That reliance on instinct has made Alpert a successful
recording star and an equally successful businessman. His long-
time partner in A&M Records Gil Friesen said of Alpert, “In-
stinctively he knows what’s right and what should be done. And
he has the ability to detach himself from time to time and look
and see and ask questions. He’s running his own career within
the framework of the company, which is an ideal scenario. As he
makes decisions, he reinvents his career.”
Alpert believes that you need a vision of the future at the
same time that you’re dealing with the present. And Alpert be-
lieves in trust. In speaking of Friesen and A&M founding part-
ner, Jerry Moss, Alpert said, “The real motor of this company
is the basic trust that Jerry, Gil, and I have for each other, and
the trust that artists have for us. They say they’re more com-
fortable and more inspired because our people care about what
they’re doing. Also, we’re a privately owned and independent
label, so we’re able to move quickly.”
Friesen continued, “I can’t tell you how important that word
independent is, how important it is to our staff and to the
artists. It has a kind of magic about it.” Then he added with a
smile, “And we never refer to our recordings or our artists as
‘product,’ because we think it’s demeaning.”
As Apple CEO John Sculley encouraged diversity of opinion
around him, and went with vision over market research. “One
of the biggest mistakes a person can make is to put together a
team that reflects only him. I find it’s better to put teams to-
gether of people who have different skills and then make all
those disparate skills function together. The real role of the
leader is to figure out how you make diverse people and ele-
ments work together.
“Often people don’t know what they want and can’t describe
it until they see it. If we’d done market research on the Macin-
On Becoming a Leader