Hustle as Strategy

In this issue

• ON STRATEGY: HUSTLE AS STRATEGY
• ON THE NUMBERS: 2003 CONTRIBUTIONS

8TH ANNUAL STAMATS STRATEGIC INTEGRATED MARKETING CONFERENCE ON JULY 25-28 FEATURES JACK TROUT AND ARTHUR LEVINE

Join us for our annual Strategic Integrated Marketing Conference where you will increase your knowledge and learn how some of your peers have been successful. Plus you will have the added bonus of two great keynote presenters, Jack Trout and Arthur Levine!

Please go here for more details.

UPCOMING ONLINE SEMINAR—CONVERTING APPLICANTS TO MATRICULANTS: ESSENTIAL STRATEGIES FOR INCREASING YIELD

Please make plans to join us for our next online seminar: Converting Applicants to Matriculants: Essential Strategies for Increasing Yield. It will be held June 23, 2005 from 1:30-3:00 PM CDT.

Please go here for more details.

ON STRATEGY: HUSTLE AS STRATEGY

Six years ago, in one of our first issues of QuickTakes, I wrote about finding an old article from the September-October 1986 Harvard Business Review. It was titled, "Hustle as Strategy" by Amar Bhide

While Bhide's comments are directed at the financial services industry, I think they have direct application for higher education (or any organization for that matter). Says Bhide,
"Strategy, its high-church theologians insist, is about outflanking competitors with big plays… It is questionable whether this proposition is itself sustainable. Strategy involves a lot more and also a lot less. The competitive scriptures almost systematically ignore the importance of hustle and energy. While they preach strategic planning, competitive strategy, and competitive advantage, they overlook the record of a surprisingly large number of very successful companies that vigorously practice a different religion. These companies don't have long-term strategic plans … They concentrate (instead) on operating details and doing things well. Hustle is their style and their strategy. They move fast, and they get it right."

Bhide goes on, "Are executives in these companies living in the managerial dark ages? Wouldn't they do even better if they linked their hustle to big, powerful strategic plans? I believe the answer is "no." Opportunities to gain lasting advantage through blockbuster strategic moves are rare in any business. What mostly counts are vigor and nimbleness. These traits are always needed and always important, yet strategic planning theologians largely ignore them.

Countless companies, (Bob adds: as well as colleges and universities) … are finally learning the limits of strategy and concentrating on tactics and execution. In a world where there are no secrets, where innovations are quickly imitated or become obsolete, the theory of competitive advantage may have had its day.

Though Bhide wrote those words nearly 20 they are more poignant than ever before.

Recognizing that slow is a death wish, we better hustle.

ON THE NUMBERS: 2003 CONTRIBUTIONS

According to Giving USA 2004 (www.aafrc.org/gusa/), giving to colleges and universities accounts for just over 13.1 percent of all giving in the U.S. As a category, colleges and universities receive some $31 billion in total gifts. This places them second, behind religious organizations, who receive a staggering $86.39 billion in total giving.

COMPREHENSIVE INTEGRATED MARKETING WORKBOOK AVAILABLE

An Integrated Marketing Workbook for Colleges and Universities, authored by Dr. Robert A. Sevier, is now available from Strategy Publishing.

Written for college presidents, administrators, and faculty who are interested in how integrated marketing can help them more effectively build an image, recruit students, and raise dollars, the book begins by exploring such questions as:

• How do I know if integrated marketing is right for our institution?
• What is the relationship between integrated marketing, integrated marketing communications, brand marketing, and strategic planning?
• How can I build internal support for integrated marketing on my campus?
• How long will it take to develop a plan and how much will it cost?

The book then outlines a step-by-step integrated marketing planning process that will move a planning team from initial goal creation through the major components of a marketing plan including audience identification, the definition of target geographies, the creation of vivid descriptors, and the completion of integrated marketing action plans.

Designed as a workbook—each chapter concludes with a series of discussion points and questions that will reinforce key themes and clarify decisions—the book contains the most comprehensive integrated marketing checklist ever published. In addition, budgeting, an often overlooked topic, is treated in-depth.

The book is available from Strategy Publishing at www.strategypublishing.com.

