Apr 28th 10 Posted by Bob Sevier

Leadership In Crisis

A Harvard Business Review article from last summer (HBR, July–August 2009) offered an interesting article entitled, “Leadership in a (Permanent) Crisis” by Ronald Heifetz, Alexander Grashow, and Marty Linsky. I have often felt that until higher education has its first heart attack, there will be a powerful temptation to maintain the status quo. Of course, over the last year or so, higher education... read more

Oct 21st 09 Posted by Bob Sevier

C+F=S – A Basic Formula for Campaign Success

Regular readers of my work will know that I really admire simplicity. With that goal in mind, I want to briefly share a basic marketing formula that I think explains a lot: C+F= S “C” represents the campaign’s concept and overall creative. C is driven by the big idea. “F” represents the frequency with which campaign elements are placed in the marketplace. F is driven by big money. “S”,... read more

Oct 2nd 09 Posted by Bob Sevier

The Many Dimensions of College Cost

At the recent NACAC meeting, I was fortunate to be one of the speakers at the iThink hosted by Brian Niles and Target X. For the 100+ enrollment and admissions officers who attended, the conversation was lively and heartfelt. Not surprisingly, the discussion centered around college cost. We talked about cost, value, affordability, and ROI. Because understanding these terms is so important, I wanted... read more

Sep 14th 09 Posted by Bob Sevier

Key Themes of Strategic Planning

In a previous post I outlined a broad definition of strategic planning (see here); there are four themes in that definition that deserve special attention. First, there is the idea that the planning process is strategic because it involves choosing how best to respond to the circumstances of a dynamic and sometimes hostile environment. This sounds easy, but it often is not. In fact, one of the greatest... read more

Aug 28th 09 Posted by Bob Sevier

Visions to See By

In this post, I want to present four visions. The first is what I believe is the best vision ever written, Dr. Martin Luther. King’s “I Have a Dream. Presented on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial before a crowd of 250,000 civil rights supporters in 1963, the speech is often considered by many to be the top American speech of the 20th century. By any measure, it is a classic vision statement. To... read more

Jul 24th 09 Posted by Bob Sevier

Assessing College Vulnerability

In June 2009, Chronicle Research Services released a compelling report: The College of 2020: Students. It is an overview of student and marketplace trends that will have a dramatic impact on colleges. The report includes data for traditional, adult, and international students. The report is available for purchase from Chronicle Research Services. While all these data are valuable, it is the report’s... read more

Jul 10th 09 Posted by Eric Sickler

New President? New Priorities.

It’s official. We live in a twitter world. All of us. Whether or not we use the social media marvel known as “twitter.” Slowly but surely, we’re all being squeezed toward communicating in short bursts of carefully chosen words. If you’re a text-message user, or if you “tweet” on twitter, you must confine your blasts to 140 characters (including spaces). Likewise, if you’re being interviewed... read more

Jul 2nd 09 Posted by Bob Sevier

What is a Vision?

Because the purpose of a strategic plan is to help a college or university achieve its vision, it is important to have a clear sense of what a vision is. According to Burt Nanus, a vision is a “realistic, credible, and attractive future” shared by members of an organization. Visions are not about the past or what you hold sacred (that’s pretty much the domain of the mission statement). Rather,... read more

Jun 9th 09 Posted by Eric Sickler

There’s a New Generation in Town…

… and age has nothing to do with it. Last year I had the good fortune of working with cultural analyst Patricia Martin, author of RenGen: The Rise of the Cultural Consumer, on a National Arts Forum project funded by MetLife Foundation. As I read her book, listened to her presentations, and traded stories with Patricia, it became clear that her research packs a significant punch for the future... read more

Apr 14th 09 Posted by Eric Sickler

THE most important question today

Measuring the return on your school’s marketing investments has never been more important. In these uncertain times, we’re doubly focused on helping schools collect, track and manage the return on their marketing investments. Tell us what recruitment program metrics and measures matter most to YOU right now… What do you consider to be the 5-7 most important measurable returns on your... read more