I found the story about Pandora interesting relative to discussing topics in chapter 5, Planning and the Arts. Pandora provides a good example of operationalizing a growth strategy. Pandora appears to be acquiring Ticketfly to enhance its revenue stream, among other things.
Neil Edgington makes the case for nonprofit organizations to think more strategically about fundraising events. He offers counter arguments to conventional wisdom about staging events and their true costs. The content in this link could be used in discussions related to chapter 12, Fundraising and Development.
The article posing questions about the efficacy of Clayton Christensen’s theory of disruptive innovation, which is mentioned in chapter 3, Management History and Practice, offers an opportunity to discuss how theories that seem compelling, can be called into question.
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Pandora buys Ticketfly in move to challenge Ticketmaster
Ryan Faughnder, Contact Reporter, LA Times, October 7, 2015
Pandora, the largest Internet radio service, is buying its way into the concert ticketing business in a move to shore up relationships with artists and record labels.
The Oakland music-streaming service on Wednesday said it would pay $450 million for Ticketfly, an online seller of concert passes that competes with Live Nation’s Ticketmaster.
The acquisition marks a big change for Pandora, which has previously generated revenue almost entirely from advertising and subscriptions to its online radio stations, which count roughly 80 million listeners a month. Ticketfly last year sold 16 million passes to more than 90,000 live events, generating more than $500 million in sales, the companies said.
Link – http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/envelope/cotown/la-et-ct-pandora-ticketfly-20151007-story.html
The Problem With Nonprofit Events
By Nell Edgington, Social Velocity E-Newsletter, September 2015
I was speaking to a group of nonprofit leaders recently about how to Move from Fundraising to Financing, and when I came to the part about events, the room went predictably quiet. Looks of shock shot around the room. Events are so ubiquitous in the nonprofit sector, how could I possibly say they have little financial value? It was heresy.
My argument in that room (and always, always) is that the nonprofit sector’s belief that events are a legitimate way to raise money is misguided.
Link – http://www.socialvelocity.net/2015/09/the-problem-with-nonprofit-events/
How Useful Is the Theory of Disruptive Innovation?
MIT Sloan Management Review: Fall 2015, Research Feature, September 15, 2015
Andrew A. King and Baljir Baatartogtok
Few academic management theories have had as much influence in the business world as Clayton M. Christensen’s theory of disruptive innovation. But how well does the theory describe what actually happens in business?
The turmoil of business competition has often been likened to a stormy sea. “Gales of creative destruction,” economist Joseph Schumpeter wrote, periodically sweep through industries, sinking weak and outdated companies.[1] In the mid-1990s, the winds of change appeared especially powerful, threatening even some of the strongest businesses. Enter Clayton M. Christensen, a professor at Harvard Business School who is now considered one of the world’s leading experts on innovation and growth. In his 1997 book, The Innovator’s Dilemma, Christensen provided an explanation for the failure of respected and well-managed companies.[2] Good managers face a dilemma, he argued, because by doing the very things they need to do to succeed — listen to customers, invest in the business, and build distinctive capabilities — they run the risk of ignoring rivals with “disruptive” innovations.[3]
Access to the full article requires a payment.
Link – http://sloanreview.mit.edu/article/how-useful-is-the-theory-of-disruptive-innovation/
The Chronicle of Higher Education Review section on October 2, 2015 did a story about this article and other critical perspectives on Clayton’s theory. The article is called, “The Undoing of Disruption” by Evan R. Goldstein. Link: http://chronicle.com/article/The-Undoing-of-Disruption/233101