Cirque Du Soleil

Case Analysis

Past and present

Cirque du Soleil was founded in 1984 by a group of public entertainers who wanted to reinvent the concept of circus. Cirque used differentiated features to attract audience from its very first show. When the company began its operation in 1984, there were only 73 employees and now the company has more than 4000 employees globally. In twenty years, Cirque du Soleil grew very rapidly and now Cirque holds road tours every year with its offices all around the world.

In year 2000, Danielle Savoie, now the vice president of IT at Cirque du Soleil, began to use IT effectively to support Cirque’s substantial growth. From that time, the IT group designed, implemented and improved the Cirque Memory, a knowledge repository which is described as a bible for the whole organization. Cirque Memory includes a serious of modules and stores all the relevant information from the creating stage up to the delivery of a show. Under the support from IT group, now Cirque du Soleil has become the largest theatrical producer in the world.

Major business issues

In the recent years, Cirque du Soleil is facing the problem of losing talented employees. This issue is urgent because creativity, which comes from talented employees, is the core competitiveness of Cirque. Hiring a new qualified employee cost both time and money. The company needs to analyze the job applications they received from the databases and target the most promising ones. So, to make business profitable in the long run, Cirque need to make their employees content and satisfied with their work, making their employees stay in the company and come up with new creative ideas.

Besides the loss of employees, cultural difference is a big issue among Cirque’s employees. Because the employees of Cirque come from various parts of the world, it is common to have cultural collisions which could arise arguments and conflicts. However, a harmonious environment among employees plays a crucial role in the show. People who do not trust each other cannot collaborate effectively. That’s why Cirque need to provide a platform for employees to communicate and express themselves to others.