Stamats' QuickTakes
Insights into Research, Strategic Planning, and Integrated Marketing for Colleges and Universities by Dr. Robert A. Sevier, Senior Vice President at Stamats (quicktakes@stamats.com)
Vol. 5, no. 14: Think Daringly. Execute Steadily.
In this issue.
UPCOMING CONFERENCES
*Stamats has two upcoming conferences on integrated marketing and branding. The first conference is designed for presidents and will be November 7-8 in Washington, D.C.
*The second is a one-day conference on integrated marketing and branding. It will be November 25 in Honolulu, HI.
Details on both conferences can be found at the close of this newsletter.
ON STRATEGY: IT IS ALL ABOUT EXECUTION
Recently, I spent time with some people from the Sloan School at MIT. During the course of reviewing their marketing materials, I noticed a fascinating quote from a graduate student. When asked to summarize what he had learned at the business school, the student replied:
Think Daringly.
Execute Steadily.
In four simple words the student captured what should be right, but is often wrong, with strategy. He noted correctly that we need to think daringly. Some of us can't or won't think daringly. Our comfort levels and our reluctance to tilt windmills prevent us from thinking boldly, even audaciously. So, on one hand, the quality of our ideas impacts our ability to formulate strategy.
Others of us, however, are quite willing to think daringly. It is at this point that we run into the second, and perhaps more important issue, execution. A colleague of mine is an idea junky. He is constantly hopping from idea to idea. In his mind, the best idea is always the next idea. He is a daring thinker. His ideas are truly great, but he is a lousy executer. He just can't follow-through. He is enamored with ideas, not execution.
True leaders are not overly distracted by new ideas. They do not manage by best-seller. Instead, they are pathologically addicted to a handful of good ideas. Their passion is execution. Their value is in getting things done.
For years, I thought many of the failures in higher education could be laid at the feet of poor ideas. I am convinced that I erred. It is not a lack of ideas that we suffer from-we typically have too many ideas. Instead, it is a lack of focus, commitment, follow-through, and execution. It is not the thinking. It is the doing.
For some parallel insights, take a quick look at Larry Bossidy's Execution: The Discipline of Getting Things Done.
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POWERFUL STRATEGIES & TACTICS FOR PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT SUCCESS
By Eric Sickler, Principal Consultant
1. Recognize that professional development is an essential component of your job, not an extracurricular activity to squeeze in between the important stuff. Your institution expects you to perform at the top of your game. To do that, you must understand the "leading edge" of your discipline and you have to bring energy, enthusiasm, and—most of all—professional confidence to your work every day.
2. Understand that you are a role model for your colleagues and staff. If you want professional development to be important to them—if you want them to assume ownership for making your department or office more efficient, effective, and productive—then you need to set the pace by engaging in regular professional development activities yourself.
3. Write a personal professional development plan complete with strategies, tactics, and measurable goals. Share it with your boss and ask for suggestions. Include seminars, workshops, and conferences; a reading list; and a series of low- and no-budget items as well. Demonstrate your interest in your own professional development and you might enjoy support you never knew was available.
4. Make professional development an every day activity. Just like they say on those infomercials, "In just 15 minutes a day, you'll see amazing results!" Set aside the first 15 minutes of your workday (or maybe the 15 minutes right after lunch) to catch up on all those professional journals and books piled behind your desk. Those 15-minute sessions will add up to 65 hours of professional development each year.
5. Encourage your staff and colleagues to devote the same 15 minutes each day to their own professional development. Set aside a portion (20 to 30 minutes) of your staff meetings or retreats to do a show-and-tell session. Then, everyone benefits from each other's discoveries.
6. If you supervise a staff, make sure your regular performance reviews include a discussion of their professional development plans. If they don't have plans, offer to help create them. Consider sharing your own professional development plan with each of your staff members to demonstrate your own commitment.
7. Find out what professional books, journals, and articles your boss is reading. Read them yourself. Then, set up a lunch meeting once a month with your boss when you can discuss how your department's performance might benefit from applying the principles you're both reading about.
