Financial and Leadership Strengths and Weaknesses of the Utah Symphony
The financial strengths of the Utah Symphony will now be addressed. One financial strength of the Symphony is the amount of endowments it receives. There are two groups, I and II, which receive endowments. The Utah symphony is in group II and that group gets an average of $8.8 Million per year (Delong & Ager, 2005, p. 4). Another major strength would be the amount of revenue brought in by performances. The 2000-2001 season saw revenue at over $3 million and the projected amount for the next season is over $4 million. The total amount between contribution, endowments, and revenue is over $12 million for the 2000-2001 season and is projected to be over $13 million for the next (Delong & Ager, 2005, p. 15).
The financial weaknesses for the Symphony are almost as much as the strengths however. The major weakness in this organization is the salaries and benefits for the musicians. Because they are under contract, the musicians have a set salary with periodic increases. The expense for this is over $10 million (Delong & Ager, 2005, p. 15). This ends up being a huge expense and leaves very little in the way of profit. Another item that adds to the financial weakness is the fact that ticket prices are projected to only increase by 1% while expenses are expected to increase by at least 2.5% (Delong & Ager, 2005). With expenses increasing by a greater rate than income, this will have a detrimental effect on the symphony organization’s financial outlook.
Now the leadership strengths and weaknesses will be addressed. The strength is having Keith Lockhart as the music director. He is known as a top rate conductor and also cares deeply what happens to the Symphony. His leadership is shown in the fact that after being hired in 1998, by 2001 the Symphony had a year-round schedule with over 200 performances. (Delong & Ager, 2005, p. 4) Also, the fact that Mr. Parker and Mr. Peterson did not want to do anything to compromise the relationship with Mr. Lockhart and that if he said no the merger would not go through shows how valued he was to the organization.
As far as leadership weaknesses go, one potential weakness is the fact that Scott Parker was moving to New York and Chase Peterson would be taking over as chair of the Symphony. This happened in the middle of merger negotiations and so the new chair would have to be brought up to speed. The opinion of the new chair might also differ from the old one. This was not made clear in the case study, but could be a potential issue. The big weakness in this case was the fact that the CEO of the Symphony up and quit and so there was no well-defined leader. That created an argument for the merger, however. The fact that Ann Ewers would take over as CEO of the entire organization alleviated the need to find another CEO.
How Ann will Deal with Finance and Leadership Weakness of Symphony
The first area to be addressed is the financial weakness of the Symphony. The first thing Ann should do is to re-negotiate the salary of the musicians. She should find out from people involved in the last negotiation to find out what the problems were and then address them in the new negotiation. She will have to try and influence them to accept a lower wage, at least temporarily. She can use the ingratiation approach and tell them how important they are to the success of the Symphony, but some changes have to be made. From there, rational persuasion can be used. She should show them the financial graph from the previous year and the forecast for the next season. By seeing the financial situation of the Symphony, this will hopefully show them that the changes in pay must be implemented. She should point out that if these changes are not implemented that the viability of continuing could be in jeopardy. This would create a mutuality of interest. By agreeing to a pay cut, more performances could continue and their jobs would remain secure. This is a win-win for both sides.
The weakness in leadership due to the CEO resigning is taken care of by going through with the merger. This is best shown in the case study on p. 6 where it states, “In mid-December 2001 , Parker approached the other members of the symphony’s executive committee with the merger idea, explaining not only would a merger alleviated some of the financial pressure the symphony was experiencing, but would also solve the problem of recruiting a quality CEO.” The weakness of Chase Peterson taking over for Scott Parker can be diminished by Ann Ewers getting together with both of them and making sure they are all on the same page as far as the merger goes before Scott Parker leaves. (Delong & Ager, 2005)

Financial and Leadership Strengths and Weaknesses of the Utah Opera
The financial and leadership situation with the opera seems to be in a lot better shape than the symphony. First of all, as far as leadership goes, Ann Ewers has been an outstanding leader and has brought a lot to the opera. This is shown in many aspects. First of all is the experience she brought to the position. Prior to becoming the leader of the Utah Opera, she held the position of General Director of the Boston Opera. While holding this position she managed to take a $450,000 debt she had inherited and got rid of it. Since becoming leader of the Utah Opera, she has been able to increase the productions from three to four. She also has been able to increase the budget from $1.5 million to $5 million. The only weakness in the leadership is the fact that Leslie Peterson, the Director of Operations, resigned during the process due to concerns about the merger.
The financial position of the Opera is just as strong as the leadership. They have close to $5 million in income coming in from various sources, including grants, private donations, and performance revenues. The expenses outgoing are just over $4 million. That leaves a surplus of $582,409 currently and $473,002 projected for the following year. They also have $4.8 million in assets, including 2.9 acres of land and a large costume inventory. As far as financial weaknesses, none could be discerned from the information given. The financial situation of this organization seems to be in great shape.

