Drucker Meets the Doodah Man

In his latest column for Forbes online, Drucker Institute Executive Director Rick Wartzman writes about the Tamalpais Research Institute, a performance studio created by the Grateful Dead’s Bob Weir, which is designed for broadcasting live HD video and audio streams directly to the Internet.

“To call TRI state-of-the-art is like saying that Ryan Lochte is a pretty good swimmer,” Wartzman writes. “I’ve never seen or heard anything like it. The intimate, crystal-clear images and lush sound on TRI blow away any concert footage on YouTube, and it bests what’s found even on a great music site like From the Basement.

“But the most exciting thing about TRI,” Wartzman adds, “is its potential to alter the economics of the live-music industry and, in the process, give financially struggling artists a better shot at earning a buck.”

In all of this, according to Wartzman “Weir and his TRI team are showcasing three management principles that [Peter] Drucker himself would have applauded”: First, “new markets tend to emerge unexpectedly—so you need to keep your eyes (and ears) open for opportunity.” Second, innovation often demands that you combine “existing resources in a new and more productive configuration.” And third, as Drucker wrote, it is “on distributors and distribution channels that the ‘Information Revolution’ is likely to have the greatest impact.”

“This may not be the ‘revolution’ the hippies had in mind,” Wartzman says. “But it’s well worth tuning in for.”