NEC Races For A Cure

The last couple of weeks has given us an interesting contrast in crisis management.  We have seen two institutions make missteps that have significantly enraged their constituencies, and once the backlash turned into a frontlash (so to speak) these situations have been managed in polar opposite ways.  It’s a pity that the music world continues to learn nothing from the real world when it comes to PR/Crisis Management.

New England Conservatory.  Susan B. Komen Cancer Foundation.  Two massive PR disasters.  In case you have somehow missed it the Komen Foundation managed to kick themselves in the shin by politicizing their core mission, and simultaneously making the decision in a way that was absolutely guaranteed to exercize the very people who are supposed to be their support base.

Komen response timeline:

• Day 1 –  Deny any politics were involved.  Insist the decision is final.
• Day 2 – Deny any politics were involved.  Insist the decision is final.
• Day 3 – Deny any politics were involved.  Insist the decision is final.
• Day 4 – Realize that their brand is taking a beating, they can’t win this fight in the realm of public opinion, they have lost support amongst their core constituency, so reverse course and hope that it all blows over before April 15th so that people will still give them some money.
• Day 6 – As quietly as possible kick the right-wing scapegoat to the curb.

The result – Komen has lost millions in contributions and many thousands of contributors.  Sure, they claim that contributions went up during the crisis.  I don’t believe it, and even if they did I’m pretty sure those weren’t long-term contributors.  (Full disclosure: I was a supporter of the Komen Foundation until this fiasco broke.  That money now goes to Planned Parenthood.)

NEC has been mired in a mess due to the firing of Benjamin Zander, conductor, educator, revered lunatic, and belovéd crackpot.  Unfortunately for NEC Zander isn’t just the usual conductor “legend in his own mind.”  He’s a true legend at NEC and with their Alumni, he’s led the program there for four decades, and he has been a brilliant teacher of young musicians.  Firing someone like that is not easy.  Perhaps it should not have been done hastily (please rf. Penn State).

NEC response timeline:

• Day 1 –  Deny any politics were involved.  Insist the decision is final.
• Day 2 – Deny any politics were involved.  Insist the decision is final.
• Day 3 – Deny any politics were involved.  Insist the decision is final.  Claim that anyone who disagrees doesn’t understand.
• Day 4 through Present – Deny any politics were involved.  Insist the decision is final.  Claim that anyone who disagrees doesn’t understand.  Get increasingly condescending to students, Alumni, and anyone else who disagrees.

The result – NEC is in a major crisis that they could have avoided.  There seems to have been bad blood between Zander and the NEC President Tony Woodcock which has come to a head.  Alumni are up in arms, students are picketing and boycotting rehearsals, the conductor succession plan is in tatters and NEC has resorted to releasing letters that sound like they’re written in a bunker under Berlin in ’45.

So what were the problems in the first place?  Simple (to quote Shakespeare) – the Truth Will Out.  We live in the age of the internet where nothing, not one damn thing, can be kept secret.  In the case of Komen information was leaked about the whole decision process, the blogosphere immediately zeroed in on this Handel person, and it was like putting a match to flame.  The Komen narrative was lost in the 24 hour news cycle.

The NEC situation is very similar.  Information about the decision has been leaked, the blogosphere has zeroed in on Woodcock, and a match has been struck.  NEC lost this narrative almost immediately.  The first difference between Komen and NEC is that Handel was immediately reviled while Zander is generally adored.  The second difference is that NEC refuses to reverse course even in the face of an extreme negative reaction on the part of their constituency.

Komen is no longer in the news.  NEC will remain in the news throughout the length of this crisis, and that length is TBD.  I sincerely doubt Zander will be reinstated.  However, in order to satisfy Alumni, students, and most probably donors (who I’m sure are getting pretty nervous at all this brouhaha) NEC needs to kick their scapegoat to the curb.

Woodcock must go.  It’s the only way out of this for NEC that will start to rebuild trust in the institution.  It’s either make the decision now and start the healing process, or try and ride this out and live with a psychologically damaged institution run by someone that no one trusts.  Neither choice is especially palatable, but the first one is a cure that might stem the damage.  The second one looks more and more like Signor Perelli’s Miracle Elixir, and any fan of Sweeney Todd will tell you that that didn’t end well.