Heather Newill believes that arts leaders should be learning more lessons from managers working in the business world.
?Why can?t the arts be more businesslike?? protested John Tusa in an article in the Evening Standard a few weeks ago, berating arts institutions for their lack of business acumen. ?The arts will flourish in Britain only once we recognise that they are a business,? he continued.
Yet most experienced arts managers today are well aware that they are not philanthropists able to indulge their passion for artistic creativity, but senior executives running complex businesses with responsibility for financial accountability, human resources and long-term stability in the support of artistic imperatives. The issue, therefore, is not so much one of a lack of appreciation of what it means to be businesslike, but of how to be more businesslike within an arts context. What is it that business leaders value and champion in their organisations that arts leaders could adapt to theirs and learn from?
The Sunday Times recently published a survey of the top 100 businesses to work for in the UK. The criteria are universal. Whether large or small, their leaders all create a working environment that recognises staff as the company?s greatest asset; they put customer care and market insight high on the list; and they engender a pride in what they do and what they stand for.
Historically the arts have never particularly valued those elements within the business sector that it felt to be superfluous to requirements and would take away precious resources from the ?art? itself. Hence, tools such as information and accounting systems, market research and consumer knowledge, target setting, appraisals and training for employees or articulating brand values, have all been largely ignored. Finance has tended to be just a payroll service instead of a strategic information and data-collecting opportunity. Marketing has mainly been a selling tool for ready-made events when it should be at the heart of the origination of the product, offering an in-depth understanding of the customer and the wider competition. Information Technology and Human Resources, if they exist at all, have traditionally been parts of the accounts department rather than independent functions with a purpose and value that most FTSE 100 companies would see as major factors in their success.
The arts are a business ? they rely on product, trading and the consumer for their success and therefore should also rely on the management of information to know what they need and when they need it. Those organisations that have recognised this are moving ahead, but in general there needs to be a cultural change. Leaders, however reluctant, must accept that business disciplines have their intrinsic worth in an arts environment. Over the years, business has invested hugely in these areas and they can now help and inform the arts. The systems are available, the skills are transferable and all can contribute towards a healthy and thriving arts community. Additionally, Chief Executives now need to appreciate the value of budgeting for higher salaries so they can recruit experienced and commercially orientated finance and marketing people into their teams. Bringing business skills onto Boards or seconding them part-time from large companies are also effective and inexpensive ways of delivering a better resourced organisation.
Being businesslike is important, but learning how to think like businesses is essential for arts leaders. With the current focus on developing arts leadership in mind, I decided to introduce an arts group into the leadership programme for global brands run by my former company. The Circle of Innovation is a virtual Business Academy designed to accelerate the professional and personal development of high-potential talent through an intensive learning programme that delivers insight into the world?s most respected brands and their thinking and practices.
Over two days in February, the delegates from this arts group, Jillian Barker, Head of Education at the Barbican, and Hilary Carty, Director of Performing Arts at Arts Council England, hosted a tutorial. Speakers included John Tusa, Managing Director of the Barbican, Roger Lewis, Managing Director of Classic FM, and Francis Runacres, Director of Stabilisation at Arts Council England. The question posed was ?How can the arts be more relevant and engage audiences in the 21st century?? The method of thinking used by the international delegates in their approach to the challenge and their final recommendations to the panel were invaluable to the sector and offered a new, fresh perspective on topical issues, including effective marketing and improving the complete experience for arts consumers.
As delegates at two other tutorials hosted by Nike and Coca Cola, Hilary and Jillian have witnessed just how differently the business world deals with its issues. Both have been amazed at the depth of knowledge these global companies have about their customers and how powerful their tools of analysis are in learning to understand them and communicate better with them. Their approach to their competitive environment makes the arts world look complacent by comparison. Both delegates have commented on how much the arts can learn from the rigour of these disciplines and both have felt that, so far, they have personally learnt a great deal through engaging in areas they knew nothing about before, thinking from a business perspective and questioning and challenging why these companies do things in the way they do.
If our arts leaders take the time to explore business methods and practices, rub shoulders with business thinkers and then apply this learning where relevant to their own organisations, the effect will inevitably contribute to the overall wellbeing of the industry and the arts will flourish.
Heather Newill is Managing Director of AEM International, a search firm specialising in placing senior executives for Arts, Entertainment and Media companies.
e: hnewill@aeminternational.co.uk