In Michael Gracey’s 2017 musical, P. T. Barnum first fails with an ordinary museum. He succeeds only when he shows something that has never existed in this form. When he then pushes into the market of high society, he almost loses everything.
Many small teal dots crowd in a tight circle around a mist-blue swarm and collide. At the turning point, one dot drops three mist-blue splinters, turns gold and travels on an arc out into a wide, empty frame in which new gold dots light up; in the final image other dots follow, and the edge of the frame grows dense again.
Principle #72
Blue Ocean: Instead of fighting everyone for the same customers, you create a new space without competition by eliminating what everyone takes for granted and adding what does not yet exist.
3 min read5 sectionsSituationLink to the principle
Contents
“The Greatest Showman,” with Hugh Jackman as Phineas Taylor Barnum, is a musical, not a biography. The plot is largely invented and smooths over the life of the real Barnum. He put people on display and exploited some of them, such as the enslaved woman Joice Heth. And Jenny Lind ended the real tour because of his promotional methods, not because of a scandal. The movie shows none of this. Even so, it works well as an image of the Blue Ocean, because it shows both sides: the departure into a new space and the pull back into the old competition.
A spotlight falls on a gold dot; a pale dot moves up from there into a crowded theater box – as in “The Greatest Showman.”
01
A museum like the others
Situation
According to plot summaries, Barnum loses his job as a clerk at a shipping company when its ships sink. With a bank loan, he opens “Barnum’s American Museum” in Manhattan, where he exhibits wax figures. The box office stays empty.
Link to the principle
A museum of curiosities is a familiar format. Barnum enters a market in which he offers nothing special. That is the red ocean: the same offering as others, only without their reputation.
02
Something alive
Situation
His daughters suggest that he show something alive. Barnum brings people onto the stage whom society shuts out, among them the bearded Lettie Lutz and Charles Stratton, a man of short stature. He combines them with music, dance and acrobatics. The audience comes.
Link to the principle
Barnum no longer asks how to make a better museum. He creates a new form of entertainment that combines elements from different worlds. W. Chan Kim and Renée Mauborgne call this reconstructing market boundaries: not being better within the industry but shifting its boundaries.
03
The establishment’s criticism
Situation
The critic James Gordon Bennett pans the show, and people protest outside the building. Barnum now calls his business “Barnum’s Circus” and brings in the playwright Phillip Carlyle to handle publicity; Carlyle gives him access to high society, all the way to a meeting with Queen Victoria.
Link to the principle
The guardians of the old market rarely welcome a new one. The criticism shows that Barnum is working outside the recognized standards. If you create a blue ocean, you have to be prepared for the established players not to take you seriously at first, or to fight you.
04
Back into the red ocean
Situation
Barnum wants to be accepted by the upper class. He brings the Swedish opera singer Jenny Lind to America for a tour and neglects his troupe for it. The tour ends in scandal, the circus burns down after a clash between protesters and the troupe, and the bank forecloses on his house.
Link to the principle
With Jenny Lind, Barnum pushes into the market of high culture, where others set the tone and where he is just one among many. He leaves the space he created himself. In the movie, this is the turning point toward his downfall.
05
Starting over in a tent
Situation
The troupe brings Barnum back. Carlyle offers his share of the profits for the rebuilding and becomes an equal partner. To save costs, they put up a tent under the open sky instead of a new building. The tent show is a success.
Link to the principle
The new start combines two things Kim and Mauborgne emphasize: lower costs and higher value. The tent is cheaper than a building and makes the experience bigger. Barnum returns to what he created himself instead of looking for it in other people’s markets.
Key takeaways
Key lessons
01
If your offering resembles everyone else’s, don’t look for the better detail; look for a new form.
02
Combine elements from different worlds.
03
Be prepared for resistance from those who shape the old market.
04
Don’t let yourself be drawn into the market where others set the tone.
05
A new start often means less effort and a bigger experience.
Summary
“The Greatest Showman” shows P. T. Barnum failing with an ordinary museum and succeeding with a new form of entertainment. When he pushes into the market of high culture, he almost loses everything. Only his return to his own space, a simple tent, brings a new start. The movie takes great liberties, but as an image of the blue ocean it is very vivid.
W. Chan Kim, Renée Mauborgne: Blue Ocean Strategy: How to Create Uncontested Market Space and Make the Competition Irrelevant. Boston: Harvard Business School Press 2005.
Back to the basics
Read what lies behind the Blue Ocean: with explanation, animation, video and research.
