The Metropolitan Opera (A) Harvard Case Solution & Analysis

Background

The Metropolitan Opera has been involved in educating the society about the culture and aimed at performing arts a well-known concept in the society. In order to achieve this goal, Metropolitan Opera always focused on delivering operas of high quality and giving customers a memorable experience.

Besides this, these operas feature the most talented performers that can deliver a variety of performances. In order to give their audience a new and lively experience every time, Met ensures that the performances don’t get repeated excluding the tours and recording sessions and deliver only 25 performances per season.

On the other hand, Met has always tried to innovate and tried those productions that are relatively risky and can only attract a niche. With the increasing changes in the trends and the decreasing popularity of operas, especially among the youth reaching breakeven was becoming extremely difficult for Met.

Besides that, the company was also involved in large-scale productions that were another major factor that restricted the company from reaching breakeven. In the past, the major source of revenue generation was the sales of ticket of the capacity which opera had but with the recent decline in audience the company has shifted to alternative ways like donations for generating cash inflows.

The major stakeholders of the company that involve critics, performers, employees, and the Metropolitan Opera Guild are on the same page that the company needs to find ways of generating revenue besides serving its core objective of educating the society.

Generating revenues are important in order to cover the expenses and to run the business smoothly. The major issue the company is facing is the conflict between the guild and the other stakeholders about abandoning some major productions.

Key Success Factors

The major success factor of The Metropolitan Opera is its origin as it is considered as one of the pioneers of the industry. Another major success factor of Metropolitan Opera was its large audience base and employee base that contributed a lot in making Met as one of the premiere Opera House in America.

Other than that, the location of the House was very lucrative as it was in the center of the city making its presence a dominant feature. Whereas, the management style of Joseph Volpe played a vital role in sustaining the success of the company.

Met adopted an integrated approach while delivering the performances by combining various aspects of the performing arts into a single performance.  Another major role was played by the stakeholders that have contributed individually in the past to ensure that the company moves on smoothly and successfully.

Overall, the company has many features that ensured its success in the past years, and every reason contributed in order to keep the business on track and succeeding eventuality. The company has built on its strength and by leveraging some strengths can ensure future growth in the same industry.

Issues and Challenges

One of the most critical and a major issue for the company is to grab the audience for the Opera and generate revenues in order to cover expenses. The increasing trend towards the decline of the audience has brought a concerning factor for Met as the company is spending heavily on large-scale productions.

With these high spending on some large-scale productions, covering the cost seems difficult with this declining trend. Furthermore, the dependency of the company over its donors is a major issue that can exert pressure on the company to cut down some major productions in order to save cost.

On the other hand, the deficit of the company has grown immensely in the recent years putting more pressure on the company to find ways to attract audiences to the theater. Alongside these issues, the company has adopted the method of HD broadcasting that can be a major source of generating revenue, but is facing extreme opposition from some major people related to the industry.

The idea is believed by many people related to the industry as a destructive trend to this esthetic art. The company has to search for new market and new audiences in order to sustain its position in the industry and to carry the business smoothly. Market penetration is a good strategy, but the company should look for product development as well in order to gain competitive advantage in the industry..................................

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In April 2007, the New York Metropolitan Opera general manager Peter Gelb looks back on the first season of a daring experiment to broadcast the speech live in high definition in movie theaters across North America. While the "Live in HD" program has received mostly positive reviews, there are lingering concerns. Do the benefits outweigh the possible simultaneous still deficiencies and significant operational and financial resources? "Hide
by Anita Elberse, Crissy Perez Source: Harvard Business School 18 pages. Publication Date: December 31, 2008. Prod. #: 509033-PDF-ENG

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