Its main financial strength was its above average endowment and the way the company increased performance revenues. On the other hand, the main financial weakness was increasing the union wages. In 2002, Utah’s endowment fund remarkably stood above the $10 million mark. This endowment mark was higher than the amount that other symphonies in the same grouping as Utah enjoyed nationwide. This financial potency was able to put Utah symphony near the top of all group II symphony nationwide. This was in comparison with the average endowments of the other Group II symphonies, which was about $8.8 million (Alexander, 2004).
The revenues growths of Utah symphony performances from the 2001 to the 2002 season increased the financial state of the company. The performance revenues for 2001 season were at $3,836,513, and there were expectations that revenues were growing. This is at an annual rate of 16% to stand at $4,516,308. This is an advantage for the Utah symphony, as the increase in the projected revenue will lead to the financial health of the company and to assist with the financial future promise (Delong & Ager, 2005).
In January 2002, the company’s total endowment was $10 million. During the time that the symphony was above the average endowment mark within its group, it was spending substantially, and this was one of the causes of its financial problems. Utah symphony was dealing with much leadership and financial issues before the merger as its financial state were grim. Scott Parker the board chairperson of the symphony was aware that the state was getting worse due to the 9/11 event and the economy’s downturn. However, the symphony was close to a shortfall even before these events and Parker took up the leadership to try to moderate the situation. The main financial weakness was increasing the union wages. The company failed was unable to negotiate the salaries of the musicians. The company was to pay the musicians in accordance with the multi-year union contracts they had negotiated in the early years with the American Federation of Musicians. The costs of the artists included the key expense category for the orchestra (Delong & Ager, 2005).
The Utah symphony did not have its own facilities as the county owned the building that housed the Abravanel Hall and houses that the company used. Most of the company’s money, over 90%, allocated to the orchestra and staff salaries, development (fund-raising), payroll taxes and benefits. The orchestra musicians were to earn annual salaries of between $50,000 and $85,000. This was too high considering the status and size of the symphony. Having a high salary was an advantage for the symphony as it attracted quality musicians, but it was also a financial weakness since the company could not adjust their wages as the bargaining agreement covered those (Delong & Ager, 2005). With the relative increment through a greater income, detrimental effects are likely possible on the financial outlook of the symphony organization.
Both the management representatives and labour signed a collective bargaining agreement regarding the salaries of the musicians. Under leadership strength, having Keith Lockhart as the director was beneficial. This is since Keith has the ability of being a top rate conductor with an exceedingly much concerned relativity with what was happening to symphony. His leadership ability is evident in the way the symphony had over 200 performances by the year 2001 with a perennial schedule following his hiring in the year 1998. One of the Utah symphony leadership weaknesses was its performance under many conductors within a period of 20 years (Delong & Ager, 2005).
1 (a)
The margin process would not be easy for Ann to begin with she will have to bring two different cultures together. The first step that she will have to consider taking in order to address the specified weaknesses will be to analyse the issues at hand. This will enable her assess an idea on the areas she can improve of what the company has to offer, and where points of interest along with the obstacles might exist. In analysing these issues, it is also essentially recommendable to consider the values and motivations of the company.
The second step will be to strategize on an action plan that will ensure that both parties benefit from the merger. This entails a list of undertakings that the company need to achieve and its goals. The action plan is essential for the description of tasks and dependencies, the things to be achieved before accomplishing significant steps. This will enable her to stay on schedule and meet the set goals and objectives. Finally, she will have to take action and apply the plan as a guiding tool to success (Alexander, 2004). Since the Utah symphony did not have its own facilities as the county owned the building that housed the Abravanel Hall and houses that the company used, Ann should consider setting up a procedure in acquiring significant facilities to boost the performance of the company.
2
Utah opera had stable leaders with Peterson serving as the director from 1976 until his death in 1990. Ewers then became the director and Utah opera continued to grow under her direction. The company increased its number of yearly productions, and the number of youths attending the performances of the opera rose to 70,000. The company possessed production studios in 2003, on 2.9 acres of land. It also had manageable set of costumes together with stage sets, which cost about $4.8 million (Alexander, 2004).
