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case one
Madonna
TEACHING NOTE
SYNOPSIS
The case examines the career and the success of Madonna Ciccone – “the best known
woman on the planet.” The central issue is explaining the success of Madonna in
the highly competitive, highly volatile world of entertainment, where Madonna has
been a megastar since 1984.
The case offers students the opportunity to explore the nature and meaning
of strategy within a fast-paced business environment and to consider the role of
strategy in career success.
The case represents an expansion of the illustration provided in the first chapter
of Contemporary Strategy Analysis (5th edn, strategy capsule 1.1).
TEACHING OBJECTIVES
The purpose of the case is to allow students to consider three questions: “What
is strategy?”, “What role does strategy play in success?” and “What are the critical
ingredients of a successful strategy?”
The case forces students to address the meaning of strategy in environments where
turbulence renders detailed planning impossible and to consider the notion that strat-
egy can be both implicit and emergent as well as explicit and intended.
The case also introduces the idea that strategy exists for both individuals and organ-
izations; indeed, in this case there is some ambiguity as to whether “Madonna” is
Madonna the person or Madonna the show-biz organization. This issue is important
This note was prepared by Robert M. Grant.
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in terms of making the point that strategy is relevant to the future careers of
business students. While I have no expectation that students will write a strategic
plan for the rest of their lives, one of the most immediate and valuable applications
of the principles of strategic analysis is likely to be students’ thinking about their
future careers.
POSITION IN THE COURSE
The Madonna case is intended to open a core strategy course. It provides a light-
hearted context for engaging the interests of students while at the same time intro-
ducing a number of fundamentally important issues and concepts about strategy that
will be explored more fully later in the course. I typically use this case on the first
day of class. One of the merits of the case is that, even if students have not had time
to read it, their familiarity with Madonna means that it is possible for everyone to
contribute to the discussion.
ASSIGNMENT QUESTIONS
1. Why has Madonna been so successful in the world of entertainment?
2. Does Madonna have a strategy? If so, what are the main elements of that
strategy?
READING
R. M. Grant, Contemporary Strategy Analysis (5th edn), Blackwell Publishing, 2005,
chapter 1.
CASE DISCUSSION AND ANALYSIS
Why Is She Successful?
I begin by investigating the reasons why Madonna has been so successful over such
a long period of time (her first hit record was in 1983).
I start off this line of inquiry by asking students whether Madonna is exception-
ally talented. In relation to key capabilities as an entertainer – singing, musicianship,
song-writing, acting, dancing, even beauty – she tends to be graded as B+ or A−
except by the most die-hard Madonna fans. Where she scores the highest acclaim is
for her capabilities in marketing, self-promotion, work ethic, and leadership.
In addition to these underlying capabilities (and lack of them), I encourage stu-
dents to explore what Madonna has done to achieve and sustain success. Among the
themes that typically emerge are:
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n Her goal commitment (ambition) and sustained level of effort.
n Her brilliance in identifying and exploiting alliance partners. From her early
boyfriends on the New York rock music and DJ scene, through to Sean Penn
and Warren Beatty in Hollywood, Madonna has clawed her way to the top
through courting key individuals in strong strategic situations (these have often
been temporary alliances to achieve specific goals).
n Her continual renewal and reinvention. I ask how many phases Madonna has
been through. This tends to produce some disagreement, but typically the class
can identify an early street-kid-disco-grunge phase, a retro-Monroe-glam-star
look, a black-leather-and-underwear deviant sexuality phase, followed by
more recent Madonna-as-mother, and new-spiritual-mystic-Madonna. These
changes of image accompanied by changes in music and lifestyle typically emerge
from class discussion as key explanations of how Madonna has ridden so many
cycles of music and style since the early 1980s.
n Sex. Common to all these phases has been a heavy emphasis on sex (though
this has been much less pronounced since Madonna hit 40 and entered her
spiritual phase). So what is new or different here? Hasn’t sex always been
central to the success of popular female (and male) actors and singers, from
Greta Garbo and Mae West, to Brigitte Bardot, Doris Day, Tina Turner, and
Britney Spears? The key here seems to be Madonna’s capacity to engage in
a careful game of brinkmanship. She has aroused huge popular interest and
massive media publicity by challenging conventions of modesty and decency
– but never gone so far as to alienate herself either from the key distribution
channels or from her fans. This raises the issue of whether the key theme here
is sex, or whether sex is simply a medium that Madonna has chosen as a means
of continually challenging orthodoxy and keeping herself in the public’s eye.
Is This Strategy?
At this stage, I refer to the mass of points on the board considered to be the elements
of Madonna’s success and ask: “Is this a strategy?”
This question typically produces a lively discussion. Some will argue that this is
purely opportunism: Madonna is simply seizing the openings made available by change
to launch new ventures and adapt her image. Others will point to a consistent pat-
tern of competitive behavior by Madonna that has characterized her career from her
first recording in 1982 through to her “Drowned World” tour of 2001.
