Cirque Du Soleil Case Analysis

Challenges

Cirque du Soleil is struggling with growing as an organization while maintaining its culture. Cirque is struggling with human resource issues, where it needs 100 new artists every year, up from old need of 50 new artists every two years. There is high employee turnover and injuries of artists. In addition, the unreliability of temp workers is causing variability in shows and makes tours difficult. Cirque’s focus is on artists, but needs to keep staff engaged as well. Cirque struggles to align those on tour with those at headquarters due to different work hours. There are also cultural issues stemming from an international workforce.

As company grows, there are more business minded people joining executive ranks that may cause Cirque to take less creative direction, which could cause issues with artists. 80% of strategy is coming from Guy Laliberte, and the company will have to be mindful of its core values as strategic decision-making is delegated to other executives. Cirque needs to be careful to ensure that artists have the freedom to express themselves rather than be influenced by cost or customer feedback so as to avoid another “artists’ rebellion” where artists are dissatisfied with the company’s level of commitment to artistic freedom. Additionally, Cirque wants to make sure shows are affordable for all people.  

Cirque has to decide whether to expand in North America or pursue other markets. It wants to develop the Asian market, but there are struggles due to currency issues and because tours begin in North America and end in Asia, which causes employees to be more expensive by the time they reach Asia. Having separate headquarters in North America, Europe, and Asia may make this more challenging due to lack of coordination. There is competition in Europe (not as original as European shows) and Australia (Cirque Oz trying to prevent Cirque du Soleil from getting permits) that make success in those regions more difficult

Pros and Cons of Alternate Courses of Action

Cirque du Soleil can decentralize decision-making, pursue a more Asia-centric strategy, and diversify its product offerings. Decentralized decision making would allow Cirque du Soleil to engage people with more specialized experience in finance, marketing, and operations to facilitate growth and efficiency while allowing Guy Laliberte to focus on ensuring that the company is holding true to its original spirit. However, Cirque would risk losing sight of its core values and alienating artists, which could cause an increase in attrition and loss in production quality.

One of Cirque’s ambitions is to penetrate the Asia market, which is currently underpenetrated and presents the biggest growth opportunity since there appears to be less competition and market saturation than other regions. Cirque could leverage its international talent pool, which includes artists from Asia, to put together shows that are more appealing to Asian audiences. However, there are operational issues that may cause employee dissatisfaction and unpredictability.

Diversifying its product offerings would take pressure off Cirque to reinvent the circus periodically and allow the company to engage its extensive fanbase and reach new fans in different ways. Cirque could provide its employees with a strategy, mission, and plan for continued growth that would provide a sense of stability and predictability. However, artists may disagree with changes to their creative expression and a higher volume of work, which may lead to employee dissatisfaction and attrition.

Factors for Decision

Cirque should consider employee satisfaction, consistency, and predictability for making its decision.

Recommended Action

Cirque should decentralize decision-making by adding members to its executive team that have a deep understanding of the needs of a creative organization. Promoting from within would facilitate the retention of company culture while maximizing value. Internal advancement boosts employee morale. Cirque should continue training, such as bringing in the master clown to train its staff of clowns, to maintain employee satisfaction, engagement, and retention.

Cirque should try to grow the Asia market by creating shows specifically designed for the Asia market. It could leverage its artists from Asia to put together shows to creates shows that resonate with Asian audiences and boost employee morale. Shows could start in Asia and then move on to Europe and North America. The Asian shows may be afforded a smaller budget.

Cirque should diversify its product offerings to appeal to wider audiences. Cirque should be mindful of artists’ perspectives when developing these initiatives in order to ensure that there is no compromise to artistic creativity. Cirque may want to consider a process where artists can submit proposals and budgets can be developed around these proposals, and a range of shows can be selected that can be offered to the market at different price points and regions.