Professor Jonathan Shalit OBE

2021 New Year's Message

So, it's gone - 2020, the long awaited decade-opener so anticipated and memorable that they named it twice! Well, it certainly was memorable but for very few of the reasons most of us had ever hoped or envisaged.

Nevertheless, I believe we can all look back with pride at how we all, individually and collectively, got through 2020 by tapping into deep wells of resource, resilience and creativity. It was tough and hard but we all rose to its challenges for which I congratulate and thank you. I'm also certain that your - and InterTalent's (and Chosen Music) - clients all share my unbounded appreciation of what you have done for them over the last 12 months with your hard work and excellence.

We can all be proud at having stepped into the breach and I appreciate the great contributions made by each and every one of you. I have heard so much positive feedback on the individual work you do. It has made possible the delivery of excellence to clients and partners in 2020 and enabled us to strengthen the foundations for renewal in 2021.

None of us can pretend that this new year ahead, while undoubtedly set to be a huge improvement on the one we have just seen out, is going to be without its own challenges. These first few months will be tough and we will all continue needing to dig deep. Then I feel certain early Spring will see the green shoots of a return to normality giving us all reasons for hope and renewal. Before that, though, through the winter months we have to keep focused, so we can all continue to build on the upward curve of our great companies. I believe that ultimately in 2021 we will win, and win big. Our foundations remain extremely strong.

This year InterTalent as a company celebrates its thirtieth anniversary of trading with my having first opened for business in 1991. To put this in context McKinsey & Co (the world's leading strategic management consultancy) say the average life-span of a company is 18 years. The reason for this longevity is InterTalent has always been at the cutting edge ahead of the curve, working with brilliant people both internally and externally. We broadened and diversified our offering to clients long before our rivals and we remain in so many ways ahead of them. Initially, they said our model would never work: now they queue up to imitate it!

Under the leadership of Alex Segal, and of Alistair Goldsmith in Chosen, we continue to rewrite the rule book and plan new avenues of revenue and opportunity. This year there will be winners and losers across the spectrum of the entertainment business. InterTalent and Chosen will emerge as a big winner up there with, and often ahead of, the best because we have used the travails of the pandemic as our spring board to even greater things. What we have achieved in the past, give us a glimpse of the future. I will be fearless in my ambitions for all I work with - colleagues, clients and partners.

Whatever the trials and tribulations, there are always positives to be found emerging from them as long as we approach the challenges with a positive mindset. And I think the great positive for 2021 is that so many have rethought how we do things in a way that will serve us all better for the future, both collectively and individually. Our successful tomorrows depend on what we do today. After all that has happened, I could not be more excited about what's in store for this new year, and for the opportunity to work with all of you to make it happen.

Every year I express my good wishes with total sincerity. But this year when I wish good health and strength until we have all been vaccinated, I do with added prayer.

Happy New Year.

Jonathan.

Professor Jonathan Shalit OBE
Chairman InterTalent Rights Group