The Orchestra Principle

Article written by Ryan Walter of Jennings Executive Search https://www.jenningsexec.com/

What years in orchestras taught me about the leadership qualities strong pricing teams rely on

Pricing leaders are often handed a strange assignment. You are accountable for outcomes without owning most of the inputs. You are expected to bring clarity to functions that all hear different versions of the same market. And on top of that, you are told to lead people who do not report to you.

If the job feels tense, it should. That same feeling lived in my hands for more than twenty years as a professional musician. It showed up in rehearsal rooms, in the pit, and on stages that ranged from concert halls to sports arenas. The pressure was different, but the structure was the same. A group of highly trained people, all responsible for different parts of the performance, trying to create something coherent together.

The leadership model hiding inside an orchestra

My education in leadership started with music, not business. I earned an undergraduate degree in double bass performance at the Manhattan School of Music where I studied with the Principal Bass of the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra. I went on to complete a master’s degree at the University of Southern California where I studied with two members of the Los Angeles Philharmonic.

During and after school, I worked professionally in Los Angeles in regional orchestras and studio sessions. When I moved to Dallas, I played nine seasons in the Dallas Opera Orchestra, subbed regularly with the Fort Worth Symphony for more than a dozen years, and played arena concerts for artists ranging from The Eagles to Andrea Bocelli.

Along the way, I began an MBA and moved into pricing. For more than a decade, I did both careers in parallel. I retired from professional playing about two years ago.

Across more than twenty years in orchestras, one lesson kept resurfacing. Yes, orchestras have hierarchy. Principals lead their sections. The concertmaster sets a shared approach for the strings. The conductor defines the overall interpretation. But none of that works unless every musician is intensely focused on the sound around them and the visual cues coming from the podium.

It looks structured. In reality, it depends on awareness, listening, and shared responsibility. Pricing leadership works the same way.

One moment that rewired how I think about leadership

The clearest leadership lesson I ever received happened during the dress rehearsal for the opening concert of the Verbier Festival in Switzerland. We were playing the Schubert “Great C Major” symphony, a piece built on long lines and collective momentum.

James Levine addressed the orchestra as we began the rehearsal. He told us he planned to conduct as little as possible in the concert. He said he did not play any notes, so there was no reason the audience should be watching him. If anything, he hoped that if someone chose to look his way they would find him uninteresting and shift their attention to the orchestra.

This came from one of the most famous figures in classical music. And he was telling a stage full of musicians in our early twenties that the performance belonged to us. He would set the conditions. We would create the experience.

It remains the simplest and most accurate definition of leadership I have ever seen. And it maps directly to pricing.

Where the parallels to pricing leadership become clear

1. You lead best when you are not the focus

Pricing succeeds when Product, Sales, Finance, and Marketing own their part of the performance. You hold the score, but you do not play the melody. If the organization waits for pricing to fix everything, nothing moves.

Strong pricing leadership often looks quiet from the outside. You set direction. You create alignment. Then you step out of the center so the commercial team can execute.

2. Interpretation beats authority

Two performances of the same symphony can feel completely different because interpretation drives everything. Articulation, tempo relationships, balance, phrasing, all of it changes the meaning of the music.

Pricing works the same way. Tools and datasets are widely available. The difference between a great pricing function and an average one comes from how you interpret signals and how you help the organization act on nuance instead of defaulting to blunt rules.

3. Listening is the real engine

Even with hierarchy, no orchestra functions well if musicians are only focused on the conductor. They have to know exactly what is happening in their section and what is happening across the stage. They have to align visually to cues and aurally to the ensemble around them.

Pricing leaders need that same cross-functional awareness. You have to hear what Sales is actually experiencing. You have to understand how Product is framing value. You have to listen to Finance’s constraints. When you listen sideways instead of only upward, you get a complete picture of what the market is really saying.

4. Influence is earned through competence

In orchestras, musicians follow leaders who prove they know the score and can elevate the group. Respect comes from preparation, clarity, and execution at critical moments.

Pricing is similar. Influence grows when people see that your recommendations hold up under pressure. When you bring specificity instead of abstraction. When your analysis connects to what actually happens in the field. Competence becomes its own source of authority.

Why this matters for pricing teams today

My work in executive search gives me a front row seat to how companies build pricing teams. I see the difference between organizations where pricing becomes a strategic growth engine and those where it never moves past analytics.

The strong ones operate like well-run orchestras.

They have clarity on the score. They have section leaders who elevate the musicians around them. They have coordination across the ensemble instead of isolated excellence. And they have a leader who sets conditions, aligns interpretations, and then steps back so the organization can own the performance.

That is the part pricing leaders often miss. Your value is not in trying to play the notes for everyone. Your value is in shaping the way the company plays together.

The lasting lesson

After more than twenty years in orchestras and more than fifteen years building a career in pricing, the connection is obvious. I did not leave one field for another. I spent years running two careers that kept teaching me the same thing.

The real job is helping teams create clarity together. The real job is seeing the whole score when others see only their part. And the real job is building an ensemble confident enough to own the performance without watching you for every cue.

James Levine’s advice still holds. The best leaders make themselves less interesting so the team can do work that deserves attention.

That is the version of pricing leadership that wins.