An article from LinkedIn called Why sales is finally putting the buyer first recently dropped into our inbox, and it got us thinking. Shouldn't this always be the case? How could we build on that idea in our world of Education Marketing and Admissions? Our first thoughts immediately turned to values. We've been thinking about values a lot recently, and a values-based approach to sales and recruitment sits very well within that idea of working with trust, integrity, and empathy at the heart of what we do.
Why? We've already talked about the negative stereotypes of those working in the sales profession and the cultures behind these stereotypes. Creating positive relationships with our clients and partners and really investing in them, is so important when we believe in the work we are doing and why we are doing it. So, we thought we could share these thoughts with you, and bring you four #geNEOustips on creating a values-based approach to student recruitment in education organizations.
OK, so we started with a big one. However, it really is cut and dried because there are only two choices here: you can represent a service or organization that you really believe in, or you can put on the mask and represent something that doesn't connect with you at all. We once talked to a colleague in university admissions who had previously worked selling home alarm systems in very rural areas with almost zero crime. He told us that after a few days of trying to convince people to feel afraid of what could happen, he dropped the mask and went to find something he could connect with.
He was offered a role with a small business school and really believed in the way they talked about students and their passion for education. He has been there for 15 years now and told us that it "feels natural" to represent something that genuinely aligns with what you believe is important. A values-based approach to work really matters.A disconnect between your values and what you do is a type of cognitive dissonance and can do significant damage to you through stress. The troubling thing is that it's not always easy to see; it can be extreme and it can be obscure, and so we need to ask ourselves the right questions. Do I believe in what I represent, and what is it that I really connect with? If you can't answer this, it might be time for a change.
Buyer personas are of course important in Admissions and Marketing to try to establish communication strategies and make sure the services on offer are the right fit for your audience.That said, your 3 pm call is not with a persona; it's with a person. What is their background? Are there any notes on the CRM about previous interactions? Where are they from and what is it they are really interested in? Do they have a social media profile that will help you understand more? What sections and topics have they clicked on or visited before getting in touch with the admissions team?
Any information you can prepare beforehand will help to connect, and anything that is missing can become a question for you to ask them. If we are really frank, much more time should go into understanding who your prospective student really is and what they really want, and not into preparing a "pitch".Scenarios and sales pitch are tools to guide you, but let's never forget the importance of emotions and meaningful connections. Picture yourself in the potential student's shoes. Do you prefer to be talking with a robot that only has rational answers, or with a human who can empathize with you and guide you in both an emotional and rational way towards the next step on your education pathway?
Sometimes we can assume that people already know what they want. It's not always the case, because we can only choose from options we are already aware of. Underneath this are often deeper needs, and a trained ear can find them.In a conversation, a prospective student is focusing a lot on the question of university rankings. Why might this be? Is there a need for the recognition of having studied at a prestigious university, is it a concern about the true academic quality of the program, or are the parents looking to secure their investment? Ask.
Instead of reacting and simply listing the rankings from any number of organizations, try to understand what motivates the question.You may find out that, for example, they simply need more reassurance of academic standards, and rankings are often unreliable. Why not connect them to student ambassadors, or highlight key accreditations instead. Only by really understanding the need that motivates the request can we truly meet it.In this sense, we are going beyond the approach of meeting the basic needs of the prospective student. We are adding value by completely surpassing expectations, and this is how long term, robust relationships are created. Prospective students are not receiving a sales pitch from an employee, but rather personalized counsel from a Key Account professional. There is a huge difference.
It may be a book you would never associate with our world of education Marketing and Recruitment, but Marshall Rozenberg's Non-Violent Communication is a masterclass in building empathy. Rozenberg tells us that to truly listen to someone, "we must completely abandon the goal of getting other people to do what we want."Can we be honest? That does not come easy. So much of what we learn in admissions and marketing is focused on persuading the other person to do what we want. Values-based thinking is simply more human because it puts the other person first. We are here as a service and that means we need to let the other person talk.
We are good at what we do. We believe in what we represent, and we know it inside out. The more we listen, the more we can mentally cross out aspects of what we offer, which are just not relevant to this person. Yes, stepping back to listen helps to gain insight, but also a sense of trust. By not imposing our own "pitch" on the conversation, we are laying the foundations of a long term relationship, where we can be a source of help, support, advice, and information to this person and referrals within their network.
When you believe in what you represent - both the quality and the purpose- communicating with prospective students can truly align with your values and become a more empathetic, human experience for everyone. Short term "prospects" become long term relationships, and the whole thing becomes more organic.Now it is time to add metrics. Yes, KPI's and targets will always be a part of this sector, and for good reason. Partners who work with geNEOus (formerly NEO Academy) will tell you that we don't skimp on the metrics, and we are granular in the structures we set out to measure success and efficiency.But the approach in our four geNEOustips lays the groundwork first and underpins the metrics.
This is not squeezing performance from employees armed with a pitch and pushed with a pitchfork. This is an organic results culture that comes from a genuine belief in what we offer, and from forging empathetic, high-value connections with the people we deal with. geNEOus (formerly NEO Academy) can support your organization to bring this type of service to life. We are here to support in anything from personalizing automations in your marketing & recruitment processes and making sure important details and insights are always available to you, or even bringing a Sales Academy right into the heart of your organization.
Why not contact us to tell us what you need. We promise we're good listeners.
In higher and further education this year much is being written about the fact that we are at a pivotal moment, but what comes next is clearly a matter of huge debate. What has emerged, however, is a clear picture of just how nimble education can be. Say what you like about the “old fashioned” institutions, but when the pressure is on we have seen just how quickly and creatively these same institutions can adapt. With the huge debts that governments have incurred in mitigating the effects of Covid-19, institutions know that little in the way of public money will be available to help the recovery in education. Jobs will be lost, and teaching and learning disrupted.
The typical response to an economic crisis in education has been to increase enrollment. New markets, trimmed operating costs, more attractive courses, and campus experiences. But this time, the crisis is not merely economic. There is certainly work to do in the revenue modeling that comes with falling student numbers, demand for cheaper courses held online, and the reality that quality online courses are not much cheaper to actually provide. Beyond the balance sheet, however, are potentially huge new social implications that change the way we study and work. As Timothy Devinney put it, “maybe this is the crisis that Higher Education had to have”.
Enter the concept of liquid learning. Though the attributes that make up liquid learning are not new, the umbrella term itself is still emerging into the lexicon of education. Back in 2014, the Horizon report forecast that a major emerging trend would be the “Integration of Online, Hybrid, and Collaborative Learning”. Synchronous and asynchronous learning opportunities, interactive and gamified materials, students as creators, not consumers, and the opportunity to find a pathway through education that suited you regardless of where and when you wanted to study.
Embracing this model are IE University, with a Liquid Learning model they describe as an “infinitely customizable” and “borderless” approach to study. This new paradigm, which builds on experiential learning, social/communal constructivism, and immersive learning theories is well-positioned to appeal to a broad range of students, beyond the typical age range recruited for undergraduate and postgraduate study.
Curricula are designed with provisions to explore the process of learning together with the students. Hence, the learning strategies and teaching strategies are opened up for discussion, within the context of everyone’s own previous experiences. This means an institution accepting that its students are ‘informed learners’ with their own learning strategies, which may not fit perfectly with the tutor's approach. This doesn’t mean a lack of structure or a chaotic approach, but it means that instructors and learners are both parts of the discussion.
A good liquid learning environment is not based on technological determinism; which is to say, the belief that the value is in the technology itself. Technology is a tool and is only used with a solid pedagogical foundation. Much of this is an easy sell. Imagine, if you will, a biology student stepping into a virtual reality simulation of the replication of DNA. They are able to “see” the bonding sequence in a way that a PowerPoint simply cannot convey. In business strategy, a case study is gamified, offering students real-time feedback on their decisions at each stage in the activity. This is not technology as a gimmick but as a powerful tool for deeper learning.
The “flipped” classroom is a well-established model now, where students acquire the knowledge from lectures or texts at the time which best suits their own lives, and then construct the knowledge together with peers at a set time. This is at the heart of liquid learning. With families to care for, shift patterns at work, international time differences and of course a variation in chronotype, asynchronous learning makes sense. Engage with the material whenever suits you, and pause-rewind-fast forward to your heart’s content. However, good learning should also be social, but the liquid model ensures that synchronous learning is collaborative. That video lecture you watched yesterday? Now it’s time to apply it to a group challenge, facilitated by your tutor and assessed by your peer group. This is how knowledge is constructed and is a stronger form of learning, almost all educators would agree.
The word “liquid” might have given the game away, but the curriculum itself is never static in this model. As the world changes, trends emerge, feedback is collated and learning is applied to change things for the next round of students. This is an evolving and evolutionary approach to education.
Liquid working is a topic area in its own right and one which we will certainly explore in the future. However, during your studies in a liquid learning model, you are encouraged to apply what you learn at work to your education and vice versa. The institution’s partnerships with business come into play here; helping students to find the best jobs, internships or professional experiences to fit the learning objectives.
Within a liquid model, you could study the first semester fully online from Turkey, with an internship in Istanbul and a supervisor in Kuala Lumpur. Fast forward to semester 2, and you are in a co-working space in Barcelona, attending weekly tutorials at a micro hub, viewing your lectures in the evening after work, and taking part in a business strategy challenge every Friday with a group of local entrepreneurs. The possibilities are endless.
With a varied learning environment and an emphasis on student-centered and self-directed learning comes the opportunity for teachers to tailor mentorship and coaching practices to their students. With the pre-recording of lectures, for example, comes some extra time in the schedule of a busy professor, and the opportunity to apply this to more focused professional guidance is something that few students are likely to be unhappy with.
Kegan wrote back in 2009 that there were serious challenges in training professors to really explore and adapt to the learning strategies of students. This is a similar issue in terms of the social and cultural communication skills needed for such open environments. Much clearer mapping of the impact of specific technology in learning activities needs to emerge, and of course, measuring outcomes in such a fluid environment is going to be tricky too.
Accreditation of degrees and masters programs is not typically thought of as “fluid” and this is likely to be one of the most challenging aspects of this new approach. In a 2014 study, one respondent teacher in a liquid model was quoted as saying “‘It’s anomalous, I think, to offer people opportunities to learn in different kinds of ways and then revert to very traditional forms of assessment, or very rigid course patterns. It’s a contradiction really.’ “
Whatever the future holds, we can see that rigidity of an institution’s strategy is unlikely to weather the storms ahead. There may be challenges in bringing the model into mainstream use but, with the greater challenges to come to our external environment, perhaps it’s time we all took a second look at liquid learning.
You have to work at it and be consistent. In the world of education, those of us working in admissions and marketing are often fighting the stereotypes of the pushy salesperson, where trust is hard-earned. For geNEOus (formerly NEO Academy), an ethical culture is built on clear values above all else. An organization that lives by its values and empowers its team to do the same, will always be stronger, with a more loyal and committed team and better long term relationships with stakeholders.
In a changing world, core values provide stability, and 96% of CEO's believe that values are the essential heart of decision making. Work from PwC's strategy& reports that organizations with a clearly defined values-based culture are 1.7 times more profitable and grow 1.9 times faster. We are not saying it's always easy, and we will be sharing experiences of how values really work in action, but in the long term, embedding values into the DNA of your organization is hugely positive.
We're not talking about extensive ethical policies embedded in a huge corporate organization; we're talking about small teams working in our world of education marketing and recruitment. No company is too small to think about this, and even the family businesses, which get very little attention from strategists, can find discussions around values to be a great way to establish a working culture that clearly delineates the boundaries between home and office.
If you have ever worked for a family business, you'll know why this is important as it starts to grow. As departments appear and teams grow, there has to be commonality at the core. So how do we build a culture like this in an organization?
Here are the five key geNEOus tips on how you can build a culture like this in a human way:
Values are not an accessory but embedded at the core of everything you do. Sitting down with the team to really get clear what is important to you and why is something that might take a bit of time. You're basically establishing who you really are, and that's not something to rush. The process can be as simple as each individual choosing their top 5 values and then comparing why. The World Values Day project has a great resource for companies, which lays out the steps clearly.
We think this process is also a way to really get to know who is working with you and what their values are. This is the first step to signaling to your team that it is ok to be you, and being your authentic self at work is welcomed and encouraged. Drop the business-speak and dig deep because the perk of emotional connection is worth more than anything else you can give. Arriving at your values together really means something. You are opening up to each other and finding common core ground that means everyone is invested; heart and head.
