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Strategy Brain Teaser: Ecotopia Chamber Music Festival
As I wrote a week or so ago in Strategy Development: Grist for the Mill, a number of years ago, I developed a two-day learning-organization seminar that applied organizational-learning and systems-thinking principles to performing arts contexts.
This is another case in a series of discussion exercises for seminar participants to read, analyze, and discuss. Again, I think that the real value takes place in a discussion context where different opinions, frames of reference, and scenarios can play out. A diversity of points-of-view and professional backgrounds really helps fuel an interesting and lively discussion.
Before you read and discuss the case, make sure that discussion participants have a copy of the questions following the case. One fun and enlivening way to approach the discussion is to ask participants to each take the part of one of the characters in the discussion and then extend the discussion the characters are having to a point of resolution. It helps to create real clarity about each character's frame of reference, the subtext that you think is motivating their point-of-view, and how their length of tenure in the organization drives their perceptions, assumptions, and suggested strategies.
Consider creating a forum or finding a discussion partner with whom you can work this through. This particular case is deceptively complex, lending itself well for scenario-style discussions and exploring different assumptions about perception and meaning.
When I lived in Oregon, a number of friends and I created something akin to a book club where we would occasionally get together for breakfast, coffee, brunch, or drinks and focus on particular case discussions, current event challenges, books, or articles, and have at it. It was one of the best learning environments I ever experienced. If you haven't made one of these for yourself, I really think it's a great idea. We all loved it and I suspect that you may, too!
The Scenario for Discussion
Though only 10 years old, the Ecotopia Chamber Music Festival has established itself as a viable and valued organization within its community, and among other Chamber Music organizations. The founding Artistic and Executive Director, Hannah Abramowitz, was known in chamber music circles for nearly ten years as the violist in the world-famous Xandros String Quartet before a bicycle accident rendered her unable to play. Since starting the Festival in the large Northwestern city of Ecotopia, the festival has grown from a three-concert weekend to a month-long event with more than twenty ticketed performances and eight free outdoor Picnic Concerts in the historic Totem Park in downtown Ecotopia.
Financially, the festival has never come close to supporting itself with ticket sales. Performing in an acoustically wonderful, but intimate 400 seat hall on the Seneca College campus, the festival’s earned income comprises only 15% of its annual budget. Contributed funding has been a different matter. Limited seating has assured that performances were nearly all sold out and since donors receive first-purchase privileges, most ticket buyers have become contributors to ensure their ability to buy tickets. Plus, a number of contributors have regularly increased their contributions to be moved earlier in the processing cycle to get the seats of their choice. Together, earned and contributed income have created a modest operating surplus in eight of ten years, leaving the Festival with a cash reserve of 20% of its annual operating budget.
During the last festival, the Marketing Director, Geoff Bennett, noticed a disturbing occurrence. Though virtually all the performances had had to be advertised as “Sold Out,� every one had at least 50 vacant seats according to house counts. Since the festival, Bennett had tried to talk the Board into instituting a Rush Program for the next Festival, but the Board—ever mindful of displeasing the public—felt that such a program would just invite disappointment on the part of people who would drive, pay to park, and walk to the hall to discover no available seating.
Three months ago, the Ecotopia Festival hired a new Development Director, Andrew Keller. Keller, a former insurance actuary whose analytical skills were finely honed, had abandoned insurance in favor of his first love, chamber music. Prior to moving to Ecotopia, Keller had been a volunteer fundraising chair for a chamber music series in Boston. As chair, he had developed strategies which rescued the struggling organization from insolvency. His success—which was widely acknowledged in Boston music circles and in the media—had whetted his appetite to become a fundraising professional; he had long wished to escape the predictably boring routine of commercial property casualty insurance. Keller firmly believed that his business savvy and strategic skills would serve him well in his new career.
