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Back to Facility Manager
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By Chris Miller Most of us like to know “how we stack up against the other guy,” be it financially, professionally, physically, etc. And so it is with organizations. In the corporate sector, information about financial performance is most often used to demonstrate value to stockholders, and frequently has some correlation to compensation for the corporation’s executives. As well, analysts outside and (one hopes) inside the corporation expend great effort to determine the factors that led to this performance. Both shareholders and executives are interested in knowing how the organization can make good performance continue, and turn poor performance around as quickly as possible. Knowing how a particular corporation’s performance compares to “similar” organizations is a key to this analysis. If many comparable organizations achieve relatively the same performance (good or bad), the factors that determined this performance are likely different (and will require different strategies) than if one organization performed significantly different than its colleagues. Even though governmental and not-forprofit organizations have broader and more complex measures of “success” than the corporate sector, many of these organizations engage in regular benchmarking analysis as well. They use this information to demonstrate performance to their stakeholders (elected officials, donors, etc.), and to help identify and apply “best practices” in their industries. For example, our colleagues in the symphony, dance, opera, theatre and arts presenting sectors of our industry all engage in this practice and enjoy the benefits of comprehensive, accurate and timely information about their fields. I believe those of us who manage performing arts venues should consider doing this as well. In my “previous life” as a ballet company administrator, despite the burden of filling out the exhaustive (and exhausting) Dance USA survey, the information it provided us was invaluable both internally, and externally with the Board and funding institutions. When I made the transition to the performing arts venue industry, I was surprised to learn that a similar resource wasn’t available to me. I came to Seattle Center four months before McCaw Hall was set to reopen after a $127 million renovation, with a totally new operating and budget structure. Information about operating costs, maintenance requirements, staff structures, etc. for “comparable” organizations would have been an enormous help in this process. Luckily, several of my new colleagues “embraced my plight” and have been extremely generous with information. From this experience and discussions with colleagues, I’ve come to believe that a well-crafted formalized data survey, done on a regular, periodic basis would be a welcomed and extremely useful resource for the IAAM performing arts venue membership. I would like to start a broader dialogue about this concept. To get this rolling, let me share a few of my thoughts and feedback I’ve gotten from other, wiser managers about this idea, and some challenges to implementing it. It’s got to be useful. Filling out one of these surveys is a time-consuming, arduous process. The end result must be a useful management tool. It must give us data that is actionable and not just interesting. This is the only way to keep enough managers motivated to complete the survey to get good data. Hopefully, our colleagues in the other performing arts disciplines, and perhaps some of the consultants in our industry, can provide some guidance in this regard. How do you get “apples to apples” from a bowl of mixed fruit? Our industry is quite diverse. Not only do we have venues of many different sizes, we have several different ways of defining size – square footage, number of seats, etc. Some venues are private non-profits, some are governmental entities. We operate in many different markets. Some of us are presenting organizations, others are strictly rental venues. Most performing arts venues are “stand-alone” structures, but some share resources with other buildings on a campus. While we all typically have a main auditorium, most of us have a diverse range of ancillary spaces generating revenue and costs. We operate on various fiscal year schedules as well. Designing a survey that accommodates these differences and that returns useful comparative data will be challenging. Proprietary data. Some information, e.g., specific salaries, artist fees paid, is proprietary. We need to respect this while still gathering useful comparative information for these data sets. Again, the other performing arts disciplines can probably guide us on this issue. “Show me the money!” Doing a comprehensive, ongoing survey and producing the resulting report is a significant undertaking, of both time and expense. The field could not undertake this on a volunteer-led basis. This would require staff support from IAAM, and some additional financial resources from the field. What’s in it for me? Despite these challenges, this benchmarking data could be extremely useful for both ongoing operations, and to those of us involved with new performing arts venues in various stages of development. It could give us accurate information about what comparable organizations are spending on a wide range of operational and capital expenses – helping us determine (and justify) reasonable budget allowances, and identify areas where colleagues may have developed more efficient operations that warrant further investigation. It could help us identify the types of attractions (and even specific acts) that would work well in our market, and help us avoid the shows that “sound good” but will likely die at the box office. Relative to our recent “overbuilding” discussions, this information could also help the field better determine when a particular proposed performing arts venue is not viable. So, is this worth the effort? Let me know what you think. E-mail me at: Christopher.miller@seattle.gov, or give me a call at 206/733-9711. I’m looking for folks willing to serve on a small ad-hoc committee to develop this idea for further discussion at PAFAS in Denver next February. Thanks for reading! Chris Miller is manager of McCaw Hall at Seattle Center and can be contacted at Christopher.miller@seattle.gov |
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2002-2005
International Association of Assembly Managers
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