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Much like you’re not supposed to have a favourite child (but I bet a few of you do – be honest), I’m sure you’re not supposed to pick out your favourite podcast guest. That’s how I feel about Will Page, though, my first guest on the new series of Take My Advice (I’m Not Using It), which launches today.
Admittedly, this may be an example of recency effect - the tendency to remember the most recently presented information first. Or, maybe, just that I got to indulge in a conversation with him about our mutual love of music. Either way, I’ll apologise in advance, Will. I’m fickle when it comes to things like this, so the love-in may only last a week!
Our chat encompassed many of the subjects I’m most interested in, including, of course, music, as well as economics, technology, and the future of work.
As an economist, it seems that Will approaches all aspects of life with a healthy dose of analytical rigour. Take his decision to pick up a discarded copy of the FT on an Edinburgh bus in 2006, describing the newspaper as:
“…of a quality where the benefits exceed the costs.”
In current times, you might question which other publications might pass that threshold test. Still, in this case, it proved a good decision, leading to him getting his first role as Chief Economist in the music business for PRS, the Performing Rights Society.
He approached this new role, as he would later at Spotify, with a first-principles approach. How could he challenge the music industry’s assumptions about monetising creativity, and how could technology prove an enabler rather than a risk, at a time when piracy was still rampant?
Taking this perspective, Will analyses how the lessons learnt by the music business can help other industries in the face of technological disruption.
Here are three key takeaways from our discussion.
Builders and farmers
Technology companies and, indeed, any businesses looking to scale, require an ever-evolving combination of skills. What’s needed to get a business started is very different to a mature one as it consolidates its position in the market. For example, it’s often true that the qualities required to found a business don’t always lend themselves to the grown-up, scale-up stage.
In Will Page’s words, your typical founder is a “builder’, and there comes the point when a business needs ‘farmers.’
Characteristics of a ‘builder’ include a propensity to experiment and a willingness to take risks. ‘Builders’ are more comfortable dealing with uncertainty and, for this reason, are better suited to the early, more unpredictable stage of a business.
On the other hand, ‘farmers’ work better when the rules have been established and the business model verified. When it comes to measurements of success, they rely on traditional metrics and preferably sustainable financials, in which marginal revenue exceeds marginal costs. They’ll certainly be more comfortable with a more structured career development path.
Rarely, however, are people able to bridge both. Spotify founder and CEO Daniel Ek, though, is one of the exceptional entrepreneurs of our time, and uniquely, he’s achieved this by surrounding himself with the right team and playing to his strengths. In the process, he’s successfully navigated the journey from start-up to category leader. Most recently, by ‘building’ a podcast business while ‘farming’ the more mature music business.
Whether you’re a ‘builder’ or a ‘farmer’ is likely to determine within which environment you’re most likely to thrive. Have you thought about where you naturally fit and whether this has influenced your career choices?
Jobs that combine two things for the first time
You’re likely familiar with the concept that creativity often stems from combining two ideas that have never previously met one another. If not, have a read of my newsletter, Strange Dreams and Creative Things.
I’ve also written in the past about how this concept relates to work -‘niching down’ on an area in which you specialise increases your economic value.
Will Page’s story is an excellent example of this. As a music-loving economist, he was desperate to find a role in the business. However, while lawyers and marketers were much in demand by record labels at that time, there was no understanding of the role an economist could play.
Partly through luck - although I’d suggest primarily persistence - he persuaded the CEO of the PRS that an economist was the very piece missing from an industry that was struggling to understand how to reimagine the way to price a music catalogue. When you consider how Spotify has redefined the monetisation of music, it seems obvious in hindsight that someone trained in economic theory would be valuable – but it wasn’t back then.
My point?
If we constrain ourselves to think about work only through the current lens, it’s impossible to provoke change. There’s plenty of evidence that cognitive diversity contributes towards more successful companies, and we can apply that principle to job titles themselves.
Think beyond the obvious job titles we’ve always used and consider what skills and expertise would help give us a new perspective on the old challenges.
From a personal point of view, consider where your unique skills and interests overlap. How could that help businesses in ways they haven’t yet conceived?
Consumption over transactions
The shift from primarily physical record sales to digital streaming is a case study in the growing importance of consumption data over transactional data and an example of how technology and data can help create more value for customers.
As Will explains:
“When Spotify launched in the UK in the summer of 2009, music pivoted from measuring transactions – CDs sold across the counter – to tracking its actual consumption; not just the music being streamed and the device, time of day and source of those streams. No longer did we ‘put a record out’ on the physical shelf to see if demand drives sales; rather we made it accessible on a digital shelf and learned how it was consumed.”
As Will argues in a recent article titled ‘When the ideas in our heads are worth more than the roofs above them’, for the London School of Economics, we can see this trend in multiple industries. In health and fitness, belonging to a gym doesn’t mean that you went to the gym today. In transport, car sales last month do not tell you how many cars are on the road and how often they’re being used. In the housing market, knowing how people are living is more valuable than property prices.
You can apply the same logic to our relationship with work. What tells you more – how many hours somebody spent working or their contribution to customer success and business growth?
Much like other forms of intellectual property, it is, perhaps, harder to measure, but we have to start somewhere and look for success stories like Spotify for inspiration.
Have a good week.
Ollie
Please listen to Will Page on Take My Advice (I’m Not Using It) and share it with anyone you think may find it interesting. Thanks!
Any Other Business:
Podcast of the week (apart from mine, of course) is Ben Thompson and James Allworth’s Exponent, which discusses Spotify’s announcement of monetisation tools for podcast creators. I’d also suggest reading Thompson’s Stratechery article, too, if you’re interested.
6 Questions for the Boss Who Wants You Back in Your Cubicle by Rachel Gutman in The Atlantic. Here’s how to find out if your workplace’s return-to-office plans are actually safe.
The loneliness of the modern office team member by Pitilia Clark (originally published in the FT). Studies show many workers felt isolated by the way their work in teams was organised.
For anyone who’s struggling to get motivated at the moment, read How to Keep Working When You’re Just Not Feeling It by Ayelet Fishbach, from a 2018 edition of Harvard Business Review.
The 2 kinds of praise we all need to get at work by Therese Huston, author of "Let's Talk: Make Effective Feedback Your Superpower", on TED.
Worrying news that government figures show the number of apprenticeships reducing by a fifth in the past year, reported by Jessica Brown in People Management.
And finally, this interview with Andre Agassi is amazing.
