Read This!

It shouldn't go unnoticed, on November 18th, Jeanne-Claude, on half of the artist couple Christo  & Jeanne-Claude died aged 74. Why is this important for business people?

Because of the remarkable business and marketing acumen Jeanne-Claude and her husband Christo  displayed in producing their art projects.

They became famous for such projects as covering the German Reichstag in cloth and for erecting a running fence 5.5 meters (eighteen feet) high, 39.4 kilometers (twenty-four and one-half miles) long, extending East-West near Freeway 101, north of San Francisco, on the private properties of fifty-nine ranchers, following rolling hills and dropping down to the Pacific Ocean at Bodega Bay, was completed on September 10, 1976.

Note what went into it:

The art project consisted of: forty-two months of collaborative efforts, the ranchers' participation, eighteen public hearings, three sessions at the Superior Courts of California, the drafting of a four-hundred and fifty page Environmental Impact Report and the temporary use of hills, the sky and the Ocean.

Now, importantly, they never took sponsorship money. The projects were all financed with the sale of previous artworks and the drawings and artwork for the intended project.

Christo & Jeanne-Claude form a core module in my elective at GIBS MBA. Consider this, If they can get communities to collaborate and cooperate for projects with no utility at all, can a proper business person or public servant ever have any excuses for failure?

As I say in my GIBSs lectures, Christo & Jeanne-Claude forever took away all excuses of "There was not enough money."  Be honest with yourself, you fail to get money because you cannot market. Be honest, you fail in your Eskoms and municipal services because your powers of persuasion, your tenacity and organisational skills are so poor that you cannot even succeed when their is clear utility at stake!

Face upto it  a weirdo artistic couple have more organisational and people skills than the MBA trained managers and Directors General of government departments.

Oh, and I always conclude my piece on Christo and Jeanne-Claude with the following anecdote. Jeanne-Claude when asked wheter she fell in love with Christo's intellect alledgedly replied: "Oh no, he was such a damned good lover." (!)