IB Woman
Issue No. 60 - August/ /
Barbara leads ASO tempo change
Barbara George, who took over as CEO of the Adelaide Symphony Orchestra late last year, isn’t afraid to make changes to the decades-old institution which lies at South Australia’s cultural heart.
Barbara has degrees in musicianship and an MBA in Marketing, and is midway through a masters’ in public management.
“I started life as a musician and obviously know the product, but just knowing the product isn’t enough to cut it at executive level in the Arts sector,” Barbara says.
Arts sector entities face the same business pressures as any other organization, she says, “but we call it ‘surplus’ rather than using the P word.”
“Most chief executives in the Arts have an MBA at least, and most orchestras wouldn’t employ anybody who wasn’t at that standard.”
The ASO employs 75 musicians and has a management team of 20-25 people.
“The management team’s job is to facilitate what the musicians do,” Barbara says. “It’s about them, not about us, and I need people on that team with that attitude. They’re here to make it easier for the musicians to do their jobs.”
The 75-year-old ASO has been a Pty Ltd for the past four years. Barbara says the transition hasn’t been easy in an organization where culture is heavily entrenched: some employees have been there 40 years.
She started in the CE role six months into the controversial, painful IR negotiations
“When I came to the ASO I wanted to deal with the really big, really tough questions...
