“The Music of Business” from British Author Peter Cook

Peter Cook describes himself as “A scientist first, a business management consultant second, and a journeyman musician third.”

Nowhere in there did he mention the word author.

His books are very easy to read, and are written from a laymen’s perspective, making them easy to understand as well.

For nearly 20 years now, Peter Cook has written, spoke and consulted about the parallels between the business universe and the world of music, be it rock, jazz, classical etc. This follows his much longer involvement with three passions that have fueled his career: Science, Business and Music.

He recently completed his 5th book “The Music of Business”, acclaimed by Harvey Goldsmith and I asked him to explain more.

The book is broken down into 4 parts, and each one goes into deep explanations of how success in the field of music can be applied to everyday business. To back up his business philosophy, he offers analogies from the world of music.

The 4 parts are, Strategy, Creativity, Innovation and Leadership.

“The Music of Business” offers a carefully crafted cocktail of business intelligence, mixed with the wisdom of pop and rock’s monarchy.

Perhaps a way into understanding what the book is about is via some of the questions it attempts to address:

• What can Lady Gaga teach you about Business Strategy?
• What can you learn about creativity and innovation from The Beatles and David Bowie?
• How can your company accelerate its growth through the wisdom of Meatloaf, Madonna or Motorhead?
• Can Jazz help you beat the competition?
• What can Spinal Tap, Deep Purple and Led Zeppelin teach you that an MBA cannot?
• Can Britney Spears and The Kaiser Chiefs help your company become a learning organization?

And so on.

Music is a global language. In many cases, more so than the language of business which befuddles hard-pressed leaders and staff in their daily lives.

“The Music of Business” offers a rapid digest of business wisdom without all the nonsense.

This is Peter’s 5th book, having previously written “Best Practice Creativity”, “Sex, Leadership and Rock’n’Roll”, and “Punk Rock People Management”, acclaimed by top business authors Professor Charles Handy and Tom Peters. His work has featured on BBC TV and Radio, Bloomberg TV, The Financial Times, USA Today and The Independent.

Peter has worked with a number of punk and rock bands over the years, famously sponsoring a record breaking World rock tour that failed in a comedy of errors on a par with the classic rockumentary “This is Spinal Tap”.

I did a videotaped interview with him which will be up on the site any day now, so stay tuned.

Jim Donahue