A few years ago, the Blues moved from playing matches in the city center to a new out-of-town stadium which is shared with Cardiff City, the football team. And they didn’t bother consulting their customer base before the announcement. The old guard hate the new stadium and want a return to Cardiff Arms Park. The new breed of supporter loves the padded seats, modern facilities, large bars & hospitality suites, and hates the ramshackle old stadium.

The problem is that attendances are falling rapidly. This is in part due to poor performances on the pitch, but also to the complete lack of atmosphere at Cardiff City Stadium. The Blues have averaged gates of between 8-10,000 for most of their existance, which isn’t bad for welsh rugby, but when you put those several thousand people inside a 25,000 capacity stadium, the result is predictable.

The Blues board have, in the last couple of weeks, bowed to public pressure and returned to play games at Cardiff Arms Park. Both matches played to capacity crowds, and the atmosphere was completely changed. The crowd roared on their team who responded by raising their game and grabbing two much-needed victories. Post-match interviews featured players gushing about the wonderful atmosphere at the old stadium, and the happy crowd left for the nearby pubs & bars to the sounds of  Thin Lizzy’s “The boys are back in town” and the somewhat hopeful Take That anthem “Back for good”!

Now the Blues have a problem, exacerbated by the £500,00 annual rent  they are contracted to pay at the new stadium for the next 17 years (unbelievably without a break clause), and the run-down state of the old stadium which limits capacity to 9,000 on health & safety grounds. In the quest to rebuild a customer experience which will bring back the crowds, some hard decisions need to be made, otherwise a drama will become a crisis.

Perhaps the Blues board should consider this little anecdote: As my son & I were walking along the concourse at the back of Cardiff Arms Park’s South Stand last Friday night, he turned, wrinkled up his nose, and asked, “Dad, what’s that smell?”. I took in a lungful myself, smiled and replied, “That’s the smell of rugby, son, and it’s called linament”!

The trouble is that the Blues have gone for the wrong customer experience: Cardiff City Stadium smells of football.

Big business is (unfortunately) still obsessed with big numbers, throwing lots of people and money at the problem in the hope that this will get a quicker result. In reality, the outcome is almost always the opposite, especially in the fast-moving digital space.

User expectation is driven by the whirlwind of constant digital innovation that is the norm in 2012. Startups can go from 0 to millions of monthly users in months, and know that to survive the inevitable attack of the clones that comes with such success, they must continuously evolve and expand their proposition. Those that stand still stare into the dead pool until they inevitably fall in.

Lessons need to be learned: small, agile teams of talented, multi-disciplined, highly-motivated, and empowered people are the way forward, even for corporates. It’s why, every now and again, you hear of a frustrated CEO who tries to circumvent the monolithic project management process that is stifling his company by setting up a pet project (aka ‘skunkworks’ or ‘innovation stream’).

To win in the digital space, you should keep it lean & mean; hire and empower the brightest & the best; under-promise, and over-deliver, regularly…

Watch out for more additions in the coming weeks and months; 2012 is going to be a big year for us!