Private School Strategic Planning

Who Is Driving Your School's Direction? Can You Shrink Your Way to Success? Hello Doug,   I hope you're winding down another successful school year and preparing for a well-deserved summer break. There's no rest here at HEG as we've a number of projects underway around the globe, including market study and business plans for K-12 international schools in Canada, GCC, USA, and Asia. Along, with this, we're actively representing the sale of a dozen schools globally, and two school evaluations this Fall. As shared in past eNewsletters, our team has been involved in numerous projects the regarding start-up of new private schools and those in the midst of roll out. All of which require an experienced hand to ensure the are operated and managed effectively. As they say, you never get a second chance to make a first impression. One of the critical blunders we see time-and-again with start-ups is that fact that founders haven't developed a detailed enough strategic business plan from pre-formation to operation over a five to seven year timeline to adequately determine whether: (1). The school is feasible in that particular market based on its program/operation/finance benchmarks; and (2) They've adequate capital to cover the initial cash-flow shortfall in the first two to three years of operation until they reach their break-even point. Our rule of thumb when establishing a school is: it needs to break-even within 24-30 months; it should be able to pay down its debt within eight to ten years, and IRR (depending on location) should range upwards to 25 to 35%. Nevertheless, the fact is that schools don't break even right away. There's just too much overhead that extends costs before you reach an enrollment point whereby you break even. However, when you reach that point, then it's clear sailing, along as you ensure that you continue to deliver on the program quality you committed to the at the beginning. You can't cut corners here! For those schools, be it established or new, that do not adequately prepare a strategic financial plan and budget, they end up in a cash crunch, and in most cases, start cutting back on program resources and staffing and/or dip into next year's tuition to cover this year's shortfall. This is a slippery slope to get on and it becomes more a matter of "when" not "if" the school shuts down. I've seen it too many times now. There can be fine balance between delivering on program quality and achieving your mission and being financially responsible. But that's what planning is about. Measure twice...cut once. But who is the driver of ensuring you achieve your strategic priorities? Who drives the decision making for your school? Is it the accounting office, Head of School, or the Board? Is it the 'bean counter' or the educational CEO of your school's vision. Don't get me wrong, there has to be financial accountability, but who ultimately makes the decision on the bottom line? And what's your bottom line and how do you measure it? In today's eNewsletter I want to talk more about who drives your school's decisions regarding short- and long-term strategic priorities and how to align your school's planning to ensure your institution is sustainable and directed towards your goals within a financially responsible process. In simple terms, this is what strategic planning is about, and something no successful school (be it for-profit or non-profit, new or established) can do without in today's every changing world. One thing is for sure, you can't shrink your way to success. To your success, Douglas Halladay President Halladay Education Group P.S. Don't forget to go to our secure Online Store to invest in our Strategic Planning or Start-A-School Toolkits.They're affordable and practical.           Today's Article:  Who Is Driving Your School's Priorities? Can You Shrink Your Way to Success? I read an article (Monday Morning Memo) a few months back that shared a story about a cafe owner who was famous for their soup, who was told by their accountant they could improve profits considerably if they added 5% more water to their recipe. The accountant was right. Water was added and no one noticed. Months later, the cafe added 5% more water and still no one noticed. Later, more water was added. And then a little more, but never more than 5% since they'd demonstrated that customers couldn't detect just 5% more water was added. As you guessed, the cafe owner didn't lose customers incrementally, but all-at-once. "The soup here just isn't as good as it used to be." It proves that operators have a blind spot to the all-at-once backlash that comes from watering down the soup. Businesses expect to see incremental declines when they're incrementally abusive, but that's not how it works. When clients pack up to leave, they take their business (your students) with them and leave all at once. The key principle for cost-cutters is that profits go up when costs are lowered. On paper, this makes sense since a cost-cutter's forecast doesn't project a decline in business. In the short-term, cost-cutters look brilliant. Later, when clients quit buying soup (enrolling students at your school) and the business begins to crumble, the cost-cutter becomes an even bigger champion: "See, I told you? If I hadn't cut expenses, we'd really be in trouble now. But with our new, lower overhead, we're still profitable. I've saved the school." Don't shake your head. I've watched it happen at many schools and it makes me want to scream. My question is, who determines your school's priorities, and do you develop a short- and long-term plan to enable you to responsibly align your resources to achieve your goals, allowing you to ride out the dips in start-up and operations? I'm not implying that all accountants are meddling. Someone has to ensure you live within your means. In fact, it's easier to raise revenues than slash costs. However, when you're a new school, you cannot shrink your way to profitability (and sustainability). You need to ensure that you've the capital in place beforehand to cover your initial short-fall; not "cut" your way through it. In fact, in during your initial start-up years, you should develop an accountable business plan that allows you to grow your school's program quality rather than shrink it. I'll finish off with one more pearl from the article to drive home the concept that you can't 'shrink' or shrivel' your school to success... A cost-cutter buys grapes and makes raisins. An entrepreneur buys grapes and makes wine. You'll never see a person arrive to a celebration carrying a box of raisins. NEXT STEP If you would like to find out more about strategic planning or school formation services, or advise on the review and implementation of your current plan, please contact HEG to find out more by sending an email to info@halladayeducationgroup.com or calling directly at +1-604-868-0002.

