The Non-Profit "Business"

After an interesting conversation with a board member at lunch about the general financial situation, and how the world is working (or not), I have been casting my mind back to other conversations I have had with colleagues here and around the world about this issue of "running this organization as a business." My friends and many of my readers may know that I have always treated such an approach with a degree of disdain, harboring as I do some considerable skepticism about the ability of all these people with their MBAs from prestigious schools to do the right thing. Of course the whole pack of cards came tumbling down a year ago. And now the business schools are having a heart-searching reassessment, and putting a little more emphasis on that great subject of ethics. Or so we are told.

So I was interested to find this excellent piece from the Harvard Business School discussing just these issues: "Is Business Management a Profession?" Note well the date of this piece -- February 21, 2005! So not a sudden realization. I wonder if there is a new generation that took notice. Or have they all been fired by now?! Good to know that the motto of their alma mater is veritas -- truth.

This is a particularly relevant subject to us at Chicago Opera Theater because from time to time we have to work with other "not-for-profits" who proudly trumpet their achievements in "running this company as a business." Therefore there is something of a clash with partners, such as ourselves, who tend to consider their responsibilities to be those of a "profession." So we tend to conduct our discourse with others on that level.

Anyway, that is all for today! I am off to break bread with one of our most loyal supporters.