Over 120,000 people saw Elton John’s final ever UK show at the Glastonbury festival last Sunday. It was the biggest ever Glastonbury crowd, eclipsing the size of the crowds that watched Paul McCartney and The Rolling Stones in previous years.
Elton played all his greatest hits – and he has a lot of them! – and the Glastonbury crowd, as well as TV viewers, absolutely lapped it up. His voice was strong, the band were on top form, it was a great show.
For music fans, festivals like Glastonbury are a chance to watch some of the biggest bands and artists the world has ever seen. But they also provide opportunities to discover something new.
So, last weekend, while you could spend your time enjoying household names like Elton, Foo Fighters, Arctic Monkeys and Guns n’ Roses, you could equally watch newer, more up-and-coming artists such as Gabriels, Nova Twins, The Lathums and, my own favourite ‘new’ band from the weekend, The Big Moon.
How you manage your time is likely to reflect your personal tastes, but, to me at least, it seems a shame to just watch the big bands. I love discovering new music and festivals are the perfect place to do it.
When it comes to delivering growth, businesses face similar pressures to festival-goers who are trying to find the optimum balance between ‘greatest hits’ and ‘new music’.
While most of your current revenues and profits may come from a few products, brands or markets, focusing your time and investment too much on them may mean that as they mature, you struggle for growth in future years. Conversely, excessively focusing on new products and markets, at the expense of your current greatest hits, can adversely affect your organisation’s current performance.
The leadership team at one of my client’s, for example, split their time so that they gave 80% focus to delivering current year results, 15% to delivering next year’s and 5% to delivering beyond next year. I don’t know if that split was right or wrong, but at least the team had made a call.
What’s the right balance between focusing on ‘greatest hits’ and current performance vs. ‘new music’ and future growth for your organisation, and how are you ensuring that you don’t let the sun go down on your business and that, in future years, you’re still standing?
Off The Record: Trouble by The Big Moon
Trouble don’t last forever,
Trouble is your memories do,
But every time I remember,
Something is a little less true.