Examples of Focused Strategic Analyses
Strategic Mission Review--We lead institutions through the process of reconsideration of basic elements of their mission, helping them to determine the answers to critical questions: Should they provide co-educational or single-sex educational programming? Should they remain or become a liberal arts or comprehensive college or university, or should they merge with another institution? We help the whole campus community--board, executive team, faculty, staff, students and alumni--work together to determine and share ownership of the course that will best allow the institution to sustain its mission and thrive in the future.
Strategic Organizational Review, including Focused Executive Searches--Are your key organizational units operating efficiently and effectively? How do you know if you are getting the most from your resources, whether you are taking appropriate advantage of the latest technology, or if there are better ways to deliver institutional services? We can help your institution to review processes, analyze expected and realized results, and assess customer satisfaction. Then, based on these findiings, we can help you to develop and implement changes to increase your organizational effectiveness. With major change efforts such as processs redesign or organizational restructuring, we work closely with your staff to ensure that those who will be most affectd by changes in the work environment are deeply involved in the process of analysis, assessment, and work redesign.
And with Focused Executive Search, we can help you identify and select the best candidates to fill key leadership positions at your institution. Through our extensive network of higher education executives and experience managing the crucial but laborious process of executive search, we can save you time, money and worry in the search to fill your executive positions with the best and brightest in higher education.
Accelerated/Abridged Planning--In cases where significant planning efforts have already been initiated but require expert input and/or guidance to move forward or where time or resource constraints make the full strategic planning process impractical, we can introduce an abridged version of our traditional planning process to achieve success. We can also focus our efforts on aspects of one of our time-tested phases of strategic planning, like strategic issue identification or operational planning.
Strategic Academic Planning--We help institutions determine what focus their academic programs and support services should take so that they will be as effective as possible in the delivery of these programs and as distinctive as possible in the marketplace. We can help you design a complete evaluation of all academic and support programs on up to four axes: Mission compatibility, quality, financial performance and marketability. This evaluation relies upon our expertise in leading institutions through a process that will result in boradly owned decsions, our analytic competency in organizing your institutional quality metrics, and our financial planning and survey research services.
Strategic Enrollment Management, including Survey Research--We guide institutions though the consideration of what their markets for students should be, how they should position and price themselves in those markets, what the quality, size and mix of their student body should be, and what they should do to recruit and retain that student body. We conduct a thorough program and organizational evaluation and develop with you a research plan that relies upon internal and market-based focus group discussions and random sample surveys to determine student satisfaction with your current programs and how these programs and new ones might appeal to the marketplace. Typically we work with a cross-functional team to develop an enrollment management plan based upon our evaluation and the results of our research.
Strategic Infrastructure Review--We help institutions determine how their physical campus should be developed and physical spaces should be allocated to achieve their mission; what mechanisms for planning, resource allocation, and delivering quality services will enable them to achieve their vision; and what uses of technology, in and out of the classroom, by faculty and administrators, and across programs and sites, will best enable them to deliver services and programs that meet the needs of their stakeholders and support their mission.
Strategic Technology Assessment--Change is difficult and technology can be confusing--together they can bring an institution to its knees. We have the people, the expertise, and the implementation processes to bring your systems on-line successfully and with as little disruption as possible. We can help you assess which administrative computer system is best for your institution, when you should upgrade, what features are most important for you, and how much can you afford. We can help your institution address these key questions during the all-important systems selection process. Then we can manage the implementation of your selected information systems smoothly, efficiently, and in the context of your institutional culture and needs.