In This Issue
- The Importance of Nonmatriculant Studies
- How the Mighty Fall
- Stamats' Free Chicago Idea Exchange
- Book sale! (See lower right hand column.)
The Importance of Nonmatriculant Studies
By Bob Sevier, Senior Vice President, Strategy
Often, I am asked by a client, "If there is only one study I should do, what should it be?" Without hesitation I say, "A nonmatriculant study." Done well, a nonmatriculant study is a powerful tool that will help you:
- Learn how you are perceived, misperceived, and compared with your competitors
- Gain insight into your true competitors and their marketing and recruiting strategies
- Identify the college-choice variables that persist through the end of the funnel
- Understand how nonmatrics responded, or didn’t respond, to your recruiting process—including initial contact, ongoing communication, campus visit, customer service, and yield strategies
- Identify problems in your late funnel so you can fine-tune your yield strategy
- Clarify your value proposition and identify your compelling brand drivers
Of course, nonmatriculant studies can only be done during a very narrow window from June to July. Before that time, your nonmatric pool is still in flux. After that time, the students have begun to attend the school they ultimately choose.
How the Mighty Fall
By Bob Sevier, Senior Vice President, Strategy
Recently I had an opportunity to read Jim Collins’ latest book, How the Mighty Fall. While the book is written about the for-profit world, some his observations have direct application to higher education. Basically, Collins outlines five stages of decline:
- Stage 1: Hubris Born of Success
- Stage 2: Undisciplined Pursuit of More
- Stage 3: Denial of Risk and Peril
- Stage 4: Grasping For Salvation
- Stage 5: Capitulation to Irrelevance or Death
I want spend a minute or two on what he calls the "markers" for stage 2: undisciplined pursuit of more. Many believe that it is this pursuit which has economically imperiled many of our colleges and universities. Here are Collins' markers:
- Unsustainable Quest for Growth, Confusing Big with Great: Success creates pressure for more growth, setting up a vicious cycle of expectations; this strains people, the culture, and systems to the breaking point. Unable to deliver consistent tactical excellence, the institution frays at the edges.
- Undisciplined Discontinuous Leaps: The enterprise makes dramatic moves that fail at least one of the following three tests: 1. Do they ignite passion and fit with the company’s core values? 2. Can the organization be the best in the world at these activities or in these arenas? 3. Will these activities help drive the organization’s economic or resource engine?
- Declining Proportion of the Right People in Key Seats: There is a declining proportion of right people in key seats, because of losing the right people and/or growing beyond the organization’s ability to get enough people to execute on that growth with excellence (e.g., breaking Packard’s Law).
- Easy Cash Erodes Cost Discipline: The organization responds to increasing costs by increasing prices and revenues rather than increasing discipline.
- Bureaucracy Subverts Discipline: A system of bureaucratic rules subverts the ethic of freedom and responsibility that marks a culture of discipline; people increasingly think in terms of "jobs" rather than responsibilities.
- Personal Interests Placed above Organizational Interests: People in power allocate more for themselves or their constituents—more money, more privileges, more fame, more of the spoils of success—seeking to capitalize as much as possible in the short term, rather than investing primarily in building for greatness decades into the future.
Collins pays special attention to a declining portion of the right people in key seats. Talent, says Collins, is key.
I strongly encourage you to read Collins' entire book. When done, take care to look at the back cover. There’s a final quote worth remembering: "Whether you prevail or fail, endure or die, depends more on what you do to yourself than what the world does to you."
Stamats' Chicago Idea Exchange
In the Chicago-Land area?
On Thursday, April 8, 2010, 8:00 a.m. to 12:00 p.m. Stamats will host an Idea Exchange in Des Plaines, Illinois.
The purpose of the Idea Exchange is to gather a group of 12 to 15 creative thinkers for a half day-long group-think and discussion. Because we are focusing on strategic issues, we ask that each one- or two-person group include at least one VP. During the Exchange we will focus on the following broad themes:
- Outlining the factors that contribute to institutional vulnerability
- Leadership
- Finance
- Academic programming
- Fundraising
- Recruiting
- Reviewing options for reducing that vulnerability
- Discussing ideas for enhancing competitiveness
Our goal is to create an environment that supports dialogue and conversation among bright people, expands the collective wisdom of the participants, and explores some leading-edge tactics that will help you be as successful as possible.
There is no cost to you aside from travel and lodging (if you so choose to spend an evening at the hotel). Attendance is limited to 15 people with no more than two people from a single institution.
If you are interested in joining us on Thursday, April 8, please contact Sabra at 1-800-553-8878 ext. 5054, or e-mail her at sabra.fiala@stamats.com by Tuesday, March 30. |
