Showmen Cohen and Bowie offered the corporate world lessons in quality, integrity, reinvention, staying power, and leadership

The recent death of Leonard Cohen, coming in the same year as that of David Bowie, is a real blow but maybe some solace is to be had by knowing that their lives provide some telling lessons for the world of business.

I am not suggesting that because they made a lot of money there is something to be learned from this, that’s not the point, not least because Cohen claimed that his manager made off with some US$5 million of his earnings, suggesting that he probably should have kept a closer eye on the books.

So, the lessons to be learned lie elsewhere. Perhaps the crucial one is that both Cohen and Bowie had amazing lasting power in the ephemeral world of popular music because of the sheer quality of their work.

Quality does out; this is something that also greatly matters in the world of business where trends come and go but the survivors are invariably those marked out by the quality of their goods and services. And this matters above pricing, smart marketing or more or less anything else.

Bowie, in particular, also demonstrated extraordinary powers of reinvention. His restless mind, curiosity and astonishing versatility took him to new places and brought existing and new fans with him.

Leonard Cohen, the brilliant songwriter and poet, with a less than classic singing voice, reinvented himself to a lesser degree but embraced change. Most importantly neither of them changed for the sake of change or indeed in pursuit of changing musical fashions.