Strategic Planning For Schools

If it ain't broke, break it, then fix it. Otherwise you may be destined to address tomorrow's problems with yesterday's solutions - Clark Crouch Another summer has come and gone. How do they go by so fast? Ahh, the century old quandry of educators, students, and parents. I hope though that you've come back fully recharged and ready for another memorable school year. I shared both the quote and images to emphasize how critical proactive long-term strategic planning,  action planning, and implementation and monitoring are to the short- and long-term success of a private school. Many schools make the mistake of developing their plan in isolation without any input from their stakeholders nor reflect on trends and data related their school's performance. Their leadership creates a plan in isolation that does not measurably lay-out a plan for improvement nor engage their community in the process, product, implementation, or buy-in. It just becomes another of those plans from the top that gathers dust. Just another one of those plans brought down from the top of the mountain. Furthermore, many schools do not create a supporting annual action plan and operation plan in unison with the goals and objectives developed in the plan to prioritize and guide the implementation and monitoring by board committees and the senior administrations yearly actions. Today's eNewsletter reflects on other elements to support the development and implementation of an effective strategic plan for your school. To your success,  Douglas Halladay President Halladay Education Group P: +1-604-868-0002 | E: info@halladayeducationgroup.com   4316 Arthur Drive, Delta, BC, Canada, V4K 2W8  P.S. Don't forget to go to our secure Online Store to invest in our Strategic Planning or Start-A-School Toolkits. They're affordable and practical.           Vision without action is a dream. Action without vision is simply passing the time. Action with Vision is making a positive difference. The purpose of a strategic plan is to lay out a concise and practical road map to achieve your school's mission and vision -- moving away from being "reactive" -- solving today's problems -- towards being "proactive" - eliminating problems in the future and taking advantage of opportunities now.   Your plan should provide a framework that enables your school to focus and coordinate your resources, work towards common goals, assess and adjust as you move forward, and focus your board's priorities, guide your staff, and inspire your community. The planning process addresses a series of questions that examines assumptions, incorporates information about the present, and anticipates the world in which the school will be working in, determines how you will get there, and allows you to measure and adjust asyou attain your vision. Linking To Effective Governance A school is most effective when your resources are aligned top-to-bottom by a common vision, mission, strategies, goals, and action plans. An effective planning approach should be seamless and provide practical objectives and deliverables that can be implemented and measured to improve the performance of your school, moving you from good to great. It should allow your board to layout the strategic direction of the school and monitor the progress of your plan against school performance, as well as linking your governance model and oversight to your senior administration annual operational plan. This allows your school to Identify areas of operation needing consideration now and using it as a springboard to strengthen performance in the future; Identify and reach consensus on issues before they become a crisis (e.g., finance, funding, enrollment, marketing, HR, academic programs, student performance, facilities, educational program, governance); Articulate a uniform, shared vision, providing a clearer focus, producing efficiency, participation, and ownership by your stakeholders; Allocate resources to opportunities and improve finances and projections; Build trust, respect, team-work, and communication amongst all stakeholders; Create a framework to guide decision making and ensure that members are working towards the same goals, even if the environment around the school changes; Gain credibility and identify critical projects to focus your resources; Inspire your community to invest in your goals through focused fundraising campaigns; Ensure that board members understand their roles, responsibilities, and board-wide priorities within their committee structure; and Monitor performance and provide benchmarks from which progress can be measured within your board and senior administration. The diagram below illustrates how the pieces come together for your board to develop, implement, and monitor your school's plan. You can see that your five-year planing document should be used annually by your board to determine your yearly priorities and then have your senior administration break-down how they plan to measurably implement the priorities, encompassed within their own evaluation process. Your board committees would then monitor the implementation and report back to the board any action items. This puts all key players on the same page.    HEG's Planning Approach HEG's planning approach supports your board and senior administration in the development and implementation of your plan. Our approach typically encompasses a progression of stages over a five to seven month time frame with the development of your strategic plan and action plan for implementation in the coming school year. This is achieved through the following steps that are customized for your school:   Provided is a link to a recent strategic plan HEG developed. Click on the link to open a downloadable copy of their strategic plan for Forest Lake Education Center Strategic Plan. HEG's President has been involved in the development of a variety of strategic plans for a number of schools types (International, US, Canadian, IBO, Faith-Based, Public) globally and can lead the development of your school's strategic plan this coming school year..   Next Step If you would like to find out more about how we could help your board develop your school's strategic plan or advise on the review and implementation of your current plan, please contact HEG to find out more by sending an email to info@halladayeducationgroup.com or calling directly at +1-604-868-0002.

