ABSTRACT
The Mesa Arts Center (MAC) and the Kauffman Center for the Performing Arts (KCPA) both belong to the same industry: they host assembly events, provide educational opportunities for their audiences, and help deliver content of an aesthetic nature to Mesa, Arizona and Kansas City, Missouri. MAC and KCPA share a common history. But MAC's and KCPA's leadership and decision-making across time reveal shared patterns that helped them to navigate their startup years fruitfully. Local measures of success in Mesa and Kansas City diverge considerably. MAC and KCPA organise themselves differently from one another. MAC and KCPA share paths to accomplishment through the criteria that Woronkowicz, et al. and Collins & Porras observed about successful firms. Neither MAC nor KCPA experienced a large leadership transition during their early years. The governance spokespersons – Wayne & Kathye Brown, Julia Irene Kauffman respectively – eagerly guided each firm throughout fundraising and groundbreaking.
