Tweet

Lesson #1: You Are Only As Good As Where You Work

Article Overview: “Business is difficult,” says Laliberté. “But it could be approached two ways: Seriously, or with the same way you're doing your job, with entertainment aspect, with pleasure, with fun. And we decided to try to make it as fun that we do our creativity.”

Lesson #1: You Are Only As Good As Where You Work

“Business is difficult,” says Laliberté. “But it could be approached two ways: Seriously, or with the same way you're doing your job, with entertainment aspect, with pleasure, with fun. And we decided to try to make it as fun that we do our creativity.”

Even the accountants that work for Cirque du Soleil will tell you that one of the reasons they do so is because of the creativity within the company. Its stated mission is, “To live and contribute creatively to artistic works which invoke the imagination, provoke the sense and evoke the emotions of our spectators around the world.” But how is Cirque able to maintain such a creative culture, especially among its employees who are not an actual part of the show performances?

First of all, Laliberté insists on keeping his company free from shareholder pressure for short-term profits. To that end, Laliberté is able to reinvest 40 percent of Cirque’s profits back into the company’s research and development arm, something which is practically unheard of for most major corporations. Indeed, Laliberté’s 40 percent rule is twice the average reinvestment rate.

“I believe that the profits will come from the quality of your creative products,” says Laliberté. “Since the beginning, I've always wanted to develop a self-feeding circle of creative productions: The positive financial returns from one show would be used to develop and create a new show, and so on.”

Laliberté has also fostered a hands-off management style. “I believe in nurturing creativity and offering a haven for creators, enabling them to develop their ideas to the fullest,” he says. “With more and more talented creators being drawn to Cirque in an environment that fulfills them, these are ideal to continue developing great new shows.”

To that end, Laliberté makes sure he knows what he needs to know but does not interfere with his employees’ creative processes and freedoms. “I have a great team around me, and they know how I work and what I need to know,” he says. “Creatively, I am a little more hands-on – but then again, not in the complete creative process.” Many of Cirque’s employees have taken to calling Laliberté the “guide,” alluding to his leading but not overbearing role. “I like to not be too involved in the beginning and during the process so as to keep this fresh look and be able to give constructive recommendation on the final production,” he says.

The physical environment in which Cirque employees work is state-of-the-art and designed to be stimulating and act as a creative catalyst. Their staff meetings are also intended to encourage creativity. They are run by a character called “Madame Zazou” who will animate the meetings, run a contest, or encourage an employee to perform in an effort to keep energies high.

“We are each but a quarter note in a grand symphony,” says Laliberté, whose job as he sees it is to stimulate those notes and give them the freedom to move and create the greatest symphony possible.

Related Articles
  Who Is Your Proud Family?
  Three Marketing Lessons from Realtors
  Entrepreneur – How Not To Have A Bad Employee?
  The Gravity of Failure
  What Does Your Gut Say?

Article Tags: accountants, artistic works, cirque du soleil, creative culture, creative processes, creative productions, creative products, creativity, development arm, emotions, entertainment aspect, freedoms, lesson 1, management style, research and development, shareholder, spectators, talented creators, term profits, two ways



Related Forum Posts
Re: Five Personality Traits of Successful Business Owners - 1. Focus 2. Ability to Adapt 3. Hard Work 4. Good planning 5. People Skills
Books for Women Entrepreneurs - There's a thread for good books in the Resources folder, but it doesn't target books for businesswomen particularly, so I figured I'd start such a thread here. It doesn't matter how successful you are in your business - it's always possible to learn something new. In subsequent posts I give Table of Contents and brief descriptions for various titles - most of them devoted to the businesswoman - and sometimes a review. If anyone else has read a review, or has read the book and found it useful, please comment! 1. The Old Girl's Network 2. Mother's Work 3. The 7 Greatest Truths About Successful Women 4. Pitch Like A Girl 5. Workplace Warrior 6. Treasure Hunt: Inside the Mind of the Modern Consumer 7. Contingency Planning & Disaster Recovery 8. She Wins, You Win 9. Napoleon On Project Management 10. Why Good Girls Dont' Get Ahead, But Gutsy Girls Do 11. Comeback Moms: How to Leave Work, Raise Children, and Restart your Career even If you Haven't Had a Job in Years 12. The One Minute Millionaire 13. Talking From 9 to 5 14. Soloing: Realizing Your Life's Ambitions 15. 101 Best Home Based Businesses for Women: Everything You Need to Know About Getting Started on the Road To Success 16. Work With Passion: How to Do What You Love for a Living. Revised and Expanded 17. Fail-Proof Your Business: Beat the Odds and be Successful 18. Confidence: How Winning Streaks and Losing Streaks Begin and End 19. Women Don't Ask: Negotiation and the Gender Divide 20. Millionaire Women Next Door: The Many Journeys of Successful American Businesswomen 21. Start Small, Finish Big: Fifteen Key Lessons to Start - and Run - Your Own Successful Business 22. Rewired, Rehired or Retired: A Global Guide for the Experienced Worker 23. The Martha Rules: 10 essentials for achieving success as you start, build or manage a business 24. The Essentials of Entrepreneurship: What it takes to create Successful Enterprises 25. Net Ready: Strategies for Success in the E-conomy 26. The Promotable Woman 27. Leave The Office Earlier: The Productivity Pro shows you how to do more in less time and feel great about it 28. The Work At Home Balancing Act: The professional resource guide for managing yourself, your work, and your family at home 29. Secrets of Six-Figure Women
Re: Books for the Entrepreneur - Another great book for internet entrepreneurs is The Four Hour Work Week by Timothy Ferris MichelleJ
Try wikipedia.com for more information - That depends what type of business you are involved in. Maybe if you share that, we can help you a little better. I work mostly in the Work at Home industry so my advice would only be along those lines.
Dan Kennedy Marketing Methods - We haven't sent out the physical letter yet as the person owning the list wanted to make modifications to the letter that we knew would work well but the List owner had a point - it didn't reflect her personality so her clients would know it didn't come from her. Lesson learned for me. We're back to the drawing board with the list owner more involved in the development of the letter and emails. I should have known better being a Business Analyst in my day job that you never leave the end-user out. So Evan we haven't had the opportunity to test any of it yet but it's been a fun process for me to stand back and look at.


Share this article with your friends. Fund someone's dream.

Leave a comment below or share on the left and you'll help support entrepreneurs in Africa through our partnership with Kiva. Over $50,000 raised and counting - Please keep sharing! Learn more.

Tweet

Newsletter

Get advice & tips from famous business
owners, new articles by entrepreneur
experts, my latest website updates, &
special sneak peaks at what's to come!

Name:
Email:

Popular Articles

Angel Investors Where Are You?

Suggestions

Email us your ideas on how to make our
website more valuable! Thank you Sharon
from Toronto Salsa Lessons / Classes for
your suggestions to make the newsletter
look like the website and profile younger
entrepreneurs like Jennifer Lopez.