#27 How Les Paul changed the world with the right strategy
The history of Les Paul strategy
In this article, music lovers Christian and Jürgen share a wonderful story of an unparalleled strategist from the music sector. It is an excellent way to learn from the strategic history of the past and apply it to today's everyday strategic life.
On June 9, 1915, Lester William Polsfuss was born in Waukesha in the US state of Wisconsin. He was very interested in music from an early age. Although he grew up in modest circumstances, he had the opportunity to learn instruments. He started with the harmonica, eventually adding the banjo. But he fell in love with Christian and Jürgen's favorite instrument: the guitar.
We are talking about Les Paul.
Shownotes:
Prof. JürgenWeigandandhttps://www.juergenweigand.com
The book Hoffnung ist keine Strategie jetzthiervorbestellen.
Detailed episode description:
Table of contents:
- Talent and curiosity as a driving force for strategists- Crucial for success: the right people in the right environment- Many ideas and a clear vision led to the first single-coil pickup- Thinking and dreaming big as a strategist- With the right strategy, Les Paul became the luminary of an entire industry- Les Paul as a strategist, inventor and visionary in the music business- Using the power of collaboration for innovation- Conclusion: the history of Les Paul in the context of strategy- Contact- Shownotes
Talent and curiosity drive strategistsThe state of Wisconsin is known for dairy products and country music. Les aspired to a guitar career and was part of country bands at a very professional level from the young age of 13. Lester was very talented and eager to learn. At the same time, he was very dissatisfied with his guitar and the equipment of the time, such as turntables and amplifiers. So he began to take things into his own hands and dismantled various instruments and devices to understand how they worked. By studying specialist books from the public library, Lester became a self-made music technician.
Crucial for success: the right people around himAfter school, Lester left the Midwest. He went to Chicago and later to New York, where he played in various country and jazz bands until he met Bing Crosby. Not only did he think Lester was a fantastic guitarist, he was also enthusiastic about Lester's ideas for guitars, amplifiers and recording techniques. Bing thus enabled Les Paul to get sponsorship. At the same time, Les had an idea of how he could overcome the problem of feedback in guitars with a solid body guitar. As a visionary, he thought that a longer sustain would remain, i.e. the sound would remain longer when the vibrations were gone. Even if the solution was not completely satisfactory for Lester, he succeeded. Nevertheless, he continued to tinker.
Many ideas and a clear vision led to the first single-coil pickupDuring his time in various bands, his vision became clearer and clearer as to how he could refine his idea. He dispensed with a guitar body altogether and took a piece of square wood on which he mounted pickups that he developed himself. Pickups generally develop a magnetic field. By wrapping wire around the electrode, he created the first single-coil pickup. He called the first guitar created by Les Paul The Log. It worked wonderfully. However, his bandmates did not find much visual appeal in Lester's creation. So what did the strategist do? He took inspiration from his guitar collection and cut a guitar in half lengthwise. He attached the upper part to his log and the lower part to its underside. And the guitar had a new look, which also pleased his bandmates.
Thinking and dreaming big as a strategistBut even this solution did not stop him from dreaming even bigger. He sought out a renowned guitar manufacturer: Gibson Guitars. He presented The Log to them with the proposal to have this design industrially manufactured and translated into a standard guitar. However, his idea was initially rejected by Gibson. Over time, Lester made a name for himself in the music scene and his fame grew so rapidly that one day Gibson could no longer ignore him. In 1951, the first prototype, the Les Paul Standard, came onto the market.
With the right strategy, Les Paul became the luminary of an entire industrySince then, Les Paul has been the epitome of the electric guitar. Every guitar fan wants to own an original Les Paul. Without Les Paul, stories like the Rolling Stones or Deep Purple would not have been written because Les Paul inspired so many guitarists to move away from semi-acoustic guitars to electric guitars. This changed the business model for Gibson. There were many technical innovations and Gibson woke up previously well-known guitar manufacturers. Without the Les Paul, Gibson's guitar successes would have been unthinkable. Their market initially exploded; this was followed by a very difficult time. It was a question of strategy to recognize how to reproduce brands that were closely linked to the past.Gibson reacted skilfully with new models, variants and guitars made to look old, some of which were sold at horrendous prices.Les Paul was not only to make history in the guitar sector. He also revolutionized recording technology. In 1930, he developed a multi-track recording device.
Les Paul as a strategist, inventor and visionary in the music business Les Paul retired from the music business in the 1960s, although he remained very attached to music. Les Paul was a strategist with passion and purpose. His drive was to make music and recording better and to create more possibilities.
Harnessing the power of collaboration for innovationLester's example shows how important collaboration is. He believed in the power of collaboration and the advantage of specialization. If we recognize this, use it and have a partner on the other side that we can rely on and trust, then something new is created. In this way, things are created faster and more cost-effectively that no one had previously thought of. The era of secrecy that often prevails in German SMEs should come to an end. Especially in our increasingly complex world, we need to develop new solutions faster and faster. How are we going to manage this alone? The R&D budget of companies has its limits, while innovation and open source are becoming increasingly important. Cooperation always opens up the possibility of achieving something greater than you can alone.
Conclusion: the history of Les Paul in a strategic contextThe history of Les Paul shows that disruption has not just been around since 2020. Recording technology in particular has undergone disruption at regular intervals: from vinyl records to cassettes to CDs to MP3s. Platforms then came into play, while today most people only stream. Strategy must constantly be thought of in terms of new sales channels by anyone who wants to earn money along a value chain, and the most important principle that strategy makers should bear in mind is that the only constant is change. If we close ourselves off to change, we will succumb to disruption.
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Shownotes:Christian UnderwoodProf.JürgenWeigandandhttps://www.juergenweigand.comUnderwoodGmbHHopeis not astrategyWHU
The book Hoffnung ist keine Strategie jetzthiervorbestellen.