case one Madonna SYNOPSIS TEACHING OBJECTIVES TEACHING NOTE

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1 case oe Madoa TEACHING NOTE SYNOPSIS The case examies the career ad the success of Madoa Ciccoe the best kow woma o the plaet. The cetral issue is explaiig the success of Madoa i the highly competitive, highly volatile world of etertaimet, where Madoa has bee a megastar sice The case offers studets the opportuity to explore the ature ad meaig of strategy withi a fast-paced busiess eviromet ad to cosider the role of strategy i career success. The case represets a expasio of the illustratio provided i the first chapter of Cotemporary Strategy Aalysis (5th ed, strategy capsule 1.1). TEACHING OBJECTIVES The purpose of the case is to allow studets to cosider three questios: What is strategy?, What role does strategy play i success? ad What are the critical igrediets of a successful strategy? The case forces studets to address the meaig of strategy i eviromets where turbulece reders detailed plaig impossible ad to cosider the otio that strategy ca be both implicit ad emerget as well as explicit ad iteded. The case also itroduces the idea that strategy exists for both idividuals ad orgaizatios; ideed, i this case there is some ambiguity as to whether Madoa is Madoa the perso or Madoa the show-biz orgaizatio. This issue is importat This ote was prepared by Robert M. Grat. 1

2 2 MADONNA i terms of makig the poit that strategy is relevat to the future careers of busiess studets. While I have o expectatio that studets will write a strategic pla for the rest of their lives, oe of the most immediate ad valuable applicatios of the priciples of strategic aalysis is likely to be studets thikig about their future careers. POSITION IN THE COURSE The Madoa case is iteded to ope a core strategy course. It provides a lighthearted cotext for egagig the iterests of studets while at the same time itroducig a umber of fudametally importat issues ad cocepts about strategy that will be explored more fully later i the course. I typically use this case o the first day of class. Oe of the merits of the case is that, eve if studets have ot had time to read it, their familiarity with Madoa meas that it is possible for everyoe to cotribute to the discussio. ASSIGNMENT QUESTIONS 1. Why has Madoa bee so successful i the world of etertaimet? 2. Does Madoa have a strategy? If so, what are the mai elemets of that strategy? READING R. M. Grat, Cotemporary Strategy Aalysis (5th ed), Blackwell Publishig, 2005, chapter 1. CASE DISCUSSION AND ANALYSIS Why Is She Successful? I begi by ivestigatig the reasos why Madoa has bee so successful over such a log period of time (her first hit record was i 1983). I start off this lie of iquiry by askig studets whether Madoa is exceptioally taleted. I relatio to key capabilities as a etertaier sigig, musiciaship, sog-writig, actig, dacig, eve beauty she teds to be graded as B+ or A except by the most die-hard Madoa fas. Where she scores the highest acclaim is for her capabilities i marketig, self-promotio, work ethic, ad leadership. I additio to these uderlyig capabilities (ad lack of them), I ecourage studets to explore what Madoa has doe to achieve ad sustai success. Amog the themes that typically emerge are:

3 MADONNA 3 Her goal commitmet (ambitio) ad sustaied level of effort. Her brilliace i idetifyig ad exploitig alliace parters. From her early boyfrieds o the New York rock music ad DJ scee, through to Sea Pe ad Warre Beatty i Hollywood, Madoa has clawed her way to the top through courtig key idividuals i strog strategic situatios (these have ofte bee temporary alliaces to achieve specific goals). Her cotiual reewal ad reivetio. I ask how may phases Madoa has bee through. This teds to produce some disagreemet, but typically the class ca idetify a early street-kid-disco-gruge phase, a retro-moroe-glam-star look, a black-leather-ad-uderwear deviat sexuality phase, followed by more recet Madoa-as-mother, ad ew-spiritual-mystic-madoa. These chages of image accompaied by chages i music ad lifestyle typically emerge from class discussio as key explaatios of how Madoa has ridde so may cycles of music ad style sice the early 1980s. Sex. Commo to all these phases has bee a heavy emphasis o sex (though this has bee much less proouced sice Madoa hit 40 ad etered her spiritual phase). So what is ew or differet here? Has t sex always bee cetral to the success of popular female (ad male) actors ad sigers, from Greta Garbo ad Mae West, to Brigitte Bardot, Doris Day, Tia Turer, ad Britey Spears? The key here seems to be Madoa s capacity to egage i a careful game of brikmaship. She has aroused huge popular iterest ad massive media publicity by challegig covetios of modesty ad dececy but ever goe so far as to alieate herself either from the key distributio chaels or from her fas. This raises the issue of whether the key theme here is sex, or whether sex is simply a medium that Madoa has chose as a meas of cotiually challegig orthodoxy ad keepig herself i the public s eye. Is This Strategy? At this stage, I refer to the mass of poits o the board cosidered to be the elemets of Madoa s success ad ask: Is this a strategy? This questio typically produces a lively discussio. Some will argue that this is purely opportuism: Madoa is simply seizig the opeigs made available by chage to lauch ew vetures ad adapt her image. Others will poit to a cosistet patter of competitive behavior by Madoa that has characterized her career from her first recordig i 1982 through to her Drowed World tour of I ask whether these two iterpretatios are really atithetical. Why is it ot possible to follow a strategy of opportuism? Furthermore, Madoa s opportuism has bee selective there are certai types of opportuity she has pursued ad others she has ot. I pursig the differet opportuities, there has bee a patter. She has formed relatioships to allow etry ito ew fields, she has relied heavily o the power of sex, ad she has bee persistet i all of her efforts. She has also compesated for her ow weakesses i raw talet by relyig heavily upo a carefully selected

