The Beatles Principles Lessons about teamwork and creativity from the most successful band in history

By Andrew Sobel

Reprinted from Strategy+Business, Spring 2006

Illustration by Lars Leetaru Lars by Illustration

issue 42 issue s s s s e e n n i i s s u u b b + + y y g g e e t t a a r r t t s s are a noteworthy are The Beatles , and Ringo Harrison, George Starr—are confident and relaxed My as they kick into “All drum kit is ele- Ringo’s Loving.” the stage—then above vated an unusual arrangement—so that he is as much the center of atten- It’s Beatles. tion as the other three an ensemble of four equal play- lead singer ers, not a flamboyant with his backing musicians. hav- They’re all smiling. They’re ever If ing the time of their lives. was an antidote to the there it out malaise of “grinding it was visible on mechanically,” the stage that night. example because the whole of their accomplishment was so than the sum of its much greater evident in are The reasons parts. together as a the way they worked they collaborated to team; how write their songs; the techniques they used to enhance their innate and the approaches creativity; they used, for most of their time in ll ee bb oo SS

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yy bb The Beatles created a whole that was far a created The Beatles than the sum of its parts. greater The Beatles Principles Beatles The teamworkLessons about and creativity from the band in history. most successful front of what was then the largest front television audience in history. The black-and-white clip of that a pop- performance is now a theater classic. Before culture teenagers, the full of screaming musicians—four young McCartney, Lennon, Paul John Every business team can learn Every their story. from to management relevance Beatles’ teams, the place to start is that night, 9, 1964. On February made its American the group debut on most successful team of our time: has Branson Richard the Beatles. personality fun, but his outsized and high-stakes gambles make it The his example. to follow hard artists and great were Beatles entertainers, but in many respects four ordinary guys they were who, as a team, found a way to extraordinary artisticachieve and a great financial success and have time together while doing it. ntrepreneur Richard ntrepreneur chairman of Branson, is the Virgin Group, for building known motivated creative,

But there is an example of a there But Too many people in business Too

team that learned to deliver the team that learned to deliver of performancehighest level while having fun on a legendary the it’s coincidentally, scale. Not feel that way. And the more they And the more feel that way. lose sight of the fun and cama- raderie in their business, the perform- it is to deliver harder ance. teams. He insists on “fun” as a insists on “fun” teams. He key element of any new enter- I mentioned this to a When prise. at a large invest- senior executive ment bank, he shook his head of and told me, with a mixture his that and bravado, remorse company had once been fun, too: like the mili- a bit more “We’re too big for that and tary now, and marshal the people We stuff. me- grind out the deals pretty glanced at his He chanically.” mumbled an beeping BlackBerry, and shot off somewhere, apology, leaving behind a last remark: not a lot of fun left.” “There’s

