{"id":1180,"date":"2014-03-25T18:26:31","date_gmt":"2014-03-26T01:26:31","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/worth\/?p=1180"},"modified":"2014-04-17T07:45:35","modified_gmt":"2014-04-17T14:45:35","slug":"what-does-it-mean-to-be-a-strategic-arts-manager","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/worth\/2014\/03\/what-does-it-mean-to-be-a-strategic-arts-manager\/","title":{"rendered":"What does it mean to be a ‘strategic’ arts manager? (Updated)"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"someone<\/a>The question came to mind when browsing The Economist<\/em>‘s style guide<\/a>, which contains the entry:<\/p>\n

“Strategic” is usually meaningless except to tell you that the writer is trying to invest something with a seriousness it does not deserve.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

But I think that is too harsh, and there are times when we could say a manager is thinking strategically and when she is not. There are two components to thinking strategically.<\/p>\n

First, the manager thinks carefully about the goals she wishes her organization to achieve, whether profit or some other mission-related goals, and chooses the set of actions that will most effectively move the organization towards that goal. For the most part this is what we see in an organization’s strategic plan: where do we want to be, and what are the best moves for getting there? The non-strategic<\/em> arts manager makes investments that do not use resources in ways that are goal-directed; i.e. they are wasteful. To take a simple example, but one very relevant to arts organizations, the key strategy outlined in Michael Lewis’ Moneyball<\/em><\/a> is to hire personnel (or guest artists) based on their likely contribution to the goals of the organization, rather than on feelings about the candidate’s more general talents (especially so if those ‘general talents’ command a high price in the market).<\/p>\n

But there is a second part. Lawrence Freedman’s excellent history, Strategy<\/em><\/a>, begins with a quote from Mike Tyson: ‘Everyone has a plan ’till they get punched in the mouth’. Strategic thinking takes account of the fact that other people are not necessarily going to act they way you want them to as you go about implementing your plans. If you start a new business, existing businesses will not simply continue on as usual – they will implement their own strategies for limiting your ability to compete with them. Any strategy you have for getting your employees to take on different tasks, or to do their jobs in different ways, will be met by a reaction that might be something less than blind obedience to your orders. The second key to strategic thinking by arts managers is to anticipate the reactions of employees, customers, competing firms, and state regulators to the actions you are considering, and to choose a path in light of those likely reactions. The notion of getting ‘buy in’ to your strategic plan is not just paying lip service to some abstract ideal, it is necessary for the plan to work. Understand that if employees are to be rewarded according to metrics you have set that cover only a subset of the duties you hope for them to perform, they will focus on the tasks that generate rewards. The strategic manager anticipates reactions.<\/p>\n

And, contra The Economist<\/em>, that does<\/em> deserve to be taken seriously.<\/p>\n

