COOPERATION 833The three copies listed in Barnes & Noble's out-of-print books ranged in
price from $47 to $101.
Needless to say, in the time since Hill reported that he could find
only one business that used music to stimulate workers, it is now hard
to find a retail store that doesn't have music playing from the time they
open 'til they close at the end of the day. The major departure from Hill's
theory is that today music is used to influence the customers as much
as to stimulate employees. The companies that specialize in providing
piped-in music conduct research into everything from musical theory to
traffic-flow patterns and changing blood-sugar levels in order to program
the right kind of music for the right customer demographics and the right
time of day.
Although the contemporary use of music in American retail stores
became a modification of Napoleon Hill's idea, others took the suggestion
literally. One of the most talked-about examples of the effectiveness of
music to stimulate employees comes from modern industrial Japan.
During the 1970s, as the large Japanese automobile and electronics
manufacturers were rising to world prominence, much attention was
focused on the way the Japanese managers motivated their workers. The
stories and pictures that appeared in business magazines startled their
American counterparts. What the pictures showed was exactly what Hill
had in mind-whole Japanese workforces gathering, before the workday
began, to exercise together and sing what amounted to corporate team
songs or cheers.Any form of group effort, where two or more people form a coopera-
tive alliance for the purpose of accomplishing a difinite purpose, becomes
more powerful than mere individual effort.
A football team may win consistently, by well-coordinated team-
work, even though the members of the team may be unfriendly and
out of harmony in many ways outside of their work on the field.