EE Culture & Change 1 comment | culture & change 1 comment | culture & change 22 ) and virtually No subject was too mundane No Most rock groups produce groups rock Most Like many eclectic innova- Revolver, Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Sgt. Pepper’s Revolver, Hearts Club Band Hearts The video. the rock created did not actually invent Beatles most of these musical ideas, but to out and dared they reached combine them in new ways that expanded the vocabularyvastly of and roll. rock or outlandish. A newspaper arti- cle about the death of a Guinness John heir spurred brewing in Day Lennon to compose “A ticket be- the Life.” A parking “Getting Better” of the same types essentially The again. and over songs, over and retaining to secret Beatles’ time their audience over growing and contin- was the breathtaking of their music, ual evolution along album to album, from Their musical many dimensions. them into newexplorations took musical and unfamiliar themes, instru-styles, arrangements, tech- ments, and recording as as varied songs With niques. and “Revolution,” “Yesterday” than 1 billion they sold more than a not much more in records decade. exten- borrowed tors, the Beatles and other genres from sively combined these ideas into some- a base from Starting thing new. they added and roll, of rock music, countrytouches of Indian rhythm and blues, and western, acoustic classical, music hall pop, They turned folk, and jazz. of art into works covers record ( client. That behavior is a tip-off, demonstrated The Beatles 1: Number Principle Beatles says the CFO: “I notice how they says the CFO: “I notice how getting on with each other are because this tells me what a long- with me and term relationship my organization might look like.” that true esprit de corps comes experiences. intense, shared from in and build face time Invest team members long before between to appear toge- required ever they are of a ther in front firms tell you they are ‘global.’ they are firms tell you most of them cannot field a But team of people, drawn from these far-flung operations, who and trust each other and know together worked who have notice when really You before. the individuals on the team are and communicating, relaxed, having fun together—or,as the them- case may be, introducing to each other for the first selves office door.” time outside your concept of “virtual teams,” of “virtual concept met never have whose members This will. never and one another, for engineer- work can approach projects, ing and other technical to perform have for but if you forget it. clients and customers, 500 a Fortune As the CFO of “All recently, company told me professional of the big banks and charts in Today, we have almost for- almost have we Today, When the young Beatles first Beatles When the young The magic was far more than was far more The magic gotten about the importance of face time in building familiarity and mutual trust—the requisites for teaming seamlessly under companies have Some pressure. the gone so far as to promote 1963, with “Please Please Me,” Please 1963, with “Please they seemed like an overnight sensation, but they weren’t. their seemingly effortlessBehind thousands of hours playing were logged performing together in the and Hamburg. clubs of Liverpool This face time forged the individ- tightly into a cohesive, ual Beatles Stones knit team that Rolling called, envi- Jagger singer Mick four-headed hydra.” “the ously, ing to improve your organiza- your ing to improve and creativity, teamwork, tion’s capacity to connect with cus- four principles are tomers, here and play by. to work Week” a “Eight Days hit the top of the U.K. Effective teams blend branded experts teams blend Effective and Ringo with deep like George and Paul. generalists like John just the music. There are, in fact, are, There just the music. specific strategies—Icall them Principles”—that Beatles “the can use to re-createyou a bit of have you juju. If Four’s the Fab high-perform-to field teams of try- or if you’re ing professionals, together, to defuse the inevitable to defuse together, among them. that arose tensions

issue 42 issue s s s s e e n n i i s s u u b b + + y y g g e e t t a a r r t t s s differences, they differences, Research shows that most shows Research would sing, As McCartney “I Need You” “I Need individuals who hire managers in effect like themselves, are teams assembling homogeneous The most image. in their own duo in successful songwriting was com- in contrast, history, posed of two individuals—John McCartney—Lennon and Paul dissimilar in almost who were When they first every respect. 1957, Lennon was a met, in July young sarcastic cynical, angry, man of 16 who was constantly Ultimately, getting into trouble. he came to loathe the Beatles’ on the other fame. McCartney, hand, was optimistic and hard- and liked to please, He working. celebrity. would later adore Despite their drawn together by a shared were and roll of American rock love musical and their powerful ambitions. getting bet- got to admit it’s “I’ve would chime in Lennon ter,” with a dour counterpoint, “Can’t They comple- get much worse.” musical mented each other’s ideas, and pushed each other to They come up with better songs. tempera- balanced each other’s ments, and each curtailed the lyrics Lennon’s excesses. other’s think, while made you haunting melodies McCartney’s ), giving Abbey Road Abbey Sgt. Pepper’s As the Beatles matured as a matured As the Beatles is not stars together Keeping 3: Number Principle Beatles began ceding song tracks to him. songs include Harrison Famous and Comes the Sun” “Here on the “Something” example, drummersexample, feel always groups, in rock underappreciated excep- was no Starr and Ringo and McCartney Lennon tion. So for him to would write a song sing on almost every (e.g., album My from “With Little Help a on Friends” with the him a special platform Harrison’s public. As George developed, compositional talents of the group the other members album. harder even team, they worked and embrace each to recognize individual The worked: It player. became brands within Beatles the brand. professionals, and younger easy, often feel underap- especially, to great on teams. It’s preciated feel part of a whole, but in the end everyone needs a sense of personal importance as well. team members a Why not give that makes them look project right? good in their own team members become Help giving by brands-within-a-brand them a song—an idea or proposal —that to shine. will help them On almost every album, John and Paul and every almost On album, John to give for Ringo in order a song wrote the public. him a platform with