The opera had a stable administrative staff, which comprised of 23 people as it hired all its artists. When it comes to the orchestra, the opera uses services from the Utah symphony. The opera was financially stable and had a reserve. The opera business model made the company flexible and capable of adjusting its size or eliminating the projects that failed to attain its fund-raising goals. Utah opera also has flexibility concerning the staging of a show contradictory to Utah symphony, which has a yearlong timetable. The success factor under the financial aspect has the relative fundraising sufficiency to enable ticket prices maintain stability as the previous year. The measure of the financial aspect is the increment of profitability in the next years (Powell, 2003).
Utah Opera received financial support from nationally and locally based corporations, foundations and individuals. By January 2002, their endowment fund had increased to $5 million. This ensured its financial stability. Opera found a strong leader in Ann Ewers, as she was a successful fundraiser and successfully solicited donations from bodies outside the state. Her 11-year tenure saw the company’s yearly budget growing from $1.5 million to $5 million. One of the operas leadership weaknesses was the fact that Ann Ewers employed an autocratic style when dealing with staff. She would make independent decisions sometimes without the significant consultation of the specified individuals expected to implement those decisions (Powell, 2003).
2 (a)
Ann should begin by exclusively focusing on the strengths of Utah Opera. This will enable her to find new ways of unleashing the company’s potential. For example, she should focus on sustaining Opera’s fixed assets. These assets have a life of over one year and companies often carry them forward to the subsequent accounting period. Fixed assets are prone to abuse, misuse, fraud, theft and always need to be in a good working condition. She should be able to replace them whenever necessary since they require planning and are usually of high value. Anna should work on her leadership style in order to make the merge a success. For example, she should use a transformational style instead of an autocratic style (Powell, 2003).
Being a transformational leader means that she will have to inspire her staff, set clear goals, communicate well with her team, manage the delivery and have integrity. However, she should be able to adapt her style to fit a specified group or a situation. This means that she should gain an understanding of other effective leadership styles. This is since the more approaches she is familiar with the more tools she will use to lead effectively. She should use her vision to motivate and lead others. She should strive to become an exceptional communicator capable of communicating a shared vision and delegating responsibilities (Powell, 2003). Ann has to address ticket buyers and fun based buyers through ensuring that the specified product on stage is not affected with the acquiring of the symphony. She has to maintain the aspect of similar costs as before the consideration of the merger (Powell, 2003).
3
• The scoreboards relatively represent the aspect of both the organizations cultures. This is through the demonstration of how the organization is run through the Clan culture with its detailed factors. The business model has framework that describes the internal focus of the company with values attached to their respective staffs first. The operas scoreboard enables the description of the market culture observation. The business model explains on the focus externally as a priority for the organization to generate revenue.
• The scoreboards have significant in addressing weaknesses and strengths as noted. An instance is when having the relative capability to manage a fundraise with a much higher scale that is significant to the opera and the symphony as addressed on both organizations scoreboards.
Financial
• Strategic Goal: Being a financially stable company with adequate annual profitability, while focusing on growing the reserve fund prior to the merger.
• Critical Success Factor: Having sufficient fundraising in order to sustain the ticket prices and use more events to increase funds.
• Measure: Having an increase in profitability in the near-term (from $116K to $500K a year) and improving the reserve fund sum.
Customer
• Strategic Goal: Being familiar with their desires for local, national, and world-class performances
• Critical Success Factor: Taking on top quality talent in order to stand out in performances
• Measure: Receiving feedback from departing patrons and selling performances
Internal Process
• Strategic Goal: Increasing profitability and being flexible in decreasing expenses from fundraising gaps
• Critical Success Factor: renegotiating with musicians about the contracts and having successful dialogue with selected performers
• Measure: Improving productivity due to the preservation and augmented sales
Learning and Growth
• Strategic Goal: Including a broad range of symphonies presented in order to appeal to a more diverse audience with advanced quality presentation
• Critical Success Factor: Having a successful advertising campaign that promotes different symphonies to young audiences in order to raise ticket sales
• Measure: Having enhanced ticket sales and a returning audience essential for covering the costs
B.
