Breakfast of Champions (NAMM Show 2014): Joe Lamond, Intro

The opening session at the 2014 NAMM Show, Breakfast of Champions, explored the latest music industry breakthroughs. NAMM President and CEO Joe Lamond kicked off the session by urging everyone to continue seeking breakthroughs at their businesses in 2014.

Highlights from the video:

“Big changes can come along, often without any warning, and disrupt our way of doing business,” Lamond said. “I think it begs the question: What are the big breakthroughs of today? What are the changes that are altering the way we see and do business in 2014.

“So this morning, I thought we’d explore that question a little bit. I thought we’d talk about the concept of breakthroughs, especially those that are happening right now. And I think it’s an important question because it affects every one of us in this room. And I also believe we’re living through some major breakthroughs at this very moment.

“On one hand, I think we’re still an industry driven by acoustic instruments—an analog market, if you will. But then we have this expanding market of technology-based products, and in that, I believe we’re living through incredible change. I think we’re now an industry and a world where analog and digital are constantly intertwined—kind of a hybrid of new and old.

“An artist today will take her acoustic guitar, she’ll plug it into her phone, and she’ll record herself. Then from that device, she’ll upload it to the Internet and share it with all her friends. Today, a worship band can record their performance in real time and actually email it to the parishioners as they leave the service.

“Bottom line: Breakthroughs in technology are changing the way people learn, play, record and share music. And that is changing everything.

“And then there’s the business processes. I think about e-commerce and how it’s changed the way we all shop—how we shop, where we shop, when we shop. It affects all of us. The automated warehousing—huge. Point of sale systems—think about the amount of data that’s being collected on us, analyzing all of our shopping preferences. The seismic changes in mobile and social commerce. It’s going to be fascinating to see how all of that develops.

“Now, I don’t think it’s our job—I don’t think it’s our role—to decide which of these changes are good and bad. I believe it’s our role as an industry to evaluate the market and then seize the opportunities that make sense for our industry and for our businesses. I believe it’s our role to recognize and take advantage of these breakthroughs and, most of all, to be creating our own.

​“I urge everyone here to ask themselves, ‘What breakthroughs am I creating in my own business? What breakthroughs am I working on to take advantage of all these big changes?’ Because I think everyone here—everyone here—has a role. I don’t care what your current position is in your company. Everyone here has a role in creating and achieving breakthroughs in your company."