Hiring in a small organization means knowing your staff well, onboard into values, and not just know-how. We work in branding, yet sometimes forget that internal branding is just as vital as the external version. Start the conversation early with new hires. What's behind your MVV (Mission, Vision, Values) statements, and what kinds of behavior are expected or encouraged in your interactions with clients and with each other?
Tell stories, give examples, and try to focus on the things you've learned along the way that have formed how you see things now. What judgment calls have had to be made, and what was the takeaway from these? A company's culture comes as much from lessons learned in challenging times as it does from success stories. Values are forged in experiences, and those stories need to come to life in stories and reflections.
As a leader of a values-based organization, you must model the behavior you expect from others. Always consider the ethical implications of your actions and ask the same of your team. Embed this way of thinking in procedures so staff can see you're serious about it.
Bernie Banks, Associate Dean for Leadership Development at the Kellogg School said in an interview with Industry Week that:
“If you don’t follow up, if they don’t see that you actually refer to those things and incorporate them in a very intentional way in future decisions, then over time people will just become numb to it.”
Yes, your core values should be visible, on the wall and on the website, but if they are not visible in your actions, and the way you talk and frame ideas, then our natural cynicism is likely to kick in and write the whole thing off as just more talk. Take a look at PwC's value statements for a good example of how they link specific pledges to core values so that everyone is clear on how they manifest themselves in everyday working life.
Getting to know your team is important, as people who have their own lives, values, and experiences, and don't only exist in the office chair. By sharing experiences beyond small talk about the weekend, the psychological distance between home and work personas can reduce. Pandemic references aside, who wants to work in a place where you have to wear a mask every day? You hired this person because of who they are, so help them be that person in this new environment. Sharing experiences of things you got wrong is important. If you are a leader, we need to see your vulnerability to feel that you are approachable.
This gives your team the confidence and permission to come to you with possible errors in judgment, concerns they have, or maybe just for advice and some connection. This open channel of communication helps people to be themselves. It works both ways as well; ask your team for advice too! Why wall yourself off in tough judgment calls when it's an opportunity to explore the ideas, get input, and show the team that their thoughts matter? Encourage your team to communicate with radical candor and you're on the path to authentic organizational culture.
In the end, decisions are yours, but navigating tough choices together as a team and using core values for guidance will reaffirm that you are in this together. The team can see you implementing the values in the decision-making process, and sticking to them. This gives important reassurance to them that they can do the same.
Empowering your team to live out your core values will take time and consistent effort, but it's not always about training and supporting. You might also think about rewarding ethical behavior, and making it visible.
Reinforcing a values-based culture is an everyday thing, and we don't always get it right. However, if we want to get out of bed every day and feel like we believe in what we are doing, believe that we don't have to leave a part of ourselves at the office door or Zoom call, and have something to turn to when tough decisions need to be made, strong and consistent core values are what's needed.
At geNEOus (formerly NEO Academy) we will continue to keep doing our best because we believe it's the right way to be, for us, and for the organizations and partners we work with.
We have more to come in this series of geNEOus (formerly NEO Academy) Culture articles. If you are in the world of Education, Marketing, Communications, Admissions or Sales, we would love to hear what your thoughts are, and welcome any ideas for topics to explore. Let's keep the conversation going.
In a survey conducted by HubSpot in 2016, pushy was the top word associated with salespeople. "Untrustworthy", "driven", "biased" and "persistent" were following closely behind.So where do these perceptions come from? Think back to behaviors from sales professionals you have found off-putting. From the rep who just keeps calling you about that new CRM software, to the shop assistant that follows you round the premises offering unsolicited advice, we all have our share of negative impressions. These experiences are often the starting point in our dealings with sales professionals; guilty until proven innocent.
A study in 2015 uncovered some interesting findings about the world of sales:
1. Most people working in sales did not start out aiming to be there.
2. Most people working in sales have not received any explicit training in this field.
3. There is a lot of turnover in sales, with professionals changing companies frequently.
Now let's think about what this means. We might have individuals who have "ended up" in the education admissions field, and who have not received the training support they need, beyond the service knowledge that's directly relevant. Add the sometimes huge pressure to "crush numbers", and is it any wonder that turnover is high? When all the talk is about quotas and performance, is it really fair to judge the admissions professional as pushy or impatient? Issues like this don't start with admissions professionals, it starts with the culture around them.
We focus too much on whether the admissions professional over-promised, under-delivered, or "closed" the sale without any further guidance offered to the student. Instead of talking about "pushy" salespeople, perhaps we should be asking: How are they being pushed? We need to own this one. Sales and admissions are part of a creative and exciting profession that is all about relationships, communication and problem-solving. Most of sales really revolves around empathizing with the problem you are trying to solve for someone else, and if you're not able to do so, simply being honest about that.
"If I have 60 minutes to solve a problem, I'd spend 55 minutes in defining it, and 5 minutes solving it" - Albert Einstein
But a culture that promotes positive behaviors doesn't just come from nowhere. This culture has to be intentional, and it has to be built on a strong foundation. The keystone of that structure is a match between 2 words: trust and integrity.Yes, trust and integrity. We said it, and we mean it. At geNEOus (formerly NEO Academy), these are our corest of core values, and you will hear these words from us a lot. By the way, we're not even sorry about inventing the word "corest".
We want to talk about the value of integrity and trust with other organizations, with young professionals coming into the world of education marketing and student recruitment, and with you.Trust means empowering collaborators to become intrapreneurs and own their ability to inspire and be inspired by others. At geNEOus (formerly NEO Academy), this is how we started our journey.
Our Founder & CEO, Alejandra Otero, went through the intrapreneurship path before taking the leap to the become an entrepreneur in education marketing. We believe that, apart from strategic goals and operational road maps, trusting and being trusted by the people you work with, is what takes a collaboration to its best.Integrity means doing the right thing when nobody is looking. Websites are full of value statements, but in an authentically values-based organization, what you truly believe will impact every aspect of your business.
At geNEOus (formerly NEO Academy), this runs through who we employ, who we work with, doing what we say we will do, and knowing when to say no.The times we had to say no were not easy. When you've invested many hours in working towards an agreement, and in trying to understand how best to support a client, saying no is hard. The thing is, we cannot think of a single time we had to say no that we actually regret. That's the thing; the short term consequences fade, but the long term effects endure. So we ask ourselves: what is it we want to build?
A Harvard study in 2020 laid it all out clearly. People want to work for an organization that will encourage them to be themselves, and empower them to live and work by shared values. Who wants to have to switch personas when they sit in the office chair? Who wants to go home at night feeling that they compromised on who they are?In our series of articles and stories on geNEOus (formerly NEO Academy) Culture, we want to get the conversation going. We've already planted our flag by talking about the importance of vulnerability in sales, and that means being yourself, and sharing how you feel with others.In the coming months, you'll be hearing the stories from our team. How we built and continue to strive for an ethical and values-based culture.
How it is to be young women in the world of sales and marketing, when you want to be true to what you believe, and to inspire others to come with you. geNEOus (formerly NEO Academy) is a fast-growing and dynamic organization that is determined to disrupt an archaic education marketing landscape by helping our clients succeed in a rapidly changing environment. We could not do what we do without that strong foundation and commitment to our core values.
If this resonates with you, and you want to join the conversation, contact us. If you would like us to connect with your team to share our experiences and insights with them, then let us know, and let's get this conversation moving.
On a cold, rainy February evening in 1990, your friend invites you over to watch a movie with her. It starts at 8:30 pm and you're already late because you got held up with family drama. You run outside and try to hail a cab, but they're all full. Finally one stops and 20 minutes later, dripping wet, you arrive at your friend's house. You missed the start of the movie, and it's on TV so no rewind this time. It's still enjoyable, and you really want to watch part 2 while you're in the mood, but you'd have to go to the video shop and it's still raining.
You'd like to know more about the movie and the backstory, but the movie itself is all you have, and there's really nobody to ask. Tell this story to someone who is 19 years old today, and they will find it quaintly amusing. In the age of Uber and Netflix, services come to you when you want them, and you are in full control. But yet, this same 19 year old has just started studying at University and, exciting as it might be, she has just as little control in this as our soggy protagonist did on that rainy February evening in 1990. Allow us to explain why.
The tyranny of the 9am lecture
Like our 1990's TV movie, University lectures and tutorials have a fixed schedule. If you miss the class, you might be lucky enough to get notes from a classmate, but the chances are that you're catching up on content on your own. If you can easily afford to take 4 years out to get a degree, you either live somewhere that supports you, such as Iceland or the Czech Republic, or you are from a socio-economic background that can make it possible.
For many, things are more complicated. According to a recent article in the Washington Post:
"Colleges and universities (in the USA) have long struggled to meet the needs of the estimated 4.3 million undergraduates, — about one in five — with children. Few have policies and facilities to support student parents and even those that do often find their resources stretched thin".
For these parents, juggling their responsibilities at home with an inflexible schedule at University is putting such an extra burden on them. It's much the same story with students who have to work. In a country like the USA, where tuition fees are increasingly prohibitive, Mental Health America estimates that more than half of college students have to work to pay tuition. Inflexible, synchronous learning is great if you can put your life on pause for 4 years, but this is just not an option for so many of us.
In the age of binge-watching a series on Netflix, it is funny to think back to the time when we had to walk to the video store if we felt like watching part 2. Nowadays we can watch whatever we feel like on the device that suits us, in a place we feel comfortable, and a time we feel ready to engage.
What if I have a period of flexibility and really want to binge-study my theoretical physics materials, or I find myself just struggling with my marketing case study and need some more time to get into the underlying concepts. Sorry, but Universities have decided that 3-4 years is how long it takes. This course is 36 hours and that one is 70.
You can access the content when we release it to you, and if you're not ready for the next section, I'm afraid we just can't wait. At university, we study in a cohort and, like our Roman namesake, we all march as a unit to the same destination.
We have known for a while now that lockstep sequencing of content does not empower self-directed lifelong learning in any way. We also know that when students can choose the time and mode of learning, and pick their own pathway through the content framework, this not only suits our complex modern lives, but reduces dropout rates and improves outcomes when it's done well. It is clear that asking students to engage with education entirely on its own terms is just anachronistic in the age of technology and independent learning. The global pandemic of 2020 has disrupted this model, and change has been accelerated in a matter of months, rather than the slow transition to more flexible learning.
We are in a time of transition. We have written about the end of the traditional MBA and Google's disruption of Higher Education. This is an opportunity for us to step back and think about how we really want things to be. There will never be a better time.
At geNEOus (formerly NEO Academy), it is our job to understand what students and institutions want and help facilitate engagement and communication. From Liquid learning to adaptive learning, AI and VR to MOOCs and student-centered pedagogy, join us on geNEOus (formerly NEO Academy)'s blog to spark those synapses over your morning coffee.
We come to you, because that's how it should be.
In part one of our mini series on the Circular Economy, we arrived at the conclusion that, although Primary and Secondary education seem to be motoring ahead with their systemic focus on sustainability, 21st century skills, and preparation for a shift to the Circular Economy, Higher Education was lagging behind. That is not to say that progress is not happening (it is), but that we have yet to reach the same systemic level of change.
The Ellen Macarthur Foundation has set the bar, with five areas for a university to work on, to ensure it adequately prepares students to work in a circular economy:
When the world of IT is crying out for leadership in a rethink of how we design technology for a circular economy, universities must respond. Sustainable design has rapidly become a mainstream subject at many of the world's top universities, in everything from architecture to fashion. The University of Aalborg's Masters in Sustainable Design, for example, is focused on offering "new solutions to societal challenges".
Aside from a newfound conscience that puts sustainability higher up a CEO's agenda, McKinsey has found that a circular economy approach "could boost Europe’s resource productivity by 3 percent by 2030, generating cost savings of €600 billion a year and €1.8 trillion more in other economic benefits".
The age of doing well by doing good is truly here, and when universities choose to answer the call from industry, their actions influence others to follow. To reach a tipping point we need mavens and connectors, and universities can be both rolled into one. However, let us not forget that offering a sustainability masters does not mean a university is really "walking the walk". Students will quickly perceive the disconnect if there is no cultural buy-in to support it. The Hidden Curriculum is just as influential, so what else can they do?
