| powered
by PicoSearch | ||
plus
For Free
Downloads
Articles
White Papers
Action Ideas
Toolkit
Resources
Services
About Us
FAQ
Contact Us
Quick Contact:
In
Australia call:
(03) 9388 1650 or
0417 605 826
Outside
Australia call:
+61 3 9388 1650 or
+61 417 605 826
Home > For Free > Articles > issue9vol5
Why Every Business Needs Rhythm
By David Brewster March 2006
I saw a fantastic band last night. I can’t remember exactly how they described their musical style. It was something to do with a mix of Cajun, Celtic, French Canadian, jazz, salsa, roots and folk. Whatever it was, it was exuberant. It reminded me yet again of the magic of music – a magic that business can learn from.
Music fascinates me. I struggle to comprehend how, with an ingredient list of just twelve notes and a handful of different beats, we are blessed with a never-ending supply of symphony and song. It’s even more mind-boggling to think that musicians as divergent as Vivaldi and Van Halen built their repertoires from that same set of ingredients.
Then there are the first efforts of my youngest with her violin. Her earliest attempts made Vivaldi sound like Van Halen. But, mystically, as her fingers have started to land in the right spots and the timing has improved, even the simplest melody can now make the heart sing and everything … groovy.
The lesson here is that you can do a lot with music if you stick to the basics. But you have to stick to the basics. These rules weren’t made to be broken.
Does this concept apply in business too? I think it does. In fact in some ways business has less ingredients to play with and you need to use all of them. Every business needs a product or service, a customer, a ‘customer need’ and cash to oil the wheels. It also needs a model – the business’s melody – that brings these things together.
At its most simple that’s all there is to it. Most of the variation comes, as it does in music, with the choice of instrumentation and arrangement. Is your business a solitary guitar or a 100-piece symphony orchestra? Are you in charge of the whole band or just one section? Whatever your combo, you’ll need those basic components and they need to be in tune and in time.
It would be nice to think that this is an over-simplification – that everyone understands it already. But, unfortunately, I don’t think so. My observation is that businesses, particularly as they grow, often become a discordant jumble of instruments, each being played off-key and with its own rusty rhythm.
This is not to say that every business needs to strip itself down to no more than a banjo and a drum. What it does mean is that everyone inside a business needs a clear understanding of what they are supposed to be playing, in what style and at what tempo. And they need feedback so that they know they’re in step and when they’re not.
The band I saw last night combined drums, guitars, trombones, an accordion, a double bass and tap-dancing. Their respective parts overlapped and intertwined in an incredibly complex whirlwind of sound. Yet, because they had the basics in place, the overall effect was extraordinary. Can you say that about your business?
(By the way, the band were La Bottine Souriante from Quebec)
NEW! Listen to this article on our new podcast
Previous
Article |
Next Article
Have future articles like this emailed to you once a month by registering for our free workbook. You will also gain access to additional downloads in our toolkit, exclusive to subscribers.
Get the Book!
The
best articles from five years of Seeking Clarity have been updated and
brought together in David Brewster's new book, Success with Simplicity: Take
Management Back to Basics.
'Success with Simplicity' strips management back to basics. The book offers a fresh perspective on the challenge of management plus insight into how you can use simplicity to have balance and success.
