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Business Boomers Penetrate Arts Leadership — Part Five
All interviewees indicated that they were pleased with their recent decision to move to the nonprofit arts world, and most had advice for those who might consider doing the same.
Just Do It
The boomers who were interviewed frequently delivered the same message, “Life is short.” One new theater director said, “In order to make this kind of career change, a person needs to have a willingness to leap; they need to be chance-taking about this.”
You Need Passion
A former director of corporate marketing said, “This isn’t for you unless you can represent the organization and its mission with absolute conviction. You have to be able to sell the intangible and it’s unlike anything else you’ve ever tried to sell.” A former manufacturing person said, “If I didn’t have a fire in my belly for this, I couldn’t do what I do. The work is too hard and too relentless otherwise.”
Money Is Different
Almost all interviewees said they missed the financial resources they had had in business. They missed having the discretionary income to do even small things like sending a staff member to a conference. Their advice to others was to understand and be prepared for that reality.
Steve Wolff, president of AMS Planning and Research, said recently, “Balancing a budget in the nonprofit arts is harder than just cutting costs somewhere. Chances are good that costs have already been cut. You really can’t present a symphony with only four players.”
According to one former business boomer, “In business the goal is efficiency and making money. It’s not the same in the nonprofit arts community. Here the overriding goals involve the product (the arts) and community ownership. And that’s very different.” Another new arts CEO said that “one of the reasons that income is so tough in the nonprofit community is that it is tied to function and not to finance.”
It’s Not Easy
Don’t assume that it will be easy because it’s not “real business.” According to Martin Godwin, executive search consultant at Anderson and Associates, “Lots of people think they can make the jump, but not everyone can. Some people think that nonprofit management is going to be easier and it’s not. The environment of nonprofits is harder, plus you have to deal with fundraising, and almost all nonprofits these days are understaffed and overworked.”
Be prepared to work longer hours for less financial compensation. “Your compensation,” said one recent transfer from corporate to nonprofit arts, ‘is not the kind you take to the bank.”
Rely on Staff “Don’t pretend to know more about the arts than you really know,” was the advice of a recent transfer from business to the arts. “Rely on the staff, respect their expertise, scholarship, knowledge, and experience. Use business solutions where they work and just know that they won’t work in every case.”
One former financial officer now working in the visual arts had this advice: “Brace yourself. You’re going into a new world with new rules, and you just can’t learn everything overnight. Listen a lot and don’t talk too much.”
Another business boomer turned arts CEO said, “The staff gave me guidance and suggestions, and connected me to other people. They were open and generous in ways that I hadn’t experienced in corporate America.”
Fear That the Arts Will Be Forgotten
The biggest concern expressed by those in the arts community about this type of leadership change is that the arts will be forgotten—that they will “take a backseat to the business of the bottom line.”
“I’m concerned that if the arts don’t appeal to the masses and make money, they will dismiss it,” said one member of the arts community.
In Whose Muse? Art Museums and the Public Trust, James Cuno, director of the Art Institute of Chicago, writes, “The more art museums look like multinational corporations and the more their directors sound like corporate CEOs, the more they risk being cast by the public in the same light. We are on the verge of joining the other distrusted professions—lawyers, politicians, the clergy, and corporate executives.”
A staff member with a new COO from the corporate world said, “Evaluation setting and impact measurements may help improve the bottom line, but we want to make sure that eventually an improved bottom line translates into more money for the art itself.”
“Nonprofits rely on their community reputation, and we can’t afford for our arts organization to become a bad version of the for-profit world,” said one vice president for development.
According to Len Alexander, a partner with Management Consultants for the Arts, “New leadership from the corporate community is more likely to be successful in a large arts organization where there are several layers of professional staff, and where a CEO from outside the field can be supported by a staff with professional skills and experience.”
There is also a concern that businesspeople will hire other businesspeople—because they are more comfortable with them and they speak the same language—and that the importance of the arts and the artistic mission of the organizations will be lost.
Business Background Is Helpful
One staff member talked about how pleased she was that her new CEO had come from business. “He has a strong background in HR and he’s straightening out some staff situations. He immediately increased salaries, and he’s working hard to increase our benefits.”
Several expressed optimism about their new leadership. One staff member said, “Leadership is partly about knowing when to rely on others, and he’s doing that.”
One long-time arts staff member said that she welcomed someone with ”a new pair of eyes.“ “There are changes that need to be made in our organization,” she said, “and we need new folks to help us look for new solutions.”
Fundraising is a challenge that can be learned. One development director said about his CEO, “He’s still new, but I’m optimistic about him being able to fundraise. He’s already got the most important ingredients necessary for fundraising—passion and people skills. He believes in our mission and I know he can help raise the money we need.”
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