The Utah Symphony vision is the functional aspect as a unified organization. The business model with relativity is the provision of a higher quality performance of the respective top musicians and artists with an increment of funding sources.
Opera Financial and Utah Symphony:
In consideration of the financial aspect of both the companies, benefits are guaranteed from the increment in events and recognition. With the Utah Symphony, the set strategic goal is to achieve financial stability with sufficient profitability annually. The success factor under the financial aspect has the fundraising sufficient to enable ticket prices maintain stability as the previous year. The measure of the financial aspect is the increment of profitability in the next years. This is with an estimation of from $116K to $500K a year. With the Utah opera balanced scoreboard, the specified goal is to achieve financial stability with an increment in the reserve funds. This is with a success factor of raising the additional funds and corresponding realization of endowments. This incorporates the measure of the reserve fund improvisation (Alexander, 2004).
The consideration of the financial aspect will enable the customer base to grow following the fact that both the companies can collaborate to help generate pleasing effect. This is as a result of the Utah Symphony setting a strategic goal of attuning to their desires to meet the world-class performance. This is with a success factor of hiring most of the top quality talent with a measure of receiving feedback from patrons that exist. The Utah opera has a strategic goal of acclaiming opera performances regionally and nationally. This is through the performing factor of quality performances achievements. This results from the sold-out performances (Alexander, 2004).
The internal process is mostly suitable and sustainable from different sides following the ability to add more of the resources. This involves the flexibility in expense decrease due to fundraising gaps and financial stability maintenance to attract the top talent. This is with a success factor of renegotiating musician contracts especially the selected performers. Learning and growth potential on both sides is significant during the successful marketing campaign, returning audience and improved ticket sales to ensure that there is a higher production of high quality performances (Alexander, 2004).
The companies commonly have differing goals with strategic plans and related visions to enable the provision of exceptional sound to the audiences. The scorecards address the strengths and weaknesses.
C.
In terms of finance, the merging of the two companies will assist in the creation of financial stability with high customer retention. This will in turn help in increasing development and learning speed since the customers will be more attracted to the company due to its stability. The internal processes between the two companies will enable them to excel, as it will ensure survival of the Utah symphony, which is the main reason for merging of the companies. The internal process will also increase and sustain sales thus leading to improved productivity. The two companies had different operational and financial organization (VanClay & Lynn, 2000).
The opera had a reserve fund with financial stability and merging the two companies may destroy the financial stability of Utah opera. This is since the symphony financial state is in a deficit situation. The employees, members and customers of Utah opera may feel unequal since merging may lead to opera losing its identity. It will be hard to achieve the internal process if the employees feel unequal. This is since it may also affect its potential clients and this means that it will also affect sales thus lowering productivity (VanClay & Lynn, 2000).
The company executive will have to bring two diverse cultures together. To do this, she has to have an understanding of the need to sustain the local community for the success of the merger. She has to find a way of converting the attitude of the community. The executive will have to employ a systematic processing in order to manage the complex environment since there is a high uncertainty level surrounding the merger proposal (Holzapfel & Myers, 2009). The task that the executive has to accomplish is complex, and it will require substantive and elaborative processing.
The product is likely to influence this process as mood mainly affects related memories and thoughts used when creating a response. She will have to motivate and convince associates of the two boards. She may do this through applying the emotion contagion effect in small groups, the transformational role of sensational outcome, behavioural entrainment and the resultant interaction synchrony (Holzapfel & Myers, 2009).
On the other hand, she will have to change her style of leadership from autocratic to transformational and charismatic to exercise intentional effective influence and affective induction on the board members. Her mood and dispositional effect may not constantly be in order with certain situations; she may have to use effectual impression management to show surface-level display emotions that she may not internalize. Ewers will have to come up with a suitable physical context for communicating her ideas.
In the case of technological context, she has to choose a face-to-face discussion to maximize the nonverbal quantity and social verbal cues. This will enable her determine the fundamental emotional states of members of the group and ease the flow of information among them. She will prove to the board members and the community that she has the ability of leading a new organisation through the merge process. Leaders who express anger are more competent since anger has more power when it comes to status conferral (Holzapfel & Myers, 2009).