8. Register to receive free e-zines and newsletters from vendors like Stamats (www.stamats.com/resources) and encourage all members of your staff to do the same. Talk with each other about articles you find especially interesting.
9. Welcome representatives from higher education marketing firms to your office and plan to guide the discussion. While this sounds like a self-serving sales pitch, remember, higher education marketing consultants have the luxury of observing the breadth of the industry from coast to coast, so a 30-minute conversation can yield buckets of insight for you and for them. Everyone wins.
10. When you return from a professional development conference, instead of shelving the three-ring binder, pull out one page each morning and post it near your office coffee pot. Encourage your staff and colleagues to get into the habit of reading and talking about the "page-of-the-day." You'll be amazed by the healthy questions that surface.
11. Attend at least two formal professional workshops, seminars, or conferences each year. One should be local or regional and one should be national or international. Push yourself out of your comfort zone and resist the temptation to attend the same conferences every year, unless you find them extraordinarily stimulating.
12. Each year, try to create at least one professional development experience (a guest speaker, seminar, demonstration, book discussion, retreat, etc.) in which everyone from your office can participate, including support staff members. These kinds of activities build camaraderie and help inspire a shared sense of purpose for your entire organization.
13. Spend time on other campuses observing how "they" do it. The daily grind can turn your professional groove into a dangerous rut, unless you extract yourself from it every once in awhile. One of the greatest perspective-builders I know is an occasional change of professional scenery.
Do you have other good ideas, especially for professional development on a shoestring budget? I'd love to hear about them. Drop me a note at: eric.sickler@stamats.com.
A recent series of ads from Accenture keys on the need to execute. The central theme: It's not how many ideas you have that counts, but how many you make happen. It is, in their words, all about turning innovation into results.
Using print and television, the ads all focus on a single theme; work your idea.
Some of the ads include:
(photo of a cup of coffee)—I
am your idea. I won't stay hot forever.
(photo of luggage cart in airport)—I am your idea. Push me.
(photo of sign on/off ramp freeway)—I am your idea. Use me. Lose me.
(photo of golf ball on tee)—I am your idea. Drive me.
(photo of a train station)—I am your idea. How far can you take me?
Great copy. Great art. Great concept.
If you go to Accenture's Web site (www.accenture.com) you can review the entire campaign. You can also download a screensaver that runs the campaign on your own computer. I have it on mine. It reminds me when I am just sitting there to DO SOMETHING.
WORDS OF ADVICE FROM YOGI BERRA
Continuing with the "do something" theme, a recent column in Business 2.0., (September 2002) management consultant Rosabeth Moss Kanter discusses Yogi Berra's most famous quote; "When you come to a fork in the road, take it." In other words, says Kanter, when the current direction is hard to discern, any action is better than hesitation. Rather than freezing in the headlights of oncoming change, you should explore, experiment, and perhaps learn what's coming down the pike. She goes on to say that pace-setting companies are adept at coping with disruption in this way. Like masters of improvisational theater, they don't wait for a script; they create the plan through action, inquiring where those forks in the road might lead.
Recently, while cruising through NAICU's Web site (The National Association of Independent Colleges and Universities at naicu.edu), I noticed a series of articles on innovation on their News Room page. One particular subhead was, Innovation in College Cost and Price.
A description indicated that the site contained examples of private institutions that have implemented innovative cost-saving programs including price cuts and freezes, special scholarships or tuition discounts, tuition guarantees, graduation or job guarantees, payment options, lowered rates of tuition increase, and accelerated degree programs.
Other examples of innovation included:
This kind of "round up" is one of the things that NAICU does best. It is a tremendous resource for all colleges and universities (not just independents). Take a look at it and learn.
A number of people from Stamats will be attending NACAC in September in Salt Lake City. Steve Kappler, Sarah Henderson, and myself will also be presenting. If you are interested in meeting with one of us—or one of the other Stamats attendees—during NACAC to talk about your branding, marketing, or recruiting needs, please drop an e-mail to info@stamats.com. She will be glad to set up a meeting. In addition, please be sure to stop by our booth #404 to talk with us, to satisfy your chocolate craving, and to register to win a dorm room!
