Everything I Know About Business I Learned From The Grateful Dead

The Grateful Dead, one of the most popular bands of all time, still enjoys incredible relevance to this day. But let's admit it, they weren't exactly poster boys for corporate America. Or were they? For an extraordinary 30 years, the Dead improvised a business plan - all while making huge profits and pioneering practices subsequently embraced by the business world. Now, business professor and lifelong Deadhead Barry Barnes shares the 10 most innovative business lessons from the band's illustrious career, including: creating and delivering superior customer value; implementing a flat management structure; sharing your content; and more.

Barnes shows how the Dead were masters of 'strategic improvisation' - the ability to adapt to changing times and circumstances - and that their success lay in their commitment to relentless variation. EVERYTHING I KNOW ABOUT BUSINESS I LEARNED FROM THE GRATEFUL DEAD teaches readers how they did it - and what any business can learn from their long, strange trip.

“It is Barry Barnes' not-too-outrageous conceit that the Grateful Dead, a prototypical band from the era of Vietnam and shoulder-length hair, have something to say about running a business. Jerry Garcia was no mogul (a fact for which his fans will rejoice). Yet perhaps in these life's lessons the executive will learn to loosen his tie, widen his gaze, and rescue his bottom line by not, for a change, obsessing over it. I have read many business manuals. This is one of the few I will remember.”

"Barry Barnes deftly shows how the magic and authenticity of the Grateful Dead transcends its musical prowess, providing invaluable insights into how successful organizations thrive."--William D. Cohan, New York Times bestelling author of MONEY AND POWER and HOUSE OF CARDS
"Brisk and compelling, this overview of the Deadhead nation reads like a candid rock biography as well as an insightful business manual...Important lessons learned from a unique band of musical pioneers."--Kirkus
"In Everything I Know About Business I Learned From The Grateful Dead, Barry Barnes deconstructs one of the most fascinating rock bands of our time and uncovers some very powerful and unexpected lessons in innovation, marketing and entrepreneurship. If you want your business to go on a long, strange trip - in the best possible way - this is the book for you."--Mitch Joel, President of Twist Image and author of Six Pixels of Separation
""--Roger Lowenstein, New York Times bestselling author of THE END OF WALL STREET

Barry Barnes is a professor at Nova Southeastern University in Florida.

The Grateful Dead, one of the most popular bands of all time, still enjoys incredible relevance to this day. But let's admit it, they weren't exactly poster boys for corporate America. Or were they? For an extraordinary 30 years, the Dead improvised a business plan - all while making huge profits and pioneering practices subsequently embraced by the business world. Now, business professor and lifelong Deadhead Barry Barnes shares the 10 most innovative business lessons from the band's illustrious career, including: creating and delivering superior customer value; implementing a flat management structure; sharing your content; and more.Barnes shows how the Dead were masters of 'strategic improvisation' - the ability to adapt to changing times and circumstances - and that their success lay in their commitment to relentless variation. EVERYTHING I KNOW ABOUT BUSINESS I LEARNED FROM THE GRATEFUL DEAD teaches readers how they did it - and what any business can learn from their long, strange trip.

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