Applying Lessons from the Hedgehog and the Fox, Part 2 of 2

This is Part 2 in applying Jim Collins' Good to Great business book to the business of independent musicians. Part 1 is here. We talked about confronting the brutal facts and introduced the hedgehog concept (having one trick that works every time for making money). Collins breaks a solid hedgehog concept into three elements:

The Hedgehog Concept (continued)

1. Pick something that you are passionate about. If you are not passionate about it, you won’t be able to sustain it. It’s easy to get sidetracked or distracted from something that your heart is not fully in. (Oh and saying you’re passionate about “all music” is like a corporation saying they are passionate about business or a chef saying they are passionate about food. Of course they are! Be more specific. The more specific, the better.)

2. Pick something at which you can be the best in the world. Not one of the best. THE best. You don’t have to be the best at it when you pick it. But if you do not have the potential to be THE best, then don’t bother. Pick something else.

3. Know what your economic engine is. What actually makes you money? If you are not sure, then you haven’t found your hedgehog concept yet. Another way to think about this is “What is your profit per X?” In this equation “X” could mean: fan, album, song, studio hour, band member, concert, tour, etc. What is your profit per song? What is your profit per concert? Think through all the possibilities. One of them might help you understand how to tweak the variables in your career to make more money and sustain what you do.

Collins says there are three overlapping circles, each representing one of the three elements above. In the middle, where all three of these circles overlap, is your hedgehog concept. That space, where your passion meets what-you-can¬-be-best-in-the-world-at meets your economic engine, is the idea that will lead to your success.

Rinsing Your Cottage Cheese // Culture of Discipline

Collins found that the “good-to-great companies” consistently used words such as: disciplined, rigorous, dogged, determined, diligent, precise, fastidious, systematic, methodical, etc. “People in the good-to-great companies became somewhat extreme in the fulfillment of their responsibilities, bordering in some cases on fanaticism,” Collins writes.

The author goes on to tell the story of an athlete named Dave Scott, six-time winner of the Hawaii Ironman Triathlon. Scott’s daily routine was to bike 75 miles, swim 20,000 meters, and run 17 miles. He believed that a low-fat diet would give him an even more competitive edge, so he would literally rinse his cottage cheese to get the extra fat off before eating it. Collins goes on to say, “rinsing his cottage cheese was simply one more small step added to all the other small steps to create a consistent program of superdiscipline.”

The question is: have you personally, or your band or management team, developed enough discipline to do whatever it takes to become the best at what you do—your hedgehog concept—and continuously improve on it? You can apply this to the discipline of rehearsal—lots of good musicians apply it there, practicing their technique for several hours a day. Have you developed your own personal discipline around the business side of being a musician? Even applying it to your stagecraft—the skills that make all the difference between being someone who plays music and being a fully engaging performer and entertainer who engages all five senses of their audience—could be a huge breakthrough. Apply this level of discipline to all aspects of your career: your visual presentation, your personal interactions, your use of databases or spreadsheets to track fans and concert presenters, every detail that relates to your hedgehog concept. If you struggle to have that discipline, do you have the will to do whatever it takes to turn your potential into reality? Would you rinse your cottage cheese?

The inverse of this is just as important: if it does not fit your hedgehog concept, don’t do it. Collins says to start a “stop doing” list. Don’t do side projects that are not in the plan. Don’t get distracted by the latest internet service or “fun” music biz conference if it does not fit the goal. Don’t just show up because everyone else is. Don’t put out an album or a single “because it is time.” Don’t play that weekly gig that nobody is showing up to or that does not pay. Unless these things fit your hedgehog concept. And if they do fit in, know why you are doing these things.

Technology Accelerators

The final concept I will discuss here—Technology Accelerators—is NOT a major concept of the Good to Great book. But I shine a light on it because technology tools are such a strong focus in the music industry “literature” (a.k.a. websphere/conferencesphere, etc.) and I think more musicians and music biz professional should take heed of Collins’ warnings on the subject. He argues that technology is simply an accelerator. If you take a business (or the business of a band) and throw technology at it, you simply accelerate what is already happening with the business.

To oversimplify things, if you are spending money without a clear plan and throw technology at it, you will simply speed up the spending of that money. If you are successfully, gradually building a fan base, and you have a plan that uses technological tools to further build that fan base, your fan base will grow more quickly. Technology is not an ANSWER to your problems. It is an accelerator. Use it accordingly.

Understand what will make you money, understand the steps to get there, do it WITHOUT the use of technology, and then develop a plan for how specific technology tools will help you further that strategy. If nobody is going to see your profile on website X, there is no need for that profile. If you have nothing of significance to say on an email newsletter, nobody is going to read that email newsletter (you will simply be accelerating their boredom or burnout). If you have no plan to engage fans in a financial exchange through social media, fans will not pay you money in that online space. Are you on Facebook to sell albums or MP3s or to sell tickets or to seek investors or to find collaborators? If you don’t know, then how do you know you are friending the right people? No clear plan + technology = even less of a clear plan.

“When used right, technology becomes an accelerator of momentum, not a creator of it,” Collins continues by writing “you cannot make good use of technology until you know which technologies are relevant. And which are those? Those—and only those—that link directly to the three intersecting circles of the Hedgehog Concept.”

Conclusion

Be honest and confront the brutal facts of the current state of the music industry. You’re your own personal economy. Search for your hedgehog concept: the intersection of your passion, what you can do best at, and what your economic denominator is. And don’t add technology into the mix until you really know the driving concept behind the business of your music career.

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