Reinventing your business
Few weeks ago, I heard “Allegria” by Cirque du Soleil (CDS) – the entertainment company based out of Canada. I had never heard the music before and somehow it was powerful. I also tried to recollect something I had learnt about CDS.
The thing which instantly flashed in my mind is that this company had reinvented its business and I had read about it somewhere – Nothing more. I left it at that thinking I should perhaps read more about CDS.
Yesterday I had a nice lunch with a couple of good friends from the hospitality industry. The topic of our discussion was about how hotels compare what the competition do and then try to apply similar practices into their own. It includes customer attracting techniques, sales promotions, cost cutting measures etc. Interstingly business owners also are keen to find out if a competitor in the industry has paid a bonus or increment during these times of recession and act based on that information. None of us who were dining were business owners ourselves but it did not appear logical for any of us to do something like that – in particular w.r.t human potential related issues.
When I returned home I was curious to see if I had any articles or books in my library that spoke about companies which reinvent the business on their own without taking a look into the competition. I browsed though Tom Peters “In Search of Excellence”, then went on to read a few pages from “Built to last” by Jim Collins. These books certainly talk about Succesful companies and the authors make some extra ordinary comparisons. Somehow, I wasn’t happy as I could not relate our discussion for the day. Luckily, I just hit upon CDS while browing the net and I was absolutely convinced reading about this Canadian company.
CDS was started in 1984 by a group of street performers (perhaps 20 people) who were entertaining people in Quebec city lead by Guy Laliberte. Today, they are a 1 billion $ company with many awards for innovation and have a workforce of over 4000 employees. How did they do it?
During the early 90′s the circus industry was declining & every other circus company in town was benchmarking one another and maximizing their share by tweaking traditional acts. These included hiring more famous clowns and more skilled lion tamers, multiple show arenas with 3 rings. It really meant increased costs for the company without altering the audience experience in any major way. Moreover the circus indusry was catering to a limited segment of the audience (the Children and adoloscent) who were more attracted to the Nintendo’s and Playstations. Besides, there were also sentiments rising from animal welfare activists. Circus worldwide began to dwindle and slowly wipe out.
CDS, all this while was least concerned with what the competiion was doing. They created a new market with the adult theater customers by offering them an unprecedented experience – the fun and thrill of circus coupled with intellectual sophistication & artistic richness of the theater. They were ready to pay more for such quality entertainment and newer experience. Unlike traditional circus shows having a series of unrelated acts, for example, each Cirque du Soleil creation has a theme and story line, somewhat resembling a theater performance. Although the theme is vague (and intentionally so), it brings harmony and an intellectual element to the show—without limiting the potential for acts.
The only way to beat the competition is to stop trying to beat the competition” – W. Chan Kim and Renee Mauborgne in their book Blue Ocean Strategy.
I am not suggesting that every business owner, leader must be oblivious of the competition but I just think one does not need to “Be” the competition and mimic every aspect.
