strategy Review, Wall Street Journal, Rotman Magazine and the Economic Times of India. Martin has designed and taught on executive education programs for many multinational corporations like Allianz, Coca-Cola, MAN, Metro, Rosatom, Siemens, and ThyssenKrupp. He is an award winning case author, and conducts seminars on the writing and teaching of case studies at academic institutions around the world.

CHAPTER1Madonna

Strategy on the Dance Floor

The year 2009 saw Madonna Louise Veronica Ciccone Ritchie celebrate her 51st birthday and surpass cumulative album sales of 200 million to become the top selling female rock artist of the 20th Century. Just two years earlier Guinness World Records had listed her as the world’s most successful female recording artist of all time, and she was subsequently inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. In 2008 she released her 11th studio album titled Hard Candy which became another of her albums to debut at number one on the Billboard albums chart, embarked on yet another top-selling world tour and collaborated on a number of new tracks with Justin Timberlake and Timbaland, two of the world’s hottest young music stars. Her marriage to film director husband Guy Ritchie came to an end, and she embarked on a controversial second adoption of a child from Africa; but the publicity surrounding these events seemed to do little to dent her professional achievements. So how has Madonna been able to maintain her incredible success? The answer to this question lies in five key ingredients of successful strategy that are equally relevant to companies and individual managers. These five dimensions have provided the foundation underpinning Madonna’s stardom, and if diligently pursued can provide the ingredients for sustained company and career success. Indeed, without these elements in place an organization will not have the foundations upon which to drive innovation and creativity.

Dimension 1 – Vision

One of the most important drivers of Madonna’s success has been her desire to achieve stardom - her strategic vision. Madonna has demonstrated a clear commitment to her super-stardom goal that has been pursued with single mindedness throughout her career.

Madonna is the third of eight children and her mother died at the age of 30, of breast cancer in 1963, when Madonna was only five. The singer has frequently discussed the enormous impact her mother’s death had on her life and career, and being the eldest daughter of a large Catholic family meant that a greater share of household and emotional responsibilities fell on Madonna’s young shoulders. Her aspiration to be a performer started at High School, where she was a straight-A student and excelled at sport, dance and drama. She continued her interest in dance during brief periods at colleges in Michigan and North Carolina, and in 1977 went to New York, studying with noted choreographer Alvin Ailey and taking modelling jobs. Two years later, Madonna moved to France to join a show featuring disco singer Patrick Hernandez. There she met musician Dan Gilroy and, back in New York, the pair formed club band The Breakfast Club. Madonna played drums and sang with the band before setting up pop group Emmy in 1980 with Detroit-born drummer and former boyfriend, Steve Bray. Together, Madonna and Bray created club tracks which led to a recording deal with Sire Records. With leading New York disc jockey Mark Kamins producing, she recorded “Everybody”, a US club hit in 1982.

Between 1983 and 2009, more than ten studio albums, multiple world tours, and a dozen or so movie roles had established Madonna with an image and persona beyond any single field of entertainment: she was musician, actor, author and talent scout. In delivering upon her vision she has also made a great deal of money: she is easily the world’s top earning female entertainer. Madonna’s vision to become a star has been clearly apparent, and her spectrum of personal and professional activities - stage performances, television appearances, albums, music videos, Hollywood films, books and links to charity - all evidence a remarkable dedication to a single goal: the objective of becoming the world’s foremost female performer.

Vision is equally important for organizations that wish to achieve long-term success. The Virgin Group Ltd is an entity consisting of many separately run companies united by the Virgin brand of British celebrity business tycoon Sir Richard Branson. The Virgin Group’s core businesses are travel, entertainment and lifestyle, and Virgin is one of the UK’s best known consumer brands, associated with excellent service and having the consumers’ interests at heart. In the words of Richard Branson: “I look for opportunities where we can offer something better, fresher and more valuable . . . I think one of the reasons for our success is the core values which Virgin aspires to. This includes those that the general public thinks we should aspire to, like providing quality service. However, we also promise value for money, and we try to do things in an innovative way, in areas where consumers are often ripped-off, or not getting the most for their money. I believe we should do what we do with a sense of fun and without taking ourselves too seriously, too! If Virgin stands for anything, it should be for not being afraid to try out new ideas in new areas.” This vision to win in markets through the delivery of service excellence, value for money and innovation has remained consistent for more than three decades.