During Keller’s second month in his new position, Geoff Bennett related his observation about all the vacant seats for sold out performances. Bennett had done some research, and discovered that a number of key donors were buying blocks of seats for their friends and acquaintances. Keller and Bennett came to surmise that either these donors were not distributing the tickets or the people to whom they were distributing them were not coming to performances. Either way, Keller and Bennett were concerned.
Just last week, the Ecotopia Journal-Register music critic commented in an opinion column about the decline in interest in chamber music, and mentioned a “substantial number of empty seats in several of the Ecotopia Chamber Music Festival's recent performances.�
Several Board members had since phoned the Executive Director to express concern. Even the Chair of the Development Committee, Roderick Bennion, had dropped in for an unscheduled meeting with Hannah Abramowitz to discuss the critic’s column.
“Hannah,� Bennion said, “I’m concerned that we’ll lose contributions if people begin to believe that they don’t need to donate in order to keep their seating priority. We’ve always had sold-out concerts working for us in this regard. Now it’s all over town that we didn’t do as well this year.�
“Rod, let’s get Geoff and Andrew into this discussion and see what they think,� Hannah replied. Abramowitz returned a few moments later with her two staff directors and they reported on what they had learned.
“I’ve been giving this quite a bit of attention,� Keller reflected, “and I think that with such a small number of seats that we need to find a way to keep people from buying tickets that they don’t use. Perhaps we can restrict the number of tickets that donors can buy on an early-purchase program.�
“But Andy,� Bennet declared, “that will impact our cash flow, and increase the costs of our single ticket campaign.�
“That’s not the issue,� Bennion argued. “Are you telling me that we’re going to tell our larger donors that we won’t sell them the tickets they want to purchase? What if they decide to stop giving! We can’t afford to alienate these people.�
“The most important—the most strategic move we can make,� the Development Director replied, “is to enlarge the size of our prospect pool. The size of that pool is directly correlated to the number of tickets available. In the short term, growing the pool will cost us money. No question about that. But in the long term, we’ll be better off. In fact, I believe the Festival would be even better off adding performances and extending our season. Demand is clearly out-pacing supply and if we’re going to raise more money, we need to cultivate more prospects.�
“Rod,� said Hannah, “for some time I’ve been thinking about adding a winter season in addition to our summer Festival. A number of the artists and ensembles that perform here tour through in the winter months. They need engagements and they wind up being presented by the College or by the University Chamber Music Series in Heston. That's only a half-hour drive from here. They benefit from our investment. I don’t feel I can ask these artists to forgo an engagement, but if we were presenting year-round, we could build on our summer successes.�
Geoff Bennett felt exasperated: “Look at the facts, people. Just last week the Journal-Register reported a decline in attendance at classical music concerts. They used US as an example. Now I know that our revenues are fine, but it’s harder every summer to get the tickets sold. Now is not the time to launch a winter season.�
DISCUSSION GUIDE
1. What values are in conflict?
2. What dynamics and assumptions are driving the system?
3. If you were the Executive Director, what would you do?
4. What assumptions underpin the scenario?
5. Describe the organizational culture.
6. What do you need to know that you don’t know?
7. How will you find out what you need to know?
8. What learning needs to take place in the organization?
9. What does Keller have at stake that Bennett doesn't and vice versa?
10. Is the problem more perceived than real? Why or why not?
Posted on February 19, 2007 06:55 AM | Permalink
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Comments
I vote for problem more perceived than real.
The logical first step to me seems to be communicating with ticket buyers that there are many people who want to see these wonderful performances but are unable to do so because the festival is honoring their compact with the seat holder not to resell it.
Mention that those that are able to attend are disappointed when they see so many seats going unused when there are people eager to share their experience pressing their noses against the box office windows outside.
Encourage people to turn their tickets back in for resale either as a donation to the festival for as credit against their next ticket purchase. (Or whatever option your logistical capacity will allow.)
If you have a group that is invested enough in the organization to buy blocks of tickets for their friends, the best course of action is to make them even bigger partners in your success.