Five Leadership Mistakes Of The Galactic Empire

Darth Vader demonstrating no tolerance for failure

It’s tough to pass up an article with a headline like today’s post but credit for the hook goes to forbes.com and the 2/13/2012 article written by Alex Knapp under the same title. Just in case you haven’t paid attention to pop culture in the last 30 or so odd years, the Galactic Empire is the main bad guy faction in the Star Wars universe; i.e. Darth Vader, the Emperor, et al. What makes Knapp’s article intriguing is how its main points stack up when juxtaposed alongside the orchestra field.

Read more

Book Burning: A Study In How To Shape Perspective

The 2012 Effie Awards, which recognize marketing ideas that work based on effective index rankings, awarded a trio of Gold Medals to Leo Burnett Worldwide for their Troy Public Library “Book Burning Party” campaign. When it comes to learning how to shape public perception and frame a debate, this campaign should be required reading.

Read more

And The Winner Is…No One

no winner

The 6/11/2012 edition of the Washington Post reports that the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra (PSO) failed to find an acceptable candidate as the winner of its YouTube powered soloist competition. For those unaware, the PSO’s program was not entirely unlike many reality television driven talent competitions, the goal of the competition was to locate up and coming talent not already represented by established agencies (CAMI, OPUS3, etc.).

Read more

There’s No Good Way To Spin News Like This

An article by Graydon Royce in the 6/11/2012 edition of the Minneapolis Star Tribune reports the ongoing negotiations at the St. Paul Chamber Orchestra (SPCO) are not going well. Apparently, the musicians have rejected the association’s initial offer that focused on achieving a 14 percent cut in expenses by reducing the number of weeks for most of the chamber orchestra’s salaried musicians from 35 to 20 and as few as 15 for a small number of unnamed positions.

Read more