UPDATE: As an example, this suggests<\/a> Michael Bloomberg, for all of his wealth, is not always very strategic.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The question came to mind when browsing The Economist‘s style guide, which contains the entry: “Strategic” is usually meaningless except to tell you that the writer is trying to invest something with a seriousness it does not deserve. But I think that is too harsh, and there are times when we could say a manager […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":1184,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[26],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-1180","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-issues","8":"entry"},"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/worth\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/03\/lucy.jpg","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p3dIW5-j2","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":1425,"url":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/worth\/2014\/07\/strategic-pricing-for-the-arts\/","url_meta":{"origin":1180,"position":0},"title":"Strategic pricing for the arts","author":"Michael Rushton","date":"July 21, 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"I'm pleased to say my book on pricing in the arts has been released - Amazon link here, and Routledge link (including for ordering e-inspection copies) here. What's it all about? As I do \u00a0on this blog, I have tried to give arts managers, and students of arts management, a\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "issues"","block_context":{"text":"issues","link":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/worth\/category\/issues\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"for what it's worth","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.artsjournal.com\/worth\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/07\/my-book.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":2538,"url":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/worth\/2020\/03\/strategic-planning-and-muddling-through\/","url_meta":{"origin":1180,"position":1},"title":"Strategic Planning and Muddling Through","author":"Michael Rushton","date":"March 31, 2020","format":false,"excerpt":"Out in the woods for today's video, on Charles Lindblom's classic essay \"The science of 'muddling through'\". When an arts organization sets out to form a strategic plan, what exactly is it doing? Is a so-called 'logic model', that carefully sets out desired outcomes, and then works backwards through the\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "issues"","block_context":{"text":"issues","link":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/worth\/category\/issues\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"into the woods","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.artsjournal.com\/worth\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/03\/fox.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.artsjournal.com\/worth\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/03\/fox.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.artsjournal.com\/worth\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/03\/fox.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.artsjournal.com\/worth\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/03\/fox.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.artsjournal.com\/worth\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/03\/fox.jpg?resize=1050%2C600&ssl=1 3x"},"classes":[]},{"id":1601,"url":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/worth\/2014\/10\/jean-tirole-theory-and-application\/","url_meta":{"origin":1180,"position":2},"title":"Jean Tirole, theory and application","author":"Michael Rushton","date":"October 13, 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"Jean Tirole has won the 2014 Nobel Prize in Economics. Because he works in microeconomic theory that is not easy going for those without advanced training in mathematics or economics, his is not a well-known name outside the discipline (even econ undergrad students may not have heard of him, though\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "issues"","block_context":{"text":"issues","link":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/worth\/category\/issues\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"not an easy read, but a great book","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.artsjournal.com\/worth\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/10\/tirole-199x300.jpeg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":1325,"url":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/worth\/2014\/06\/cutting-wages-is-hard-to-do\/","url_meta":{"origin":1180,"position":3},"title":"Cutting wages is hard to do","author":"Michael Rushton","date":"June 8, 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"Peter Gelb says New York's Metropolitan Opera will go broke within the next few years without wage cuts. The BBC reports: He proposed cutting 16% of its $200m (\u00a3119m) labour costs by changing work rules for the orchestra and chorus. Gelb also defended spending $169,000 (\u00a3100,000) on a poppy field\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "issues"","block_context":{"text":"issues","link":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/worth\/category\/issues\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"what goes up is tough to get down","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.artsjournal.com\/worth\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/06\/ladder.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":4607,"url":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/worth\/2025\/11\/we-dont-need-an-alt-cultural-policy\/","url_meta":{"origin":1180,"position":4},"title":"We Don’t Need an Alt Cultural Policy","author":"Michael Rushton","date":"November 4, 2025","format":false,"excerpt":"In\u00a0a recent post\u00a0comparing the White House\u2019s proposed \u201ccompact\u201d with universities to the situation facing the nonprofit arts in the United States, I wrote: The administration\u2019s interventions into the Kennedy Center and the Smithsonian museums have received a lot of press, and these \u201canti-woke\u201d interventions have a lot in common with\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "issues"","block_context":{"text":"issues","link":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/worth\/category\/issues\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.artsjournal.com\/worth\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/image.png?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.artsjournal.com\/worth\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/image.png?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.artsjournal.com\/worth\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/image.png?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.artsjournal.com\/worth\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/image.png?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.artsjournal.com\/worth\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/image.png?resize=1050%2C600&ssl=1 3x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.artsjournal.com\/worth\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/image.png?resize=1400%2C800&ssl=1 4x"},"classes":[]},{"id":995,"url":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/worth\/2013\/08\/more-whatever\/","url_meta":{"origin":1180,"position":5},"title":"More whatever","author":"Michael Rushton","date":"August 28, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"Thanks for the comments on my recent post, Whatever, on pay-what-you-will pricing. Joanna writes: There was the instance in 2007 when the band Radiohead sold their album, In Rainbows, on a pay-what-you-can basis. My understanding is that even this extremely popular band that doesn\u2019t have to do much to get\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "issues"","block_context":{"text":"issues","link":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/worth\/category\/issues\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"we get letters","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.artsjournal.com\/worth\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/03\/postbox-224x300.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/worth\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1180","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/worth\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/worth\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/worth\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/worth\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1180"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/worth\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1180\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/worth\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1184"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/worth\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1180"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/worth\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1180"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/worth\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1180"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}