CHAPTER 11
The Occult of the Brand
I was invited to give a talk to a group of newly minted MBA’s, many of whom were in their first jobs. The organizer wanted professional life lessons, not an unusual gig for a senior executive. During the question and answer session, I was asked, “who is your role model?” The expectation was clearly some captain of industry.
Madonna, I said. They didn’t believe it. I was wearing a suit.
The logic is inescapable. Madonna radically changed her musical style on several occasions. She and David Bowie were in the vanguard with respect to innovative shifts in industry business philosophy and approach to intermediation and sales. She engaged in loud changes to her personal life and style, from urban gamine to lady of ...
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