Board Governance And Strategic Planning

IN THIS ISSUE Where's HEG Working? In The News Solutions For Your School Are Your Board Committees Focused? Toolkits BUY & SELL SCHOOLS      HEG provides consulting services in connection with the sale of Private K-12 Schools, Language Schools, & Career Colleges, including:   1). Profitable Group Canadian Career Colleges offering health & technology programs. (Sch. No. 1075) 2). Growing Group of Canadian Language Schools. (Sch. No. 1037) 3). Solo Canadian-based Language School. (Sch. No. 1022) 4). Successful Western Canadian Career College specializing in business, healthcare, ESL, & IT.  (Sch. No. 1063) 5). Turn-key group of Western Canadian Career Colleges offering business-oriented diplomas & certificates. (Sch. No. 1019)    6). Unique Canadian Language School & Career College offering ESL, Work/Study, & Hospitality/Tourism Programs. (Sch. No. 1031)       6). Successful K-12 Asian private international school. (Sch. No. 1034)    7). Successful K-12 International school in S.W. USA (Sch. No. 1087)   Contact HEG by email or phone if you would like to find out more about these schools or would HEG to provide consulting services in connection with the sale of your school.   ONLINE STORE Visit Our Store For Helpful Toolkits TESTIMONIAL "HEG  is a very professional team that brings a myriad of talents to private schools and are quite focused and results driven. They work efficiently and are task-driven. As a start-up school we have so many items in our punch-list to complete and Doug and the HEG team came in and helped us with almost every aspect of the operations in a very short time frame. They are flexible and a joy to work with. I would recommend them to any group that wants to start a world-class international school or improve the performance of your established private school." -- Dr. Jorge Nelson, Head of Chadwick International School

I'm just back from a productive week in Mongolia working with the International School of Ulaanbaatar to assess the implementation of their strategic plan which our firm developed with them in 2010. I was extremely impressed by the interconnectedness of their board and senior administration with the implementation of their annual operational plan and monitoring process with their board  committees. The view wasn't too bad either from my hotel. Here's a picture of the Golden Buddha outside my hotel room door. I also had the opportunity to loop through Seoul to meet with clients interested in selling their private K-12 school as well a school formation project Today, I want to share with you what is involved in developing a more effective board committee model that will connect the dots between your board's overall function and the implementation of your strategic plan and CEO's operational plan. By doing this, you have all your key players on the same page in terms of the short- and long-term priorities and implementation of your strategic plan, ensuring a measurable model that guides your board's and senior administration's decision making, budget, staffing, and focus. As the great New York Yankee legend Yogi Berra said, "You've got to be very careful if you don't know where you're going, because you might not get there."     To your success,  Doug Halladay President Halladay Education Group P.S. Don't forget to go to our secure Online Store to invest in our Strategic Planning or Start-A-School Toolkits.They're affordable and practical.    Where's HEG Working Right Now? Here's an update of what HEG's working on:    Board Governance Workshop for an International IB Non-Profit School in Mongolia Evaluate the implementation of a strategic plan for a K-12 Private International Non-Profit School in Asia Market Study and Business Plan for a new Faith-Based Non-Profit Private K-12 School in BC  Market Study and Business for a Private K-12 For-Profit International School in Angola  Market Study and Business Plan for a new Private K-12 Non-Profit International School in Oman Market Study and Business Plan for a new Private For-Profit High School in California  School Evaluation of a PreK-12 Non-Profit Preparatory School in British Columbia Strategic Plan/Action For a Private Non-Profit K-8 Adventist Preparatory School in Florida   Formation of a new Private K-12 Canadian For-Profit International K-12 School in Saudi Arabia    Providing consulting services to school owners in connection with the sale of their Canadian Career Colleges, Language Schools, and Private K-12 schools globally  If you're interested in our firm's consulting services, and would like to discuss your needs further, please contact Doug Halladay by email  or call directly at 1-604-868-0002.   In The News  Wealthy Parents Increasingly Seeking Financial Aid For K-12 Education Should parents be sending their kids to private schools they can't afford? The average cost of a year of private school is $21995, a figure that's ballooned 35 percent since the 2001-02... Can The Internet Save Education? The Internet can save everything, even education. At least that's what tech companies would have parents and government officials believe. Too bad it's not true. Incensed at the apparent lackluster performance of our students and our supposed lack of... What the US and Chinese School Systems Have in Common Here we often regard private schools as a cut above public ones (though the truth is far murkier), but most Chinese consider public schools to be superior. Americans view public education as a crucial equalizer for a democratic society,...  