CONFERENCE DETAILS
STAMATS PRESIDENT INSTITUTE ON
INTEGRATED MARKETING AND BRANDING
November 7-8, 2002
Washington, DC
Stamats will hold a two-day conference on integrated marketing and branding for college and university presidents (or deans). Cabinet and board members are welcome to attend along with their presidents.
Sessions to be included:
Presenters will include:
The cost for the Institute is $395. It will be held at the Hyatt on Capitol Hill, 400 New Jersey Avenue NW, Washington, D.C.
HONOLULU CONFERENCE
November 25, 2002
Honolulu, HI
Stamats will hold a one-day conference on integrated marketing and branding that will include five sessions:
Presenters include Dr. Robert A. Sevier, senior vice president at Stamats and author of Thinking Outside the Box and Building a Brand that Matters. Accompanying Sevier will be Dr. Robert Smith, provost at Slippery Rock University.
The conference will begin at 8:00 a.m. and conclude by 4:00. Participants will receive a detailed conference resource notebook and a copy of either Thinking Outside the Box or Building a Brand that Matters.
The conference is timed for the week before Thanksgiving so attendees can combine the work trip with a possible extended holiday in Hawaii.
For information about either of these conferences, please contact Suzanne Schloss (info@stamats.com) or visit Seminars to register.
JOB OPENINGS
Stamats Consulting, the higher education research, planning, and consulting side of Stamats, is expanding our staff and is looking for a principal consultant. If you are interested, please e-mail joann.binzen@stamats.com for a copy of the job description.
Director of Assessment & Institutional
Research
Montcalm Community College
Seeking a director to provide leadership in student learning assessment, institutional
research, continuous quality improvement, program review, environmental scanning,
and grant and report writing. Qualifications: graduate degree and expertise/experience
in student learning assessment, instructional program review, institutional
research, CQI and other quality initiatives, computer-based research & analysis
and related areas. The application deadline is 10/11/02. View the full position
description at www.montcalm.edu (under
the About button) or contact the MCC Personnel & Benefits Manager, Anne McCoy,
2800 College Drive, Sidney, MI 48885.
Director of Admission
University of San Francisco
The University of San Francisco, a Catholic, Jesuit university in the Bay Area,
seeks a Director of Admission to manage undergraduate admission efforts; develop
a marketing strategy that integrates and utilizes e-mail communications, web-based
recruitment, tracking and qualifying software, predictive modeling, market research,
print communications and telerecruiting; represent the University at events
on and off campus; hire, train and lead members of the admission team. The Director
of Admission reports to the Dean of Academic Services, who oversees a comprehensive
enrollment management program. TO APPLY: Send a resume and cover letter by e-mail
or mail to: Mary Lahti, Lahti Search Consultants, 286 Jefferson Street, Meadville,
PA 16335. mary@lahtisearch.com. Phone:
(814) 332-2993. www.lahtisearch.com.
Director of Marketing & Recruitment
Cultural Experiences Abroad, Inc.
Leading study abroad organization needs top marketing executive responsible
for all marketing campaigns including print, on-line, business development &
recruiting events. Reports to CEO. Ten years+ of higher ed marketing management
experience. Advance technical knowledge of marketing research/e-commerce required.
MBA preferred. Manages staff of five. Must relocate to Phoenix, Arizona. Send
resume and cover letter to: Brian J. Boubek, President & CEO, E-mail: jobs@gowithcea.com,
Fax: 480-557-7926
If you have a short position description (100 words or less) you would like posted, please forward it on to info@stamats.com. There is no charge for this service. Job listings available online at Higher Educations Careers.
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Stamats QuickTakes is published by Stamats and is distributed to our clients and colleagues in higher education at no charge. Contents (c) 2002 by Stamats. Please feel free to forward copies of Stamats QuickTakes in its entirety to colleagues. Visit QuickTakes for past issues. To subscribe, reply to this e-mail, send your request to quicktakes@stamats.com, or visit QuickTakes.
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