N E W S T R AT E G I E S :
Sharpening Your Business Model
Mark Cook
New strategies: Sharpening Your Business
(Model
Mark Cook, Director, FE Business
EMSI Conference, March 3rd 2016
@febusinessnews
www.febusiness.co.uk
Outline
• About FE Business
• Strategy, Culture & Capability
• Finding a balance
• Culture
• 6 key elements for employer-responsive providers
• Employer Engagement Strategy: Business
Development focus
• 6 strategic priorities for success
@febusinessnews
About FE Business
• Employer engagement consultancy, training and
recruitment
• Supported over 40 providers nationally
• Focus on culture change and leadership/business
development skills
• Results and outcomes focus
@febusinessnews
Strategy or culture?
Strategy or culture?
• How to respond to current external drivers
• Important to define and communicate your competitive
advantage
• Limitations of strategies and business models
• Anyone can copy your strategy, but no one can copy your culture
• Too much focus on strategy alone?
• Importance of establishing the right culture
• Makes strategy reliance redundant - building the ability to adapt
and change
• Creates environment for future proofing and success
• However - no culture can offset poor strategic choices
• What does ‘commercial culture’ look like in FE?
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Recipe for employer-focused culture?
All successful cultures are created from the same
five components:
• Behaviours
• Values
• Relationships
• Attitudes
• Environment
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6 elements of successful employerresponsive/commercial culture
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
Create a shared vision for EE
Define ‘preferred’ values and behaviours
Involve the whole organisation
Publicise and share ‘magic numbers’
Measure milestones and performance
Celebrate successes (and failures!)
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New strategies: Business Development
Excellence
• Focus on distribution, as well as product
• T&L – and it’s place in delivering business outcomes, not just
learner outputs
• Product itself often commoditised
• Where/how it’s deployed delivers competitive advantage:
understanding business objectives
• Matching with the best of private sector practice
• Not just within skills sector
• Balancing long-term and short-term gains
• Large accounts essential - deferred gratification
• Easier to execute with appropriate culture
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Strategic priorities: Business Development
Excellence
1. Define and communicate your employer vision
• Mission/Purpose
• Values
• Visionary goal
2. Define your value proposition
•
•
•
•
Understanding movement, drivers & measurement
How do you impact your customer’s bottom line?
What makes you special?
Overcoming price vs. value arguments
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Strategic priorities: Business Development
Excellence
3. Focus on becoming a business partner, not a
commodity broker
• Understanding where you are – how are you measuring
success?
• Planning to get where you need to be
4. Develop Key Account Strategies
• Identify your top 40 accounts and targets
• Identify key players: DMs, influencers, sponsors, antisponsors
• Agree objectives with your customers
• Generate and communicate plans
• Monitor milestones and progress
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Strategic priorities: Business Development
Excellence
5. Build Your capability
• Professional Sales & Marketing:
• Create Employer Engagement ambassadors
6. Understand your market
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•
•
•
Matching your strengths to market need
Forgetting what you already know
Data vs. intelligence
Mapping your stakeholders
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Final thought
• The combination of your culture, strategy and
capability defines your competitive advantage
• A focus on the sharp end of employer engagement
is more important than ever
• Peter Drucker: The only sustainable competitive
advantage is the ability to adapt and change.