Utah Symphony

The Utah symphony secured several recording contracts over the years with Vanguard, Vox, Angel and CBS. The Symphony's strengths are they are one of the top 20 leading orchestra in the country, one of the first orchestras to tour internationally from western United States, they maintain stability because the symphony performed year round, and its employees receive full year contracts with full time salaries, they have the best top and high quality talent performers, remain the top end of Group II symphony, it has one of the best music directors Keith Lockhart, and save money by performing in the same building with their administrative offices.

The Utah symphony's weaknesses are that it may not be financially stable to support the 52 week orchestra because they only appeal to one audience and they may lose funding. Their weakness as a leader is the staff does not respect the merger or the new CEO Anne because Keith Lockhart, the musicians, the customers, and the contractors does not agree with the merger.

In order for Anne to address the symphony's weaknesses she will have to make sure that the symphony is financially stable to support the 52 week orchestra. Anne needs to make sure that the ticket sales increase and that she collects additional funding to support the contracts and the salaries of the full time musicians in order to support and make sure the symphony is financially stable. Further, Anne should come up with a strategic plan or implement a communication strategy that consistently communicates the vision and plan to the Keith, the musicians, the customers, and the contractors in order to persuade them to agree with the proposal.

In order to gain everyone's respect, as a leader, Anne should encourage participation and involvement from everyone so they will be committed to implementing the change. She can also just facilitate and support the musicians and Keith with their adjustment problems to the merger so that she could earn their trust and respect as a leader. Anne should implement a plan and show them that the merger will work because of this plan. Anne should take feedback or surveys from consumers to learn about the types of music they want to hear the symphony play or what kind of music they do or do not like. Further, Anne could direct the symphony to play that music so that it appeals to all audiences rather than just to one specific audience.

The Utah's Opera strengths are that it is financially stable because it increased its number of annual productions from three to four by attracting audiences from Utah and neighboring states, has an endowment fund of $5 million, has assets valued at $4.8 million dollars, and it has financial support from local and national based foundations, corporations, and individuals. Additionally, the opera has a reserve fund and it has a more flexible business model. The Utah's Opera strengths in leadership are Anne's ability to fundraise and obtain donations since she solicited donations from entities outside the state. Anne's reputation is that of a leader and a fundraiser. Additionally, she retired the debt of $450,000 and she increased the opera's budget from $1.5 million to $5 million.

The Utah's opera weaknesses financially were their lack of liquid capital because their funds are all tied up in expenses resulting in a $582,409 deficit. Additionally, its state known and it gets most of its financial support through funding. The Utah's opera weakness in leadership is Anne's personality and leadership role. Staff may not want to listen to her because she is a leader, she call the shots and micromanages the staff. Overall, she is the boss and she tells everyone what to do.

In order for Anne to address the financial weaknesses she should make the company's capital more liquid by lowering its expenses and raising its revenue. Anne should figure out ways to maintain financial stability and lower expenses once the entities have merged. She can set aside a period of time each month to go over the budget and their expenses to see where they are spending too much money and cut unnecessary cost. She can also focus on fund-raising goals to help increase revenue to cover the company's expenses. She can also developing new ways of raising money and make their business model more flexible. Anne should increase revenue by making the campaign successful through higher ticket sales and small incentives. In order for Anne to address the leadership weakness she should change her personality from a boss to more of a leader. She should not micromanage as much and have regular meetings with the staff so she can earn their trust.

The scorecard tells us what each entities vision and models are. The symphony's scorecards represent the differing cultures and visions of the company by projecting and stating the goals of the company through four aspects; financial, customer, internal process, and learning and growth. It elaborates on how to make the entity more successful. Additionally, it breaks each category down in three sub categories strategic goal, critical success factor and measure. They have thought about the goal within each group and how they plan on being successful in that group. They have strategically planned out the companies visions.

The symphony's vision is to be a world class symphony and its business model is to provide sufficient high-quality concerts to sustain the 83 full-time musicians under contract. This is why it is nationally known, highly rated, has the best talent and is very competitive. The symphony's goal, financially, is to be financially stable and profitable. If the company stays financially sound and profitable than the company will have no problem providing high-quality concerts to sustain all of its full-time musicians. The symphony can do this because they perform year round and have secured several recording contracts. However, the symphony is not as financially stable as they would like to be because they have to support the 52 week orchestra. This puts a strain on the company because the company ever loses funding or has a lower demand in performances than the company will still have to pay out that contractual obligation. Essentially, the symphony's ultimate success factor is to have fundraising sufficient to allow ticket prices to stay the same as the previous year.

Next, the symphony operates with the customer in mind. The symphony's customer goal is to be attuned to their desires for world class performances. The symphony can ascertain this goal of being a world class symphony and provide high quality concerts to sustain the musicians under contract because they hire top talent so that they can give top performances, and encourages customer feedback. However, the symphony only appeals