A good example of how the Virgin Group’s philosophy translates into a vision to succeed in a specific market place has been seen in the firm’s success in the UK mobile communications sector. After launching its operations as a mobile virtual network operator (MVNO) in November 1999, Virgin Mobile (VM) proved to be one of the remarkable success stories of the UK mobile phone industry. With a steadfast vision to become the customer champion in the 18-35 year-old prepay segment, VM was able to achieve a number of significant milestones right from its inception. With a steadfast focus on its target customer group, by June 2001 it had captured more than one million customers, making it the fastest (among the major UK mobile communications providers) to have achieved that milestone. Within five years of launch the company had an active customer base of over four million and its customers were found to be among the most satisfied in the pre-pay sector, according to surveys conducted by J.D. Power and Associates. VM had also been included in “The Sunday Times 100 Best Companies to Work For” and was part of the FTSE4Good. The company was recognized as the most admired brand in the UK with a distinct customer proposition and market positioning.

VM UK believed its strong growth had been driven by clear vision, its brand and differentiated approach to the market. The brand was consumer rather than technology-oriented, and this strategic message remained consistent from inception in 1999. While other mobile network operators in the UK had broad visions to be all things to all customers, Virgin’s vision and strategic focus allowed it to build an organizational culture, structures and processes that were in complete alignment with its core value proposition and target market.

Dimension 2 – Understanding Customers and Industry

It is clear that Madonna’s success has been underpinned through her deep and insightful appreciation of customers and understanding of the music industry. Madonna’s performance at the First Annual MTV Video Music Awards in 1984 at the age of 26 is considered to be the first stroke of genius in a career that would see many more. She took the stage to sing “Like A Virgin” wearing a combination bustier and wedding gown. During the performance, she rolled around on the floor, revealing lacy stockings and garters, and made a number of sexually suggestive moves. The performance was shocking to a mid-1980s audience, but only served to increase her popularity with her main target group, teenage fans. Showing her ability to tap into youth sub-culture, Madonna’s bleached blonde hair with brown roots, sexy lace gloves, lingerie on the outside and “Boy Toy” belt buckle defined teen-pop fashion of the era.

Beyond an ability to understand the needs and tastes of current customers, Madonna has also shown an ability to tap into evolving trends. While focus groups have been used to help sell everything from washing powder to political parties, Madonna has been one of the world’s first artists to bring this approach to the music industry. Showing her ability to interpret the needs of the market, in mid-2005 Madonna partnered with DJ and producer Stuart Price, age 28, to test songs in clubs from Liverpool to Ibiza. The tunes, with Madonna’s distinctive vocals removed, were played and the reactions of the crowds were filmed and used to determine the final track listing of Confessions on a Dance Floor. According to Price: “Whenever I was DJ-ing I’d take dub or instrumental versions out with me and test them at the club that night”. He said, “I had my camera with me and the next day I’d tell Madonna, ‘This is what a thousand people in Liverpool look like dancing to our song.”’ He added, “You can work on a song for 12 hours but I guarantee you’ll know within just 10 seconds of putting it on at a club whether it works or not.” Within the first week of release, the lead track from Confessions on a Dance Floor “Hung Up” became the number one download on iTunes stores around the world, and went on to top the charts in an unprecedented 45 countries. Madonna’s “Confessions Tour” began in May 2006, had a global audience of 1.2 million people and reported gross sales of $260.1 million - the highest earning pop tour of all time.

Madonna has also shown expertise in understanding and shaping the music industry. She has the ability to shape her image in the media, and has been recognized as a skilled self-publicist - a critical ingredient for success in an industry that sees new competitors entering on an almost daily basis. Understanding that the music industry is heavily influenced by very few big players like MTV and the big record labels she teamed up with MTV very early in her career. Her first album sold only moderately at first, but thanks to heavy rotation on MTV, Madonna gained nationwide exposure and the album peaked at number eight on the Billboard chart, and went platinum five times. It ultimately sold close to ten million copies worldwide. MTV aggressively marketed Madonna’s image as a playful and sexy combination of punk and pop culture, and she soon became closely allied with the network.