By leading research into the Circular Economy, Universities can really use their resources to break down some of the complexities surrounding our transition away from a linear model. Oxford University and Saïd Business School have a joint research and incubation project for how education can integrate the Circular Economy into its framework. The most exciting thing about this is that they fully and actively involve students, academics and business leaders.
This one is not going so well or so quickly. As we discussed in part one, there is still a lack of engagement with teachers about how to integrate CE principles into their discipline.One innovation which we typically find associated with business-related programs, is to create sustainability pathways through the curriculum. This means that at each level, in each area, students can choose a course with sustainability embedded.
One university which does this very well is Kellogg Northwestern in Illinois. Their students can study courses such as Decision making for sustainable business and sustainability reporting. So whether you are majoring in management or finance, you have focused preparation for a circular economy running through the heart of your studies.This is not embedding CE principles in all classes and courses, but rather complementing them. A step in the right direction nonetheless.
This is one of the most under served areas of preparation for a Circular Economy. A study of 200 universities showed that most campuses focus on the issue of energy efficiency; making noise about reducing their carbon footprint, whilst actively involving students in sustainability projects languished at the bottom of the pile. This is the Hidden Curriculum being largely ignored; overt displays of sustainability are prioritized, but where are the experiential opportunities for students to truly live this commitment to change?
Source: MDPI 2018
The University of the Creative Arts recently began work on embedding CE principles into all of their programs. As an example of really putting principle into practice, they ran a fantastic student action project, where waste Fishing Nets and Ropes were up-cycled and repurposed, to become anything from lighting to textiles. The project was integrated with their design programs, and counted as part of their credit-bearing course work. This is how it's done.
You can't just teach it, you have to live it. A university campus can't just stick up some "turn off the lights" stickers and some recycling bins and lay claim to sustainability. Campuses have to think big. The university of Arizona recently won an award for its new Phoenix campus which aims at net zero impact across everything from grounds maintenance to food procurement and disposal.Teachers and administrators need to be on board, and really behind the efforts to show a circular model of sustainability. A true systemic shift will never come from the classroom alone. Students have to feel the dedication to purpose all around them in all aspects of their campus activity.
The links are tightening and more universities and industries are joining forces, but our dominant economic model remains linear and the old guard are hanging on tightly. A new generation is coming through a primary and secondary school system that is really preparing young people for the transition to a circular economy. Businesses are under pressure to make the shift, and we even see that it can be profitable.
In the middle are universities, and the world will not wait much longer for them to become part of the new reality. To remain relevant and to use their huge influence and resources to be part of this shift, institutions must collaborate and share to create a common approach that works. After all, that's what the Circular Economy is all about.
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There was a time when resources must have seemed infinite. We took what we needed from the earth, made the things we wanted to, and then consigned them to waste when they were no longer useful. There was always more, and so our way of doing things evolved to fit this linear model.
This has created a mindset that has infiltrated the way we do things at every level. Products are designed to become obsolete while they are still functional, and any progress that is made in efficiency is generally made by companies acting alone to gain competitive advantage. Sharing that knowledge means losing ground.
Money is still the dominant denominator of what "value" means, and the value of a product itself is determined by what people will pay for it. Sound familiar?
This is the linear economic model. The trouble is, that resources, as we now know, are certainly not infinite, and the cost of doing business this way is bringing our planet to the brink of catastrophe. With phrases like "zero waste" now universally familiar, there is a growing impulse towards minimizing the consequences of the linear economic model. But zero waste is simply circular thinking in a linear model. Zero waste is essential, but it is only an innovation in the existing model. This does not go far enough. This will not turn things around. For true change to happen, the whole model has to shift. A true circular economy is a fundamental transformation in our attitudes towards resources, value creation, and the definition of "progress".
The circular economy is disruption on a grand scale. It is a rethink of the way we do everything on a global level. Instead of taking more than nature can sustainably provide, we do more with what the planet can naturally give us. We design products to stay in use and to be shared by consumers. Products will not have planned obsolescence but will have extendable life cycles designed into their production. Know-how, risks and benefits will be shared along the supply chain, and the value created will be societal and environmental as much as it is financial.
Can we even imagine this world? If we are to survive on this planet, this is the world we must create, yet so much of it goes against the grain of how we are taught. Bold and disruptive businesses are already going circular in increasing numbers, and there are some excellent example cases here from the Ellen Macarthur Foundation.
But on a grander scale, why do shareholder value and competitive advantage; remain at the heart of the current system? Does education actually prepare us for the Circular Economy to become the dominant model? From business to manufacturing, technology to design; can we really change how things are done?
UNESCO has been pushing at this for years and we can see the UN's Sustainable Development Goals filtering through so many of the developed world's national school curricula.
Finland, for example, has "building a sustainable future" as one of its seven core objectives in a completely redesigned approach to education that has a circular, participative mindset right from the first day of class.
Other nations are well on their way to this in varying degrees, using external partnerships to fill gaps in their approach until a fundamental rethink can be phased in. For example Organizations like Highland One World in Scotland, work alongside schools to embed global citizenship into their existing curricula. What we are really looking at here is a whole new pedagogy, where learners develop skills and competencies to work together, collaborate, act responsibly and ethically, think critically and make value judgments with sustainable outcomes. This can be done in an embedded way, such as in the Finnish model, or in partnership with external organizations, such as Scotland is currently doing. The path to sustainable development and a circular economy is complex, and education at primary and secondary levels is unarguably gearing up to prepare the next generation to be equal to the challenge.
But what about Higher Education? Does it continue the work from primary and secondary levels, to hone these new skills and competences as future generations finally enter this new world?
There is a lot of "sustainable" and greenwashing among universities, but beyond the noise there is some actual progress. At an institutional level, universities are generally carrying on some of the good work of secondary schools, in the way they embed teamwork, collaboration and critical thinking into curricula.
However, saying and doing are not the same thing, so how much of this actually makes its way into the classroom?
A study published by Science Direct found that (a) there still isn't much focus on helping teachers and lecturers understand the circular economy and (b) The Circular Economy is rarely discussed explicitly in Higher Education, aside from programs that are actually dealing directly with sustainability, such as the world's first MBA in Innovation, Enterprise and Circular Economy at the University of Bradford, and Arden University. Much in the same way that organizations like Highland One World are working with school teachers, the Ellen Macarthur Foundation is helping Higher Education institutions to bring CE into the classroom, but it's far from easy. If we want to shift mindsets, we need to talk sustainability in informal learning as well.
The Hidden curriculum is the unwritten experiences, values and perspectives that a student is exposed to during their studies. This is the core of organizational culture, and is the beating heart of where change actually happens.
You can discuss the circular economy in class for four straight years, but you are also being exposed at the same time to a culture which helps you to shape attitudes and behaviors, and a sense of what is acceptable, unacceptable; right and wrong.
If the formal curriculum and the hidden curriculum are misaligned, this will send conflicting messages. If our Universities are teaching and praising sustainable initiatives whilst engaging in activity that contradicts it, we can't expect students to truly internalize the formal lesson. Institutions must practice what they preach.
An MDPI report looks at ways to help students and teachers behave in a more environmentally responsible way through a hidden curriculum approach, but there is more to the Circular Economy than minimizing our carbon footprint. This is Eco-efficiency, or perhaps even eco-effectiveness, which is still a huge step away from actually tackling the mindset that prevents us from designing our products and services, sectors and economies to be circular.
There is no escaping the fact that Education for Sustainable Development has reached maturity in primary and secondary schools, with comprehensive studies available in how best to truly embed the principles into a curriculum.
In Higher Education, there is no model, no set approach. We have already seen that there is not much focus on helping teachers understand the Circular Economy, and that while the soft skills a Circular Economy will need are being supportively developed at universities, there is little embedding of the concepts themselves in core curricula.
The hidden curriculum is largely left unexplored as a tool for change, and a scattergun approach to sustainability often focuses on the ecological aspects of waste reduction, and misses the wider systemic disruptions.
In short, it is left to individual institutions to innovate and push forward. In Part II of this article, we will take a look at some of these cases, and ask what more universities can do to support a new generation of circular thinkers and sustainable innovators.
At geNEOus (formerly NEO Academy), we are passionate about education, and supporting institutions to meet the challenges of a changing environment.
We specialize in supporting our partners to optimize and streamline their engagement with prospective and current students, through our range of bespoke services and packages. To find out more about how we can help, just get in touch here.
The MBA strode confidently into the world in 1908, but many say it has lost its allure. Venerated in business schools around the world from Shanghai to Sydney, it seemed as though it would always be the golden ticket to a successful business career.
The foundations of the MBA's pull and reputation were already weakened before the existential crisis it now faces. High tuition fees, the draw of the tech world and both students and employers questioning the ROI of an MBA, are just some of the challenges it faces; and that's before we even talk about a global pandemic.
Yes the top universities and the MBA programs are doing just fine, but below that top tier, there is a decline in admissions rates for MBA's worldwide, and it looks set to continue this way.
The classic MBA was always offered over two years part-time, or one year full-time. It doesn't come cheap, and has traditionally been entirely campus-based. Students enroll with high ROI expectations, and increasing earnings capacity is among the most commonly cited reasons for committing to the course.
While the components of the MBA have shifted somewhat, with entrepreneurship and technology becoming almost as important as leadership and strategy, the structure of the MBA is a relatively fixed model.
The trouble is, the world is not a fixed model. MBA designers and planners knew that things would have to evolve, but might have thought they had plenty of time to do it.
They didn't. Even before the pandemic, the cracks were showing. The UK Education secretary removed the MBA from the level 7 Senior Apprenticeship Standard in April this year, saying that he was "unconvinced...that it presents value for money".
The internet was awash with articles quoting business leaders in saying the MBA was no longer something that made someone stand out.
Many US universities like Virginia Tech, just closed down their full time MBA program to stem losses. King's Business School in London was launched without an MBA even on offer, as did the London School of Economics; both doing very well and proving that you could operate a business school without a flagship MBA program.
But other institutions instead tried to respond in other ways.
Macquarie University in Australia moved it's number one ranked MBA program online, and offered it at only AU$33,000 (around US$25.000) through the Coursera platform.
Over at St John's University in New York, Business School Dean, Norean Sharpe, had tried to introduce a new method of increasing MBA intake by upselling to undergraduate students. Undergrads could start the MBA program during the final year of their foundation degree, without having any real business experience.
And then came Coronavirus. Global instability, less desire to travel abroad, less security to commit to such a considerable investment. This may just spell the end for the traditional MBA. Though about 40% of the CEOs of Fortune 500 companies have MBA's, this means 60% do not, and that gap is likely to widen.
The top schools are still doing well with their MBA program, but it is fast becoming an exclusive club. Factoring in the opportunity cost of giving up your job for two years to study an MBA, and adding the tuition fees (which are now almost a quarter of a million dollars), we are looking at a cool half million US$ before you've even bought a pencil. There are always people who have the ways and means to do this, but what's happening outside the V.I.P lounge?
For Business Schools holding on to the MBA as a flagship program, most have done as Macquarie have, and moved to an online option; generally still with an approximate commitment of 20 months. This will at least help MBA students who are looking for some flexibility around work and family life.Outside of this, there is a wider discussion around episodic versus lifelong learning. The MBA is, essentially, an early 20th century American construct; focusing on essentially the same elements as it did at inception but to an increasingly global and diverse base. Yet the pace of change is now so rapid, with McKinsey predicting the automation of about 50% of current jobs will be well underway by 2030, and the dust is yet to settle from the Covid19 crisis.The MBA is supposed to equip business leaders with the skills to grow and prosper, but it happens once. Such skills need to be revisited, honed, or even rethought entirely as the changing nature of our world means substantial new challenges are just around the corner. Are we lucky enough that everything we will ever need is in that 20 month MBA?An increasing number of students are going for more specialized (and lower cost) Masters degrees, such as Finance, Innovation, Entrepreneurship or Sustainability. When these graduates want to sharpen their skills, or even reorient their focus completely, they will want to come back and engage in more training or access guidance and support.Universities are beginning to pick up on this growing market. IE University has launched its Transformation with Purpose program, aimed at mid-stage careerists who are looking to take a different direction in their professional lives. The Wharton School of Business has a huge range of post-graduate lifelong learning courses available, though only discounted by 25% for those who have already completed an MBA there. HEC Paris are beginning to target mature students more specifically in their Executive Business Programs, with candidates firmly around the 40-50 range.Though still a heavyweight contender, the fluid world we live in is finding that the MBA may not be the best fit.Digital innovations in learning have opened up huge opportunities to rethink things, and as University education attracts more mature and mid stage career professionals, a broader concept of education is emerging, in terms of what is needed, how it is delivered and when.
