Playing Different Tune

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Dave Stewart is best known as half of the 1980s musical duo the Eurythmics – the guy with the flowing locks playing guitar alongside singer Annie Lennox.

Now, the British musician, who has moved to Los Angeles, is up to something entirely different. He has co-authored a business book, “The Business Playground: Where Creativity and Commerce Collide,” due out in July.

The book is a combination of anecdotes about how large companies and organizations, such as Google and NASA, took original approaches to problems. It also has exercises, such as word association games, to spur creative thinking.

So why does Stewart think he has something to offer business people, aside from memories of the 1983 chart topper “Sweet Dreams (Are Made of This)?”

Stewart told the Business Journal that even during the Eurythmics’ heyday he was cultivating an interest in business: He helped manage the group’s business affairs and eventually formed a record label. Later, corporations and business groups approached Stewart for creative advice, and he now serves as a consultant to international companies such as Nokia Corp., recommending how to market new products.

The way Stewart puts it, music isn’t all that different from business.

“The construction of a melody is very similar to building a business,” he said, “and putting a business together is very much like putting a band together. It’s about finding people who can work together and have the same mission. One part fails and you’re …”

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