What were the symptomatic effects and underlying causes

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Reference no: EM132152432

In 2010, Ticketmaster found out the hard way that the entertainment industry is not, in fact, as recession-proof as it was once widely believed to be. Th e company, which sells tickets for live music, sports, and cultural events, and which represents a signifi cant chunk of parent company’s Live Nation Entertainment’s business, saw a drop in ticket sales that year of a disconcerting 15 percent. Th en there was the mounting negative press, including artist boycotts, the vitriol of thousands of vocal customers, and a number of major venues refusing to do business with Ticketmaster.

Yet 2012 has been more friendly to the company—under the leadership of former musician and Stanford MBA- educated CEO Nathan Hubbard, who took over in 2010 when Ticketmaster merged with Live Nation, the country’s largest concert promoter. Th ird-quarter earnings were strong, with just under $2 billion in revenue, a 10 percent boost from the same period last year, driven largely by Live

Nation’s ticketing and sponsorship divisions. Ticketmaster was largely responsible as well, thanks to the sale of 36 million tickets worth $2.1 billion, generating $82.1 million in adjusted operating income, which translates to an increase of 51 percent for the year.

That’s because Hubbard knows how to listen, and read the writing on the wall, “If we don’t disrupt ourselves, someone else will,” he said, “I’m not worried about other ticketing companies. Th e Googles and Apples of the world are our competition.”

Some of the steps he took to achieve this included to the creation of LiveAnalytics, a team charged with mining the information (and related opportunities) surrounding 200 million customers and the 26 million monthly site visitors, a gold mine that he thought was being ignored. Moreover Hubbard redirected the company from being an infamously opaque, rigid and infl exible transaction machine for ticket sales to a more transparent, fan-centered e-commerce company, one that listens to the wants and needs of customers and responds accordingly. A few of the new innovations rolled out in recent years to achieve this include an interactive venue map that allows customers to choose their seats (instead of Ticketmaster selecting the “best available”) and the ability to buy tickets on iTunes.

Hubbard eliminated certain highly unpopular service fees, like the $2.50 fee for printing one’s own tickets, which he announced in the inaugural Ticketmaster blog he created.

Much to the delight of event goers—and the simultaneous chagrin of promoters and venue owners, who feared that the move would deter sales—other eff orts toward transparency included announcing fees on Ticketmaster’s fi rst transaction dedicated page, instead of surprising customers with them at the end, while consolidating others. “I had clients say, ‘What are you doing? We’ve been doing it this way for 35 years,’”

Hubbard recalled, “I told them, ‘You sound like the record labels.’”

Social media is an integral part of listening, and of course, “sharing.” Ticketmaster alerts on Facebook shows friends of purchasers who is going to what show. An app is in the works that will even show them where their concertgoing friends will be seated. Not that it’s all roses for Ticketmaster—yet.

Growth and change always involve, well, growing pains, and while goodwill for the company is building, it will take some time to shed the unfortunate reputation of being the company that “everyone loves to hate.” Ticketmaster made embarrassing headlines in the fi rst month of 2013 after prematurely announcing the sale of the president’s Inaugural

Ball and selling out a day early as a result, disappointing thousands. But as the biggest online seller of tickets for everything from golf tournaments to operas to theater to rock concerts, and with Hubbard’s more customer-friendly focus, Ticketmaster should have plenty of opportunity to repent their mistakes.

Question:

1. Identify the problems that Ticketmaster was facing, using cause and effect analysis. What were the Symptomatic Effects? What were the Underlying Causes?

2. What process(es) did Nathan Hubbard use to Generate Alternatives? What alternatives were available to Mr. Hubbard? What types of Uncertainty did he experience?

Reference no: EM132152432

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