DRUGS, sex and rock 'n' roll can help business to succeed. So says Gillingham management guru Peter Cook. He uses rock music as a way of motivation - and his ideas are so unusual that he appeared on BBC Radio 4's business programme on Good Friday to tell millions of listeners all about them.

The former member of a Glam rock outfit Cenet Rox uses the Beatles, Prince and Madonna as examples of managing change. He points to other groups that have failed to adapt and faded from the pop scene.

He claims sex is another way of talking about business relationships, drugs is about motivation, and leadership is about being '"on stage" -delivering and performing. Mr Cook, who lives in Park Avenue, Gillingham, and still plays rock music, notoriously encouraged IBM computer chiefs to burn his Fender Stratocaster guitar at an event designed to teach creativity, innovation and change.

He has also written about a drugs company chief playing rock 'n roll, and a financial controller who plays the blues. Mr Cook uses jamming for team-building. In the last eight years, he has been hired by leading companies, including Kent-based Glaxo SmithKline (GSK), Pfizer and Aventis Pharma.

Mr Cook said: "Music has become a global language in the last 40 years. It has replaced tribal ritual and brings communities together in ways that politicians and managers only dream of. There is simply no comparison between the energy and passion of the dance floor with that of the factory floor in many companies.

"By contrast, much of the language put forward by the management consulting profession is dry, unnecessarily complex and it does not 'rock'. It is no surprise that much of it is not understood nor embraced by the majority. It is time for consultants to cut the bullshit and reach for something that engages both hearts and minds."

He claims that rock music comes from the street, mirroring popular culture and matching the pace of change in modern society. Companies must respond in the same way if they are to survive, he says.

His rock group eventually folded because of "trouble at the top". He said:"Everybody wanted to be louder than everybody else. Here lies yet another important parallel for business - you can have the most successful product in the world, yet it fails due to the inability of the business to merge the viewpoints and egos of the key players."