The Beatles’ early success The Beatles’ Beatles Principle Number 2: Number Principle Beatles Complacency—beingcon- was driven mostly by Lennon mostly by was driven songwriting and McCartney’s but the pair quickly had prowess, to accommodate what turned out to be four star personalities The band right. in their own used a number of strategies to manage these tensions. For “With a Little Help from “With My Friends” Evolve your “songs” and bring the “songs” your Evolve of ideas, new perspec- same level and enthusiasm excitement, tives, meeting with a hundredth to your to the first. brought client that you tent to sing “I Want to Hold Want tent to sing “I and over over Hand” Your again—is the enemy of sus- The way to keep tainable success. clients and customers for life is to with them— songs your evolve reper- to constantly expand your has done this by Amazon toire. cate- adding merchandise slowly of gories to its original core its suc- through books, Porsche sportscessful Boxster car and SUV lines, and Apple Cayenne Computer with its popular line- and music players up of iPod software. related came “Lovely Rita.” Paul Rita.” came “Lovely inspired sheepdog McCartney’s off- and an Dear,” My “Martha an over- from hand comment into chauffeur turned worked The Week.” a Days “Eight of powers had profound Beatles the They absorbed observation. framed it them, world around back to us. it and gave musically, 3 comment | culture & change 3 comment | culture & change 44 is the (John Clients for Making RainMaking (Simon & Schuster). He is & Schuster). He (Simon author of the business best- sellers and & Sons) Wiley Life a leading authority on the to skills and strategies required enduring client loyalty. develop with many of works Andrew most prominent the world’s service the indi- firms to create vidual and institutional capa- to develop, bilities required and sustain a profitable grow, client base. A graduate of Middlebury College and School, he is Tuck Dartmouth’s Sobel of Andrew President an international con- Advisors, is also a sulting firm. Andrew guitarist. professionally-trained at can be reached He [email protected] 505.982.0211 Telephone: Andrew Sobel Andrew . , sit Abbey Road Abbey or The Ed Sullivan Show Sullivan The Ed ++ The Beatles’ breakup in breakup The Beatles’ was of the Beatles the core At it for “grinding The cure Beatles Principle Number Principle Beatles Put exceedingly diverse profes- diverse exceedingly Put I’m betting you’ll see what I see what betting you’ll I’m mean. back, listen, and relax. Watch a Watch back, listen, and relax. few of those old clips of the confer- raucous press Beatles’ ences, or their exultant perform- ances on 1970 raises a big question: How 1970 raises a big team keep a superstar do you the reached together after it has the cre- keep do you top? How and motivation drive, ativity, all vanquished going once you’ve no doubt, Gates, enemies? Bill has had a few sleepless nights thinking about that one. music—buttheir great they had cannot imi- We than that. more genius as native tate the Beatles’ and musicians, but the other from can borrow we parts of their success and apply The Beatles learned. what we’ve us that the essence of any remind successful organization is small teams of individuals who do fun have things they love, and feel part of a together, whole while maintaining greater their individual identities. the principles is available; out” on for the taking. Put there are Sgt. Pepper’s sionals on the same team, mix spe- the same team, mix sionals on and foster generalists, cialists with to produce friendly competition the best ideas. the End” in “And 4: The Beatles showed that showed The Beatles effective The art of creating differences and friendly compe- and differences So creativity. tition fuel team specialist and does a blend of McCartney generalist abilities. the deep gen- and Lennon were Each had eralists of the band. musical and artisticbroad tal- ents—both a range could play of instruments, compose music, lyrics—andand write varied this fueled many of the breadth George innovations. Beatles’ in and , Harrison the branded contrast, were lead experts. played Harrison drums, played guitar and Starr and they stuck to their knitting. the lead guitar solos As a result, inventive, more ever grew Starr melodic, and moving. a highly idiosyncratic developed drumming and recognizable style. blend you teams lies