At Cirque du Soleil, Montreal -
We all know Cirque du Soleil as a global entertainment success. That was not always the case, however, when Sun Circus started, stumbled, failed, and regenerated here in Montreal during its earliest years.
Fast forward to the late 1990s and into this century when Cirque was lionized for excellence in leadership, team, and strategy development. The organization was even the subject of a 2002 Harvard Business School case study by Professor Tom DeLong.
The Blue Ocean Strategy folks saluted Cirque for creating an entirely new market. They wrote on their Practitioner Program website in 2003 that Cirque “did not win by taking customers from the already shrinking circus industry, which historically catered to children. Instead it created uncontested market space that made the competition irrelevant. It appealed to a whole new group of customers: adults and corporate clients prepared to pay a price several times as great as traditional circuses for an unprecedented entertainment experience.” I attended just such an experience here at the “Kurios - Cabinet of Curiosities” performance.
Creating “uncontested market space” and making “the competition irrelevant” are beautiful albeit risky things. Successful, market-creating visions and supporting strategies often start with a bold and even radical presumption. They sometimes emerge from a “nothing to lose” mindset, as well, which Cirque must have had in its difficult, formative years. “You’re going to do what? Disrupt the dying circus business and charge people exponentially more for admission to a circus … for adults?”
There will always be a Greek Chorus of red-ocean naysayers, of course, gleeful to condemn disruptive, new ideas. And sometimes they’re right to do so. It’s important to listen to these voices, improve the new idea as a result, but continue to push forward. After all, there are always a million reasons not to do something.
The most essential step on the road to revolutionary success, however, is to match hiring policies to the new, blue-ocean vision. Some visionaries craft vigorous, new disruptions but then engage in business as usual in hiring and developing talent. Talent recruitment and development must be just as vigorous and visionary.
Now, the recognition of Cirque’s once-and-maybe-still-excellent approach to leadership, team, and strategy development has not come without serious problems. In a few cases, performers have died as a result of accidents. Of course, the pandemic ravaged Cirque, as well, as it did all in-person performing arts.
Nonetheless, the company has been consistently adept at attracting and training high-flying talent, literally. The question for Cirque now is whether another visionary will conduct its own end run and create a new market space not currently imagined. If so, that business will need its own new set of employees not overburdened by the old way of doing things. Yes, it is undoubtedly a high-wire act.
Kurios image courtesy of Cirque du Soleil.