A MUSICAL VOYAGE - Royal Australian Navy

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RAN BAND BUSINESS PLAN (2003)—CHAPTER 1 ANALYSIS
CUSTOMERS AND MISSION
Customers
The RAN Band employs five detachments of musicians, which are located in each capital
city of Australia excluding Canberra and Darwin. The band is sponsored by the Maritime
Commander—Australia, operates as a sub-business unit, and has billets for 105 professional
musicians and 150 volunteer or part-time musicians. The professional musicians are
recruited from throughout Australia to be stationed in the Melbourne and Sydney
detachments; they are highly skilled and versatile. The volunteer or part-time musicians—
who form the reserve detachments stationed in Sydney, Brisbane, Adelaide, Hobart and
Perth—are, on average, less musically qualified; however, they have a wide range of other
skill specialisations.
The RAN Band maintains a national focus and the level of services it provides is diverse.
Currently, the band views its primary customer as the Navy. This customer concept is too
narrow and doesn’t take into account the needs of the musicians and the expectations of
the wider community. Diagram 1 is a conceptual model of a proposed customer
relationship, where mutual obligation exists with all players. The Australia people are the
owners; after all, they have invested significant money in the Defence program. Navy—a
key stockholder—has an obligation to ensure that the Australian people receive a
satisfactory return on their investment; and Navy demonstrates its support for the band by
allocating the necessary financial and human resources for it to contribute towards Navy’s
objectives in support of the Australian people. In this model the members of the band are
the stakeholders. The band has an obligation to ensure Navy’s needs are met and, to do this
effectively, it relies on Navy’s support. Importantly though, members of the band should
not disregard their own unique creative capabilities when deciding how best to serve Navy’s
needs. 1
Recommendation No 1: Implement a customer model that recognises the needs of
the owners, the stockholders, and the stakeholders.
The
Royal Australian Navy
Stockholders
The Australian People
Owners
Diagram 1
1
See Houston, F.S. (1986) ‘The Marketing concept: What it is and what it is not’, Journal of Marketing,
Vol. 50, April, p. 86.
Royal Australian Navy Band: A Musical Voyage
Our People
Stakeholders