How Ann will Deal with Finance and Leadership Weakness of Opera
With the weakness in leadership being the resignation of Leslie Peterson, the best way to deal with this is to appoint another Director of Operations from the committee. To avoid situations like this in the future, Ann should cross train other personnel into the top positions so if someone quits, there will always be someone else to take their place. The current financial situation is fine, but to keep it that way Ann should keep running the fundraising as well as she has up to this point and to continue to seek other funding. If the merger is successful then more patrons of the arts will attend, thus increasing ticket sales and therefore increasing the income of the organization even further.

Analyzing the Scorecards
Balanced scorecard for the Utah Symphony:
From the description, the culture of the Utah Symphony seems to be that of Clan (or Collaborate). In this type of organizational culture, the focus is on thinking of the organization as an extended family and loyalty plays an important part (Tharp, N.D). This is clearly shown in having Keith Lockhart as the music director. Throughout the article, he has shown his primary concern is for the musicians. Also, the fact that it is stated that the merger would not go forward if he did not want it to shows keeping him is more important that the merger going forward. The following analysis of the scorecard will see if it goes along with this culture:
1. Financial – The financial goal of the symphony is to be financially stable, keep ticket prices the same, and to have profits increase in the coming years. This is in keeping with their organizational culture in that this will ensure the orchestra members are secure and stay employed. The goal addresses the financial weaknesses stated previously in this paper in regards to the expenses problem and in trying to keep ticket prices the same.
2. Customer – The goal of this section of the scorecard is to be in touch with their customers in knowing their desire for world class performances. To achieve this, the organization wants to make sure to hire top quality performers. To get the reaction from the customers, they will do surveys and questionnaires of customers to ensure they are receiving the types of performances they desire. This is in compliance with the organizations vision of being a world class symphony. If the customers give positive feedback, the goal of customer satisfaction has been reached.
3. Internal process – Flexibility when it comes to decreasing expenses is the point of this goal. This will be accomplished by renegotiating the contracts of all of the musicians. This particular action was covered in the weakness section of this assessment. It showed that the wages of the musicians is a critical factor in the financial problems of the symphony and if the contracts can be changed, it would be of great benefit.
4. Learning and growth – Making a wide variety of symphonies available will help to increase the range of customers getting interested in the symphony. This will help in the other goals by increasing finances because ticket sales will increase. Once again, this will help to alleviate the financial weakness.

All of these parts of the scorecard will help to get rid of the financial weakness of the symphony. However, none of them addresses the leadership weakness that is now within the symphony. This will be taken care of if the merger is successful.

Balanced scorecard for the Utah Opera –
The vision of the Opera is to become a renowned opera house while the business model focuses on finances. They want performances to increase quality in order to increase endowment funds. This would seem to indicate a Market (or Compete) culture in the opera organization. In this type of culture, the focus is on results, job completion, and goals. The opera does not have full time year-round performers and so the family aspect of the Clan culture does not work here. Most of the focus is on the fund raising and performances, hence the Market culture does apply here. The following assessment of the opera scorecard will show how the Market culture is applied.
1. Finance – By raising additional funds and getting all the endowments, the reserve fund will be increased and financial stability will be realized. This actually shows one of the strengths of the opera. Their financial situation is very well and so this aspect of the scorecard has been reached.
2. Customer – Having regionally and nationally acclaimed performances is the goal of this section of the scorecard. This will increase ticket sales and thereby increasing the income of the opera house. By gaining popularity and increasing customers, this will convince more investors to bestow endowments on the opera and thus keeping in tradition with the Market culture. Financial stability will be maintained and the ability to afford top performers will have been achieved. This will enable the goal of having more sold out shows. All the different goals of the scorecard are dependent on each other. When the financial goal is reached, this helps out with the customer goal, which then helps out into the next section which is the internal processes.
3. Internal process – The goal of this section is to keep maintaining financial stability achieved in the other sections and to attract top performers. By attracting more top performers, the opera house will become a more regional and national house, thus achieving the goal of the vision and business model described by the board members.
4. Learning and growth – By getting top performers, this will increase ticket sales and attract a variety of customers, increasing popularity. This will attract more investors to give endowments and help the opera house to continue to grow. Increasing the growth of the opera house will also help in achieving the goal of being a nationally known performance area.
All of these sections of the scorecard seem to focus on the endowments and financial stability of the opera. This coincides with them being a Market culture. The goals are to strive for financial stability with the outcome of becoming a nationally renowned opera house. What this scorecard does not address is the leadership weakness of the opera house. This is due to the fact that the leadership weakness did not come about until the merger was discussed.