Public or Private School? And What's the Difference? There is no right or wrong answer regarding whether private or public school education is best for children. Many people are so polarized around the option of having a religious affiliation that this may be the only thing important to them. Solutions For Your School STARTING A SCHOOL Our experienced team can provide step-by-step 'turn-key' services to start your school in the USA, Canada, &  Internationally. Click here for more info.  STRATEGIC PLANNING  We're experienced developing Strategic Plans for schools globally. Our plan can focuses your school's mission, build consensus, donor confidence, & define priorities for your Board & Staff. No school should be without one. Click here for more info. BOARD GOVERNANCE WORKSHOPS Great schools have great boards. Can you afford not to ? Our governance workshops & online board performance surveys fine-tunes your board's & focuses your priorities. Click here for more info. SCHOOL EVALUATION Are you sure your school is doing the best it can? Our In-Depth Performance Review assesses your school's performance against benchmarks & provides snap-shot right away. Click here for more info. BUYING AND SELLING SCHOOLS  HEG provides consulting services in connection with the sale of K-12 Schools, Language Schools, & Career Colleges in Canada, US, and Internationally. Click here for more info. Are Your Board Committees Effective Or Unfocused? A non profit's board is responsible for: Defining the school's mission and providing overall leadership and strategic direction for the school Actively setting policy and ensuring that the school has adequate resources to carry out its mission Providing direct oversight and direction for the Head of School and evaluating his/her performance based on their implementation of their plan  Evaluating its own effectiveness as a governing body, as a group of volunteers, and as representatives of the community in upholding the public interest served by the school. One of the key functions of an effective board is to develop, implement, monitor, and revise an effective strategic plan. This shapes the board as both the leaders and stewards of the school for today and for the next generation of learners (and the mission!). The diagram below illustrates how this fits in with the big picture for board performance. The key once the board develops their strategic and action plans is to develop a process and system to implement the plan which brings into play the oversight of the plan's annual priorities along with the Head of School's operational plan, which will guide the implementation of the plan for the school year, and allow the board's sub-committees to monitor implementation. That's really the key. The board determining their annual priorities based on the five-year strategic plan, having the Head jointly develop the operational plan with the related board committees that are established specifically to monitor/review/revise the implementation of the goals/objectives/tasks via the Head of School's operational plan. This creates a structure to separate 'oversight' from 'operation' and ensure that the board observes appropriate boundaries and avoids micro-managing. The roles of the board committees is then to: Accomplish work needed to be done between board meetings  It's where the majority of board's work takes place; they're the workhorses  Enable sharing of time and talent, & provide for work and evaluation Addresses strategic priorities not day-to-day needs Ensures a quality control to monitor implementation    Some tips to consider when you form your board committees includes: Documenting responsibilities, guidelines, annual goals, and the review/revision process  Appointing an effective chairperson and members who support and compliment fellow members Documenting job descriptions for each member, expectations, and tasks Making timely reports based on action items  Being goal-driven and action oriented; ensuring board meetings are based on deliberating on action items not day-to-day matters  Having a written statement of committee membership, roles, goals, job description, meeting schedule, tasks, actions, and responsibilities Determining relationships and roles of board, committee, CEO, and staff Setting timelines for reporting on action items at Board meetings as part of the Board's calendar Procedures for monitoring and review process Deliverables and reporting cycle within the Board's annual agenda and calendar Committee reports provided prior to Board meeting with interconnected 'dashboard' presentation to support Board-related 'action items' Next Step If you would find out more about how we can help your board to your school's strategic plan or improve your school's board governance model, please contact Doug Halladay directly to find out more about our board governance workshops. Send an email to info@halladayeducationgroup.com or call directly at 1-604-868-0002. HEG Recommends Here are  2 of our most popular toolkits that will help you either  start your own school or develop your own strategic plan.   STRATEGIC PLANNING TOOLKIT  Learn how to develop your own Plan with step-by-step instructions contained in a detailed Workbook & Manual, along with $500 worth of bonus CD's. It's all here to help you develop your own plan. Click here for more details. START-A-SCHOOL TOOLKIT Are you still struggling with starting a school? Experienced school leaders share how they started their school from the ground up. You'll also receive our bonus CD ($150 value) on developing your strategic plan. Click here for more details. To your success, Douglas Halladay President Halladay Education Group Inc.   P: 604.868.0002 F: 868.472.8737 E: info@halladayeducationgroup.com www.HalladayEducationGroup.com   You are receiving this because you signed up at HEG's website or you told us you wanted to subscribe. We will never distribute your address to anyone. Period. We promise.