Case Analyses

PREFER RATHER WEK The case describes strategic change to deal with a set of challenges faced by Ann Brengle, the Executive Director of the New Bedford Whaling Museum. Beginning with a revenue shortfall following September 11, 2001, Brengle streamlined operations and cut costs. The case provides information on the community of New Bedford, MA, an economically depressed area increasingly dependent on tourism, as describes Brengle’s tussles with the local press, local authorities, and her own Board of Trustees. During the cost-cutting process, an extraordinary opportunity presented itself when a nearby collection of maritime art offered to donate its entire stock to the Museum. Faced with the challenge of doubling the size of the Museum, Brengle focused on clarifying its mission, strategy, and core values, then deciding what services were aligned with the mission and how funds could be obtained to support a much larger institution. The new strategy implied significant changes to how the Museum operated and how Brengle interacted with the community. After two years of hard work, dramatic changes had been made, including the purchase of a new building and the implementation of research fellowships and an education program for schoolchildren. Just when Brengle felt confident that the Museum was on track toward implementing the new strategy, another unusual opportunity arose. Off the shore of Cape Cod, an enormous Sperm whale died, and the U.S. Coast Guard asked if the Museum wanted the skeleton. Accepting the skeleton would imply supplementary fund-raising as well as finding a creative way to get it physically inside the Museum. Brengle’s leadership of the change process - as well as her trials and tribulations with her Board and the community – are described in the case. The case ends with a description of future challenges.

he New Bedford Whaling Museum (NBWM) houses the world’s preeminent collection of whaling artifacts and ephemera and