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If Amazon’s business section had shelves, they would be amply stocked with books on how to invest like Warren Buffett. But the death of Dolly Parton at the age of 80 is a reminder that similar inspiration lies in the music section.
Parton will mostly be remembered for the 100mn records she sold, the Whitney Houston classic she wrote, towering blonde hair and what the FT’s obituary calls “fabulous folksiness”. She was an entrepreneur and corporate chieftain, too. While her finances were not public, Parton left some clear lessons for others.
First, the country star knew how to work the brand. Her name adorned cake mix, a coffee brand called Cup of Ambition, a loyalty scheme for down-home US restaurant chain Cracker Barrel and a special, pink-hued flavour of Coca-Cola. She launched perfumes and appeared in commercials for the Golden Nugget casino, Breeze detergent and the Tennessee Department of Transportation.
But she also knew when to keep her assets close. Parton never gave up her publishing rights, unlike other artists such as the Beatles. When Elvis Presley asked to cover “I Will Always Love You”, Parton refused on the grounds that he would have taken half the rights to the song. That proved shrewd. Back catalogues are now hot financial property, thanks to the tidal wave of private capital willing to pay high prices to own income streams such as music royalties.
Parton was also a master of considered diversification, from TV production to her theme park, Dollywood. Despite that, the Nashville singer never fell victim to the sprawl that undoes so many successful businesses. “Find out who you are and do it on purpose,” she said. Folksy as that sounds, it would have spared historic conglomerates such as General Electric, which disastrously lost its focus, plenty of hassle and billions of dollars of lost value.
Thirdly, there’s her philanthropy. Parton managed to give in a manner that proved self-serving in the best possible way. Her donation to the medical centre that helped create Moderna’s Covid-19 vaccine literally saved lives. Her children’s literacy project, the Imagination Library, is a rare beneficiary of bipartisan political support. Those help explain why she is the 11th most popular person of all time, according to YouGov.
As companies wrestle with the nature of work, they could also do worse than study Parton’s balance of graft with humanity. “Don’t get so busy making a living that you forget to make a life,” she advised. Her classic song “9 to 5” is probably history’s catchiest complaint about unequal pay, horrible bosses and stalled promotions. With young people reporting low and falling levels of job satisfaction, that tune still resonates.
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