Our Services
Our work starts where you are. We help translate your aspirations into focused operational and strategic plans that strengthen your relevance, sustainability, and value to the community you serve. If your organization is starting over, or from scratch, we provide start-up services to help you build your institutional vision. And, whether you are a new organization or an old one, we connect you with colleagues, thought-partners, and service providers to help you do what you do best.
Strategy
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Our strategic planning work is characterized by three distinctives:
1) A deep understanding of trends in higher education, including those which threaten independent colleges,
2) A thorough analysis of data about the college, which identifies opportunities for operational and structural improvement, and
3) A process which engages stakeholders across the college in planning, adoption, and implementation.
The resulting plan is imbued with realistic optimism, as it is based in the actual situation, the real strengths, and the market opportunities available to the institution.
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Institutions often have organizational structures and policies that are misaligned with current needs and strategies. We work with institutions to redesign policies and processes, and to recommend changes to organizational structure and governance in order to ensure that the college’s organization matches its greatest opportunities and needs.
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Most college campuses are home to dozens of great ideas, few of which are implemented because they fall outside of typical operations. We work with colleges to bring those entrepreneurial ideas to the fore, test them in the marketplace, and launch those which improve student learning, broaden access, and heighten revenue.
Operations
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Job opportunities and the interests of college students have changed significantly in the past two decades. The academic offerings of colleges have not kept up. Some institutions may have fallen behind by not updating fields of study, others by adding new programs without attention to student demand. Our academic program work evaluates current offerings against market demand, helps institutions decide which programs to keep, change, add, or drop, and provides support as the institution aligns its budget, marketing, and enrollment work with an updated program array.
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In a crowded marketplace, institutions can become more distinctive and effective if they partner strategically with other organizations. We work to help colleges build partnerships in academic and student life programs, back office services, and staffing. Our work in each area is dedicated to helping colleges retain control over the things they do best, even while they reduce costs and improve performance through the use of partnerships.
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Over the past two generations, small colleges have added dozens of activities to try to stay current with the field. As a result, they have become more complex and more similar to their competitors than ever before. Our operational analysis and efficiency work analyzes the operations of the institution, seeking ways to clarify, simplify, and improve operations. We promise two results: more efficient operations, which generally leads to lower operating costs; and a cleaner array of programs, which leads to improved market distinctiveness.
Problem-Solving
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Federal, state, and accreditor policy changes mean that the regulatory environment is uncertain for every institution of higher education. Regulatory changes are generally seen as threats to the institution, but every change also provides opportunities to identify new markets, increase revenues, or operate more efficiently. We work with your teams to identify the opportunities hidden in policy and regulatory change.
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Senior leadership roles at small colleges are increasingly difficult. Competing demands for resources and attention, a rapidly changing policy environment, student and parent dissatisfaction, and a challenging marketplace make higher education leadership vexing. We provide individual and small group consulting to help people find the work they can do best and improve the culture and effectiveness of campus leadership.
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With over 25 years experience in higher education, broad campus and consulting experience, and a nation-wide network of partners, we can customize a product that meets your specific needs.