Drew McManus

"I hear that every time you show up to work with an orchestra, people get fired." Those were the first words out of an executive's mouth after her board chair introduced us. That executive is now a dear colleague and friend but the day that consulting contract began with her orchestra, she was convinced I was a hatchet-man brought in by the board to clean house. I understand where the trepidation comes from as a great deal of my consulting and technology provider work for arts organizations involves due diligence, separating fact from fiction, interpreting spin, as well as performance review and oversight. So yes, sometimes that work results in one or two individuals "aggressively embracing career change" but far more often than not, it reinforces and clarifies exactly what works and why. In short, it doesn't matter if you know where all the bodies are buried if you can't keep your own clients out of the ground, and I'm fortunate enough to say that for more than 15 years, I've done exactly that for groups of all budget size from Qatar to Kathmandu. For fun, I write a daily blog about the orchestra business, provide a platform for arts insiders to speak their mind, keep track of what people in this business get paid, help write a satirical cartoon about orchestra life, hack the arts, and love a good coffee drink.

Mock Negotiations: Contrasts & Comparisons

Wednesday, February 14th, 2018Wednesday, November 1st, 2006 by Drew McManus

After completing the mock negotiation session with the MBA students from the University of Wisconsin-Madison’s Bolz Center for Arts Administration program, my mind wandered into contrast and comparison mode and I began to think about what just transpired with the UW-Madison students and how music performance students from the Eastman School of Music responded to a similar mock negotiation session I conducted with them in 2004… I want to preface this …

UW-Madison Mock Negotiation Reflections Part 2

Friday, June 29th, 2018Tuesday, October 31st, 2006 by Drew McManus

Continuing where things left off in Part 1, the MBA students from the University of Wisconsin-Madison’s Bolz Center for Arts Administration program were serving as the orchestra musician negotiation committee in a mock collective bargaining agreement negotiation. After receiving some very bad news about their fictional orchestra’s financial conditions and a subsequent initial proposal from the management to reduce overall expenditures by 35%, the students on the negotiating committee refused to …

UW-Madison Mock Negotiation Reflections Part 1

Wednesday, February 14th, 2018Monday, October 30th, 2006 by Drew McManus

There’s nothing quite like looking at the business from a different perspective. Even more stimulating is when those perspectives come to you from unexpected sources. Such was the case with the mock orchestra collective bargaining agreement negotiations I conducted with the MBA students from the University of Wisconsin-Madison’s Bolz Center for Arts Administration program… Regular Adaptistration readers might remember that I conducted a similar exercise with students from Eastman School of …

[Rain + Construction] x Rush Hour Traffic = No Blog

Friday, October 27th, 2006 by Drew McManus

My sincere apologies to those of you stopping by today to read about the events from the mock orchestra negotiation with the students from UM-Madison. Unfortunately, Mother Nature decided to release a deluge of rain along most of my drive back to Chicago. That, combined with some construction along I-90, slowed me down enough to put me in the thick of Chicago rush hour traffic. As such, what should have been …

Mock Reality

Thursday, October 26th, 2006 by Drew McManus

I had a wonderful time working with the MBA students from the University of Wisconsin-Madison’s Bolz Center for Arts Administration program. Having the future managers assume the role of orchestra musicians in a mock collective bargaining agreement negotiation produced some fascinating results…