It was always unlikely that a course like the MBA could continue to be all things to all people at all times, but that doesn't necessarily mean the end for traditional institutions.While the entrepreneurs and "ruckusmakers" may be seduced by high-energy courses like Seth Godins Alt-MBA, there will likely still be a place for traditional education, to provide rigor and depth, and to make credible judgements on the performance of its graduates.The Power MBA bills itself as a "real alternative" and states that "we have no accreditation and we are proud of it!".
At 1000USD per course, they leave it up to employers to judge the worth of the program, and with silicon valley already moving to disrupt the traditional equation between formal accreditation and perceived value, we will no doubt watch these new players carve out a huge new market for themselves.As life is changing, and the world of business education changes with it, traditional education institutions have to be there to meet it.Short skills courses fused with professional development, focused professional courses on new innovations, Liquid Learning opportunities, flexible scheduling, affordable and high-quality online learning, are just some of the "must haves" for institutions who want to be relevant to future generations.The MBA is not going to disappear anytime soon, but it is in decline. The space it leaves behind is an opportunity to rethink business education entirely.We are excited to see what comes next!At geNEOus (formerly NEO Academy) we will keep you posted on all of the latest insights , so don't forget to follow us on LinkedIn.
It's 7:50 a.m. The sound of your second snooze alarm cuts through the silence, as you slowly sit up, edge out of bed and come to your senses. There's only 10 minutes until you start work, but luckily, you don't need to find something halfway decent to wear, or to commute to work in slow-moving traffic; sipping on a drive-through coffee to the grating chatter of morning radio.
You slip instead into something more comfortable, grab a coffee in your favorite mug and look out of the window.
At 8:25 a.m. you open your laptop and begin to answer emails. Nobody has noticed you started 25 minutes late.
You look around the room after 20 minutes or so and spot the wilting houseplant by your window. Moving down to the kitchen again to fetch some water for the plan, you may as well have another coffee while you're there. It's 9:15 a.m.
In the USA, 42% of us are working from home full time now. In the UK, the figure is slightly higher but is typical of the European average.
Even though the vast majority of these workers are doing so as a result of the pandemic, even more conservative speculators predict that around 1/3 of work will be permanently done from home in the G7 countries by the end of 2021. This is a huge shift.
For many of these workers, there will be an adaptation process; a daily battle against distraction, procrastination and isolation. At NEO Academy we are well-versed in the ways of remote, liquid working, and we understand the challenges, but also know how positive it can be.
So, for our colleagues and clients in agencies, schools, universities and colleges around the world, we would love to share five tips to help you get the most out of home working.
If you roll out of bed and into your office chair, your day will not be productive. You might not be ready to join the 5am club, and it may never be something that's right for your own family dynamic, but getting up early is key to a productive day.
There are any number of gurus with specific formulae on how to organize your morning, but here are the components they all agree on:
a. Exercise. This raises your dopamine and serotonin levels; focusing your brain and raising your productivity.
b. Reflect. Journalling, meditating or simply planning your day will settle you mind, and make it easier to be less reactive during your day. You'll feel clearer and more focused.
c. Learn. Listen to a podcast, read a book, study that language you're trying to learn or do 30 mins of your online course. This habit breeds not only self growth but more discipline and a sense that your day is not only about work. This is you time.
At the end of your working day, switch off the laptop and put everything related to work away out of sight if you can. This helps to draw clear line between work time and home time, and visible reminders help you do this. Leave the digital devices alone at least 2 hours before you go to sleep. Wind down naturally, and avoid the small dopamine micro hits from scrolling your Facebook, Instagram or Twitter feed. Your brain needs to slow down.
Whether it's 25-5, 50-10 or 52-17, breaking work time into intervals can really be a game changer. We like the 50-10 approach, where you work for 50 minutes, then take a ten-minute break.
Yes, it's that easy. Breaking work into parcels of time helps to keep your focus and give you a short pause to refresh your cognitive bandwidth, rather than working way past optimal. In the break, get a cup of tea, some fresh air, listen to music, stretch, or even quickly check your social media (be careful not to get pulled in!). When the alarm goes again, get back to it.
Of course working patterns can get complicated when we are working across time zones. There are numerous articles with tips on time zone etiquette, but one lesson stands out above all else - if you don't take care of yourself first, you'll never be operating at 100%. It's tempting to roll out of bed and be stricken with the realization that your colleagues are already halfway through their working day, but stop. Your morning is important, and by establishing a healthy routine, you might get to the inbox a little later, but you'll be clear, efficient and productive when you do.
The digital age has brought with it some unreasonable expectations of instantaneous responses, and if you give in to this it can be a difficult habit to change. Talk to colleagues and try to establish boundaries and reasonable expectations of response times. Look after yourself.
Can you believe we didn't get to this one first? Concentration is like sleep; the deeper you get, the better it is. When you are interrupted, however, you can't just get right back to where you were. In fact, it takes about 23 minutes to recover from a distraction when you are really focused.
Just add that up through the day, and imagine how much time we waste just getting back into the flow. So what can we do?
It's important to analyze your distractions. Looking at flights or property? Checking the sports results? Be patient with changing these habits, but be firm. In the end, you can always use tools like Freedom or Boomerang to pause access to distracting sites, or even schedule time into your pre-work morning to search for that holiday flight. Try to schedule time in your day for checking emails, and have the inbox closed while working on other things. Or what about people interrupting you? Sure, you can turn the phone notifications off but also try to talk about this with others in your home. If they know that you are following the 50-10 pattern, they can (hopefully) wait for your break if they have something to share.
If other things are breaking into your work day, acknowledge them and write them down. In the next day's pre-work reflection and planning, you can think of a way to minimize them. Good routines take time to build.
There's a reason this one didn't come first. If you're not following a positive morning and evening routine, and haven't started to address distractions in your environment, this is a non-starter.
We recommend a tidy, minimal work space where possible. Freshen up the air when you can, and try to position yourself within natural light. Get your snacking under control and avoid energy crashes after heavy lunches or sugary treats. Drink water. Lots of it.
With your brain ready for the day from a serotonin-filled morning, try listening to binaural beats in your earphones. Use quality audio files such as Spotify, rather than YouTube's compressed format. You might also try calibrating your perfect sound with mynoise.
You only have a limited amount of cognitive bandwidth each day so plan around this. Try your high-value, high-importance and creative tasks in the first part of your day. The lower order tasks such as responding to emails and doing more routine work should be left until the afternoon. Why waste the best of your capacity on clearing your inbox?
Properly scheduled, and in the second half of your working day, why not push the email window aside and ask your colleague if they have time for a 10 minute chat instead?
We are all social beings. We all need connection, and feelings of isolation can really sneak up on you if you're not careful. Taking some phone or Zoom time to chat will not only help you feel much better, it will help your colleague too. It is tempting to see this time as unproductive but supporting our social and emotional well being is one of the most positive things we can do. Just notice next time how you feel before and after connecting this way.
In the end, it is about finding what works best for you. The next time you are feeling down about how unproductive your day has been, please be kind to yourself and remember this:
You are doing your best and adaptation takes time.
Tomorrow is another day, and you can take another step towards a better routine.
Look at your productivity by results, not by hours spent at the laptop. If the results are not there then make small changes to your routine.
There are so many of us working this way, and finding new strategies through trial and error. If you have something to share, we would love to hear from you. Feel free to contact us any time and we will continue to share ideas with our community in our blog and LinkedIn channel.
When we talk about the future workplace, so many things come to mind. Remote working, new technologies, professions that don't exist yet, AI, diversity, inclusion and many more. But one phrase is creeping ever further into the lexicon of the future, and that is liquid working. So what is it, where did it come from, and why is it becoming such a hot topic?
The liquid worker is self-employed, choosing contracts and projects that suit their skills and schedules, working mainly in a remote capacity from anywhere in the world. They would, by definition, be working for multiple employers on multiple contracts over their professional lives.
The liquid workforce for employers is a pool of contractors, entities or consultants they can count on, either through referral or prior experience, who are brought in according to the changing and evolving needs of the business. No employment contracts with gym memberships and subsidized coffees, just workers who fit the right needs at the right time.
Perhaps it is all sounding a bit like this:
Yes there is instability in this scenario for workers in particular, but there are opportunities too. Let's take a look at how this scenario came into being and why.
A few years ago the terminology associated with liquid working just didn't exist. However, as we look at the chatter around the workplace, labor regulations, productivity and the working week, it's perhaps not surprising that the phrase has leapt into existence. Jason Fried made a compelling case for why work doesn't actually happen at work, and the virtues of a shorter work week are well documented. An IES report on this in 2016 found that presenteeism represented a substantial cost to the economy. There is a growing demand for flexibility around work; when it's done, and where from. A 2012 case study on Romania found that greater labor flexibility, if done inclusively and fairly, could greatly improve economic resilience. Among organizations and a new generation of workers, there is pressure from both ends to shake things up.
Liquid working, even if it wasn't always called this, is nothing new for companies like Google and Amazon, for whom these workers make up around 40% of their workforce. Some sources actually report that contract workers outnumber employees in Google; keeping their balance sheet leaner for sharp-eyed shareholders and investors. However, the Covid-19 crisis has brought this way of operating to a much broader range of organizations. Universities forced to initiate or accelerate development of their online delivery are now able to explore this as a long term strategy, with professors and technical staff based anywhere in the world. The pandemic showed institutions what happened when workers were forced to stay home, and guess what; the work still got done.
While a partial bounce back in demand for office space is predicted, most observers agree that things have changed for good. A shift towards liquid working is a natural response to global economic instability. Organizations limited in the physical world are finding huge opportunities in the digital environment. This means a natural pathway to diversification as new networks, markets and opportunities unfold; a fluid situation in short. Given that organizations are reacting to short term developments and finding their way ahead on uncertain ground, more episodic working relationships and a "just in time" pool of specialist contractors is a logical development. The impact is clear. Organizations are broadening their horizons in diversifying what they do, where they do it and who they work with.
A liquid workforce for organizations, means having access to an enormous pool of specialist talent. This means being able to have the right person with the right skills at the right time. This approach to resource management is naturally more efficient, and keeps the balance sheet lean. No performance reviews, no investment in training as you are already contracting the niche specialist that fits the project at hand. Even if the pandemic has not totally changed an organizations’ core operations, it might have reduced the timescale in which they have to be done. Add this to the potentially high costs mitigating the effects of the pandemic and you can see why organizations might be reluctant to take on full time employees to keep things running. Though the salaried employee is unlikely to ever disappear, the economic benefits of tapping more into a liquid workforce are patently clear.
At geNEOus (formerly NEO Academy), we have been a liquid team since inception, with a network of professionals working with us around the world. Institutions subcontract our team to support them in reaching their objectives in marketing and admissions and, though we develop long-term relationships with our clients, liquid working is our DNA. Fluid generations - Z and Alpha The jury is officially out on Generation Z and their propensity to become liquid workers. On one hand, a 2017 survey found that nearly half of adult Gen Z'ers had freelanced that year, and most of them by choice (as opposed to the lack of an alternative). On the other hand, research suggests that Generation Z were impacted greatly by the 2008 financial crash and yearn for stability and connection in the workplace.
All eyes are now on their new Alpha counterparts (born 2010-2025). Like Gen Z, they have also grown up connected to the world through technology, and witnessed the huge diversity in non-traditional approaches to work with entrepreneurs and influencers saturating social media feeds. But the effects of the major emotional event in their lives (likely to be the Covid-19 pandemic for those born at the early end) are yet to manifest. Though they may too desire stability, the market may make the decision for them. They are inheriting a fluid world in which adaptability is likely key.
Everything is now converging. Open minds about remote working, a drop in demand for office space, new attitudes towards presenteeism and productivity, and a new generation born into technology and an uncertain world. The stage is set for liquid work to be commonplace as Generation Alpha enter the workplace, and the only question now is whether the world of education is ready to support them.
Remember to follow us on LinkedIn as we publish weekly content on emerging trends and events in the world of education.
