Musical theatre has always been associated with a certain feeling of glamour. Shows like Wicked, The Book of Mormon, RENT, and Les Miserables have given audiences a way of escape for multiple decades . The thing that keeps it all going? Musical theatre investors.

Creating a Broadway Musical is extremely timely and costly, and involves huge risk. A production can either be a huge success or fail completely. The only certainties involved are the costs. As Broadway producer Steven Baruch, who has 25 years of experience in the business, says, “It’s a feast or famine kind of business.” This is the kind of environment that musical theatre investors work in. Most productions rely on investors for capital; one show can have hundreds of investors. They usually employ two strategies: investing over a long period of time (ie. remaining loyal to a particular producer), and investing in multiple shows (sort of like the Broadway version of diversifying a portfolio) (Passy). As well, investors are expected to have substantial amounts of cash. Not only does it cost huge amounts of money to produce a show (“Spider Man: Turn off the dark” cost more than $75 million to produce), there is also a very high likelihood that you won’t make any returns on your investment. In fact, only one out of five Broadway productions recoups its investment (Wood).

Alternatively, huge risks can also come with their benefits. When you hit the jackpot with a Broadway musical, there is literally no limit to the rewards.

Works Cited:

Passy, Charles. “How to Invest in a Broadway Show.” MarketWatch. MarketWatch, 10 June 2013. Web. 10 Nov. 2014.

Wood, Greg. “The Risks, Rewards and Realities of Investing in Theater.” CNBC. CNBC, 18 Oct. 2010. Web. 10 Nov. 2014.

Climate change is increasingly becoming a significant threat to the ski industry. While this industry has always been fairly volatile, and has always had to deal with being at the mercy of the weather, it seems almost inevitable that global climate change could eventually wipe the industry out for good.

Advances in snow-making technology have allowed resorts to keep up with the effects of climate change. It is unlikely, however, that these efforts will last. As stated in this NY Times article, “So far, technology has been keeping up with climate change […] its probably improving faster than climate change is happening. That may not be the case for long. It is uncertain as to what extent snow-making will last as an adaptation strategy” (Seelye).

This brings in both the issues of transient advantage and macro environment in a business setting. While different ski resorts do have to compete with one another, the main competitor is the weather. Developing a transient advantage will be very difficult for those in the ski industry, and might ultimately be impossible. This also makes it very likely that smaller ski resorts who can’t afford the technology won’t be able to keep up. (See link)

As someone who loves skiing, the effects of the trends that have been observed would be very sad indeed.

Works cited:

Seelye, Katharine Q. “Rising Temperatures Threaten Fundamental Change for Ski Slopes.” The New York Times. The New York Times, 12 Dec. 2012. Web. 09 Nov. 2014.

Image: http://www.greenbiz.com/news/2013/06/07/ski-industry-calls-effective-climate-change-policies-avoid-drifting-away

I recently read this post on the financial blog “The Consumerist” and was immediately drawn by the slightly off-kilter focus on alpacas.

The post discusses the “alpaca bubble” that has been occurring in North America, and the huge investments people have placed in the alpaca breeding business as a result. However, as the post states, “…the market for camelid hair wasn’t what it was cracked up to be, and not only are investors realizing they will never get their money back, there are a large number of alpacas being neglected or killed as a result.” (Morran)

Many parallels can be drawn between this incidence and the emu craze of the 80’s, where many Texas farmers lost their investments (Katz). This story can be seen in this article in the LA Times.

As I see it, just as was the case with the emu market, the alpaca market is an investment fad. According to Investopedia, “Fads are generally marked by temporary and excessive enthusiasm, which turns out to be unsustainable.”

Despite my limited knowledge on finance, given what I have learned in class, as an investor you want to have equity in a market that’s both transient and sustainable. As was seen in the emu market of the 80’s, it is very likely that the alpaca market is neither transient nor sustainable.

Works Cited:

Katz, Jesse. “Emus: The Craze That Didn’t Fly.” Los Angeles Times. Los Angeles Times, 16 Dec. 1997. Web. 09 Nov. 2014.

Morran, Chris. “The Alpaca Bubble Has Finally Burst.” Consumerist. The Consumerist, 7 Nov. 2014. Web. 09 Nov. 2014.

Image: http://www.chaffhaye.com/talking-alpacas/

Upon reading Kristy Lessy’s blog post about the employee experience at Apple and how it has contributed to the success of the company, I thought it would be interesting to look further into the management side of Apple, and to tie it into what we learned in class 17 (specifically about Performance Management and BTM). In her blog post, Kristy mentions some important aspects about how the treatment of employees is crucial to the quality of customer service in a company, and that employees need to have pride in their company in order to have incentive to work harder.

The management side to Apple truly is the meat and bones of this whole system. In class 17, we learned about different types of managers, and how the ideal manager focuses on building power through influence rather than through their own individual achievement (McLelland, Burnham). Apple’s management seems to be following this recipe, as can be seen in this article. Their corporate culture is “extremely engineer-focused, emphasizes minimal bureaucracy, and likes taking care of its people” (Male). In class we learned that the manager’s job is not to get things better alone, but rather to influence people. Because Apple is managed mainly by engineers, the management thus oversees projects that it understands, and thus it relates to its team. This can very well be seen as a type of influence.

As seen in Apple’s success, having a management team that is passionate about their line of work leads to employees that are the same, and this is not only beneficial to the company, it can also leave its impact on society as a whole.

Works Cited:

Male, Bianca. “8 Management Lessons I Learned Working At Apple.” Business Insider. Business Insider, Inc, 02 Aug. 2010. Web. 06 Nov. 2014.

McClelland, David C., and David H. Burnham. “Power Is the Great Motivator.” Harvard Business Review. Harvard Business Publishing, Jan. 2003. Web. 06 Nov. 2014.

*Image found via Google image search