Business | Schumpeter

What Disney can learn from Elton John

The firm’s celebrity CEO isn’t the only superstar boss who won’t leave the stage

You have to hand it to Sir Elton John. Not only is he the only musician ever to have top-ten hit singles in Britain for six decades in a row. He is also a rare septuagenarian megastar who knows how to bow out in style. On November 20th at a relatively tender 75 years old, he performed what he said would be his last ever concert in America at Dodger Stadium in Los Angeles. One of the showstoppers was “Goodbye Yellow Brick Road”, the theme song for graceful retirements. If only Disney, who live-streamed the event on Disney+, had been listening.

This article appeared in the Business section of the print edition under the headline “The impossible-to-replace CEO”

Frozen out

From the November 26th 2022 edition

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