three mirages Archives - Wakeman Consulting Group

From Flailing to Focused: An Extraction Economy Manifesto

From Flailing to Focused You know the feeling. Things feel okay. The numbers look fine. Your board isn’t panicking. But there is something you can’t shake. A weight. An unease. A sense that the foundation isn’t as solid as the spreadsheets suggest. You’ve moved the numbers around. Highlighted different metrics. Told a new twist on […]

The Three Mirages: Why Organizations Chase the Wrong Targets

There’s a feeling we are all familiar with. Working hard. Growing. Adding clients. Opening offices. Can’t quite keep up. But something feels off. Like you are chasing something elusive. Likely a mirage…I’ve identified three that seduce more organizations than anything else. The Money Mirage: “Growth” becomes “success.” Revenue. Headcount. New markets. New offices. Measurable. Addictive. […]

The NY Times Just Published the Temu Version of My Met Opera Analysis

Same story. Less depth. No framework. Let’s compare. A little over two weeks ago, I wrote a piece called “The Met Opera’s Crisis Isn’t About Art. It’s About Strategy.” I laid out frameworks for analyzing the situation: Today, the New York Times published its own version. Same subject. Same desperation. Same Saudi deal. Same Chagall […]

February 20, 2026
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I’ve been watching the Metropolitan Opera’s situation for a while. The status of the organization is personal to me. I love New York and those huge cultural institutions. When I moved to New York City, I bought memberships and subscriptions to all of the major cultural institutions I could afford at the time. I sucked […]