Higher Education has been ready for disruption for some time. While the content of degree and masters programs have largely kept up with the changing demands of the modern economy and a drive towards a sustainable future, the very structure of university itself has remained largely unchanged. With economic uncertainty on the rise, and a generation of students entering the post-Covid era with little stability underneath them for long term planning, it is no wonder that many are questioning whether they really can commit to the financial burden of 2-5 years at University. We have reached the tipping point.
The disruptor-in-chief has done the inevitable. In a few short months, Google will be launching a whole suite of professional training certificate courses, which will take only six months to complete, and be initially in areas such as programming and UX, but will likely broaden out over time. The whole tuition fee costs about the same as the average college student spends on books in one semester. The courses are designed and taught by Google's own professionals, and when it's over, they will support students in finding employment by sharing their profiles with other relevant employers; including themselves of course (and we assume Google will have first pick).
Now these courses are not taking on the ancient professions of Law and Medicine, both of which will likely require degrees to practice for the foreseeable future, but for the emerging tech world and the allure of Silicon Valley, these courses offer a tempting opportunity. They will be constantly updated and adapted, and targeted squarely at the practical demands of the sector. With such a price point, and such a short duration, this presents a serious risk to traditional institutions with degree and masters programs in the same fields.
Imagine a young student today, surrounded by daily tales of plunging employment figures, warnings about global warming and climate catastrophe. The idea of a very affordable 6-month commitment with a far more tangible ROI is understandably appealing. This was always going to happen, and if we are honest about it, it was naturally destined to be Google who took the first step. Silicon Valley are taking matters into their own hands.
If the value of a college education is signaled by who employers hire and what they are willing to pay them, Google is telling the world that their courses are on par with a diploma, and that will seriously shake things up. This type of professionally-focused training may have been around since the time of apprenticeships, but it really is the sheer weight behind the name of Google that puts momentum into this move.
With automation of jobs a real worry in the tech and manufacturing sectors, graduates know that it will be their ability to keep pace with new developments, and to use their interpersonal skills to add value that a machine just couldn't hope to match. Until recently, on campus degrees offered the opportunity to hone students' soft skills during their studies, but as these institutions have been forced online, that final advantage has been lost. In just six months, a graduate could now be in work, developing their interpersonal skills in a real environment that a case study just can't match.
So now we have shorter and more affordable professional training with a big name backer, the question is how employers feel about it. In the tech world itself, icons like Elon Musk already show quite infamous disregard for the traditional MBA.
Google has already partnered with a number of companies, such as Hulu, to share in the emerging talent pool from these new courses. The other GAFAM companies are already on board too, as we see for example Amazon move beyond its traditional sales training into broader support for SME's entrepreneurs. The formal training and certification programmers won't be far behind. HubSpot are already advanced in their offering of certified training. With such names on board, we reach a tipping point quickly, where smaller companies will follow suit.
The signs of this tipping point will come soon enough, when job advertisements start to quietly drop the degree requirement. Companies may even start to develop more of their own training programs for potential employees to add an additional revenue stream and make their hiring process much clearer as they see first hand what new starts can do.
In our Liquid Learning article, we looked at how IE University as an outlier, was transforming the dynamic of the traditional degree. Even with such bold innovation in higher education, however, the fees for an undergraduate degree or MBA will continue to be the major deciding factor for prospective students. In an unstable world, ROI must be crystal clear, authentic and credible, and that means universities have some work to do. With major companies signaling that they are now happy to accept new employees armed with their own certification, Higher Education is facing an existential crisis. It may take some time for this education model to take root beyond the tech and manufacturing sectors, but it does herald change.
In the short term, universities can focus on making fees more affordable and improving their online experience, but a long term strategy needs to be far bolder and less reactive. Despite growing protests over tuition fees from Harvard to the University of Melbourne, only two out of the top 50 have made any reduction. To be fair, by simply moving courses online, the traditional institution is not making a huge saving that can be passed on to students; particularly when they will need capital reserves to react and pivot in the next few years. For commentators like Paulina Karpis of Forbes, an MBA in a post-Covid world is simply "not worth it" and we can expect many more in the world of education to join her call for rapid change.
In the worlds of business and technology, things are moving fast. The environment is changing, technological evolution is spiraling ever upwards, and a degree or masters program has to be light-footed to stay abreast of this. The more inflexible curricula of more traditional universities, in which content is updated every 2 or 3 years (and sometimes much less frequently) will struggle to convince students that they are being prepared for the world ahead; especially when they are presented with outdated case studies which bear no relevance to the world as it is now. Make no mistake; agile, adaptive and liquid learning are the key words of the future.
Will we see universities integrating these new certifications into their own frameworks,? Perhaps we will see more long-term partnerships between Higher Ed and industry, and certainly a more enduring and strategic approach to digital education from colleges and universities.
From micro credentialing and adaptive learning to experiential partnerships, disruptive education and liquid learning, geNEOus (formerly NEO Academy) will bring you news on the latest innovations as they develop. As a forward-thinking organization, we are committed to being part of the conversation as education moves forward into a new age. Join us on the blog for regular content, and follow us on LinkedIn to stay in the loop.
Say the word "vulnerability" and what comes to mind? At the moment, it may well be the viral TED talk by Brenee Brown, or her sequel Netflix special. Applying the concept to the business world, you will find the focus squarely on leadership, where expressing vulnerability might lead to more authentic connections at work; dropping the professional facade that may, in many cultural contexts, actually inhibit productive working relationships. But how often do you hear talk of vulnerability in sales?
To be clear, we don't mean vulnerability as a show of weakness in some deadlocked negotiation, where the high power player can move in and close the deal on their terms. We mean quite the opposite. Because, as it turns out, revealing a little vulnerability is just about the strongest and most human thing you can do.
The image of the polished, slick salesperson, brimming with confidence and an answer for everything is something that hasn't done many favors for the field of sales. On top of that, this is education, and education is deeply emotional. In sales, we know our product or service, but we also care deeply about the experience. The prospective student we bring into a course is making a decision that will affect the rest of their life, and we should all take that responsibility seriously. So how can those of us in sales really work in a more, well...human way?
Step into the shoes of the person you are talking to. They have genuine concerns and they want to make sure this choice is the right one. In their place, what would you prefer: a salesperson who tells you they don't know the answer or someone who is clearly trying to pretend they do. If you don't know something, just be honest about that. You can always find out and get back to them, even if that means not coming to an agreement that day. The other person will thank you for it and see that you are genuinely trying to help. Even just making authentic small talk can help. Heather Baldwin gives the example of admitting that "it's been a tough day today" can build trust and empathy right away.
However, this is something Harvard don't recommend if you are the one holding all the power, as it can seem like manipulation. It is appropriate in a sales conversation, for example, but not in an academic admissions decision. The word "sales" may sometimes not sit well with the admissions team or the education counselors, but it is important that we all understand what is meant by that. Education is emotional, and human, and whether we use the word "sales", "experience" or "process", we are aligned with the same objective; providing learners with the best quality experience possible at all stages in their journey, and making sure that the institution grows and thrives at a sustainable level. Our purpose is the same.
We've all been there; giving wrong information can easily happen when offers are constantly changing, courses get modified and a hundred other things. The important thing is to correct it as quickly as possible. Call the person back and let them know what the facts are. It's important not to deflect blame for the mistake, even if it wasn't your fault. A simple "I got that wrong" will be enough; people just want to know that the information their decision is based on is solid.
Vulnerability is authenticity. People want to connect on a real and meaningful level in any interaction. For example, if the institution you work with is priced higher than the other options around you, be open about that. The person you are talking to certainly knows that, so glossing over it will make it feel like a pain point. Similarly, if you're new to the role, or learning a new CRM and can't find the lead information, just say that. These things are not an expression of weakness; you are revealing yourself on a human level and that builds trust.
Sometimes, it's just not a good fit. Whether we are talking about a new institutional partnership, or admitting a student to a masters program, saying "no" is not something we are often recommended in the sales field. This may feel even more counter intuitive in a time when institutions are trying hard to shore up numbers as a buffer against the instability brought on by the global pandemic.
However, getting the wrong person or partnership on board can just bring greater issues further down the line, and that is not good for anyone. Saying "we don't think this is the right solution for you" does not come easy, but pays dividends in the long run. These moments, as with all windows into vulnerability, are opportunities to learn. How do we reach the people we should really be talking to? How can we feed this into our marketing? Insights like this are worth far more than a simple sale.
Showing vulnerability is not only of value in external conversations, but inside your team too. At the time of writing, education is experiencing an existential shock to the system. Downplaying that to your team will not help anyone. We can all sense bravado; particularly when it is at odds with what we know to be true. Talk about the challenges, admit you don't have the answers, but promise to fight for the team and do everything you can. Vulnerability doesn't just help individuals connect on a 1:1 level; it can galvanize a whole team.
We want our partners to succeed, because education is our passion, and getting it right for each and every student is our mission. Our professionals can facilitate training workshops not only about the nuts and bolts of lead conversion and sales funnels, but about relational, values-based interactions with students.
That's why our Sales Academy is about soft-skills too. geNEOus (formerly NEO Academy) will work with your team to build those relationships around efficient and value creating sales processes, based on our years of expertise. For an informal chat about how we can work together, just get in touch.
A cornerstone of how we work at geNEOus (formerly NEO Academy), is that we empower our clients for more sustainable results. We do not believe in transactional and short term business with no accountability afterward. geNEOus (formerly NEO Academy) is all about sustainable partnership, and that means empowering your institution to be the best it can be.
The geNEOus Sales Academy is a central part of this. Perhaps you have new team members that need some support and onboarding in the sales process. Or maybe your team in general could benefit from new ideas and approaches to upskill their roles and functions. Not everyone has the time to study at home on top of a busy career, or to leave employment altogether to retrain full time. Yet the world of sales and customer experience is constantly evolving and the environment becoming ever more competitive. So how do you stay on top?
There are companies that you can call to do training sessions that help with new technology, new processes, new ideas, etc. However, this does not mean that a culture of learning is embedded in your organization. The training sessions are ad-hoc and very often follow a one size fits all approach. Many companies have now started to implement modules that offer training to employees and managers and the possibility to get certifications and awards to be a better fit inside the organization. This more personalized learning pathway for employees is much more likely to yield positive results. Team members learn what is most relevant to their role or ambition, and get recognition for every step on the journey.
And that's just it. Learning is a journey that never really ends. If lifelong learning opportunities are embedded in the DNA of your organization, you will have happier employees with a more fulfilling and progressive career. Talent and experience can’t be built in one day, and geNEOus (formerly NEO Academy) passionately believes in lifelong learning pathways to prepare staff to be better trained, more engaged, more productive and more self-actualized.
Sporadic training with off-the-shelf workshops that are not well aligned to organizational goals, just isn't as effective as having a long-term strategy. Research has shown that companies with long-term goals and structured learning paths are more successful than companies focused on short-term objectives, which tend to rush processes that become confusing and time-consuming (not to mention expensive).
At geNEOus (formerly NEO Academy), we believe that relationships are part of this journey to lifelong learning. By bringing the geNEOus Sales Academy inside your organization, we can build pathways together, get to know your team and your way of working and make sure that the training we develop for your organization is built upon first-hand knowledge of who is in the room and where they want to go.
At geNEOus (formerly NEO Academy) we offer high quality bespoke training which answers three key questions:
With geNEOus Sales Academy working closely with you, we can build pathways of professional training that fits your needs. A growth-centric strategy with personalized learning at its heart will show your team that their success is at the heart of everything your institution does.
Education agents will be greatly impacted by the Covid-19 pandemic. It is too soon to truly know the true numbers of students who still plan to study abroad in 2021. The German Academic Exchange Service has put together a huge collection of studies to try and make sense of results and analysis from contributors around the world, but the findings vary.
Anything up to half of the students surveyed are considering postponing their studies until things stabilize, though the average figure seems to hover more realistically around 20%. Higher Education was projected to grow 4% this year but has instead witnessed a very challenging reversal of fortunes. The language course market is similarly unstable with only two-thirds of the market expected to bounce back by the end of 2021. Much has been made of the impact on institutions themselves, but what about the Education Agents? Can the smaller agencies survive this?
