Since we last reported in our newsletter on March 31, FTM has been very busy around the country helping people identify and express their business bluesWe reported last time (http://facethemusicblues.com/1q05.shtml) how Roche Diagnostics leaders got into the business blues in their meeting facilitated by FTM Alliance Partner BI Worldwide. The 30 leaders created a song about their vision of how they wanted to work together going forward, and addressed key issues in their business. Well, on April 26, in Pleasanton, CA, they modeled risk taking, innovation, teamwork, and trust (trusting they could pull it all together on a half hour of rehearsal) by opening a session for 175 of their direct reports with their song. Three of the leaders sat in with the FTM Band! The Roche participants took on the songwriting and performance with gusto, and the blues were sung with as many as 35 people (blues choir?) on stage at once.
Meanwhile, the next day, another FTM band, led by FTM Musical Director Ken McGloin, delivered a program 3000 miles away for ARAMARK on Long Island. The Harrison Conference Center had never quite seen the likes of this, as the 50 participants enthusiastically changed the definition of “business meeting” by refusing to leave it, demanding the FTM band play encores while they formed a conga line to dance their blues away! And then on the very next day (!) we met up in Orlando, FL for the Bank of America Leadership Forum series developed by FTM Alliance Partner Mercer Delta. FTM has become “part of the faculty” for the Leadership Forum, and the Orlando group was lively and ready for action. We’ve realized over the course of the last 2 years that we needed to change our stereotype of bankers as the stoic, passive bean counters... these guys know how to rock and have fun! This was followed by an event in Atlanta on June 23. And the winner for the best show...
The next week was Ernst & Young week for FTM, with 2 events on each side of the country. It started on May 2 in Phoenix with 175 participants at the Ernst & Young Minority Leadership Forum. Now I’ll confess to you that although FTM events are inevitably fun, we don’t necessarily always see a lot of first-rate talent. This E&Y group in Phoenix had more than its share of fun AND talent. My favorite song was Lose My Mind by a band called “One More Recruit.” We got a fair samplin’ of the issues the people were dealin’ with, and two weeks later, participants received a CD with all their songs on it (as well as FTM’s funky custom song for the event: The Balance Sheet Blues), recorded by FTM—that should be fun to reprise at next year’s event. Two days later we were back East in Lyndhurst, NJ at the Ernst & Young National Finance Leadership Meeting getting another take on the E&Y blues from a totally different business unit. This was “blues for breakfast”—a morning session— and the finance folks were ready to go.
As with Bank of America, FTM is also part of the Millennium Pharmaceuticals leadership program, conducted by FTM Alliance partner Executive Development Associates. We have partnered with Millennium and EDA for the past 3 years on the program, and on May 24th, the participants gave us some funny versions of the biotech blues.
I guess we have been pretty busy! (Anybody still reading?) In early June FTM Managing Partner, Paul Kwiecinski went solo in Danbury, CT with the global HR Team from GE Commercial Equipment Finance (see photo above). Besides writing blues songs in pairs and threes, the team got together at the end of their session to co-write one song of their vision going forward. The session was completed in high spirits, but not until they had called a colleague who was in the hospital and performed the song for her over the phone.
The McNeil Consumer & Specialty Pharmaceuticals & McNeil Nutritionals sales forces came to Philadelphia for their annual conference and put in a serious bid for most enthusiastic FTM participants as they gave their cohorts their versions of the McNeil blues. The acts were complete with costumes, choreography and a tough competition for “Best Song.” The 100-plus people gave it high energy from start to finish.
Getting there! How many consultants does it take to screw in a light bulb? I don’t know, but if it’s possible, we had enough for the job with the 70 or so we had in Greenwich, CT on July 27. The Mercer Delta Global Partners meeting featured some good performances, a house harmonica player in one of the meeting organizers, and some bold innovations in lyrics and songs. The group went into their next day energized and ready for action.
And last but not least in this series, FTM went to Corning, NY for an event with Corning’s Science & Technology Division’s CIC (Create an Inclusive Culture) Graduate program. Yes, they were intense techies of global proportions. They stretched their innovative minds to the realm of music, and had a lot of fun with the blues.
Well, you made it; it was a busy spring and summer for Face The Music and we’re looking forward to the fall with more leadership development, some new business blues songs, and a trip to London in the works. If you have an event to which we can add value, please give us a call. And anyone who read this entire article can get a reward by e-mailing me at paul@facethemusicblues.com. I’ll send you a cool mp3 of one of our client’s songs so you can check it out.
