How did Cirque du Soleil reach $1 billion in annual revenue?

By turning the circus industry on its head.

When fire-eater and stilt-walker Guy Laliberté founded Cirque du Soleil in the mid-1980s, circuses were viewed as unprofitable, outdated, cruel to animals, and an industry on the decline.

So he took the circus model and reinvented it. While other circuses were competing based on marginal differences, Cirque du Soleil changed the game completely, launching a show that combined the thrilling acrobatics of the circus with the artistry and sophistication of a night at the theater. Plus, it capitalized on the public’s love of street performance.

In many ways, Cirque du Soleil’s innovations were in what it removed: Gone were the animals, the concessions, the stagehands and the three-ring format of traditional circuses. Thanks to its refined focus on the dramatic essence of the circus, Cirque du Soleil is able to charge significantly more for tickets than traditional circuses — and customers have been coming in droves.

Today Cirque du Soleil sells upwards of 10 million tickets a year, and produces 19 shows in over 271 cities on every continent except Antarctica. And it all started with a street performer who took a new approach to an existing industry.

Are there unproductive elements in your industry that are taken for granted?

How can you reimagine them and create

massive results for your business?

Still Think It Can’t Be Done?

These Massively Successful Start-Ups Revolutionized Transportation

UBER (valued at $3.5 billion)

• Seeing an opportunity in the inefficiency of car service dispatch systems, Uber launched a service that allows passengers to hire drivers from their mobile devices.

• Chauffeurs can spend hours a day driving around without fares. By partnering with drivers employed by different companies, Uber was able to create a fleet of on-demand service providers.

• In a marketplace where taxis can be scarce, unreliable and cash-only, Uber provides clients with on-demand hired cars and simple credit card transactions.

• Because Uber adds certainty and convenience to an uncertain and inconvenient experience, customers are willing to pay an average of 50-75 percent more than normal cab fare for an Uber experience.

Car2Go (500,000 subscribers worldwide)

• Recognizing that our cars create congestion, inconvenience and lack of parking in urban areas, Car2Go launched as a car-sharing service similar to the more established Zipcar, but with a few key differences…

• Unlike Zipcar, you don’t have to park your Car2Go in a designated space at the end of your rental; you can drop it off nearly anywhere in your city.

• Another way Car2Go took car-sharing to a new level: It eliminated the need for reservations, and allows users to buy one-way rentals.

• Through partnerships with city governments, Car2Go took on another longstanding inconvenience by giving customers free, unlimited parking in many metered zones.

Lyft (valued at $275 million)

• Describing itself as “your friend with a car,” Lyft is a peer-to-peer ridesharing service launched in response to the fact that 80 percent of seats in cars on the road are empty.

- Passengers request rides through the Lyft app, which turns a typically inconvenient process into a seamless one.

- To establish trust between passengers and drivers, rides are facilitated through Facebook Connect. Aligning with social media has also helped Lyft become the industry’s most popular ridesharing service.

- Distinctive branding (e.g. cars that sport mustaches, payments by suggested donation only) gives customers a sense of community and promotes brand loyalty.