The Athlone Theatre

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Relevant to question?

Short Term (within 6 months)

- A short term strategy that should be implemented within the next six months is the introduction of a ticket booking system. Currently, the theatre has two full time staff to manage booking. The ticket booking software will eliminate the need for personal and resulting in cost savings for business owners, permitting them to invest in growth in other areas of the business. This will allow them to gain good data capture and also send out mailing lists to customers. This software is expensive and may not be in the budget for immediate uses however, the hiring of interns from the local college that can carry out the same work at a much lower rate, this action would be sufficient for a short-term period until there was funds to replace with new technology.

Medium Term (1-2 years)

- In the medium term, they should research how to fully utilise the premise. The theatres most successful area is the plays that they produce in correspondence to the plays that are being studied for state examinations, by providing educational workshops before mocks and state examinations on various plays and poets could prove as a successful avenue for the theatre. In return, it would portray that the theatre can diversify and contribute more to the community than being just a theatre. In addition to this the theatre can host summer camps for children and teenagers, the theatre is the only centre in Athlone for arts and culture which gives it a competitive advantage over any indirect competitors. Current staff could contribute to the succession of the camps. Hosting summer camps will derive interest from the younger generation and in return reposition the theatre as a modern business. Market research should be conducted immediately to gage interest in the potential popularity of the strategy. The theatre should appoint or hire an individual who will as “Director of Education”. Over the period of a year, the director of education can set out a strategic plan and collaborate with the marketing director to achieve goals to make the strategy a success. Over the period of three years, the goal will be to run more classes and diversify in to area such as speech and drama. In the long-term, Athlone theatre should aim to be an outstanding centre for education and drama.

- Another strategy would be to further diversify their audience. The theatre should network more and create ways to connect with their audiences. The nature of the theatre business is one that is social. Engaging in face to face networking and creating people connections is an advantageous way to build an audience. The theatre can use speaking engagements to network, this creates more mass appeal. They can get members of their theatre group to create and take part in these events. Hosting cultural events, is an opportunity to speak in front of a crowd, to the exact audience that they want to target. Over the duration of a year, the theatre should aim to create strong relationships with student groups, ethnic’s minorities, and senior citizens. The main aim is to have an audience that reflects the community. It will be important to ensure that the community has access to productions in regards to content and price. Through carrying out market research within these group’s it will be easier to determine what the surrounding community will want to see in the theatre. It is vital for shows and productions to reflect Athlones community. Long term the theatre should aim to be perceived as a business that contributes to the community.

- Shorten shows- 2 weeks at Christmas, can’t do within a year since already organised for this coming Christmas, so plan to change for next year.

Long term (be here by three years)

- The theatre currently lacks an effective marketing strategy. At present, they do not allocate any of their budget towards marketing. The local college is providing them with marketing material however their efforts are failing to deliver and are aimlessly delivered to the public. It would be of benefit to the theatre to allocate money towards marketing efforts, they can do this through the hiring of a marketing personnel who in return can create an effective marketing strategy. This person will be able to decide how best to spend the budget and achieve maximum return on investment and rectify the previous aimless marketing approach creating a plan for future marketing activities is essential for development of the theatre. The creation of a marketing strategy will help to identify key target areas that will allow for a greater chance at ROI. The theatre should focus on forming strong relationships with local business. For example, libraries, restaurants, bars. Continuing efforts to produce relationships will eventually attract new audience. Presently, shows ran by the theatre company are only filling under a third of capacity. It is important that seats are filled. By offering an early bird special such as the first 100 sold at a special rate may entice people to buy tickets. It is important to aim for 75% capacity.

- Achieve way for touring companies to pay for themselves within next three years. (advertising, research?)

- According to an article published by Harvard Business Review OnPoint titled “Leadership Run Amok, The Destructive Potential of Overachievers”, there are six distinctive types of leadership styles that could be undertaken by a person in a leadership position. They are: Directive, Visionary, Affiliative, Participative, Pacesetting and Coaching.

Relevant to question?

Regarding the issue Mr. Byrne is facing with the Athlone Theatre, he has three different groups competing for the future success of the theatre however they can’t come to an understanding. Simply put, the performers of the group want to improve the plays and introduce new ones, the supporters of the group (consisting of retirees) want to stick to the established plays but introduce comedies and detective plays. The final group are the local council members who are concerned with the attraction of outside companies to the theatre.

As Mr. Byrne considers himself to be a “man of culture”, in order to maintain the support of the competing groups, he will have to lead by example. This type of style is the participative style, outlined as “executives using this style engage others in the decision-making process…great when the team consists of highly competent individuals and when the leader has limited knowledge or lacks formal power and authority”. This leadership style would be