Here are 3 takeaways that might just be decisive:
The first question is which market the agent is most focused on. Many agencies focus heavily on the language market; sending students abroad to study intensive or extensive foreign language courses. This market was already yielding sluggish growth in 2019 globally, but even countries such as the U.K, whose foreign language market grew at 1% in 2019, reported a loss of half a billion pounds in 2020 so far. In the USA, another key destination for the study abroad language student, Slator estimates a decline of 8% in the market so far in 2020. Both reports predict a bounce back in 2021, but by then it may be too late for some of the smaller agencies.
The study abroad language course is really about immersion in the local culture, and so this just doesn’t translate well to online study, so it’s no surprise that students are postponing their courses. However, those that do choose to study may well do so at home. Even in major markets for study-abroad language students, such as Latin America, ICEF research indicates a recovery of only 71% by the end of 2021. The GAES review cited above has shown a greater tendency of students to adapt and move their studies online in a way that they would be less likely to do for a language course.
As more and more Language School chains such as International House and The British Council enter the domestic markets of countries across the world, an opportunity has arisen. By rethinking the perception of these schools as “competitors” for the students who might otherwise go abroad, agencies on the ground can use their local know-how to recruit for these schools instead.
Takeaway 1 - Diversify your partnerships. Language courses are a shrinking market. Partnering with large domestic language schools will help protect against a more volatile international market; especially schools that offer an “immersion” study option.
The Higher Education market, however, has shown itself to be more resilient. The GAES review cited above has shown a greater tendency of students to adapt and move their studies online in a way that they would be less likely to do for a language course. Agents who have significant revenue streams from this sector may well hold on to more of that business, but there is still a risk, as universities pay commissions on the degree and master programs much later than language course providers (and often in staged payments), so this break in cash flow at a critical moment might just be the tipping point for a small agency.
But universities and colleges are diversifying their products. Summer schools, short professional courses, online courses, and even language courses are all on offer, and that presents an opportunity for counselors in education agencies to find a good fit for the prospective student. We are now in a climate where people do not want to commit to long-term study, but may be willing to attend shorter courses to upskill or retool to meet new challenges.
Takeaway 2: Diversify the study options you offer. Things are changing fast and institutions are responding rapidly. Staying on top of these new opportunities, and learning in detail what they might offer to students, will help you move alongside the market itself and stay afloat. Shorter courses also mean quicker commission turnaround, which might just be the solution to cash flow shortfall in 2020. Counselling students with such diverse options might be daunting, but geNEOus (formerly NEO Academy) can help education agents with some simple inbound marketing techniques.
It may sound far fetched, but the reality is that a great many education agencies worldwide are still working largely with paper. Filing cabinets full of forms and desks replete with in-trays, out-trays, envelopes, and pencils. When the office space is forced to close, there is tremendous pressure on that team to continue working from home, when they are simply not set up for it. This is a time when the way a team works is placed under the microscope, and so it can also be a time to learn and improve.
Agencies that had already been working more digitally as a team, will have seen a much more fluid adaptation to the pandemic. Productivity will always suffer from such significant upheaval, but if the right tools are in place, the business can continue in much the same way as before.
But it is not only internally that digitalization pays dividends. Paper course brochures can be digital, posters can be paid ads on social media, newspaper adverts can be viral videos. Even the face to face meeting with the counsellor, during which options are discussed in detail, can be moved online. For Generation Z, this is completely normal and acceptable; it may even be preferable. Of course, the face to face meeting can always be on offer when it’s safe to do so, but bringing digital processes in will help you reach new audiences, work more efficiently,
Takeaway 3: Don’t wait any longer to go digital. Inside the office, collaborative documents, project management tools, and digital CRM systems are a must nowadays. Externally, connecting with audiences through digital media will increase your reach and future proof your processes. After time for training and adaptation, this can make your agency so much more efficient and resilient.
Regrettably, some agencies will simply not survive the challenges of 2020, but for those who are ready to adapt and move from survive to thrive, geNEOus (formerly NEO Academy) is here to help you. We can support you in diversifying your recruitment channels, identifying and reaching new opportunities, implementing a tailor-made CRM to automate all of your processes, etc. We understand the world of education agents, and we are here to help with dedicated training and bespoke solutions to find the fit that works best for you. For an informal discussion on what we can do to support you and your agency, reach out today.
Making the decision to study abroad is a rite of passage for many, and rarely a decision taken lightly. Stepping into unknown territory can be overwhelming and students can often feel understandably anxious about starting out on that path.
With this in mind, is it enough for universities to offer prospective students information and reassurance via purely electronic and virtual communication? Is it enough for students to read online reviews and try to find the answers to their questions this way? Many students have doubts and need reassurance, and this is why they seek help in the local areas they live. Both parents and students are not likely to get all the answers about schools overseas, and certainly the information they find on websites and social media is not enough. For such a pivotal decision, talking face to face with a professional that represents a certain institution can be an invaluable source of support.
An education agent represents someone students can trust and can go to and get the assistance they need. This is why at geNEOus (formerly NEO Academy) we believe in the value of having a network of professional agents that can work directly with students and parents to facilitate communication between them and the school, in addition to having a person they can rely on and go for advice anytime they want.
With even the most traditional education institutions using more technological learning approaches, we see schools implement CRM software, increase their presence on social media, do paid media campaigns, and much more. Recruiting international students is becoming important for institutions worldwide and therefore they are taking action to adapt to such disruptive scenarios. Unfortunately, schools don’t often know the key markets they want to promote in and what they offer, they don’t know how to interact with local people and don’t have the right tools to do so. This is why they look to expand their network of agents so that they can implement their internationalization plan in areas of the world they never thought of before.
Are you an agent? Do you think you’re ready to keep up with the digital transformation we are currently experiencing? Are your clients satisfied with your service? Do you feel like you need help in navigating the new digital tools that can simplify your work? geNEOus (formerly NEO Academy) is here to help you along the way!
Learning to spot trends as they emerge will keep you one step ahead. Focusing on targets is motivating, but it can sometimes blind us to the big picture which is developing around us. Make some time to read up on the latest insight and analysis. With weekly content, the geNEOus blog is a good place to start, as is the Times Education Supplement and Linkedin groups such as education marketing and higher education marketing professionals often post some good content that’s worth keeping an eye on too. More focused professional content can be found in the ICEF Monitor and PIE News sites too.
What backgrounds do they come from, and what social media channels do they use? Depending on whether you are recruiting for bachelors or masters, language schools, summer courses, or sports scholarships, think about who is generally making the decisions. Should you be targeting the parents as well? Getting a crystal clear picture of who you are talking to will help you prioritize key information and get the right tone in the right place.
Today’s students have grown up with WhatsApp patience thresholds and they really do look for quick answers. Chatbots, auto-replies and quick follow-ups are essential, as is your accessibility via social media. Be on hand, and be ready to support.
We all know that teenagers and young adults love social media and spend a lot of time on it, and they want to see content on your channels. Engaging content says that you go beyond the traditional sales pitch, and that you really have a passion for the world of education. The standard website information may satisfy the need to see an image of credibility, but this is an emotional decision the students are making. Post weekly - articles, news and updates from partners schools, helpful facts on destinations, images and testimonials of past students who have gone on to have a great experience, and of course video content. geNEOus (formerly NEO Academy) can support you to implement and improve your paid media strategy, so that you can reach prospective clients on any channel and device.
Use CRM software to automate activities and save time. A large number of leads can be difficult to manage, but having a tailor-made CRM will make the process more efficient. Say goodbye to dusty papers laying around in your office, let us customize Salesforce or HubSpot to better store and manage leads and campaigns’ performance. A well-designed CRM can also improve the communication you have with the institutions you are showcasing: share information with them, remember follow-ups, and set reminders. All of this frees up time to step back and have some thinking time for business development; something we often forget to prioritize.
In conclusion, geNEOus (formerly NEO Academy) can help you better recruit students and better communicate with the education institutions you represent. More students mean more commissions it's true, but beyond the short term we can help you provide more sustainable service to generations of students to come; ensuring they receive the experience that serves them best.
geNEOus (formerly NEO Academy) can implement a series of techniques, including CRM and paid media campaigns, to acquire new leads that can become your new clients. Expand the areas where you operate and keep everything stored and managed neatly. Be a better communicator with schools, stay in touch with them, get updates on any changes, and always be informed on what’s happening in the world around you. Are you ready to reorganize and transform your way of working? We’re here for you!
Earlier this week, we looked at the video marketing services geNEOus (formerly NEO Academy) can provide our clients, and why it is so effective as a tool for education institutions. In this article, we need to add a little disclaimer: video marketing isn’t easy, and it is only effective with the right strategy and creativity behind it. But not to worry- we’re going to take a look now at the top 6 ways in which video marketing content can really make an impact on your audience in 2020.
Facebook tells us that users are three times as likely to watch live videos compared to other forms of content. So how can institutions make that work for them? A growing number of institutions are hosting live Q&A sessions with professors as webinars, but live video can also be used to capture the experience of actually studying with your institution.
Live streaming a discussion with alumni or even current students about how it is to actually study there can be a powerful tool; unscripted, authentic and uncontrived. It can also be used effectively for aspirational content, such as the graduation ceremony. Besides allowing relatives and friends of the graduates to virtually attend, prospective students can be part of the experience too, helping them to visualize being there at their own graduation.
With regular video content, the viewer can only pause, rewind, and skip forward. With 360-degree interactive content, the user is firmly in the driving seat. This is one of the most technical videos to produce well, and HubSpot has a great article on how to make it work for you. With a little preparation, you can use this amazing tool to give fully immersive campus tours, or even show prospective students what their new campus dorm might feel like inside.
A study back in 2010 from Harvard concluded that “ Up to 90% of spend goes to advertising and retail promotions. Yet the single most powerful impetus to buy is often someone else’s advocacy” and if anything, the decade since has only confirmed this. Vlogging is advocacy incarnate, and it really is quite simple. Almost every institution has a student ambassador program, and we can be sure that each of those ambassadors has a smartphone. That’s really all that is needed.
Videos such as a day in the life of a law student at Cambridge University get thousands of views and are produced on a budget of almost zero. The videos can be posted on the institutional website or social media or, if the vlogger already has a sizable following, on their own channel. This apparent loss of control may make some institutions nervous, but the reality is that if a student wants to vlog about their experience independently, they can and will do so. Forward-thinking institutions like Liverpool University actually embrace this by advertising for student vloggers and suggesting topics that fit with aspects of the study experience, which they would like to highlight.
Your video is not just an aside that is left on your website or YouTube channel in the hopes that it will be watched and generate interest in your institution. Videos can and should be an integral part of your SEO strategy; not just to increase your reach and search rankings, but to bring in visitors in a way that enriches the experience. Perhaps you have an incredible 360-degree virtual campus tour video that is just waiting to wow visitors to your website, but only if they get there. By using video rich snippets as part of your SEO, users on google can immediately see that when they click through to your site, there is a video waiting for them instead of text. Look at how this makes the option stand out to browsers, even if you are lower in organic search ranking.
This is a big one. A huge question in the minds of prospective students is: what is it actually like to be in the learning environment at your institution? Filming lectures and tutorials for public consumption is a risky endeavor (not to mention fraught with GDPR restrictions), but recording bite-sized videos to explain useful or engaging concepts can be a window into the academic experience. Not only can this help current students at your institution and beyond but will also show up in searches by prospective students. Undergraduates in particular, who are sometimes apprehensive about the jump from high school to further education, can see a real teacher from your team, and get a feel for how they communicate. Teachers who can deliver content in ways which are conversational and enthusiastic will really help your audience connect.
Things go in circles, it seems, and silent film has made a comeback! We are not sure whether Facebook really intended for this to happen, but their autoplay function for videos in your news feed, has really changed things up. As you scroll down your feed, and the video starts to play, our attention is drawn to it. Around 80% of Facebook users will watch the video without clicking on it, which means-without sound. Facebook’s director of ads product marketing tells us that up to 40% of marketing videos on Facebook do not communicate well without sound. The platform has introduced an automatic captioning option, but if you really want to get that click, the video should work well on a purely visual level, right from the start.
As with every medium in marketing communication these days, there is a myth that video marketing is inaccessible without considerable expertise. However, techniques such as vlogging can be easy to set up, and make a huge difference to your reach and visibility, and at geNEOus (formerly NEO Academy), we are ready to help with any aspect of the process. We believe in supporting you to work your own way, so why not get in touch to discuss how video might work within your marketing strategy and how we can support your team to take it to the next level.
