ABSTRACT

The arts and cultural sector has always been a challenging area in which to find business success; the advent of the global health crisis due to COVID-19 has greatly amplified these challenges. Thanks to the expertise of 22 scholars, this text elaborates on the most common key strategic mistakes and misunderstandings to help arts and cultural organizations finding success.

This book starts by looking at the evolution of competition in those industries. Several new and challenging drivers shape the competitive environments of arts and cultural organizations. A customer-centric approach helps in identifying ten crucial managerial processes in which strategic mistakes are commonly made. This book proposes a revised managerial vision of the key processes that constitute every arts and cultural organization. Each chapter offers an innovative analysis of a classic managerial problem, describing popular mistakes and providing case-based insights derived from real world important examples. Specifically, each chapter elaborates on two illuminating examples, one of which is always chosen among the Italian arts and cultural organizations, thus belonging to the world’s leading cultural sector.

Speaking to current and student arts managers, this insightful book channels national and supranational cultural heritage to provide essential reading for managers of present and future arts and cultural organizations.

chapter Chapter 2|46 pages

Cultural business models

The mistake of obsoletion

chapter Chapter 3|33 pages

Strategic thinking in the arts

The mistake of the missing strategy

chapter Chapter 4|32 pages

Agile management in the arts

The mistake of over-improvisation

chapter Chapter 5|41 pages

Arts performance measurement

The mistake of mis-measured performance

chapter Chapter 6|29 pages

Data analysis and the arts

The mistake of ignoring the numbers

chapter Chapter 7|31 pages

Understanding the arts customer

The mistake of overlooking customer experience

chapter Chapter 8|36 pages

Segmenting for arts marketing

The mistake of adopting useless criteria

chapter Chapter 9|31 pages

Strategic fundraising in the arts

The mistake of selling

chapter Chapter 10|36 pages

Corporate communication and the arts

The mistake of not engaging

chapter Chapter 11|40 pages

Economic impact and the arts

The mistake of narrow thinking