Issues to come

At WORKSCOOL, the belief is that the greatest changes can come through education. Though in the larger scheme of things, education is a developmental tool, there are many whose main business is education. WORKSCOOL is an endeavour to provide essential management services to these businesses.It is an initiative towards professionalizing and stream lining the efforts taken by different people in the field of education. It is an outfit that works on educational projects.We have worked with many educational institutes in their strategic development. Workscool’s expertise in management in the education field brings to the table best practices that reduce cost and enhance efficiency, thus increasing the brand value of the institution.

Of all the things that we do as part of our consultancy, our flagship service is Edvantage Pro, which deals with expanding the base of students, Interactive Teaching Learning Environment, Quality Management & Best Practices, New Media & New Technology and Student Activities. The past issues of the Bugle have covered in parts Best Practices and New Media. It is that time of year when a new semester starts along with fests and extra-curricular activities. Students are on a roll and in their enthusiasm they forget studies and sometimes even the institute. The meaning and position of the institute needs to be conveyed to them. But first, you need to find it out for yourself. This issue starts a multi-issue discussion on Student Activities - Maintaining a student hub, co-curricular and extra-curricular activities, student care and student bodies. Here we discuss how to define your institution, position it, communicate it to the students, create student-centered activities and manage them.

Student Activities

Position your institute

What is positioning? 

According to Al Ries and Jack Trout, "Positioning is what you do to the mind of the prospective customer of your product". Take for instance a tooth brush. Some may say a tooth brush is completely unnecessary for clean teeth as long as you use good toothpaste. Yet, the next advertisement on TV says that XYZ tooth brush fights germs and plaque. It has been positioned as a germ and plaque fighter and not as something on which one applies paste. That is positioning. This simple definition is enough for our purpose. Let us now see how to position your workplace. Last week we had asked you to come up with 20 word description of your workplace. Some of you were proactive enough to share it with us. So let us start with two examples from your responses.

One of the graduate colleges described themselves as "A 55 year old college that has a very good reputation and students that are globe trotters". The other junior college called themselves, "An institute that believes in giving the best to the average students so that they can be better citizens." 

 

What do education institutes do? They educate. Both these colleges are imparting education. Yet, they do not describe themselves as just educators. Each workplace is unique. Then why do we compare our workplace with others and feel content with the tiny improvements we make each year as an educator alone. There are bigger roles to be played. For instance: the first college rubs off its reputation on each of the students who graduate and the second tries to make a difference in the society through education. If your description is very vague and not giving specifics, you can change it now. Once we have covered "what we ARE known for”, we move on to "what we WILL be known for".

 

Just like companies have 5 year plans and projections, your workplace should have one too. Even if you are not the main decision maker for deciding the direction of the workplace, you would still be tuned in to what the management wants to see the institute become in the future. Pen down a list of attributes and phrases that you may have seen mentioned in staff meetings, annual day functions and year books. For instance: best BMS college, more admissions, for the society, free education, Rs. 20 crore, new, efficient, well rounded education, etc. If you cannot recollect, huddle up with your co-workers and brainstorm on the same. You will be surprised how liberating the process can be. 

 

Now out of all those ideas, pick up the ones that look doable in the next five years. These should echo the feelings of the management. If they don't, try talking them into making a 5 year plan. The end result of the 5 year plan is what you WILL be known for. It could read as: "We want to be the college that offers students the most co-curricular and extra-curricular activities along with the best teachers in the industry." 

Now, enough about you. In the last issue, we defined WHO the customer is? Now it is time to see what he/she needs.

Make a list of the things you feel your customer needs. For instance: A student of a school needs - a good studying environment, good infrastructure, more time on hand to develop other skills, clubs, games, guest speakers, career counseling, etc. Make a really long list. Don't take any of these items for granted. List down everything you can think of, however small. Keep this list with you. You shall need it later.

1. What out of these are you offering or planning to offer in the next academic year? Tick those items. Even the small things you thought were not good enough to make it to the list. 
2. Next, from the ticked list, strike out the things that other institutes in the area are providing. You need to define your area. If you are a school, your area may be limited to 5 km. If you are a global Business School, the world is your playground. You should be able to now come up with at least a couple of unique/differentiating points about your workplace.

 

These couple of points should help you in positioning. Every college is unique. You just have to find the right words. Sure you can position yourself as "The best engineering college in Bombay" and there are chances no one will believe you or you can use the above steps and say, "XYZ is an engineering college that gives students more practical exposure than other colleges and gets them geared up for placements by having head hunters prepare them for interviews."

In the above example, the college positions itself as a good training station for recruitment. Every student may not need that, but the ones that do, would surely consider XYZ as the first choice.

 

If the above exercise churns out two or three separate attributes that cannot be strung together, choose the ones that can and use that as a positioning statement. In an industry where word of mouth makes most sales, your positioning has to be brief, comprehensive and easy to remember. 

 

Some positions you can hold:

College for the brilliant students

College for the ones who want to shine in extra-curricular activities

Morning school for the extra active kids

Focused institute for studious people

The best college for Science

 

All the above would have brought up the names of some of the colleges you know. That is subconscious positioning. Make your's conscious.

 

Till then...stay ahead!

 

 

 

 

Next week

Next week, we shall look into student centered activities and communicating to the students. 

Communication is key and we can come together to make your workplace a more effective and well-managed environment. Do write in with queries and comments at edvantage@workscool.com

Next Week: Student Centered Activities >>

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