Strategic Opportunities in Social Recreational Dance Markets

Vision

My fundamental vision is: 

Social recreational dancing easily has the potential to be a much more significant activity than it now is.

Social recreational dancing is currently realizing only a very small part of its potential.

In business terms, social recreational dancing could easily be a much larger industry than it now is.

Contra check

Since SRDI is a think tank, and I am an analyst and evangelist, I will frequently apply some thinking and analysis to the assertions, propositions and conclusions I proffer.

A direct counter-proposition to my vision statement would be:  Social recreational dancing does not have potential to be any more significant than it now is.

Since I am a former debater, who is trained to be able to make a good case for either side of a question, I could develop an argument that social recreational dancing does not have more potential. But since I'm not seeing  any value in doing so, that would be a total time-waste.

If you would like to make such a case, please add Comments; I would be very much interested in such a discussion.

I do have many cautions and yeah-but's in mind for many of the assertions I include in this presentation.

I am very clear that opportunity-seeking in social-recreational dance ventures is not a no-brainer, and that there are real bear-traps; but overall, the potential for significant business opportunity in social recreational dance is great and not particularly difficult to realize.

Probabilities

Another check on my vision would be to consider the probabilities.  Am I absolutely, 100%, certain of my vision statement?  That "social recreational dancing easily has the potential to be a much more significant activity than it now is".

Or is this sort of a 50-50 (equal chances), or 60-40 (more likely than not), proposition for me?  No; this is neither "in the middle" nor "somewhat more likely" for me.

In my view, the probability that my vision statement is accurate is near certain, 90% at least and as much as 99%.

Happen by itself?

Will it happen by itself?  No.

Some dance booms will happen by themselves; just as they have been happening all along.  But dance booms that flame out are not what this presentaion is about.

My vision is that social recreational dancing easily has the potential to be a much more significant activity than it now is, not that it has the destiny to be.  The distinction is that it can be, not that it will be.

In this presentation I point to several other industries that were not going anywhere, until some analysts, strategists, thinkers saw the potential and how it could it be realized; and then they set out to accomplish it.

Industry transformation processes

Industry revitalization occurs in different ways; I address several of them.

One common process in which industries become transformed from stagnant or declining is through the introduction of something new that works well and brings in new customers - followed by imitation of that new thing, which continues the growth, followed by more imitation, and growth, and yet even more imitation, which continues the growth even further, until the revitalized industry proceeds through its new growth phase and becomes mature again.

The pattern of innovation followed by imitation does of course not always work; because of course the innovation doesn't always work; and because the process can go off track and spin down at any point in the process.

Strategic players

This presentation is "Strategic Opportunities in Social Recreational Dance Markets".  It is written for strategic players, strategy opportunists and wannabe strategic players.

Most businesses are not strategic players, except in so far as do-what-'they'-do followership and imitation can be considered a strategy.  At this point in the social recreational dance world, followership is not generally a good strategy.

1st Mover Innovators  There are many examples of 1st-mover-innovators.  In the industry of book selling, think amazon.com and Jeff Bezos 

1st Follower Power Players  There are many examples of 1st-follower-power-players.  In the industry of online book selling, think Barnes & Noble.

Mindset moves money

Mindset moves money.  Money can move mindset; more on that later.

Mindset is what differentiates strategic players from non-strategic players. 

Money is not required in order to be a strategic player; mindset is required.  A mindset with a sellable strategy can move the money required to mobilize the strategy.

At this time in social-recreational dancing the primary opportunities are for 1st-mover-innovators.

A good growth market, as in a rising-tide industry, provides substantial opportunity for followership strategies, but that is not the case in social recreational dance today.  (I will be addressing the current ballroom situation as we proceed.)

This presentation will be of interest to those who prefer creativeness and innovation over following and doing what others are doing.  When the social recreational dance industry begins to grow after its next revitalization, there will be renewed opportunity for all.

Constructed strategy

A strategy can be constructed by thinking; by intellectual efforting.  A constructed strategy is/has a plan; it has specific intentions.  A constructed strategy has, to a great extent, been "thought through".

Emergent strategy

Many enterprises do not have a constructed strategy; they don't particularly have plans to do anything other than what they are doing.  We can think of this situation in different ways; and in this presentation I incorporate both of the following concepts; even though they can be inconsistent with each other, they do improve clarity:

Non-strategic players:  In a previous section I referred to "strategic players" and "non-strategic players".  A key distinction here is between such things as being intentional and conscious, or not, about "strategy". Some enterprises seek to be "strategic"; but many do not pay any attention to the issue.

Emergent strategy:  But we can't really say that a business is without strategy; they do operate in some intentional ways.  If we observe the operations of a business we can discern and describe some elements of a possible strategy; and from the outside we don't really know if it is a constructed strategy or not.  Even if a business operation is chaotic and internally inconsistent and disorganized, that could be a strategy.

What happens, even in enterprises with extensive constructed strategy, is that over time the "real" strategy "emerges".  A description of  the way an enterprise actually/really operates is effectviely a narrative of the "emergent strategy" of that enterprise; it is what has emerged from whatever constructed, or hodge podge, strategy they had or did not have.

Most of the time in this presentation, the use of the term "strategy" indicates "thought-about strategy"; which means a substantially constructed strategy.  In cases in which I mean "emergent strategy" I specifically indicate that.

Analysis

Good strategy requires good thinking; good analysis.  The content of this presentation is a lot of analysis.

"Analysis" is just what we know it is:  the mental work of taking things apart in an intellectual context.  Years ago when I took apart the transmission of my classic 1950 Mercury coupe, my analysis provided me with understanding of how it all fit together, and especially how the roller bearings needed to be placed so that the transmission would work again.

Synthesis

Good strategy requires good synthesis; this also has to be the product of good thinking.

"Synthesis" is the intellectual work of putting back together, in a new way, that which has been taken apart in the analysis.  Synthesis is the conclusion; the bottom line; the "short version". 

Given my vision (and Vison, Mission, Purpose), which includes my assertion that "social recreational dancing easily has the potential to be a much more significant activity than it now is", my mission is to make a difference, significantly, in the probabilities of that occurring. 

My picture of how to best do that, and how to best serve the social recreational dance industry, and fundamentally to best serve the social recreational dance community of dancers and future dancers which the industry serves, is to share my many syntheses, my good-to-great ideas, and my best and hottest strategies with those who will value them, nurture them, and seek to bring them into existence; such that the social recreational dance world will be transformed and infused with the kind of new vitality which has been produced in many other once-unimportant industries.