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Vol. IV, no. 1: Strategic Thinking

Prepared by Dr. Robert A. Sevier, Vice President for Research and Marketing at Stamats (bob-sevier@stamats.com)

Welcome to the first QuickTakes of 2001.

In this issue.

• SOME PREDICTIONS BY ARTHUR LEVINE
• MOVE OVER CARNEGIE, THERE'S ANOTHER TYPOLOGY IN TOWN
• THE CHIVAS REGAL EFFECT
• MORE STUDENTS TRAVELING ABROAD BUT STAYING LESS

STRATEGIC PLANNING CORNER: DYSFUNCTIONAL STRATEGIC PLANNING AND ITS ROOT CAUSES

As part of our ongoing discussion of strategic planning, it is important to pause for a minute to examine the two primary types of dysfunctional strategic plans so that we might avoid these pitfalls as we think about our own plans. Robert Glenn, managing partner of Innovation Networks, describes these plans as follows:

The "Business as Usual" plan. "Business as Usual" demonstrates little objective rethinking of institutional mission, goals, or strategies, but instead relies on extrapolating the institution's past into its future. The implied message is "let's just keep doing what we've been doing." Such plans evidence little rigorous analysis or creativity. Stretch goals are notably absent, as are objective assessments of opportunities for improvement. The institution simply wants to "tread water" under the assumption that "things are good now, so why change."

The "Wish List" plan. The "Wish List" plan sets forth a veritable laundry list of new initiatives for the institution to pursue, tied to advancing a far-reaching set of strategic objectives. Participants in the planning process have been asked to "blue sky" the institution's future, typically responding to queries such as "What would we do if we were suddenly given $100 million dollars by a generous donor?" The result is too often a non-prioritized catalogue of unrelated initiatives, reflecting little institutional consensus and determination of how such initiatives are to be funded.

SOME PREDICTIONS BY ARTHUR LEVINE

Early last year we offered 16 predictions by Sam Dunn on how the Net will impact colleges and universities. Now, nearly a year later, we offer some additional predictions, these by Arthur Levine. Levine, who is the president of Teachers College of Columbia University, offered his insights in the October 27, 2000, Chronicle of Higher Education. (You can find the full article online at www.chronicle.com. You will need to have a subscriber password to access the article.) Some of his predictions and observations include:

• Higher education providers will become more numerous and more diverse. The survival of some institutions, especially less-selective private colleges with small endowments and large programs in adult education, will be threatened by both domestic and foreign for-profit institutions as well as nonprofit competitors like libraries and museums that have entered the educational marketplace.
  
  
• Three basic types of colleges are emerging:
  • Brick universities, or traditional residential institutions.
  • Click universities, or new, usually commercial virtual universities, like UNEXT.com and Jones International University.
  • Brick and click universities, a combination of the first two.
    
    
  If current research on e-commerce is correct, the most competitive and attractive higher-education institutions will be "brick and click." While consumers appreciate the convenience, ease, and freedom of services online, they also want a physical space where they can interact with others and obtain expert advice and assistance face-to-face.
  
  
• The focus of higher education is shifting from teaching to learning. Colleges currently emphasize a commonality of process based on "seat time," or the amount of time each student is taught. Students study for a defined number of hours, earn credits for each hour of study and, after earning a specified number of credits, earn a degree. With the increasing number of educational providers, the individualization of education, and the growing diversity of the student body, however, that commonality of process is likely to be lost. The focus will shift to the outcomes that students achieve. Time will become the variable and learning the constant.
  
  
• The traditional functions of higher education could become unbundled. Colleges engage in teaching, research, and service—yet teaching is the only function that is usually thought of as profitable. Research, like college football, brings in dollars for only a small number of institutions. Service, by its very nature, is not remunerative.
  
  Therefore, for-profit and other new providers in higher education are interested only in teaching—and will compete with traditional colleges solely in the realm of instruction. To the extent that colleges lose out to their new competitors, financial support from both government and private sources for two activities of vital national interest—research and service—will be lost.
  