In 1987 Madonna embarked on the “Who’s That Girl World Tour” and the tour marked her first run-in with the Vatican when the Pope urged fans not to attend her performances in Italy. The fans were not affected, however, and the tour went on as scheduled. Her use of sex as a marketing tool brought her fame and notoriety in the early 1990s, when she became one of the world’s first mass-market performers to manipulate the juxtaposition of sexual and religious themes. The music video for her chart-topping song “Like a Prayer” featured many Catholic symbols, and was denounced by the Vatican for its “blasphemous” mixture of sexual themes and Catholic symbolism. Madonna had signed a deal with Pepsi according to which the song “Like a Prayer” would be debuted as a Pepsi commercial. When Madonna’s own music video version of the song debuted on MTV, Pepsi pulled theirs off the air. But Madonna got to keep her $5 million dollar endorsement fee without fulfilling her contractual obligations. In 2003 Madonna again stirred controversy at MTV when she kissed her “brides”, Britney Spears and Christina Aguilera, on stage during the MTV Video Music Awards. The use of religious symbols such as the crucifix in her 2006 “Confessions on a Dance Floor Tour” caused the Russian Orthodox Church and the Federation of Jewish Communities of Russia to urge people to boycott her concert. The Vatican as well as bishops from Germany also protested. Madonna responded that, “My performance is neither anti-Christian, sacrilegious or blasphemous. Rather, it is my plea to the audience to encourage mankind to help one another and to see the world as a unified whole.”

But despite these events, Madonna has shown a deep understanding of the politics of the music industry, and has proven to be skilled at walking the line between the shocking and sacrificing her career. She has worked particularly hard to maintain positive and mutually beneficial relations with major music companies such as MTV, and has avoided the fate of artists such as Sinead O’Connor who’s political activism saw her shunned from the major distribution channels needed to link to fans.

In an increasingly competitive and global world, customer and industry understanding is also a necessity for companies and managers. Poor attention to industry dynamics and evolving customer needs can result in companies being side-stepped by their rivals. A good example of this has been the German retail banking sector where an aging population, increasingly sophisticated consumers, technological changes and the entry of new competitors has witnessed the profitability of German retail banks decline considerably over the past decade. The vast majority of German banks have been very slow to respond to these changes, while new competitors have stepped forward to implement new business models more in tune with the emerging financial services requirements.

Ranking only behind the US and Japan, the German economy is the world’s third largest. Post-war economic growth has provided German citizens with one of the world’s highest standards of living. But Germany’s formerly affluent and technologically powerful economy turned in a relatively weak performance throughout much of the 1990s, and the economic downturn of 2008-2009 may well herald the prospect of low growth for the foreseeable future.

Germany’s total estimated population is 82 million, and modest population growth estimates put the levels at 85 million by 2015. There are now 2.6 working age Germans for every person aged 60 or older. Demographic trends similar to those being experienced in other developing countries project that figure dropping to 1.4 by 2030. In just a few years, there will be more people aged 65 and over than people aged 15 years or under. The number of people over 80 will increase to around three times as many by 2050, while the number of people over 100 will increase to around six times as many by 2050. There are currently two workers per retiree, but if current demographic trends continue by 2050 there will be less than one worker per retiree.

Structural rigidities - like a high rate of social contributions to wages - and the impact on industry of the economic crisis of 2008-2009 have made unemployment a long-term, not just a cyclical, problem, while Germany’s aging population has pushed social security outlays to exceed contributions from workers. A recent study by the Centre for European Reform reported that if Germany were to rely on immigrants to keep its ratio of workers to pensioners constant, its population would consist of 80 percent foreigners by 2050. There is an almost unanimous view in both government and industry that Germany faces a massive pensions shortfall within a generation. Not surprisingly, fewer than 50 percent of people in Germany between the ages of 18 and 35 think that their finances will be “good” or “very good” in retirement.

