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

Discover stories from this section and more in the list of contents

Explore the edition

How Trump’s tariffs could crush American carmakers

They must hope the levies do not endure

A squirel in a suit sitting at a desk in front of a computer

The Economist’s office agony uncle is back

Another bulging postbag for Max Flannel


The illustration depicts a surreal figure with a head resembling the Belgian flag, balancing a cityscape on a tray in one hand and holding a car in the other. The figure's body is dressed like a performer, and two smoking exhaust pipes protrude from the ba

The smiling new face of German big business

From Allianz to Zalando, pedlars of services are outdoing industrial firms at home—and foreign rivals abroad


Airbus has not taken full advantage of Boeing’s weakness

That could leave a gap for other planemakers to fill

Zyn is giving investors a buzz—for now

Nicotine pouches are growing fast