Smith: You became president of Barnard at 32. As a young leader, how did you manage much older colleagues? Futter: When I became president I was not only much younger, but many of the people I was working with had been my deans and my professors when I was a Barnard student, so that was a kind of double lens. I think in some sense it’s about how you perceive yourself and your own style. I think if you were to come in and pretend to be experienced or knowledgeable in a way you’re not, or take a very hierarchical approach, disaster could ensue. In contrast, if you can engage people to help you and at the same time play the leadership role through vision, through setting a course, through communication, through being bold—that is something people welcome.
At the museum, how do you lead creative people in an environment that isn’t focused on hitting a quarterly number? That’s the great challenge of the task—and what makes it fascinating and fun. For us, what brings it together is really that we’ve got to reach the public. If the public doesn’t understand the threats to the environment, if they don’t understand the story of the unfolding of human life, if they don’t understand other cultures, we’re going to be in deep trouble in this complex world. We need to bring out these topics in a way that’s accessible but doesn’t dumb it down or dilute it. Finding the right technique, editing it thoughtfully, making it interactive and exciting—these are things that make all the difference in our effectiveness, and our creative people want just as much as anybody to be effective.
Without profits to guide you, how do you decide which projects to pursue? It’s one of the great challenges in places like this, but I don’t think it’s unique to nonprofits. I think we have a couple of mantras that help. One is we understand the idea of pilot programs, and using that phrase suggests that if we try it, it doesn’t mean it’s here forever. That terminology is useful. The second thing is we’re not a small institution in our world—we’re a big player. So we look to do things that achieve scale in terms of impact. The other mantra that we have is no hobbies. We could do something great every day, but if it’s not really at the core of our mission—if it’s a hobby—then it may not be a good enough idea to endure.
How different is the not-for-profit world from the for-profit world? If you’d asked me that question a decade or two ago, I would have been much more explicit in saying that in the corporate world the management structure is much more vertical and hierarchical, whereas in a nonprofit institution there are explicit areas of delegated authority. Today I think that the managements are more similar than they used to be. There’s more process in the corporate world, and even in nonprofits we are equally focused on best practices, governance, metrics and transparency. Today in nonprofits you hear the word “marketing,” which years ago you wouldn’t have. The world has changed.
What’s one thing about your day-to-day job that would surprise people? How much time I have to spend thinking two and three years out. I’m often thinking about what’s going to be the exhibition schedule in ‘09 or in ‘10, and what do we have to do to get there? I’m always thinking many, many years out at the same time that I’m grappling with whatever is going on right now or the latest crisis.
How are you shaping the museum’s digital future? I would not dub myself the digital expert, but I am engaging us in a major review of our digital work, and how we can engage with our audience in a much more interactive way. When we began venturing online, it was about telling the world in a new forum and a new venue who we were. Now we’re at least as interested in hearing from the public about how they want to engage with us and what are their topics of interest.
Why should an M.B.A. consider a nonprofit career? They should consider it because it’s absolutely fascinating work that takes up almost all the same questions that you would confront in running a for-profit institution, with a great and extraordinary bonus that you’re changing lives and often societies. Oftentimes people think that a nonprofit must have easy hours, but we work very, very hard here. But we laugh along the way.