STAMATS ONLINE SEMINARS

Thursday, June 23rd, from 1:30 p.m.-3:00 p.m. CDT

Converting Applicants to Matriculants: Essential Strategies for Increasing Yield
Presented by Eric Sickler and Jim Reilly

Generating applications is only half the battle, you need to convert. And with an increase in consumerism, more students and families seem to focus on "best deal" rather than "best fit." As a result, the need to develop an effective yield, or keep-sold, strategy has never been more important.

Two of Stamats' best, Principal Consultant Eric Sickler and Senior Marketing Consultant Jim Reilly, both former VPs of admissions, have combined resources, and more than 40 years of admissions and marketing experience, for a no-nonsense primer on proven "closing" strategies and techniques that your recruitment and marketing teams can use to help you land the class.

For more information about the online conference, please contact Brandy Huseman at (800) 553-8878 or brandy.huseman@stamats.com. You can also check out the Stamats Web site at www.stamats.com.

Cost: $249

Go here to register.

STAMATS' ANNUAL STRATEGIC INTEGRATED MARKETING CONFERENCE JULY 25-28 IN CHICAGO

This summer Stamats will host an outstanding conference that focuses entirely on integrated marketing for colleges and universities. Some of the more than 20 sessions include:

• Developing an Integrated Marketing Plan
• Integrated Aspects of Fundraising
• How to Build a "Sticky" Web Site: Integrate, Innovate, and Interact
• TeensTALK™
• Building a Brand That Matters

In addition, we will have two special keynote presentations:

• Jack Trout, president of Trout & Partners, has authored more than 10 books on brand marketing
• Arthur Levine, president and Professor of Education at Teachers College, Columbia University

It promises to be an exceptional event. Please make your reservations early.

Jack Trout

Instrumental in developing the vital approach to marketing known as "positioning," he is responsible for some of the freshest ideas to be introduced into marketing thinking in the last several decades.

Jack Trout is president of Trout & Partners, one of the most prestigious marketing firms with headquarters in Old Greenwich, Connecticut, and offices in 13 countries. Trout manages and supervises a global network of experts that apply his concepts and develop his methodology around the world. The firm has done work for AT&T, IBM, Burger King, Merrill Lynch, Xerox, Merck, Lotus, Ericsson, Tetra Pak, Repsol, Hewlett-Packard, Procter & Gamble, Southwest Airlines, and other Fortune 500 companies.

Trout started his business career in the advertising department of General Electric. From there he went on to become a divisional advertising manager at Uniroyal. Then he joined Al Ries in the advertising agency and marketing strategy firm where they worked together for over 26 years.

His latest book, Trout on Strategy, is Trout's best advice on the subject of good and bad strategy. If you don't have the right strategy, you're toast.

Arthur Levine

Arthur Levine is President and Professor of Education at Teachers College, Columbia University. He received his bachelor's degree from Brandeis University and his Ph.D. from State University of New York at Buffalo. Prior to Teachers College, he served as Chair of the Higher Education program and Chair of the Institute for Educational Management at the Harvard Graduate School of Education.

Mr. Levine is the author of dozens of articles and reviews. His most recent book is When Hope and Fear Collide: A Portrait of Today's College Student (with Jeanette S. Cureton.) An advocate of improving teacher quality and enhancing the use of technology in higher education, Mr. Levine's numerous opinion editorials appear in such publications as The New York Times; The Los Angeles Times; The Wall Street Journal; The Chronicle of Higher Education.

He has served as consultant to more than 250 colleges and universities, and currently sits on the Boards of Blackboard, Inc., and the Commission on Independent Colleges and Universities (CICU). Mr. Levine was also President of Bradford College (1982-1989) and named 1999-2001 Carnegie Fellow, formerly Senior Fellow at the Carnegie Foundation and Carnegie Council for Policy Studies in Higher Education (1975-1982).

Other presenters include: Dr. Robert A. Sevier, Senior Vice President; Eric Sickler, Principal Consultant; Chuck Reed, VP of Client Services; Kari Kovar, Senior Client Consultant; Scott Lomas, Principal Consultant; Eric Hodgson, Client Consultant; Karen Hildebrand, Direct Marketing Manager; Sabra Fiala, Direct Marketing Executive; Ann Oleson, Senior Client Consultant

Cost:
$449 - Tuesday, July 26, through Thursday, July 28 - general conference
(an additional $149 - Monday, July 25 - optional preconference session)

Plus, every attendee will receive a copy of Jack Trout's latest book, Trout on Strategy!

Register today at www.stamats.com/events/seminars!