in how together branded experts and deep generalists. Unfortunately, over- many corporate teams are loaded with specialists who fail and servic-to put their products business con- es into the broader needs—theytext of their client’s the leg but let the patient save person to devel- The harder die. That op is the deep generalist. hiring, takes a mix of careful management, career creative skill develop- and broad-based teams of your ment. Sprinkle branded experts with a few deep will be generalists, and the result powerful. could send a tingle up your a tingle up could send spine. Beatles Q&A by Andrew Sobel Why did the Beatles break up? Was Ringo any good as a drummer? It’s widely believed that “broke up” the Ringo has always taken somewhat of a rap as Beatles, but that’s just not true. By 1969, three of being a mediocre drummer who just happened to the four Beatles had been together for twelve be in the right place at the right time. This is rub- years—since 1957—and they were exhausted bish. Contemporary critical opinion is that Ringo from years of spending practically 24 hours a day was a very good drummer. He has an idiosyncra- together under a state of siege from their fans. tic sound (you can tell it’s him, which is good— The world’s press examined their every move many modern drummers all sound the same), his under a microscope, and the appearance of just personality fit nicely into the group, and it’s one of them on the street could cause a virtual unlikely that musical perfectionists like Paul, riot. and George Harrison in partic- John, and producer George Martin would have ular were sick and tired of the adulation and put up with someone who couldn’t drum to a media attention. John was someone who, once he very high standard. (PS: Ringo’s son, Zach, is the had accomplished something, got impatient and drummer for The Who!) wanted to move on. He saw himself as more than just a pop star, and wanted to go deeper into Did the Beatles consciously plan edgy, avant-garde music and art. Yoko became his their success, or did it all come to perfect companion for this. George, always an individualist, was traveling his own spiritual path. them naturally? The Beatles had also all married, and were having Like most great successes, the Beatles were part families. The tensions mounted over creative inspiration and part perspiration. There is no direction and control, and John—with George question but that John Lennon and Paul silently backing him—eventually triggered the McCartney were innate compositional geniuses, break up. John had started the group, and he was and they will be remembered as two of the great- going to be the one to end it. While the continu- est songwriters of the 20th century or probably al presence of Yoko in the recording studio on any century. All four Beatles were also naturally their later albums rankled the other Beatles, she quite witty and charming. The Beatles did set certainly didn’t cause their breakup. higher and higher goals for themselves, however. First, they just wanted to make enough money as Where did the name “Beatles” musicians to avoid a dreary day job in post-war come from? Liverpool. Then they wanted to become a well- known group in Liverpool. They then set their sights on becoming the best English group. In 1960, the group was trying to come up with a Finally, they aspired to be the top group in the new name. Originally called , they world. They also actively cultivated their fan base, had subsequently used other names such as making themselves available to the public and “Johnny and the Moondogs.” They loved Buddy using the media to great advantage. Their original Holly and the Crickets, and apparently Stu manager, Brian Epstein, also carefully developed Sutcliff, the group’s original bassist, came up with their original, matching-suits look, telling the the idea for “Beetles “ It’s widely believed that young (and then rather scraggly-looking) Beatles John Lennon, who was always clever at word play, that if they wanted to be a true “brand” they changed the spelling to “Beatles” as a play on the needed to clean themselves up and create a con- word “beat.” sistent, appealing public image. The Beatles Principles By Andrew Sobel

“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.”

Andrew Sobel Advisors, Inc. 10 Bishop’s Trail, Santa Fe, NM 87506 Tel: 505.982.0211 E-mail: [email protected] www.andrewsobel.com