Video Marketing is here to stay. It’s a fact. Consumers are spending more and more time on their mobile devices, and especially to consume ever more mobile video content. This excellent article in Keystone highlights the perspective of geNEOus (formerly NEO Academy) Founder Alejandra Otero, that "video is king" for Generation Alpha and there is no doubt that mobile marketing videos are a powerful tool. The question, is why?
The video as a digital medium is naturally more complex than text or images. That means that videos are able to capture our attention. We like complexity. We like to decode and decipher something to be hooked into a storyline with rich media and visual clues. While images can trigger affective empathy, videos can connect with us at a cognitive level. We get involved, and our emotions become part of what we see and hear.
And this is why they are everywhere, on every platform. Students would rather watch a YouTube history lesson than open a book. Adults would rather watch a how-to video than read the instructions when assembling the cabinet they just bought. Videos are characterized by higher engagement compared to books, they give effective answers to our problems, they don’t waste too much of our time, they are telling a story we can relate to and they can inspire us. Reading an article about how to do something theoretically and watching a person actually doing it can make the difference, it is more real and relevant, we feel a sense of belonging and understanding. With all this in mind, it’s no wonder that marketers are using videos to help people connect with their brands, services, and products, and this is why now is the time for your institution to adopt a similar strategy!
With educational institutions specifically in mind, videos can help connect your audience to an emotional experience of what it might be like to study with you. A seminal systematic study in 1999 concluded that emotional connection is the driving force in effective marketing, and the medium of video has all the potential you need to do this.
It would be a challenge to communicate the breadth and depth of content and emotions associated with these videos, through the simple medium of text or imagery. These media, of course, are necessary and are central in conveying the key information your audience need to know to make a decision about engaging further with you. Video marketing goes further in triggering emotional responses to rich media content and narratives that align with our own aspirations and motivations. A detailed 2019 paper concluded that:
"Triggering changes the orientation of consumers toward selected services if he or she feels that the triggering video content provides additional value or creates an emotional experience. Thus, triggering can move them forward on the customer journey"
Alamäki, Ari & Pesonen, Juho & Dirin, Amir. (2019)
Videos are not an extra or an afterthought. They should be embedded within your marketing strategy and at its core. Website visitors do not share text with peers, but they will share video. Text and imagery have an important role to play, but the medium of video is where you can not only grab attention to showcase what you do, but help your audience engage with who you are.
With our team of experts, geNEOus (formerly NEO Academy) can help you to better engage with your leads, students or alumni, via innovative video content adapted to each target audience and platform. You don’t have the most advanced equipment or special cameras to film your upcoming video? Don’t worry, you don’t need any of that! We are here to help you during the whole process! From the ground up in a new strategic approach, or as a complement to your existing, we are experts in helping you connect through creative innovation and rich media narratives. One video, produced in the right way, might just change everything.
By now, even the most technology-averse among us have probably heard something about Search Engine Optimization. If we are running any kind of business at all, we know that being findable on search engines really matters, and we also know that not many of us have ever bought a product or contracted a service that appeared on page 34 of our search. Life is just too short for that. Something like SEO, with all of the associated jargon, can sound like it is only for the real technology wizards among us.
But the truth is that SEO, at its core, is not complex to understand, and every educational organization can achieve good results with consistent attention to SEO. What really is needed is time and effort, and this is where geNEOus (formerly NEO Academy) can help! Let’s dig deeper, not only into why SEO just can’t be missing in your business strategy but also into what exactly we can do to help.
SEO is an inbound marketing technique that aims at increasing the number of visitors on your website. Redesigning your website so that it shows up on the first page of a search engine when a user looks for institutions, will give you the chance to gain a larger amount of visitors that can turn into leads. Higher rankings will make a larger number of prospective students look into your school and will help your institution stay ahead of competitors;
People want fast results, especially younger generations. When they look for something on the Internet, it is likely that they will stop on the first page of the search engine and not land on the second or the third, with the risk for your institution to go unnoticed. 28.5% of users click on the first organic result on the search page, and users rarely venture even to the second page, so being visible is a must.
With the right optimization, you can attract relevant visitors to your website. When you know the keywords and questions they typed into a search engine, you already have some information about them, what they look for, what they like, and what they need. They are individuals who match your programs and core values, they are interested in what you offer and, at the same time with this amazing tool, you are served with a more precise and targeted public;
When people see your brand at the top of search engines, the way they consider your institution changes. Having a high ranking will give your institution more intuitive credibility and the opportunity to build a brand not only based on traditional marketing approaches, but also on a community of prospective customers and students that rely on the uniqueness of your value proposition;
Having a good SEO means your institution is up-to-date on the constant changes happening in the online market. You know the trends of the moment, what topics people are researching, and how they do it. With this information, you can always provide your audience with the most useful and up-to-date services and information.
At geNEOus (formerly NEO Academy), we don’t believe the world of SEO should be a mystery, and we want to work closely with you to develop an approach that works for you. By understanding more about the way you work and what your objectives are, geNEOus (formerly NEO Academy), establishes a strong combination of keywords directly linked to your business and creates tailored content that will not only help you improve your current website ranking, but also shore up brand credibility with your audience.
In addition, geNEOus (formerly NEO Academy) can provide rich and original content to help you connect with your audience, build trust and credibility in your brand, and showcase your products and services. Blogs are a naturally effective SEO tool, but they also help to bring your institution to life; providing actionable content that is tailored to your audience, but also to the changing trends around us.
A well designed SEO strategy ensures that potential customers find your educational institution and/or program information right away. We also optimize the search speed, your current website forms and buttons to deliver an effective user experience which makes your site easy to navigate. Good SEO can really make the difference, and we’re ready to talk any time about how we can work it out together.
Branding is more than recognition, it is perception. A strong brand is the reason we can describe the experience of a Unicorn Frappucino at Starbucks, beyond the mechanics of a simple purchase. Creating awareness for what you’re offering is the first step towards brand recognition, but an enhanced brand means that there is a distinct experience and consistent message, which builds trust between you and your clients. The colors of your Unicorn Frappuccino might change, but you pretty much know what your experience is going to be.
It all starts with a message. That message might vary in tone between Instagram and LinkedIn, but it is the same message. When that message is clear, positioning your programs/institution effectively will be more organic. However, and let's be honest here, that message might sometimes need a polish. Much has been made of the pivot in startups with reference to products, services and strategies, but it's just as likely that the messaging itself, will need a good shake. How many businesses start out stiff and formal, thinking that's the way to establish credibility, and find out some years down the line that letting the brand persona shine through is really what drives engagement with the markets you want to reach? Brand enhancement is stepping up your messaging, getting clear on what you want that perception of your brand to be, and ensuring that it comes through on all channels.
Education is an emotional business. Marketing gurus have to work overtime to make going for a simple Iced coffee feel emotional, but education has that built in. Trust and credibility are enormously important, but students are also looking for an experience. Undertaking a program of study is a watershed moment. For some it may be the first experience of living away from home; for others perhaps a sea change in their career. Whichever way you spin it, there is no room for stock photos and robotic text. That first impression can include everything from colors and visuals to the logo, and that's before they have delved into the testimonials and 360-degree virtual campus tour. Paying close attention to these details makes sure that every single element is singing from the same hymn sheet. A false note will always stand out.
Branding enhancement can give your institution the missing piece; an identity that students can relate to and can trust. Having innovative marketing campaigns and a clear branding strategy will help you build long term relationships. It doesn't happen overnight, but that consistent and crystal clear brand can be the bedrock for innovative use of promotional channels, social media and blogs to make sure the perception of your institution stands out from the noise.
Channels like social media, website, brochures etc are rarely created by institutions all at the same time. They are usually the work of many people over a period of time, and the bird's eye perspective is not always retained through this gradual evolution of content.
geNEOus (formerly NEO Academy) offers the outside perspective: a chance to step back and really look at your message everywhere it is communicated. After a detailed consultation, we get to work on the website as the primary face of your brand. We look at the visual and textual messages, ensuring there is an authentic tone. Together we can take the core of what makes your institution stand out, and help make sure that prospective students and partners can decode that experience in relatable terms and truly engage with what you have to offer. Beyond the website, from social media to marketing campaigns of all stripes, geNEOus (formerly NEO Academy) can be by your side to see the process through, supporting your team to take ownership of the new and vibrant brand image that was always waiting to take center stage.
Think about the last time you went to a restaurant for a nice meal with friends or family. How did you choose the restaurant? You might have heard good things about it, checked reviews, had a look at their website, called them to discuss dietary requirements, and maybe even checked how the place looks on Instagram or Google. The decision making process for a simple meal can involve many channels, platforms, and engagements. Imagine, then, the process of choosing where to study. The decision that will impact your life significantly more than most choices means a great deal of engagement with marketing & recruitment information; multiple times over multiple channels.
Through social media, blog posts, education fairs, education portals and Google searches among others, the prospective student may well come to find out about you, and whichever channel that may be through, at whatever moment, the clarity and appeal of your offering must stand out. But standing out is, as we know, not straightforward. Earlier this week, we touched upon the challenge of making your institution visible at that critical moment in the decision making process via Education Portals, but what about the other end? Where does the brand awareness come from, and how can you make sure that when a prospective student sees content from your institution appearing in social media feeds and paid media content, their reaction is positive and familiar? That second, more intentional click may just be the one that counts.
2020 has brought its challenges for education; that much is undeniable. However, it has also shown us trends that can foster a rejuvenated recruitment process for your institution to expand student enrollment. In future articles, we’ll be delving into more detail on these, but let’s look at a summary of these top M&R trends for 2020.
We’ve all been there in the search for what works. The latest buzz topic in marketing, the hot new social media strategy, or the evocative landing page by a top web designer. There is merit in so many of these approaches, but without a coherent overall strategy and a steady building of engagement and visibility, sustainable ROI is always going to be an issue in the long term.
We can help because we know what works. We don’t just post about the top trends in M&R; we use them, and learn continuously from them. Data is our thing, and we geek out over results and analytics so you don’t have to. But it’s also about understanding that decision making in education is as emotional as it is intellectual and rational. Your institution is unique and so are your students, so a personalized and bespoke approach really is the only way forward. Every marketing and recruitment plan we offer is tailor-made, from the ground up. We will work with you to understand your brand and your vision, help to review and renew your M&R strategy, both online and offline. The next two years will see a huge change in education, with institutions adapting and thriving or struggling to survive and be heard. Working on a focused and differentiated M&R strategy ahead of this curve will be vital for the challenges ahead.
“It’s not a matter of being better at what you do – it’s a matter of being different at what you do.” Michael Porter
What images does the word “university” conjure up for you? Is it robed scholars with armloads of leather-bound books busying their way across a stone-walled courtyard? Perhaps it is an animated and passionate professor filling the lecture theatre with the acoustics of insight and irreverence? Or maybe it is just the social experience; from clubs and societies to new friends and new ideas.
While the images will certainly shift with generational and cultural contexts, very few people will visualize the administrative side of the institution as a first response. Specifically, in this case, the Marketing and Admissions team, the community managers, graphic designers, and communications strategists. These professionals are very much part of the way we actually perceive the reputation and experience of the institution itself, and they are as much part of “the university” as the academics themselves. This, however, is a rather recent development, all things considered, and this has brought some disagreement as to how exactly institutional reputation is actually managed, or whether it needs to be managed at all, for that matter.
The medieval university had quite a definitive answer to this, in that the fame and quality of its scholars and alumni (and indeed the fame of the host city itself) were quite sufficient to form a reputation. But then, there were very few of them and the subjects were limited to only a handful of options in any case. Not exactly fertile ground for marketers, one would say.
Though this situation changed considerably since then, the evolution of the Marketing Department is very recent. In only twenty years, the reach and remit of this team has grown from brochure and website designers to senior board-reporting staff, who effectively manage the reputation and external perception of the institution. This change has not gone unnoticed by academics, and the journals and periodicals of Higher Education are full of tales of the corporatization of academia, and outcry over the commoditization of students, through the language of the business world. As a simple experiment, try calling students “customers” or “clients” in the presence of almost any academic and observe the palpable tension in the room.
But yet the word universitas itself means corporation; a community of scholars, thinkers and writers forging ahead in their subjects for the common reputational good of their collective. Even inside that halfway house between these two worlds, the Business School, there are two component parts, and one cannot exist without the other. No business, no school. No school, no business. One should not impose itself on the other, but in symbiosis lies strength and sustainability.