I ask whether these two interpretations are really antithetical. Why is it not pos-
sible to follow a strategy of opportunism? Furthermore, Madonna’s opportunism has
been selective – there are certain types of opportunity she has pursued and others
she has not. In pursing the different opportunities, there has been a pattern. She has
formed relationships to allow entry into new fields, she has relied heavily on the power
of sex, and she has been persistent in all of her efforts. She has also compensated
for her own weaknesses in raw talent by relying heavily upon a carefully selected
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team of songwriters, record producers, musicians, dancers, and the like. She has fitted
the events of her personal life – marriages, motherhood, maturity, and educational
and spiritual development – almost seamlessly into her career.
Specifying the Strategy
On the basis of the points raised, I try to get the class to articulate more specifically
and formally Madonna’s strategy.
Following the distinction made in the textbook (pp. 22–3), I ask the class to
distinguish between Madonna’s corporate strategy (where she competes) and her
business strategy (how she competes).
In terms of corporate strategy, I ask the class in which markets Madonna competes.
Clearly she competes in multiple markets – recorded music, concerts, music videos
and other televised appearances, movies, books, as well as music and video produc-
tion, publishing and promotion. All these activities are closely linked (i.e., it is related
diversification). Can we provide an all-encompassing definition of the business
within which Madonna competes? Probably popular entertainment is the narrowest.
But is this diversification strategy a strength or a weakness? (Remember that the
trend for most enterprises has been towards “focusing on core businesses.”) For
diversification to work, there must be important linkages (or “synergies”) between
the different markets in which a firm competes. Such synergies seem to be present
in Madonna’s multimedia strategy. First, it allows her to exploit her artistic creations
across multiple media (the record releases, videos, and concert tours are closely coor-
dinated). Second, unlike Elvis Presley (wild rock ’n’ roller in his music; clean-cut,
all-American for Hollywood), Madonna achieves a highly consistent image across her
different media ventures. Finally, her multimedia presence elevates Madonna to a
higher status than her competitors in individual markets: Madonna is no longer
simply a popular singer, or an actress – she is a superstar. This status gives Madonna
a huge advantage in any field of endeavor she enters, whether it is music, movie
acting, or as a producer and manager.
In terms of business strategy, the key themes have been identified, and simply need
to be articulated in a more systematic form.
Madonna’s business (or “competitive”) strategy involves the following elements:
n Early identification of key trends in music, style, and popular culture and
incorporating such themes into her own image and products.
n Maximum use of controversy (sex in particular) to maintain media and public
interest.
n Periodic renewal of her “product life cycle,” each of these renewals based around
a coherent and complementary package of music, style, fashion, and personal
demeanor.
n Outsourcing to access resources and capabilities of others in order to comple-
ment her own restricted range of resources and capabilities.
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n Maintenance of close control over the key elements of her intellectual prop-
erty and creativity.
n Astute use of interpersonal relationships as the basis for business alliances.
What Makes a Winning Strategy?
I usually sum up by using the discussion of Madonna to consider more generally
the essential characteristics of a successful strategy. Figure 1.1 of Contemporary Strategy
Analysis (p. 7) identifies four key features:
n Goals that are simple, consistent, and long term.
n Profound understanding of the competitive environment.
n Objective appraisal of resources and capabilities.
n Effective implementation.
All four are clearly revealed in Madonna’s own career:
1. Goal orientation. Madonna’s career featured a relentless drive for stardom in
which other dimensions of her life were either subordinated to or absorbed
within her career goals.
2. Understanding the competitive environment. Fundamental to Madonna’s
continuing success has been a shrewd understanding of the ingredients of
stardom and the basis of popular appeal. This extends from the basic market-
ing principle that “sex sells” to recognition of the need to manage gatekeepers
of the critical media distribution channels. Her periodic reincarnations reflect
an acute awareness of changing attitudes, styles, and social norms.
3. Appraising resources. Madonna has been highly effective in exploiting her
particular talents, while protecting areas of weakness. By positioning herself
as a “star,” Madonna exploited her abilities to develop and project her image,
to self-promote, and to exploit emerging trends, while avoiding being judged
simply as a rock singer or an actress. Her live performances rely heavily on a
large team of highly qualified dancers, musicians, vocalists, choreographers,
and technicians, thus compensating for any weaknesses in her own performing
capabilities.
4. Effective implementation. Critical to Madonna’s success has been the energy,
commitment, leadership, organizational skills, and people management
strengths with which Madonna has implemented her strategic initiatives.
To see Madonna’s capabilities as a leader, especially in instilling loyalty and
commitment among others, see the film of her “Blonde Ambition” tour
(the film was released as Truth or Dare in the US and In Bed With Madonna
in Europe).
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UPDATE
Since the end of the case, Madonna’s life and career have continued to evolve. In
June 2004, Madonna began her “Reinvention” world tour – rumored to be her last
major touring show. In the same month Madonna also announced that she had changed
her name to Ester. In an ABC News interview, Madonna explained that her study
of the Kabbalah religion had led her to take the name Ester after the Biblical queen
celebrated in the Jewish festival of Purim. (For further information on the strategic
significance of Madonna’s name change, please contact Professor David Horne of
California State University, Long Beach (dhorne@csulb.edu).)