The comparison with the pension systems in other industrial nations underlines the structural deficits of the German system. In Germany 85 percent of pensions are currently financed by state funds. Only some 5 percent come from company pensions schemes, while the remaining 10 percent are made up of private policies. In the US, for example, state-funded pensions and private pension plans each make up around 40-45 percent of total pensions, while 13 percent of pensions are company policies. In the Netherlands the state-funded proportion is only some 50 percent, while company policies account for 40 percent. The remaining 10 percent then comes from private policies.

Despite deep structural problems related to its aging population and pension needs, one of Germany’s strengths is its gross domestic savings rate, which has remained around the 10th highest in the world over the past few decades. The total value of inherited assets in Germany in the 1990s was €1.3 trillion. Inherited assets of €2.3 trillion are expected for the period between 2010 and 2020. Historically, Germans have saved primarily via low interest Sparbuch savings accounts, and until the 1990s, more than half of private savings were regularly deposited with banks. Analysts suggest that the increase in private assets naturally will lead to a greater demand for investment opportunities. Clients, they suggest, will demand individual products that allow them to meet their personal investment aims and return expectations.

Despite the potentially significant opportunities to support Germans with their financial planning needs, German banks have languished near the bottom of the performance league when compared to their peers in many other developed countries such as the US and the UK. The return on assets for the main UK banks was over four times higher than for the big German private sector banks over the period 2000-2005; and cost income ratios were more than 30 percent lower. In consequence the market capitalization of German banks has traditionally been very low. The German commercial banks have typically blamed labour laws, the pricing policies of state funded competitors and the low customer propensity to borrow for their failure to restructure. But instead of pointing to the customer or the competitor - management should have instead focused on delivering operational efficiency and innovation to provide new products and services.

While most of the established retail banks in Germany have been slow to respond to changes in the industry environment, more nimble competitors such as financial advisory firm MLP have stepped forward to take advantage of changing customer needs. In 2008 the MLP Group was one of the largest and most profitable financial advisory firms in the German retail financial services industry, but outside of its home country almost nobody knew its name. MLP’s 262 branches and 2,613 consultants made it one of Europe’s largest independent financial services firms. Its after-tax return on equity had averaged 21 percent since 1998, more than ten times that of some of its competitors in the industry. In some years ROE had exceeded 40 percent, and MLP had been voted German Company of the Year five times by Manager Magazine.

As an independent broker, it is MLP’s vision to provide discerning clients with integrated financial services and to be the best partner for them at every stage of their lives for pension, asset management and risk management. MLP’s focus is on distinct professional groups, such as doctors and lawyers, economists and scientists, IT-specialists, engineers and academics, who the company believes have high future earning potential and attractive risk profiles. In principle, its main clients are university educated men and women who the firm has served since their graduation.

With its unique business model that brings together a federation of highly entrepreneurial financial consultants, MLP has built a reputation for clients with sophisticated requirements on pension provision, asset management and risk management. By the beginning of 2008 MLP counted more than 721,000 clients and firmly believed that Germany’s aging population and emerging pension crisis places it in a strong position for future success. In the words of Dr Uwe Schroeder-Wildberg, MLP CEO;

Based upon a foundation of a tried and tested business model our company has worked to become an independent financial service provider in an excellent market position, which will enable us to benefit from long-term market developments. And more tail wind will also come from demographic and political developments.

The German retail financial services industry has changed dramatically since the late 1990s. Deregulation, globalization and pension reform, among other factors, have contributed to massive turbulence in a once conservative and stable environment. The slowness of most German retail banks to adapt to these challenges has seen their profitability steadily decline, while firms such as MLP have stepped forward to win customers and profits. Just like Madonna, MLP has understood the significance of shifts in the industry landscape.

Dimension 3 – Leveraging Competences and Addressing Weaknesses

Another important element in Madonna’s success has been the ability to acknowledge her own competencies and weaknesses. Looking at her impressive career it becomes obvious that one of Madonna’s most outstanding competencies is her ability to bring people with various talents together with herself as the hub. Through the use of her extensive network of support personnel, including musicians, technologists, producers, dancers and designers she is able to address her weaknesses and even compensate for them.