The strategy history of Les Paul
In this post, Christian and Jürgen, as music lovers, share a beautiful story of an unprecedented strategist from the music field. It is perfect for learning from the strategy history of the past and extrapolating from it to today's everyday strategic life.
On June 09, 1915, a Lester William Polsfuss saw the light of day 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. Jürgen Weigand and https://www.juergenweigand.com
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Detailed episode description:
Table of Contents:
- Talent and inquisitiveness drive strategists
- Decisive for success: the right people in the environment
- Through many ideas and a clear vision, the first single-coil pickup was created
- As a strategist, constantly thinking big and dreaming
- 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
- Harnessing the power of collaboration for innovation
- Conclusion: the story of Les Paul in the context of strategy
- Contact
- Shownotes
Talent and inquisitiveness drive strategists
The 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 at the young age of 13.
Lester was very talented and inquisitive. At the same time, he was very unhappy with his guitar and the equipment of the day, such as turntables and amplification systems. So he began to do it himself, taking apart various instruments and equipment to understand how they worked. By studying reference books from the public library, Lester became a self-made music technician.
Crucial to success: the right people around him
After 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. Crosby not only thought Lester was a fantastic guitarist, but was also inspired by Lester's ideas for guitars, amplifiers and recording techniques.
Bing thus made it possible for Les Paul to become a sponsor. In parallel, Les had an idea of how he would overcome the problem of feedback in guitars with a solid-state guitar. Being a visionary, he thought that a longer sustain would be left, that is, the tone would be preserved longer when the vibrations were gone.
Even though the solution was not completely satisfactory to Lester, he succeeded. Nevertheless, he continued to tinker.
Through many ideas and a clear vision, the first single-coil pickup was created
During 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 grabbed a piece of square wood on which he installed pickups that he developed himself. Pickups generally develop a magnetic field. By wrapping wire around the electrode, he created the first single-coil pickup.
The first guitar created by Les Paul he called The Log, meaning the block of wood. This one worked wonderfully. However, his bandmates didn't take much visual liking to Lester's creation. So what did the strategist do? He drew inspiration from his guitar collection and cut a guitar lengthwise. He attached the top part to his log, and the bottom part to its underside. Already the guitar had a new look, with which the band mates were also satisfied.
As a strategist, constantly thinking big and dreaming
But even this solution didn't make him stop dreaming even bigger. He sought out a renowned guitar manufacturer: Gibson Guitars. He presented The Log there with the proposal to have this design industrially manufactured and translated into a standard guitar. However, his idea was initially met with rejection by Gibson.
Over time, Lester made a name for himself in the music scene and his fame grew rapidly, so that one day, however, Gibson could no longer ignore him. In 1951, the first prototype, the Les Paul Standard, came on the market.
With the right strategy, Les Paul became the luminary of an entire industry
Since 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 and 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 jolted previously well-known guitar manufacturers out of their slumber.
Without Les Paul, Gibson's guitar successes would be unthinkable. Their market exploded at first; then followed a heavily depressed period. It was a matter of strategy to recognize how to reproduce brands closely tied to the past.
Gibson responded skillfully with new models, variants and with guitars made to look old, some of which were sold at horrendous prices.Les Paul was not only to make history in the guitar field. He also revolutionized recording technology. In 1930, he developed a multitrack recording device.
Les Paul as a strategist, inventor and visionary in the music business
In the 1960s, Les Paul retired from the music business, although he remained very much 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 innovation
Lester's example shows how important collaboration is. He believed in the power of collaboration and the specialization advantage. When we recognize this, harness it, and have a partner on the other side that we can rely on and trust, something new is created. In this way, things are created faster and more cost-effectively that no one had thought of before.
The era of secrecy that often prevails in German SMEs should come to an end. Especially in our increasingly complex world, we have to develop new solutions faster and faster. How will we manage this on our own? 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 do alone.
Conclusion: the history of Les Paul in the context of strategy
The history of Les Paul shows that disruption has not only existed since the year 2020. Recording technology in particular goes through disruption at regular intervals: starting with the vinyl record, to the cassette to the CD to the MP3. Then platforms came into play, while today most people only stream. Strategy must be constantly thought of in terms of new sales channels by anyone who wants to make money along a value chain.The most important principle for strategy makers to remember is that the only constant is change. If we close ourselves off to change, we will succumb to disruption.
Contact:
Need help with business strategy or want to give us feedback? Then please contact us at info@underwood.de. We look forward to hearing from you.
Shownotes:
Christian Underwood
Prof. Jürgen Weigand and https://www.juergenweigand.com
Underwood GmbH
Hope is not a strategy
WHU
Pre-order the book Hope is not a strategy now here.