“Song Lyrics” – Mercer Delta, July 12, 2005
The Busted Advisors - Song Title “Consultant’s Blues”
Despite the stuff we go thru, the place is really great,
The people that I work with are smart and cute tho late,
We're movin', we're growin' we're groovin' everywhere,
I wanna be with MDC, I wanna be right here.
Meet The Band: Southside Denny Snyder guitar, vocals
GE-Commercial Equipment Finance - Global HR team Performing their grand finale on June 9, 2005 at FTM event
Satisfied Clients
When asked: "what did you like about FTM?"
"Format — the musicians as people as well as performers; the whole gig."
"Keep it up-it was a real pleasure and we got what we needed."
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Harry Hutson Banta Corp
"FTM was aligned with our meeting goals. They connected with our team and added good energy and excitement. Real professionals."
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Joseph Patti Bristol-Myers Squibb
"FTM did a great job in getting our group motivated to sing about their blues. They were able to manage the group in a fun way to have them learn without
feeling pressured to have the perfect performance. Participant feedback indicates that they overall enjoyed the program."
"As usual they gave a stellar performance. The participants had a great time and enjoyed collaborating on a song and performing for our group."
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Dawn Margiarulo Mercer Delta
(Event Coordinator for Bank of America)
"Paul and the team are very knowledgeable about how to work with business issues … And are very good working with clients."
"As they say, the proof is in the product, and I liked how the group kept the focus on the clients and helped them succeed."
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Stacey Dagnault BI Worldwide(Event Coordinator for Roche Diagnostics)
Face The Music Contest
Win an FTM baseball cap with our classy logo inscribed!
All you have to do is: Name the man with the guitar in photo below.
All correct answers will be put into an old blues hat and the winner will be picked at random.
Entries must be received by October 18th.
Good Luck, and remember: “It ain’t the blues, if it ain’t the truth”.
Denny Snyder was born in South Bend, Indiana in 1958 and was raised with two other brothers who are also musicians. At the age of 12, he borrowed a guitar from a neighbor and started making, well... sounds. He became so obsessed with the guitar that he would play every night until he eventually passed out. This finally convinced his parents to help get him a guitar and some lessons. The rest, as they say, is history.
It didn’t take long for Denny to realize his true passion was for the blues of Muddy Waters, Luther Allison, Freddie & Albert King, Johnny Winter, and fellow Hoosier Lonnie
Mack.
In 1980, Denny became a full time musician. He started a band, Smokestack Lightning, which became Warner Brothers recording artist Duke Tumatoe’s band, and in 1985 left to form Southside Denny and the Skintones, which became regionally popular in the Midwest and Canada. The Skintones released two independent records, including one with harmonica virtuoso Sugar Blue. By the early 90‘s Denny had an apartment in Chicago, having scored a regular gig at Buddy Guy’s Legends, and worked with several different Chicago
rhythm sections. He opened for such blues greats as Stevie Ray Vaughn, Buddy Guy, Luther Allison and Taj Mahal.
More recently, Denny is enjoying being a guitar/music teacher and is writing a series of guitar instructional books, the first of which, for beginning guitarists, should be coming out at the end of 2005. His latest album, the 2004 solo acoustic release, Eclectic, as the title suggests, goes beyond the genre of the blues.
Denny, who bikes ten miles every morning, currently lives in Bristol, Indiana with his wife Josee (LaRose) and their daughters, Ariane (14), Lorrie (9), and son, Philip (5), who’s just starting kindergarten and “loves to ride the bus.” And he’s been gigging, more and more, as a solo performer.
Denny’s association with Face The Music as a singer, songwriter, and guitarist began in 1999 and he’s a featured performer on the Face The Music CD. Denny loves his Face The Music gigs. “The more I play and learn, the more I realize that the blues is the basis of just about every American popular music there is. It’s great to share that with people.”
![[FTM LOGO]](http://static1.squarespace.com/static/584df7a3e58c627c3b020d88/5a7b83fbd63352fd4eae933f/5a7b8409d63352fd4eae9435/1518044169314/ftm_logo.gif?format=original){kind=logo}
Denny Snyder was born in South Bend, Indiana in 1958 and was raised with two other brothers who are also musicians. At the age of 12, he borrowed a guitar from a neighbor and started making, well... sounds. He became so obsessed with the guitar that he would play every night until he eventually passed out. This finally convinced his parents to help get him a guitar and some lessons. The rest, as they say, is history.