The life and work of Damien Hirst, Britain’s most controversial – and wealthiest – artist is being used to teach MBA students and managers how to develop winning business strategies.
The London Business School courses are run by Jamie Anderson, visiting professor, who believes that Mr Hirst’s ability to reinvent his art form and manipulate the art market holds important lessons for business generally. Mr Anderson said he used the rise of Mr Hirst over the past 20 years as a case study in original thinking about business strategy. Mr Hirst’s wealth was put at £235m in this year’s Sunday Times Rich List.
“Strategic innovation is all about disrupting established industry sectors – and that is precisely what he has done,” said Mr Anderson. “He identified new customer groups such as oligarchs, collectors from east Asia and [people who have benefited from] oil money, who had been ignored by the snobbier galleries in the art world.
“He made new forms of art, which would appeal to those new customer groups. And he also realised that collecting art was not just about ego and snobbery, but investment. He created a strong brand.
“And finally he found new ways of distributing his art which broke all the rules of the market, such as last year’s Sotheby’s auction in which more than £110m of his art was sold.”
