Business plan development and strategy

¶ … planning should start with an identification of the causes that has caused the crises at the St. Louis Symphony. There can be two main such causes: a decrease in revenues, due to decreasing demand for the symphony's programs, and an increase in costs. The latter seems to be less of a problem here. In general, the main component of the variable costs for a symphonic orchestra should be directly linked with salaries. In this case, whilst the musicians were indeed demanding pay raises, there is no actual indication that this has happened. So, in my opinion, the direct cause of the crisis we are facing is related to a decrease in the community's interest for the orchestra and the music it plays.

This decreasing demand can have several different causes, some of them identified in the case as an overwhelming interest for technology and the music made by technology, for the new music of the 90s and the new millennium, including here hip hop, rap or house, but, perhaps, also a losing interest in the music that the orchestra played. As such, vision should be associated here with reaching out to people and making them adopt the orchestra as part of their leisure time.

There are several measures to be discussed in this sense. First of all, the educational program that had been proposed seems to be an excellent choice in terms of popularizing the orchestral in the local college. In my opinion, the educational program could also be extended in high school, so that the spectrum of young people where classical and orchestral music can be taught would be larger.

The second measure that can be proposed is related to the repertoire itself. Going back to the vision and the mission I have already established, a variable and diversified repertoire could help reach out to the younger generation.

It is difficult to believe that you can reach out to most teenagers with classical music. However, once every two weeks, for example, the symphony can have a rock evening, where rock ballads can be performed for the younger audience. It is not a new idea, it has already been put into practice by a series of rock bands such as Metallica or Guns'n Roses.

Jazz is also a reasonable option towards diversification. I am not referring here necessarily to club jazz, but to symphonic jazz, which can be successfully be performed by the members of the orchestra.

I do not agree with the plan to reduce the size of the orchestra's program. Instead, I propose extending the area in which the orchestra performs. In my opinion, somewhat naturally and understandably, some of the citizens may have already gotten tired of the orchestra's usual program. Diversification was one solution to counteract this, but extending the geographical area in which the orchestra performs may be yet another.