Welcome To Community Band 101 – pt.4

Invite “Intrapreneurship” to your Community Music Group

     Just in case you have not heard of Intrapreneurship, it is describe as “the act of behaving like an entrepreneur, except within a larger organization.” Let’s not get it confused with Entrepreneurs; these are people who assemble resources including innovations, finance and business acumen in an effort to transform innovations into economic goods.

     Why am I discussing such business-type lingo in this edition of my community music blog? Because of a well known tern in the world of education, “HOTS.”  I’ll come back to this shortly.

     In your community music group, there will be a person with a unique talent, besides outstanding instrumental performance, for taking the responsibility of turning your community music group into a successful, and hopefully profitable, well-tuned product through risk-taking and innovative methods. And this person will do it without being asked to do so.

     There is still room for your community music group to provide an outlet for musical growth while concentrating on transforming the group into a profitable venture. Why think about profit, because remember that the main goal for the group is the promotion and presentation of your talents as instrumental music performers. Have I failed to mention that the voice is also musical instrument, so don’t forget about the vocalists.

     What better way to introduce “HOTS” (Higher Order Thinking Skills) to your community music group than to introduce business ideas that, when implemented within the organizational environment of the musical group, can be not only applied to improving the musical performance skills of the group, but can also be applied to increase the profitability of the group. This, in turn, provides much needed operation funds for the group. Just think, not having to worry about reeds for the Saxes, valve oil for the brass, sticks and mallets for the percussionists.

     Don’t forget, while encouraging the members to practice, also encourage the members to think like entrepreneurs for the entire group and maybe somebody will come up with a business idea that will turn into a musical idea that will turn your community music group into a self sufficient musical group that will just play and play and play and play…(you get the message).

Reference

Roberts, J.S. (2013). Infusing Entrepreneurship within Non-business Disciplines: Preparing Artists and Others for Self-employment and Entrepreneurship. Artivate: A Journal of Entrepreneurship in the Arts Volume 1 Issue 2, 53-63