Scott Barrick (MBA 1982) is general manager of the Mormon Tabernacle Choir of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. In the interview, he talks about his role in leveraging the reputation and range of the choir as an ambassador of the church.

“I came from a very middle class background. I have an undergraduate degree in Italian. I had no professional corporate business experience before I came to HBS. So for me, the HBS experience was transformational. I have been the general manager of the Mormon Tabernacle Choir for 16 years. My objective in coming there was to leverage my prior volunteer experience as a musician with my background in consumer package goods marketing and my Harvard MBA training.

“What we were looking to do is to take the Cadillac brand that is the Mormon Tabernacle Choir, re-energize it, re-invigorate it, create a more global positioning for the brand, and to take it to more places in the world. The mission of the choir is to be an ambassador for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, who's our sponsor, and we wanted to be able to fully utilize all the resources that were available to do that.

“The choir is one of the unique musical organizations in the world that has the ability to transcend cultural and generational boundaries through its performances. The music of the choir gives joy, peace, and healing to its listeners, and [there’s a] variety of ways that it does that. It can reach classical music, popular music, American folk music, international music, that touches people's hearts in a very different way––not the thinking parts of our being, but the feeling parts of our being. All of the members of the choir and our orchestra are volunteers, so they are giving their time and effort through service. That service is embodied in how they sing, how they perform, how they share their love of God and love of music with others.“

(Published October 2018)

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