Worship Musician September 2019 | Page 101

fix that, the simple mantra was to make it easy to do business with Gibson. At the end of the day we have to find really simple and compelling ways to put guitars in more people’s hands and to actually experience a Gibson. If we had put our dealers on an obstacle course, then let’s put them on an opportunity course. We’ve significantly changed the way we do business and have made it easier to do business with Gibson, with our artists, with our dealers, with all of our partners, and today they’re genuinely thankful for that simplicity of partnership. More recently one of the listening and learning’s was there was this cultural hangover that we inherited. When you’re dealing with shapes and intellectual property and all those kind of fun things, one of the things I’ve learned is when you get momentum for your brand, you also serve notice that you’re going to protect your brand. We quite frankly took a left when we should have taken a right, and the intention was straight forward but I think the interpretation went a little sideways with something we did about a month ago. But I will tell you, under the heading of listen, learn, and pivot, while all the smoke was going on and people had a lot to say, I actually put the noise cancelling headphones on and I got to work on a new business model that wouldn’t exist if we didn’t hit that pain point. We announced this week the notion of the Gibson Authorized Partnership Program, we announced three boutique guitar makers who make amazing guitars and they’re revered by artists and by the community. We said rather than have this confrontational dynamic, let’s have a collaborative dynamic, and we did and we announced those today. We announced the new Gibson foundation with the collaboration of all the amazing partners. We announced our recommitment to Nashville with our collaboration with Cummins Station, our new head office, this week. The collaboration with brands, even like ones that would have made phone cases with our guitars on them, September 2019 Subscribe for Free... 101