No Jacket Required

Pivot: /?piv?t/ /?p?v?t/ to turn or rotate like a hinge or a successful business owner.

During a recent episode of our Podcast, The Liquid Lunch Project, my partner Matthew Meehan and I addressed the need for a business to be agile and its ability to effectively Pivot when the needs arise.

This is the tale of one of the greatest Pivots of all time.

In 1967, five students from Charterhouse, a boarding school in Surrey, England formed a rock band that would go on to transform the style of rock. Imagine a graduating class including Tony Banks, Mike Rutherford, Phil Collins, Peter Gabriel, and Steve Hackett! Incorporating innovative themes and nontraditional instruments, Genesis went on to becoming one of the most sold and highly decorated bands of all time.

From 1970 to 1975, Collins played drums and percussion for the Band. 

In August 1975, following The Lamb Dies Down on Broadway tour, Gabriel left Genesis. The band placed an advert for a replacement in Melody Maker and received around 400 replies. None had the Invisible Touch …see what I did there.

Leverage Your Existing Assets.

After a lengthy auditioning process, during which he sang backup vocals for applicants, Collins became the band's lead vocalist during the recording of their album A Trick of the Tail. Against All Odds (I did it again!), the album was a commercial and critical success, reaching number three in the UK charts and thirty-one in the US kicking off the second British Invasion. The rest is history. Rolling Stone wrote “Genesis had managed to turn the possible catastrophe of Gabriel's departure into their first broad-based American success." 

Banks has said “a common way of developing songs throughout the band's career was for Collins to play the rhythm, Rutherford to set up a groove and riffs, and for him to add the harmonies and melodies on top”.  The band members’ lyrical skillset and open mindedness to various interpretations was their true asset – not their specific roles therein.

Focus on your skills. The applications are limitless. Here is proof:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jpmiZ7zsHXY