4 4 MADONNA team of sogwriters, record producers, musicias, dacers, ad the like. She has fitted the evets of her persoal life marriages, motherhood, maturity, ad educatioal ad spiritual developmet almost seamlessly ito her career. Specifyig the Strategy O the basis of the poits raised, I try to get the class to articulate more specifically ad formally Madoa s strategy. Followig the distictio made i the textbook (pp. 22 3), I ask the class to distiguish betwee Madoa s corporate strategy (where she competes) ad her busiess strategy (how she competes). I terms of corporate strategy, I ask the class i which markets Madoa competes. Clearly she competes i multiple markets recorded music, cocerts, music videos ad other televised appearaces, movies, books, as well as music ad video productio, publishig ad promotio. All these activities are closely liked (i.e., it is related diversificatio). Ca we provide a all-ecompassig defiitio of the busiess withi which Madoa competes? Probably popular etertaimet is the arrowest. But is this diversificatio strategy a stregth or a weakess? (Remember that the tred for most eterprises has bee towards focusig o core busiesses. ) For diversificatio to work, there must be importat likages (or syergies ) betwee the differet markets i which a firm competes. Such syergies seem to be preset i Madoa s multimedia strategy. First, it allows her to exploit her artistic creatios across multiple media (the record releases, videos, ad cocert tours are closely coordiated). Secod, ulike Elvis Presley (wild rock roller i his music; clea-cut, all-america for Hollywood), Madoa achieves a highly cosistet image across her differet media vetures. Fially, her multimedia presece elevates Madoa to a higher status tha her competitors i idividual markets: Madoa is o loger simply a popular siger, or a actress she is a superstar. This status gives Madoa a huge advatage i ay field of edeavor she eters, whether it is music, movie actig, or as a producer ad maager. I terms of busiess strategy, the key themes have bee idetified, ad simply eed to be articulated i a more systematic form. Madoa s busiess (or competitive ) strategy ivolves the followig elemets: Early idetificatio of key treds i music, style, ad popular culture ad icorporatig such themes ito her ow image ad products. Maximum use of cotroversy (sex i particular) to maitai media ad public iterest. Periodic reewal of her product life cycle, each of these reewals based aroud a coheret ad complemetary package of music, style, fashio, ad persoal demeaor. Outsourcig to access resources ad capabilities of others i order to complemet her ow restricted rage of resources ad capabilities.

5 MADONNA 5 Maiteace of close cotrol over the key elemets of her itellectual property ad creativity. Astute use of iterpersoal relatioships as the basis for busiess alliaces. What Makes a Wiig Strategy? I usually sum up by usig the discussio of Madoa to cosider more geerally the essetial characteristics of a successful strategy. Figure 1.1 of Cotemporary Strategy Aalysis (p. 7) idetifies four key features: Goals that are simple, cosistet, ad log term. Profoud uderstadig of the competitive eviromet. Objective appraisal of resources ad capabilities. Effective implemetatio. All four are clearly revealed i Madoa s ow career: 1. Goal orietatio. Madoa s career featured a reletless drive for stardom i which other dimesios of her life were either subordiated to or absorbed withi her career goals. 2. Uderstadig the competitive eviromet. Fudametal to Madoa s cotiuig success has bee a shrewd uderstadig of the igrediets of stardom ad the basis of popular appeal. This exteds from the basic marketig priciple that sex sells to recogitio of the eed to maage gatekeepers of the critical media distributio chaels. Her periodic reicaratios reflect a acute awareess of chagig attitudes, styles, ad social orms. 3. Appraisig resources. Madoa has bee highly effective i exploitig her particular talets, while protectig areas of weakess. By positioig herself as a star, Madoa exploited her abilities to develop ad project her image, to self-promote, ad to exploit emergig treds, while avoidig beig judged simply as a rock siger or a actress. Her live performaces rely heavily o a large team of highly qualified dacers, musicias, vocalists, choreographers, ad techicias, thus compesatig for ay weakesses i her ow performig capabilities. 4. Effective implemetatio. Critical to Madoa s success has bee the eergy, commitmet, leadership, orgaizatioal skills, ad people maagemet stregths with which Madoa has implemeted her strategic iitiatives. To see Madoa s capabilities as a leader, especially i istillig loyalty ad commitmet amog others, see the film of her Blode Ambitio tour (the film was released as Truth or Dare i the US ad I Bed With Madoa i Europe).

6 6 MADONNA UPDATE Sice the ed of the case, Madoa s life ad career have cotiued to evolve. I Jue 2004, Madoa bega her Reivetio world tour rumored to be her last major tourig show. I the same moth Madoa also aouced that she had chaged her ame to Ester. I a ABC News iterview, Madoa explaied that her study of the Kabbalah religio had led her to take the ame Ester after the Biblical quee celebrated i the Jewish festival of Purim. (For further iformatio o the strategic sigificace of Madoa s ame chage, please cotact Professor David Hore of Califoria State Uiversity, Log Beach (dhore@csulb.edu).)