The reputation of an institution is no longer simply down to how hard it is to get in, or the year it was founded, nor the prevalence of its research or the breakthrough discoveries of its flagship faculty. Bob Sevier found back in 2009 that admissions selectivity and academic quality were only two of six ways to build reputation in an institution. Another study of the same year found fifteen components to reputation, from stakeholder theory and CSR to trust and advocacy. In an age of digital communication where institutions act as social agents and work closely with industry and government, reputation is no longer something that comes from academia alone.
Research and teaching, as provinces of the academic, are a personal business. As Philip Muriarty of the University of Nottingham put it, academics have an “unvarnished” style which “humanizes” them and, in the same article, gave a passionate defense of the individuality of the academic against the onslaught of corporate branding guidelines, uniform PowerPoints and brand ambassadors. “I Am Not Your Brand” cried Professor Muriarty, and there are many academics who expressed solidarity with this sentiment.
The pronoun tells all. Muriarty is an eloquent writer, where no word is accidental, and every choice is weighted. The brand is “your” design. It is a product of the world of business, forcing us to conform and stripping us of what makes us unique. That there is no buy-in from the academic team could not be clearer. This is not “our” brand, but one which has been constructed by those who understand market forces, emotional levers and data-rich psychographics. Those who will carry it forward into the classroom have not been part of the conversation, and it shows in this case.
Such an exercise back in 2012 involving academics in brand building and logo design was expressed (anonymously!) as akin to “herding cats”. But what would we expect? Much the same might be said if we tried to involve social media experts in designing selection criteria for a systematic research paper. Stepping into the other side is challenging, unless of course you can see that they are simply two sides of the same coin. Change does not come easy, but that does not mean it should be dismissed.
The truth is, that branding is about the distillation of so many experiences, voices, values and aspirations, into simple and recognizable form. The world of academia, however, is about expanding concepts, growing and enriching them until they branch off into other offshoots of increasing complexity. Academic traditions value the outliers like William of Ockham as engines to progress through their unique lines of enquiry against the grain. The marketing department seek uniformity of image type, font and color scheme. There are valid arguments for all of these perspectives, and yet without this conversation taking place, it is no wonder there are misunderstandings. Ockham was incorrect in this case: the simplest solution is not always the right one.
Bringing academics into the conversation about education branding is not performative or superficial. It is the key to a robust brand image and reputation that can endure in uncertain times. Finding the common values that unite the university, and ensuring the teaching staff can feel that sense of ownership over the brand might not be easy, but even attempting to do it will help to open a conversation that needs to happen.
Teaching staff often travel, give public talks, make YouTube videos, and are often fiercely independent in their right to do so. Checking with the marketing department before all of this must feel like micro-management to someone who holds the idea of the brand apart from their own sense of ownership, but it might be different if they themselves co-authored that brand story.
“Branding can act as a shorthand measure of the whole range of criteria that inform student decision making” finds a research paper from 2016, and given that the very nature of our campus experience is currently under threat from the pandemic and its unpredictable shockwaves, there is even more reason to ensure that our institutions are holistically clear upfront on who they are, what they stand for, and the experience they will deliver. There is no try before you buy in Higher Education.
While a modern and relevant curriculum, slick marketing, abundant testimonials, and a catchy logo might help to get students through the virtual or physical door, there is much that cannot be controlled thereafter. The student experience can deepen or recede brand loyalty at every touchpoint on the journey, and while universities invite students to form focus and feedback groups, or to become ambassadors, there is rarely an extension of this invitation to the teaching body.
There is no school without business and no business without school. Unless both are part of the brand and invested in its values, the cracks might appear at a time where a solid foundation for the future will determine who is still standing when the dust begins to settle. Marketing and academia are part of this same story and, if that story is written together, the tale may well endure in what is yet to come.
Though Charles de Lint wasn’t writing about Education Portals when he said this, it doesn’t make his words any less fitting. It is a source of frustration for so many institutions to know that they have such excellent programs and services, but yet watch other institutions bringing in higher enrollment numbers year on year. Make no mistake, visibility is critical and, with so much information competing for the attention of prospective students, we have to be clever about when, how and where we reach out and connect as institutions.
Today’s students are used to seeing institutions in their social media feeds, vying for their attention and engagement, but the reason they are logged into social media in the first place is not always because they are searching for the right institution. They are on to upload holiday photos, scroll their news feeds, or catch up with friends. To be visible as an institution does mean social media presence is a must, but we also have to be there when prospective students really want to start narrowing down their choices and choosing the right place and program for them.
One place which increasingly suits this search behavior is the education portal. These portals often appear above your organization’s own website in organic search rankings, and really give you the chance to showcase refined content for very specific and targeted messaging. If you really want them to know why you’re different, this is a great place to start.
An education portal is not like a regular website, which has any number of functions. These portals have one purpose; to showcase institutions and compare them. The same way we use consolidators to compare flights or car insurance, the education portal really empowers students to filter what they see and find the right fit for them, from the location of the study program to international transfer opportunities, from price range to study mode. By giving the searcher the control, and presenting them with your offering in a very visually appealing way, institutions are connected only to those people who are genuinely searching for what you offer.
This specific targeting also extends to SEO. If your institution's internal SEO strategy is not yet well developed, Education Portals can actually write high-quality, unique and well-optimized content for you. For institutions that don't want to commit to regular in-house or even subcontracted content writing, this is a great way to get your story out there in a space where it will stand out and make an impact. This content can be targeted to specific markets, and is often coupled with a geolocation function which focuses visibility on the markets you want to develop and attract.
But it doesn’t stop there. A good portal service can be connected to your own CRM, helping you manage and track every stage in the engagement process. You can stay in step with anything the student needs to make the choice to study with you, and ensure that you offer the most appropriate and personalized service to a person who needs the right information to make an important decision. This can even mean only receiving pre-qualified leads- a service offered by some providers-which allows you to really focus your recruitment energies wisely and efficiently.
Like any online service these days, the range of options and opportunities can be broad and hard to define. This is when geNEOus (formerly NEO Academy) can help. Our expertise in working with institutions and Education Portals will help you to stand out from the crowd, make effective choices, and really have an impact on growing your student numbers. Moreover, we want to help you to get the information you need to make this growth sustainable. From customizing and integrating your CRM with the portal, to providing clear and actionable ROI data, our aim is to empower our clients to get the most out of every action you take and every resource you use. Being truly and uniquely visible online is possible with the right approach. When students are making the final choice of where to study, amidst a sometimes bewildering array of options, geNEOus (formerly NEO Academy) can help to make sure you are not only in the running but already two steps ahead.
"The two main challenges that I have seen coming back over and over again with the hundreds of universities marketing managers whom I have worked in my 10 years at Study portals are: How to measure the results and ROI of a digital marketing campaign, and how to define the best recruitment strategy when working with a capped marketing budget.
These are two great challenges, and I was always impressed when seeing how Alejandra [geNEOus (formerly NEO Academy's) Founder & CEO] has this under control. She definitely has a great understanding of the do's and don't of lead gen campaigns, especially through portals such as Studyportals.
For instance, she always uses clear KPIs to asses the ROI of our campaigns and makes data-driven decisions on what and how to promote a global or targeted audience. She is also quite sharp at getting the best out of her budget and is very reliable and attentive in the campaign monitoring and optimization process".
As part of geNEOus' (formerly NEO Academy) mission, we've always believed empowering our clients in effectively managing their database is critical to their success. As anyone who has ever tried to use CRM software already knows, using it "off the shelf" is going to lead to a challenging time in adapting it to your own unique operation, and likely some colorful language in the staff room. In this article, we are starting at the beginning, by exploring one of geNEOus' (formerly NEO Academy) main services for educational institutions: CRM Customization and Implementation. In subsequent articles, we’ll be digging into much more detail, but to get things rolling, we will first look at the nuts and bolts of what this powerful technology offers and how to do it right.
Customer Relationship Management (CRM) is really just as it sounds, a tool to help you manage relationships with "customers" or, in this case, students. A CRM system offers educational institutions more personalized interactions with alumni, current students and potential students, and is the perfect instrument for high schools, universities, language schools and agents for keeping track of all the preferences, contact details, conversations and behavioral data, saved and organized in one single place. Imagine how much information can be gleaned from all the interactions we have with our students and alumni, and how it can all be used to provide a much more personal, efficient and effective experience for everyone involved; if only it is working for you in an optimized way.
Data management has become one of the biggest assets an institution can have, if well set up. Having a CRM can facilitate and automate a variety of actions, such as sending targeted emails to specific groups of alumni, while using predefined snippets to give a sense of personal touch. In addition, your CRM can be linked to your digital marketing actions, allowing you to manage them more easily and rapidly. Nowadays, offering an excellent degree program or language course just isn’t enough. Beyond the attributes of the product itself, It is essential to deliver a personalized experience that people will remember, which makes them feel they have been heard and that they belong. This increases not only the likelihood of the person continuing to engage with you but also recommending the institution, program or experience to others.
From a managerial perspective, the days are gone of having to wait for report X or meeting Y to get the information you need, and instead, we can see that whole range of real-time data right in front of us, like the CIA Secret Ops Centre in The Bourne Identity. This slight exaggeration aside, top CRM platforms such as HubSpot or Salesforce really do enable you to visualize so much tailored information, from which you can really extract learning, modeling, and rich data to make systemic changes and strategic decisions. Making decisions based on what you know always feels more secure, and a well-organized CRM platform helps you to know more about what's really going on.
For those in your staff team, when the number of interactions is increasing with students, from potential to alumni, it gets challenging to keep track of them with a one-dimensional database. We have all seen the smaller organization, which starts out with an Excel sheet of lead statuses and quickly becomes overwhelmed. Information is lost, staff turnover complicates the handover of important detail, work gets duplicated, and it is all visually unappealing to those who need the birds-eye view of where targets are being met, or where there are connections and insights between different streams of information. Excel tabs just aren't built for that.Using CRM software requires a bit of adaptation time, but the efficiency and enhanced experience that comes with it means more stability for your institution and a system that is easy to follow as you expand. The later you leave switching over, the more challenging it can be.
From a student's perspective, the CRM system means not having to re-explain things in subsequent interactions with your institution, and speaking to someone who really knows the story so far. It is also about receiving information and offers that are actually relevant to you, and less likely to make you reach for the “unsubscribe” button; particularly in the case of busy alumni who don't want to be bombarded with scattergun content, or potential students who get put off by information overload.
Here’s a handy infographic of the many advantages of having a CRM system automated and implemented in an educational institution.
Depending on where you are on the scale of your operation, switching to a CRM platform can mean an investment of time and effort. Importing the tool “off the shelf” might seem appealing. Compare the functionality, shop around for the best price, and click download. Easy, isn't it? Not quite.
The truth is, that what lies ahead can be a steep learning curve until you find the setup and settings that are best for you and your process workflows, not to mention the change management issues this can bring, from staff training to the integration with all the other departments that will want to make use of it. Your admissions or marketing team may be more familiar with CRM tools, but the academic team may want to use it to contact current students and record interactions. The careers office will want to use the CRM platform for alumni surveys, the marketing team to promote events, and any number of other uses that are part of the day to day running of your institution.
Having a tailor-made CRM really is the only answer, and geNEOus (formerly NEO Academy) can help create organized efficiency right from the start. Whether it is on HubSpot or Salesforce, geNEOus (formerly NEO Academy) works with you to craft an automated and bespoke CRM setup which adapts to your institution and your priorities. As a matter of fact, geNEOus (formerly NEO Academy) is a HubSpot Certified Partner, in recognition of our expertise with the platform and its customization. All of this means you can get down to business, while we take care of the rest.
Life with a CRM means being able to easily keep track of activities, paid media campaigns, calls, emails, notes, and reminders, as well as develop tasks and schedule meetings. Thanks to the usage of a chatbot, the CRM can even create a workflow that filters the information provided by potential and current students, helping to streamline and automate tasks; reducing errors and increasing efficiency.If the implementation is customized, there is a far greater buy-in from your team as well. Change can be challenging, but if your team can clearly see how much easier the CRM can make their working day, the onboarding phase will be much more positive for everyone. For those of us who dreamed of machines one day making our lives much easier, that reality is already here.
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