Business lessons from David Bowie

This is the third edition of Artful Commerce and is part of a series drawing business and innovation lessons from the art world and it’s creators. In this issue we’ll look at some lessons from David Bowie.

This article is a transcription from our video of the same title. Click here to view the video on YouTube.

If it works, it’s out of date

David Bowie was once quoted as saying “if it works, it’s out of date” and if we think about that from a business perspective, the fact is that if you’re not disrupting yourself, someone else inevitably will.

When a business starts to see success with their product or service, it’s very tempting to think that this is the path they should continue on for as long as possible. And while that is a good strategy in the short to medium term, it can create a form of tunnel vision that prevents companies from looking beyond what’s currently working for them, and exploring other opportunities for growth that may emerge in the near future.

There are some companies however, that do a good job of managing both. You often see it in organisations with innovation labs where a dedicated specific team is given the space to focus on exploring these future opportunities, while the rest of the company drives the existing business revenue.

Never play to the gallery

In an interview for the 1997 documentary ‘inspirations’, Bowie was quoted as saying “never play to the gallery.” This comment was referring to artists that make their work in order to please someone else. His problem with this is that it often leads to derivative, boring, lowest common denominator work. In business, the idea of coming up with lowest common denominator solutions is just as bad as it would be for an artist. However, there is one distinction we need to make between the way artists and businesses create outcomes.

For an artist like David Bowie, being genuine and authentic is the highest calling they can answer. It means they’re creating something truly unique because it’s not living up to anyone else’s expectations, however for a business there is a need to consider the people that will be on the receiving end of their products and services.

The artist and a business both have an audience, but in the business world the audience is the customer that you’re trying to solve a problem for, so in this case we do need to deeply consider their needs.

Where we can draw inspiration from David and his practice is by not asking our customers what they need, but rather asking them what they need solved. When thinking up our solutions we should be as creative and imaginative as an artist.

This will allow us to come up with something that is really unique, remarkable, and captures the attention of our audience, rather than playing into their expectations and risking blending in with our competitors.

Go further into the water than you’re capable of being

In that same interview, Bowie was quoted as saying an artist “should go further into the water than they’re capable of being”, and if you’re working in an established organisation that’s trying to innovate, this is going to be especially true.

You see, companies over time tend to develop what we might call bad habits. These can be processes, mindsets, hierarchies and general ways of working that become really entrenched in that organisations culture, and when you’re trying to innovate within this system, you’re going to have to push through the difficult task of undoing some of those bad habits.

Now it could be that you have senior leaders that are resistant to change, or you might have employees that will have to adapt to different ways of working for change to be implemented, but whatever the barrier the only way through, is to embrace this discomfort until you arrive at the other side. And that’s easier said than done.

The good news is that the companies that are able to endure this temporary discomfort, are often pleasantly surprised by the outcomes, which starts to then feedback into their own culture of innovation, and creates some more positive momentum moving forward.

Key takeaways

Here are some key takeaways to think about from the lessons of David Bowie.

Be your own disruptor. Whether you like it or not change will occur, and if your business is not anticipating that change, then the eventual disruption can be devastating. Try to portion some time and resources to exploring emerging trends that could lead to new opportunities for growth. Ignore the expectations of others. People tend not to know what they want until you show it to them so while it’s important to understand the pain points of your customers, you should be spending even more time and energy on surprising them with your solutions. Push through the discomfort. If you’re trying to make change and create innovations within a large existing organisation, expect challenge and pushback. The success of your change will be based on how much discomfort you can tolerate while going through the process.

If you’re an entrepreneur, startup or corporation looking to build new, meaningful products and services, then please follow our Medium account and YouTube channel for future articles and videos where we’ll cover ideas and topics about creativity and innovation. See you next time.