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You're the manager of a symphony, two pages, high school level Case Study You are a twenty-three year old recent graduate of the Upper Midlands University of the Arts

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You're the manager of a symphony, two pages, high school level Case Study You are a twenty-three year old recent graduate of the Upper Midlands University of the Arts. You have two degrees - a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Music, as well as a Bachelor of Business Administration, with a major in marketing. Admittedly this is considered by your classmates to be an eclectic combination, but you are after all a particularly well rounded person. Your very first job is as the new general manager for the Roritania Symphony Orchestra. You are the youngest person ever to hold this prestigious position. Roritania is a city of approximately 200,000 people. The focal point of the city is the University of Roritania, which has been open for about five years. In that short time it has earned a well-deserved reputation for enforcing high academic standards and as a result, enrollments have been rising. Current enrollment at the university is approximately 15,000 students. The Roritania Symphony Orchestra is a well-established organization which has been in existence for around 100 years. It performs at a reasonably high level, and has a deserved reputation for playing the classics well. Many of the players have been with the symphony for most of their professional.lives, so they are fiercely loyal to the organization. Many of them (including the conductor who has led the ensemble for the past 27 years) are nearing retirement age. The conductor has already announced that he will retire at the end of this season. The symphony performs at the Roritania Artistic Complex. The facility was built in 1960, is generally described as "luxurious", and seats approximately 3500 people. The symphony repertoire is well established. It consists mainly of what could be called "popular" classics (Beethoven, Mozart, Brahms), and these are pieces which are well known to symphony lovers the world over. The players are extremely fond of this type of music, and are reluctant to play orchestral music from the 20th Century. Composers of this music would include Bartok, Stravinsky, and Britton. They become positively rebellious at the suggestion that they might play some "popular music" by groups such as the Beatles, Dire Straits, Pink Floyd, etc. In spite of their good levels of performance, attendance at concerts has been falling, and the concert goers are aging rapidly. Average age of patrons now stands at 56, and it appears that the mean age will continue to increase. As the age of the patrons increases, their attendance becomes more irregular. Ticket revenue is falling, and the costs related to running a major orchestra keep rising. There is the distinct possibility that in a number of years the Roritania Symphony Orchestra will have to cease operations. All agree that that would be a shame, but what can be done? Your primary concern must be the survival of the orchestra. To do this, you must raise revenues, and the only real opportunity to do that is the increase the size of your audience. The concert hall must be as full as possible for every concert. This is a major problem since your primary market appears to be drying up. You are fired with the intrapreneurial spirit. The Symphony has presented you with a problem. Some managers would just throw up their hands, concede defeat, and "play out the string" until the end finally arrived, but not you. You have already seen the great opportunity that is just sitting there, waiting to be grasped, and you are now going to go and get it. Important: Your Board of Directors wants your ideas on how you are going to approach each aspect of your job description. Your job description includes the following: recruitment of new players recruitment of a new conductor concert programs for the coming year expansion of the market base of the symphony development of a new and creative promotional strategy Your renewal plan is to be presented in the form of a two to three page report at the next Board meeting. Use the points in the job description as headings in your report. The Board will be especially interested to hear your rationale for what you intend to do, so it is vital that you include full explanations, and if possible examples for your plan. If you cannot address the symphony's problems you will be fired, so good luck with your task!