What does a minor league baseball team in Savannah, Georgia have in common with the mighty All Blacks? A dance coach!

The Savannah Bananas are an independent baseball team world-famous in Savannah for their wild antics and their breakdancing coach, Tyler Gillum.

This team turned the professional sports model on its head. They don’t care about winning or losing, but rather focus on one thing and one thing only: making sure every fan has a fantastic, entertaining afternoon or evening! Party time!

When Jesse Cole and his wife Emily took over the Savannah franchise in 2016, they realized they needed to do things differently to be successful and make an impact. Savannah’s traditional minor league model wouldn’t cut it.

They decided to abandon the well-known script. The result? A completely new approach to baseball that puts fans, not results, at the center of all activities. And the Savannah Bananas became a sensation.

Your gaming experience goes beyond baseball and transforms the ballpark into a theater full of surprises.

The coach dances, the players perform choreographed performances, and yes, there are even “kilt nights” and games played in outlandish costumes.

They invented “Banana Ball” – a faster, more fan-friendly version of baseball that shortened wait times, imposed a two-hour time limit and included a rule that allowed fans to catch foul balls for outs.

Every inning is great fun, every break an opportunity for entertainment. In a sport where tradition often reigns supreme, they innovate and focus on creating memories.

The Bananas have shifted the concept from perception to perspective. Perception might say that baseball is about runs, outs and innings, but from the Bananas perspective it is about laughter, excitement and the joy of being together.

This is a team that uses perception – the limited view of how things are “supposed to be” – as a springboard to redefine the business model.

In business terms, they have turned a mature industry on its head and proven that a fresh perspective can create new and unique opportunities.

What lessons can we learn from bananas? Mature industries often have clearly defined norms and practices, but sometimes those norms are simply habits waiting to be challenged.

By reshaping traditional baseball, the Bananas have carved out a niche with little competition.

They are the only team of their kind in the sport and their audience loves them for it. This shift from a competitive to a non-controversial space is the key to their success.

So dream big, turn your world upside down and develop strategies that focus on what matters.

Experiment and change the way you see the world and take the first step towards a new perspective.

And if you’re intrigued by the Bananas, you should know that their latest project is a new team called Party Animals.

Who wouldn’t want to go to one of their games?