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. 6, no. 19: The Art of Management
In this issue.
ON STRATEGY: THE ART OF MANAGEMENT
The November 2003 issue of Harvard Business Review contains a fascinating article, "The Five Minds of a Manager" by Jonathan Gosling and Henry Mintzberg (of The Rise and Fall of Strategic Planning fame) that presents a nice side-by-side comparison between manager as hero (it's all up to me) and manager as collaborator (it's up to us).
This article is useful because it
carefully details the different approaches these management styles take to strategy
development and execution; precisely the issues that so many colleges grapple
with.
Heroic management |
Engaging management (based on collaboration) |
| Managers are important people, separate from those who develop products and deliver services. | Managers are important to the extent that they help other people do the important work of developing products and delivering services. |
| The higher "up" these managers go, the more important they become. At the "top," the chief executive is the corporation. | An organization is an interacting network, not a vertical hierarchy. Effective leaders work throughout; they do not sit on top. |
| Down the hierarchy comes the strategy—clear, deliberate, and bold—emanating from the chief, who makes the dramatic moves. Everyone else "implements." | Out of the network emerge strategies, as engaged people solve little problems that grow into big initiatives. |
| Implementation is the problem because, while the chief embraces change, most others resist it. That is why outsiders must be favored over insiders. | Implementation is the problem because it cannot be separated from formulation. That is why committed insiders are necessary to come up with the key changes. |
| To manage is to make decisions and allocate resources—including human resources. Managing thus means analyzing, often calculating, based on facts from reports. | To manage is to bring out the positive energy that exists naturally within people. Managing thus means inspiring and engaging, based on judgment that is rooted in context. |
| Rewards for increasing performance go to tht leaders. What matters is what's measured—shareholder value, in particular. | Rewards for making the organization a better place go to everyone. Human values, many of which cannot be measured, matter. |
| Leadership is thrust upon those who thrust their will upon others. | Leadership is a sacred trust earned through the respect of others. |
What's especially fascinating about this discourse is that colleges, historically quite collaborative, are interested in gaining efficiencies while companies, historically less collaborative, are seeking to become more so.
TIME
AS INSTITUTIONAL ASSET
By Eric Sickler, Principal Consultant
"The wheels of The Academy spin
very slowly." You've heard it, you've thought it, you may
have cursed it, and you've probably said it out loud more than a few times
during the course of your career.
During a thought-provoking presentation by Southern Oregon University's
Provost and V.P. for Academic Affairs Earl Potter at the recent AACRAO-SEM Conference
in Boston, it occurred to me that the time has come for us to challenge this
commonly accepted, age-old, higher ed idiosyncrasy. Faced with double-digit
budget cuts and high-stakes competition, most of the institutions that comprise
The Academy can no longer afford to allow some of their process wheels
to spin as slowly as we've allowed them to spin over the years.
"We need to make some decisions at the speed of business," Potter
suggested. I couldn't agree more. While I recognized (and usually just
chuckled about) "task forcing" and "committee-ing" programs
and projects to death during my administrative tenure, the many real costs of
protracted decision-making processes became crystal clear after just a few weeks
in the corporate ranks. Time really is money when it comes to striking
a blow for establishing a competitive advantage. The need to demonstrate your
school's distinctiveness has never been more essential, and at the same
time, schools simply must identify as many opportunities as possible to maximize
efficiencies in the face of present economic realities.
So, how might campus leaders attempt a cultural shift from traditional lethargic
decision-making to making decisions at the speed of business? With thanks to
Dr. Potter (and apologies for taking some editorial liberties) here are a handful
of suggestions:
1. Recognize that the quality of some outputs/decisions/programs may be compromised
if their processes are accelerated. However, identify and challenge those facets
of your institution's operation that are crawling at a snail's pace
for no good reason.
2. Support the best ideas immediately. Reward those who think fast and smart.
Doing so may encourage your turtles to pick up the pace.
3. Celebrate successful efficiency. Put innovators and their innovations in
the spotlight on your campus, and highlight their unusually timely performance.
4. Collect data and put it to work immediately. Shelved research is the product
of a foolhardy investment.
5. Nurture members of your campus community to resist the temptation
to immediately address a challenge with a tactic. Demand a thoughtful strategic
analysis before you entertain a tactical solution.
6. Respect the sanctity of consensus, but understand the difference between
unanimity and functional consensus. The former can be a big
black time hole. The latter will facilitate forward motion.
7. Identify leading-edge technologies at work on your campus and introduce them
to the rest of the campus to accelerate the return on your technological investments.
For example, Dr. Potter suggested that crackerjack GIS technology in your geography
department should also be an integral component of your political science curriculum,
not to mention your university marketing programming. Likewise, theatre departments'
design courses can benefit from CAD-CAM technology at work in your engineering
program.
8. Don't be a slave to hierarchy. Create a working environment that encourages
members of your campus community to be interested in, and informed on, issues
and duties beyond those listed in their position descriptions. Only then can
talented "underlings" enjoy having a positive impact on shaping
the future of their institutions.
Pie-in-the-sky stuff? Hardly. But it takes a confident administrative team to
challenge the sacred status quo of a slow-moving decision-making train. In the
spirit of turning lemons into lemonade, use prevailing economic challenges to
bolster your own confidence…and do it quickly. There's no time to
lose.
Thanks for reading! I'd be interested in your comments. E-mail me at:
eric.sickler@stamats.com.
WEB PASSES TV AS TEEN MEDIUM OF CHOICE
From DIRECT newsletter (www.dmnews.com) we learn that teens and young adults have passed an important milestone. According to a study by Yahoo Inc. and Carat North America, teens and young adults now spend more time online than watching television.
According to the report, in an average week, teens and young adults ages 13-24 spend 16.7 hours online (excluding e-mail); 13.6 hours watching television; 12 hours listening to the radio; 7.7 hours talking on the phone; and six hours reading non-school related books and magazines.
The 2,618 individuals who were polled in the study indicated that the Web's ability to personalize information timing and content was the primary reason the Web was chosen as the favored medium.
"Marketers have been using the same media strategies since television became the primary medium for most market segments in the 1950s." said Wenda Harris Millard, chief sales officer of Yahoo, in a statement. "Our industry needs to evaluate and change our communications approach to successfully reach this."
COMPREHENSIVE INTEGRATED MARKETING WORKBOOK JUST RELEASED
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:
The book 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 markets, 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.
During my client engagements, I often encounter really insightful, or sometimes just unusual quotes and comments. Here are some of my favorites from 2003.
NEW CLIENTS
Job listings available online at Higher Educations Careers.
If you have a short position description (100 words or less) you would like posted, please forward it on to brandy.huseman@stamats.com. There is no charge for this service.
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