What Gene Simmons can teach business

Can Gene Simmons - frontman of legendary American rock group Kiss - teach Britain how to resurrect its economy? The London Business School certainly thinks so.

Is Gene Simmons the man to give our economy the kiss of life? asks The Independent. London Business School seems to think so. Last week it invited the fire-breathing, blood-spitting Kiss frontman to lecture MBA students on how to build a $1bn brand, selling everything from condoms to coffins ("we'll get you coming and we'll get you going") while finding time to sleep with 4,800 groupies.

Under Simmons' "ruthless leadership", the 1970s shock-rockers, famed for their live shows, pioneered the notion of the band as a brand. When Simmons, 61, isn't flicking his seven-inch tongue at audiences, you'll find him hard at work on his spreadsheets, masterminding 3,000 licences, a new coffeehouse chain, two reality shows and numerous other ventures (see below). Performing is just the night job. Simmons is unapologetic about his priorities. "Music, marriage and religion, it's all a business," he says. In a 2008 interview with Businessweek, he observed: "Rockers are idiots."

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