Although it will be effective for people to comply on their own will and not due to fear of punishment, they cannot sustain it for a long time without pressure from authorities. Ewers will, have the task of monitoring her emotions display to ensure that she quickly develops a high emotional intelligence level. Although it may be necessary for her to make independent decisions and display unilateral power under time constraints, she will be successful if she implements a collaborative approach. This is relevant since her power relates more to the situational context than her personality characteristic of authority, dominance and status (Holzapfel & Myers, 2009).
She will have to use emotional display in order to correct or prevent a problem, help people to improve their situation and generate a good climate. This may sometimes entail masking her negative emotions in order to avoid displaying emotions that lead to negative outcomes. When it comes to extremely complex situation, she may choose actions that have a positive effect that connect with goal attainment. This may assist in modification of the objective examination of situation, which leads to super ordinate goal motivated decisions (VanClay & Lynn, 2000).
D 1
Financial
For the successful development of the respective new fund raising ideas symphony, board members with the opera requirements in analyzing the previous success in fundraising and developing implementation action plans with strategies are significant. One main issue that could arise in the financial sector would be from operas financial strength against the symphony. The Utah opera was financially stable with a reserve fund due to its flexible business model. It had the capability of adjusting its size or eliminating that failed to reach their set a fund-raising goal (VanClay & Lynn, 2000). Testing of the market will be significant in consideration of the major strengths of the symphony in order to enable promotion and change ticket prices.
The success factor under the financial aspect that was considered during the post-merger had the fundraising sufficiency to enable ticket prices maintenance stability as the previous year. The measure of the financial aspect is the increment of profitability in the next years. On the other hand, the symphony was an inflexible 52-week orchestra. This means that the opera will have to strain in order to meet and manage the financial instability of the symphony to make the merger successful. The opera will have to pay for the symphony’s expenses thus creating too high overhead costs (VanClay & Lynn, 2000).
Human resource
Merging the Symphony and the Opera will create a case of inequality to supporters, employees and members. This is so since symphony would grow to be a tier-one arts organization but at the expense of losing opera’s identity. This situation will cause a feeling of disparity, as Opera employees will perceive the outcome as unfair. The company increasing its number of yearly productions with the number of youths attending the performances of the opera will be a challenge. Supporters and members of Opera may become unmanageable, disgruntled, troublesome and difficult as they may result to sinking efforts. These may also result to the human resource losing its focus, as it will have a lot to handle (Holzapfel & Myers, 2009).
Customer satisfaction
With the executive having a lot to deal with from planning to management of the merged companies, she may fail to deliver services to the customer’s satisfaction. Delivering of the services could suffer if the company expanded rapidly. The satisfaction of customers may become a challenge especially since the executive has to understand that the success of the merger depends on the attitude of the community, as she needs their support (Holzapfel & Myers, 2009). The sensitivity of the potential customers concerning arts ensures that the respective separation of entities is considered under the company’s since the customers have the ability to tell of the support they get from respective areas as a result of performance. Paying attention to the customer’s requirements is significant since they have the responsibility of buying the respective tickets and ensures that they listen to what they want and best for the company (Holzapfel & Myers, 2009).. The satisfaction of the customers will help the merger with mitigation to be successful following the aspect of partnership in order to ensure that it works.
The relative consideration of more approaches aspect requires her familiarity with the more tools used to lead effectively. She should consider using her vision to enable the motivation and leading of others. She should strive to become an exceptional communicator capable of communicating a shared vision and delegating responsibilities
References
Alexander Kristian, (2004). Utah symphony and Utah opera: a merger proposal. Retrieved from http://www.readbag.com/kristianalexander-english-utah
DeLong, & Ager. (2005). “Utah Symphony and Utah Opera: A Merger Proposal (TN).” Harvard Business School Teaching Note 406-027
Holzapfel, R. N., & Myers, S. A. (2009). The Utah journey. Layton, Utah: Gibbs Smith.
Powell, A. K. (2003). The Utah guide. Golden, Colo: Fulcrum Pub.
VanClay, M., & Lynn, S. (2000). Violin virtuosos. San Anselmo, CA: String Letter Pub.