Balanced scorecard for merged company
The vision of the merged company is to have a successful merger and to be able to provide quality productions throughout the year and to continue to attract top performers. Also, to become known throughout the country as a successful opera\symphony combination. The business model is to maintain good endowments and to continue to try and find more endowments to make sure the financial situation of the house stays stable.
1. Financial –
• Strategic goal – To continue to increase the endowment funds and to make sure both sides of the opera\symphony house are financially secure
• Critical success factor – The opera’s funding remains the same or rises and the symphony’s reserve fund is increased
• Measure: Reserve fund at the end of the year is increased from previous year

2. Customer –
• Strategic goal – To become known nationally as a renowned opera and symphony combined organization and to attract a wider range of customers. Also, to receive good reviews from the audience in regards to the performers
• Critical success factor – Attracting top talent that appeals to a wider range of customers and to introduce opera\symphony to a new range of customers. Also, getting positive feedback from viewers by something like a survey at the performance or critique emails.
• Measure - Ticket sales increase annually and number of customers at each performance increases. Also, positive feedback is given by the viewers stating their approval of the performances.
3. Internal Process –
• Strategic goal – To increase reserve fund and to balance total expenditures with total income coming in
• Critical success factor – Have positive negotiations with the musicians union in the area of reducing salaries and to continue to find new forms of endowments
• Measure – Contract is successfully negotiated and reserve starts to increase annually
4. Learning and growth –
• Strategic goal – To expand the audience base of the performances to include a more diversified range of customers
• Critical success factor – Hire a variety of performers that will appeal to different customer groups
• Measure – The number of viewers increases greatly and feedback from viewers is positive. Possibly provide critique forms so the audience can provide feedback of what they would like to see

Strengths and Weaknesses of Merged Company
1. Financial – The financial strength of the merged company is that the opera is very financially secure. Ann Ewers has done a great job in obtaining endowments and in fundraising. This is shown in the financial report with how large their reserve fund is. The weakness is the symphony’s financial situation. They have a good income coming it but too much going out. By using to opera’s funds to help alleviate the symphony’s deficits will weaken the financial situation. This can be overcome by drawing more customers to increase profits and to successfully negotiate with the symphony musicians.
2. Customer – The strength here would be being able to provide a variety of performances. This will attract new customers and increase the audience size. The weakness would be getting the customers to come to the new performances to begin with. This can be done by good public relations and to get some good advertising. Also, provide a way for the customers to give feedback of what they would enjoy.
3. Internal process – The strength of the internal process is the fact that Ann Ewers is a very capable manager. This is shown with her management of the opera in Utah and Boston. The weakness would be the negotiations of the orchestra musician’s contracts. The previous contract negotiations had problems, but Ms. Ewers should be able to handle the current negotiations.
4. Learning and growth – The strength here is the ability to hire top quality performers. This will have to continue after the merger to gain more customers. The weakness is that due to the economy, ticket sales are down and the growth of the customer base has been reduced. After the merger, PR will be critical to try and increase the range of customers and grow into a more nationally renowned house.

Highly Probable Issues
1. Finance – An issue that is probably going to arise is the fact that the opera’s finances are looking good while the symphony’s post-deficit finances are abysmal. This will have to be countered by using the opera’s finances to help which will end up reducing the opera’s finances. A mitigating action would be to continue seeking other types of endowments and fund raising. Also to expand the customer base. This will increase ticket sales thus increasing financial profits. Hiring top performers is crucial in this objective to be able to attract more customers.
2. Human resources – An issue here that will probably arise is the negotiations with the unionized musicians. This can be mitigated by just dealing with them fairly. The situation must be made clear to them that if their salaries cannot be negotiated to a reasonable amount that the organization will suffer and they could end up unemployed.
3. Customer satisfaction – The issue here will probably be the customers being hesitant to spend money to come to a combined opera\symphony organization. This is a new concept and there will probably be doubts on how the quality of the performances will be. To mitigate this, well-known top performers will have to be hired which will draw even the customers who have doubts. Also, send out surveys to find out what the customers desire and to try and meet those expectations as much as possible.