It’s not often you hear of someone who shoulders the blame for an organization’s deficit by claiming it’s partly their management style that caused it! It makes me wonder though, if nearly half your staff left in the last 14 months, if advertising that is a way to attract solid personnel? Also is a renovated hall the key to help people accept innovative programming?…..
In this article these two statements by RPO president and CEO Charlie Owens jump off the page:
The economy was not to blame, said Charlie Owens, RPO president and CEO. Instead, a high turnover rate in key marketing and development positions contributed to the deficit. Twelve positions over the past 14 months experienced turnover out of a 25 person staff….
“There’s been a cultural shift here, my vision for the RPO, my management style,” said Owens. “We’re really pushing the agenda here, and sometimes change is hard.”
I have to admire his honesty, and a leader with the buck stops here attitude is rare these days! I wonder though if such a high turnover is going to put people off from applying to work there. Saying things like “my vision” and “my management style” might say to some that it’s more about towing the line, rather than being part of a team, and yet it’s all out on the table, so for someone who likes a challenge and wants to know where they stand at all times, it could be a perfect situation. I am in two minds on this one but the honesty is refreshing.
From the same article:
Christopher Seaman, the RPO’s music director, said he plans on more innovative programming in the 2009-10 season, including world premieres.
“The new theater is going to be so popular and attractive that we can dare to do things we haven’t in the past,” he said.
A big debate (that maybe we could have sometime), but on this I am not in two minds. A new or renovated theater will attract the curious a few times, but the new wears off real fast and then it goes back to building the audience by winning their trust. When the audience trusts that they will be satisfied with the concert experience, that is when numbers will increase and innovation will start to be accepted. Like a new restaurant, people will try it once because it’s new, but they will only come back if they like the food! So in this case, if for the first time they come out, you load them up with Ligeti, then next time instead they might go out for spaghetti!