  
• Faculty members will become increasingly independent of colleges and universities. The most renowned faculty members, those able to attract tens of thousands of students in an international marketplace, will become the rock stars. It is only a matter of time before we see the equivalent of an academic William Morris Agency. With a worldwide market in the hundreds of millions of students, a talent agent will be able to bring to a professor a book deal with Random House . a consulting contract with IBM, commercial endorsement opportunities, and a distance-learning course with a for-profit company in a total package of $5 million.
  
  The names of world-class professors will probably be far more important than the institution for which they work. Such a development will be analogous to the changes experienced in Hollywood when the dominance of the studios gave way to the star power of the actors themselves.
  
  
• Degrees will wither in importance. Today, the meaning of a degree varies in content and quality, depending on the college. In essence, we offer thousands of different degrees, even if they are called by the same name. A degree now signifies a period of successful college attendance; the class rank indicates the relative success of the student; and the name of the college marks the quality of the degree.
  
  However, with the change in emphasis from institutional process to educational outcomes, degrees will become far less meaningful. A transcript of each student's competencies, including the specific information that the student knows or the skills that he or she can perform, will be far more desirable.
  
  
• Every person will have an educational passport (portfolio). In the future, each person's education will occur not only in a cornucopia of different settings and geographic locales, but also via a plethora of different educational providers. As traditional degrees lose importance, the nation will need to establish a central bureau that records each person's educational achievements—however and wherever they were gained—and that provides documentation. Such an educational passport, or portfolio, will record a student's lifetime educational history.
  
  
• Dollars will follow the students more than the educators. With the growth in educational providers and the emphasis on outcomes, public and private financial supporters will increasingly invest in the educational consumer rather than the expanding grab bag of organizations that offer collegiate instruction. It's quite possible that federal and state aid that currently supports institutions of higher education will be transferred directly to students.

MOVE OVER CARNEGIE, THERE'S ANOTHER TYPOLOGY IN TOWN

Most of us are familiar with the Carnegie typology of colleges and universities that classifies our approximately 3,600 institutions into some 10 different categories, ranging from research universities on the one hand to specialized institutions on the other. And, while we do not always agree with the particular classification of one institution or another, we largely understand the typology and value the order it provides to the higher education landscape.

A couple of years ago, however, another typology entered the scene; this one developed by William Massey of Stanford. Massey's typology is a bit less subtle than the one developed by the folks at Carnegie. Instead of nine or 10 classifications, Massey has three:

• Brand-name: selective, high status, affluent; cater to traditional full-time students who have traditional academic values. This group comprises such institutions as Duke, Berkeley, and Kenyon.
• Mass providers: mix of traditional and professional degrees, more part-time students, less selective, less status. This group comprises such institutions as Portland State University and the University of New Haven.
• Convenience institutions: highly user friendly, focuses on job-minded students, more likely to be adult; both for profit and not-for-profit institutions operated like a business. This group comprises such institutions as the University of Phoenix, Yakima Valley Community College, and Motorola University (Massey, William as reported in Chester E. Finn, Jr., American Outlook. New York: Hudson Institute, 1998.)

THE CHIVAS REGAL EFFECT

Massey's typology recognizes, to a much larger degree, how institutions are perceived by and respond to the marketplace. It is the first set of institutions, those brand-name ones, that are of particular interest to Bruce Hammond.

A couple of years ago, while writing, Discounts and Deals at the Nation's 360 Best Colleges: The Parent Soup Financial Aid and College Guide, Hammond came up with something he called the Chivas Regal Effect. Basically, the Chivas Regal Effect describes the tendency of some colleges to heighten name recognition and add prestige factors with the understanding that families will pay more to attend a school that is more well known and highly regarded.

Says Hammond, "The most prestigious schools keep prices high because they can. Everyone else can either raise their prices and be affiliated with the elite," he says, "or they can make their prices lower and be second rate."

Sometimes, it seems like every college or university board in the country has at least one member who subscribes to the Chivas Regal Effect or the popular variation that simply raising tuition will solve their cash flow problems. There are no data, however, to suggest that these strategies are sound. In fact, raising tuition without concomitant improvements in institutional quality and image-enhancement will likely backfire.

