Steve Jobs may finally have a worthy successor in Taylor Swift.
Before you scoff at the idea that the 33-year-old pop star would be compared to a business legend like Jobs, just go to one of her concerts.
Her record-breaking Elas Tour not only showcases her talent as a performer, but also shows us how to overcome the biggest challenges facing business today.
Swift doesn’t have the best voice, the best singing, or the best dance moves. But calling her concert a show is like calling the Taj Mahal a building. The Eras tour is expected to be the first breakout tour. Ticket sales of $1 billion This created a so-called windfall effect on local towns and businesses. “Taylornomics”. You have to see it for yourself to believe the enthusiasm she’s generated among her mostly female fans, known as Swifties. That’s modern-day Beatlemania.
Like Jobs, Swift doesn’t just sell products. She’s changing the entire culture. She has figured out how to navigate major disruptive market forces that many companies struggle to confront, and most fail. She has demonstrated her ability to deeply connect with customers, return value to teams, and ensure long-term business resilience in a time of increasing ambiguity, complexity, and fragmentation.
Swift has such a unique talent that it’s impossible for the average person to imitate her. But just like with Jobs, that shouldn’t stop you from learning the deep lessons she teaches about business. The top 5 are:
Lesson 1: In the age of microtribes, find your tribe and stay true to it.
It used to be relatively easy to come up with a cool product and sell it around the world. No more. The divisive power of social media has helped drive consumers into ever-smaller micro-tribes whose members have specific tastes and interests.
Swift brings a sense of building a tribe. Her large fan base shares a strong interconnectedness, making her concerts feel like her 70,000-person high school reunion. Goers to her concerts often say they have never felt safer than at her shows. The Swifties are committed to her and their shared values. Swift creates this dedication by being authentic and vulnerable. She tells the true story of her life and doesn’t try to make herself look perfect.
Lesson for businesses: Build your tribe by focusing on shared values and communicating with authenticity and transparency. This is especially important in times when it’s much harder to get away with saying one thing and doing another.
Lesson 2: Stay connected with your customers as traditional distribution channels decline.
Traditional sales channels are becoming increasingly strained and fragile. Big box stores are shrinking and third-party sites are reducing companies’ market power.
Swift has worked hard to establish a direct connection with her fans through her taylorswift.com site. We sell items that fans can’t find anywhere else. This not only gives her more control over pricing, but also provides her with an ever-growing treasure trove of customer data to further strengthen Swift’s relationship with her fans.
It’s the same reason Nike invested so much. DTC digital strategy While cutting ties with third-party retailers like Zappos.
Lesson for businesses: Seek more value by strengthening direct relationships with your customers.
Lesson 3: People don’t just buy things, they buy them. into the We value experience over product.
Swift understands that her industry’s product, music, has become commoditized, as providers like Spotify essentially give it away for free. She can’t rely solely on her own songs to drive her revenue growth.
So she invested in building an experience that was different. Her shows blend storytelling, performing arts, and technology to create an experience intense enough to captivate some Swifties. report Memory loss after the concert. Swift tells stories and adds elements of suspense, such as performing a “surprise song” at each show. Her concerts have become truly interactive experiences where her fans dress up and exchange friendship bracelets.
Lesson for businesses: Don’t just plan the customer journey and try to solve pain points, find ways to involve the customer in the experience. Create a consistent and compelling story about your brand.
Lesson 4: In a “woke”/MAGA world, let stakeholder centricity be your guide.
As the culture wars intensify, companies find themselves stuck in the headlights. They know they need to take a stand on social issues, but they risk backlash if they miscalculate. Hiding is not the answer. The answer is to take a stand, but only if it aligns with the values of key stakeholders.
Although Swift doesn’t delve into every issue, she has steadily surfaced on topics such as abortion, voting rights, and Donald Trump. This doesn’t significantly diminish her appeal, as she is conscious of taking her fans with her as her identity evolves. Swift also stands out for the love she has for her stakeholders: her fans, local communities, and the workers who make her shows possible. She reportedly tipped the truck driver $100,000 and funded food banks in the cities where she performed.
Lesson for businesses: Value your stakeholders as they are core to your purpose and identity. This will help us become more resilient and sustainable in the long run.
Lesson 5: If a new technology poses a disruptive threat, quickly decide whether and how to embrace it.
Technology is disrupting business faster than ever before. Unfortunately, many leaders either jump on a bandwagon too quickly without considering whether it makes sense for their brand or wait too long before deciding whether to invest.
While others waste time arguing, Swift understands the need to get ahead of these changes. But it’s not without purpose. Her goal has always been to bring the community together and interact in exciting ways, not just to be on the cutting edge. On her 1989 World of Hers tour, Swift was the first artist to use her LED wall and her LED bracelets to create an immersive experience that drew the audience into her story. did.
Not only has she elevated that experience on her current Eras tour, but she’s also expanded and modified it by incorporating TikTok.her fans created a dance for bejeweled, she noticed it and incorporated it into her on-stage choreography. Rather than blindly adopting new technology, Swift carefully evaluates whether it will help her create a deeper connection with her fans and seamlessly incorporates it if so.
Lesson for business: Understand new technologies and their potential to enhance or detract from key stakeholder experiences. And if you accept it, do it with a clear purpose.
The qualities needed to navigate these destructive forces when we need them most are difficult to find among today’s leaders. Taylor Swift has proven that she’s more than just a savvy pop star, she’s a game-changing, forward-thinking leader. You don’t have to be a Swiftie to learn a lot from the Swiftie way and put those lessons into practice.
Dev Patnaik I am the CEO of Jump Associates..
