I went to see The Cat Empire at Taronga Zoo (Sydney) last Thursday night. What a hoot! It had me thinking about a recent post by Brett Kelly (Kelly + Partners) on "10 Years" - 10 years of hard, focused work to become a success (https://lnkd.in/gsgz7qtn). He’s right. It’s related to Malcolm Gladwell’s “10,000 hours rule”. It takes time to develop core intrinsic value in a business through various intrinsic assets, such as relationships, know-how, and brand, while at the same time continuing to develop trade secrets and other creative intrinsic assets that set you apart in your market. To last ten years and beyond needs strong, defensible intrinsic assets (the key to a sustainable business) with continued investment to allow them to develop.
What does that have to do with The Cat Empire? While waiting for them to start, I was thinking about the crossover of Brett Kelly’s post with The Cat Empire and why some bands last 10 years while some last 10 minutes. Okay, some of it comes down to musical appeal, but hours in the seat and strength of intrinsic assets absolutely have an impact. The Cat Empire’s set was tight, their musicality was amazing (man, does that horn section have chops!), and they moved around the stage like they owned it. Their 10+ years showed in the confidence of how they work as individuals and also together as a band. They’ve stayed fresh with some lineup changes and live song re-arrangements. They also have strong intrinsic assets with plenty of know-how (20+ years of playing as a band), a strong brand (registered trade marks and 20+ years building their reputation), and plenty of original, multi-genre content (9 studio albums, 6 being top 10 on the Australian charts in their day). Their song 'Hello' has been used on Australian TV to promote the popular news and current affairs show 'The Project,' and right now is being used by The Commonwealth Bank in its ads – a nice use of strong intrinsic assets for license revenue ;).
So, to end my poorly disguised fan gush, in one interview they were asked what’s their secret? Answer: “The sheer time we’ve spent together.” The classic 10 years to build intrinsic value to become an overnight success.
#intrinsicassets #intrinsicvalue #intangibleassets #thecatempire