Talia

The main focus of Tuesday’s class was the assigned case studies, specifically the Change in Management case. This case was primarily about Lawrence Frymire, the Executive Director of New Jersey Public Television, who was essentially forced to resign from this position, which he had held for nine years, after the station had recently been faced with a change in leadership. The purpose of our class discussion was to try and identify who was to blame for the change in management at NJPTV while considering the multitude of different factors. Was it the whole Commission’s fault? Was it the head person of the Commission, Meade? Was it the new Governor Bryne, who came into his position as governor already showing dissatisfaction with NJPTV? Going into class, I believed the change in management was due to a fundamental discrepancy between the old and new leadership in regards to the nature and direction of the NJPTV. I believed that with more communication regarding the new leaderships concerns over the old management, the change in management could have likely been avoided. However, upon completing our class discussion, my opinion on who was to blame changed. Our class’s analysis of the case study and Frymire made me realize the person to blame for the change in management was Frymire himself. While Frymire was a man of integrity and could be considered successful at his job in many regards, as a leader he failed to remain adaptable to change. Even after a new leadership was implemented, Frymire adamantly stuck to his old ways of running the station, disregarding Governor Bryne’s and the Commissions suggestions for improvement. Reading this case made me realize a critical quality of any successful leader is adaptability and openness to change.

I believe our class’s intelligent discussion on and thorough analysis of this case was a reflection of the progress we have made as new philanthropists and as public leaders in general. By gaining more insight into and knowledge of what it means to be a successful philanthropists and leader, we in turn are becoming successful philanthropists and leaders.