The Beatles Case

Situation Analysis:

The Beatles, considered as one among the greatest bands of all time, were great artists and entertainers, but in many
respects they were four ordinary guys who, as a team, found a way to achieve extraordinary artistic and financial success
and have a great time together while doing it.

Here are a few lessons about teamwork and communication that every business can learn from the most successful band
in history:

 Principle Number 1 - Eight Days a Week: Face time

Invest in and build face time between team members long before they are required to appear together.

 Principle Number 2 – Getting Better: Evolving your songs

Evolve your “songs” and bring the same level of ideas, new perspectives, excitement, and enthusiasm to your
hundredth meeting with a client that you brought to the first.

 Principle Number 3 – With a Little Help from My Friends: A Role for Everyone
Help team members become brands-within-a-brand by giving them a song — an idea or proposal — that will help them
to shine.

 Principle Number 4 – I Need You: Greatness from Differences

Put exceedingly diverse professionals on the same team, mix specialists with generalists, and foster friendly
competition to produce the best ideas.

Problem Analysis:

Although the group enjoyed great success, things took a downturn starting with the death of their manager Brian Epstein.
Here’s looking at all the reasons for why the Beatles eventually broke up:

Lack of lateral and informal communication:

 When Epstein, their manager died, there was a void left in the band. He was a pivotal figure in launching and promoting
the Beatles' while using means of informal communication in managing to hold the band together.
 His management style was to let the group pursue their musical notions and projects, while often mediating when there
was a conflict. His absence created a lack of lateral communication among the members.

Environment of mistrust and lack of conflict management:

 The Beatles during their later periods was plagued by business problems and losing money.
 Lennon wanted Klein to represent their business, however, McCartney wanted his in-laws in advising the band's financial
and legal decision-making creating a conflict amongst themselves.
 It soon became evident that there was an adversarial relationship given their disparate advice and counsel. The band
members' disharmony over musical matters soon permeated their business discussions and aggravated the underlying
mistrust and antipathy experienced within the band.

Difficulty to listen to negative feedback and presence of ego:

 Harrison emerged as a talented songwriter/producer, but many of his song ideas were rejected.
 While this was partly indicative of the increased competition for space on album sides, with three songwriters in the
band, there fostered a sense of ego.

Lack of participative approach and common perception:

 After the band decided to stop touring, each of the members began to pursue his own musical tastes and there was a
lack of participative approach. When the group convened to record, there was still a camaraderie and desire to
collaborate as musicians; however, their individual differences were becoming more apparent.
 Each band member began to develop individual artistic agendas, which adversely impacted the common perception
of the group, and soon they became impatient with each other. Personal artistic preferences began to dominate, which in
turn further undermined the band's unity.

Presence of External noise and lack of Ethics - John Lennon and Yoko Ono:
 Lennon became discontented over his personal identity and his artistic role within the Beatles which coincided with a
deterioration of other factors in his marriage and family life. He started seeing Ono, a Japanese-American artist.
 Lennon violated the ethics by breaking a tacit agreement between the members not to let partners into the studio.
Ono's presence was regarded as intrusive, and became a particular source of rancour in the form of external noise.

Decision Analysis:

The Beatles remind us that the essence of any successful organization is small teams of individuals who do things they
love, have fun together, and feel part of a greater whole while maintaining their individual identities.

But how do you keep a superstar team together after it has reached the top? How do you keep the creativity, drive, and
motivation going?
Well let’s compare and contrast some lessons from the other great band that started off at the same time as the Beatles but
went on for 50 years, ‘The Rolling Stones’.

What went well for The Beatles?

 Creativity:
The Beatles were able to take elements from other artists and other acts and make something completely fresh. They
could digest trends and translate them using their own unique sound. Innovation is often the result of putting together
different ideas and influences, and The Beatles excelled at doing just that.

 Reliability on team work and respecting diversity:

The Beatles were able to collaborate and give each other frames by which to work within, even when they had the
most contrasting ideas amongst themselves. They worked as a team toward a common goal.

What went well for The Rolling Stones?

 Better decision making:

The Rolling Stones started as a blues cover band. They rose to fame by playing cover songs and eventually found their
own voice and style. By practicing and performing countless covers, the Rolling Stones learned how to craft crowd-
pleasing tunes. This eased their decision of making their own songs.

 Strength of communication and being to the point:

The Rolling Stones are still together, making them one of rock and roll's longest lasting acts. The band’s tenacity of not
deviating from the path chosen and their ability to continue to perform over the years has kept them innovating their
stage act and their music. They have found an innovative way to control and continue their legacy.

 Communicating effectively during times of uncertainty:

The Rolling Stones got into legal troubles, their assets were frozen and they were forced to leave. While in exile, they
communicated effectively and recorded a successful album. They thrived off pressure and could innovate under the
gun. They excelled under conditions of uncertainty. If anything, it inspired them to be bolder in their music.

Plan of Action/ Key take away:

Now let’s analyse and summarize our key takeaways in the context of both these bands:

There is no end to communication

 Like most great successes, the Beatles were part inspiration and part perspiration. There is no question but that John
Lennon and Paul McCartney were innate compositional geniuses. All four Beatles were also naturally quite witty and
charming but their lack of adequate communication ultimately caused them everything. The Beatles did set higher
and higher goals for themselves, however. First, they just wanted to make enough money. Then they wanted to
become a well-known group in Liverpool. They then set their sights on becoming the best English group. They also
actively cultivated their fan base, making themselves available to the public and using the media to great advantage.
Their original manager, Brian Epstein, told them Beatles that if they wanted to be a true brand, they needed to
communicate continuously amongst themselves and create a consistent, appealing public image. However, John
Lennon and Paul McCartney, the two dominant leaders of the Beatles, had a different shared vision; they wanted to
create different kinds of music.
 On the other hand, Rolling Stones were very clear that all they wanted to do was to play music together. They were
playing somebody else’s music for a long time. The first time the Rolling Stones decided to write their own music
happened actually after John and Paul from the Beatles were in their studio and wrote a song and gave it to them, and
the Rolling Stones communicated well with each other in realising that it was something that they could do easily.

Clear Communication related goals and cutting external noises

 When the Beatles decided not to do anymore tours, their studio became sacred space. The only people allowed in it
were musicians, and at the time they were all men. But then John Lennon brought Yoko Ono into the studio sessions
and she was not only present, but created noise by giving them comments and critiques. Paul McCartney was more
interested in writing a symphony and George Harrison was looking at Eastern music and the sitar and there was an
apparent lack of clarity in their thoughts. When they produced their last album, none of the songs on that album were
recorded by all of them being in the studio at the same time. They recorded pieces and mixed them later.

 The Rolling Stones also had a similar threat when Mick Jagger went and did a couple of solo albums. The rest of the
band felt betrayed because, remember, their shared vision was simply to play music together. Although they had
quarrels too, when they get on stage, all that counted was their shared vision of playing music together and that is
what has kept them going.

Creating positive environment and respecting diversity

 Brian Epstein was the business manager of the Beatles and their emotional glue. Unfortunately, he died in 1967, and
the group started to show strains. Paul wanted his then father-in-law to take over the finances, the others wanted
someone else and there was no thus there was a lack of consensus creating a negative environment.

 In contrast, Andrew Oldham stayed as the manager of the Rolling Stones for many years which created a consistent
and positive environment. Their families were more stable. There were changes in personnel but diversity was
respected.