MORE STUDENTS TRAVELING ABROAD BUT STAYING LESS

A short article in the November 27, 2000, Newsweek noted that while the number of U.S. students studying abroad continues to increase (up 45 percent in the last four years), about 90 percent of students stay for one semester or less. Many, reveals the article, opt for crash courses lasting only eight weeks in a distant country. A representative from the Institute of International Education said, "Shorter sojourns can serve some students' needs better." Newsweek concluded, "What's next? France: the videogame?"

BY THE NUMBERS: TEEN RELIGION

A study by Princeton Religion Research Center, as reported in October 2000 Moody Monthly, indicates that many teens have a keen interest in religion. Some of the numbers include:

• 9%. The percentage of teens who indicate that religion has no influence at all in their life.
• 33%. The percentage of teens who cite religion as the major influence in their life.
• 38%/28%. The percentage of young women/men who feel that religious faith is the most important influence in their life.
• 52%/29%. The percentage of black/white teens who feel that religious faith is the most important influence in their life.

STAMATS TEENSTALK RESEARCH STUDY

Stamats, in cooperation with RuffaloCODY, has just completed its annual TeensTALK research study. The 230+ page study examines 1,600 college-bound high school freshmen, sophomores, juniors, and seniors (400 of each) and explores their consumer behavior as well as college-choice issues. In particular, the report reviews teen:

• Media habits
• Preferences on such popular culture issues as movies, sports, and books
• How students choose a college
• Who influenced their college decision
• What role the Internet played in their college choice process

The study was completed in July 2000 and is available from Stamats for $150 plus $5 for shipping. For more information, please contact Jenny Anderson at jenny-anderson@stamats.com or give her a call at (800) 553-8878, ext. 5127.

NEW CLIENTS

Stamats would like to welcome the following new client:

• Erskine College and Theological Seminary (SC): strategic planning
• Wentworth Military Academy (MO): publications and interactive media

STAMATS SEMINARS

2001 Stamats Seminar Schedule

Partners for a Solid Future: New Strategies for 4-year Public Colleges & Universities
Where: Tampa, Florida
When: March 11-13

Recruiting & Marketing Strategies for 4-year Private Colleges & Universities
Where: Tentatively Annapolis, Maryland
When: Early May

Taking Command of Interactive Media in the Higher Education Marketplace
Where: Tentatively Seattle, Washington
When: Mid-June

Generating Successful Integrated Marketing & Branding Strategies for Colleges & Universities
Where: Boston, Massachusetts
When: August 12-14

Recruiting and Marketing Strategies for Graduate Schools
Where: Miami, Florida
When: Mid-October

Recruiting and Marketing Strategies for 2-year Institutions
Where: Chicago, Illinois
When: December 2-4

Check out www.stamats.com/seminars for more information!

JOB OPENINGS

Parker College of Chiropractic
Director of Admissions
Parker College of Chiropractic in Dallas, TX is looking for an energetic and enthusiastic director of admissions with a teamwork mentality. Five years admissions experience required, preferably in the health professions. Enrollment is approximately 800. Attractive salary, great benefits, supportive environment. Fax resume with salary history to (214) 902-2435.

If you have a short position description you would like posted, please forward it on to info@stamats.com. There is no charge for this service.

COPYRIGHT, DISTRIBUTION, AND PERMISSION

Stamats QuickTakes is published by Stamats For more information, contact Suzanne Schloss at info@stamats.com. QuickTakes is distributed to our clients and colleagues in higher education at no charge. Contents (c) 2001 by Stamats Please feel free to forward copies of Stamats QuickTakes in its entirety to colleagues either electronically or on paper.

ABOUT STAMATS

Stamats is a comprehensive research, marketing communications, and consulting company serving colleges and universities nationwide. We stress an integrated approach to marketing that includes market research, integrated marketing communication, recruiting publications, Web/Internet/CD-ROM strategies, and planning.