Recently back from a trip to Canada, I wanted to include some business advice from our entrepreneurial friends up north. I could not find a better example than Quebec born Guy Laliberte, the CEO of Cirque du Soleil, whose story is most fascinating (he is one of the wealthiest men in Canada).
Guy actually dropped out of college to become a sidewalk performer before creating the extremely profitable branded Circus.
As talented a performer as he was, his major abilities were his superb social skills and marketing intelligence. These skills allowed him to network with other performers (the initial group were performers he met on the street) as well as to build a sustaining brand (in the cut throat entertainment business).
Guy eventually partnered with another successful Canadian, Gilles Ste-Croix (click link for interview with Gilles) and Cirque du Soleil was born.
Above is a short video from Marketing Hall of Legends in which Guy describes the fundamentals of marketing that worked in his business.
