#naisac 2015: “Why Should More Parents Value Your School?”

My 8am session on Thursday morning was “Why Should More Parents Value Your School?”  Some great advice here from Richard Hardy from Concord Academy and Ben Edwards from The Art & Science Group.

Biggest takeaways:

“Culture eats strategy for breakfast.“

“Don’t take on research until you are ready to be: 1) introspective and 2) act on the results.”

Here are my tweets:

In a session #naisac pic.twitter.com/j1pvPuUAPn

— Lorri Carroll (@lcarroll94) February 26, 2015

What is the value proposition — benefits obtained releative to cost and relative to competition? #naisac

— Lorri Carroll (@lcarroll94) February 26, 2015

What goes into "competitive positioning" — expectation of the experience particular to your school #naisac

— Lorri Carroll (@lcarroll94) February 26, 2015

Multiple factors: recruitment procedures, program culture, priorities matters. Need reliable research #naisac

— Lorri Carroll (@lcarroll94) February 26, 2015

"Culture eats strategy for breakfast" #naisac

— Lorri Carroll (@lcarroll94) February 26, 2015

Not a great strategy– 'if you build it, they will come' #naisac

— Lorri Carroll (@lcarroll94) February 26, 2015

Can't just listen to the talk in the carpool line — #naisac

— Lorri Carroll (@lcarroll94) February 26, 2015

Need research-based information from current and prospective families. #naisac

— Lorri Carroll (@lcarroll94) February 26, 2015

CA used qualitiative interviews– reach out to admitted but declined pool, influencers, alumni/donors to help with research. #naisac

— Lorri Carroll (@lcarroll94) February 26, 2015

A lot goes into value propostion- program quality and distinctiveness, delivering on the experience you claim #naisac

— Lorri Carroll (@lcarroll94) February 26, 2015

Important– reputations and communications, competition and changes in it, leadership, price/ FA #naisac

— Lorri Carroll (@lcarroll94) February 26, 2015

If you ask people where they get info about their school– numbers 1 -10 is word of mouth #11 is website. #naisac

— Lorri Carroll (@lcarroll94) February 26, 2015

Don't take on research until you are ready to 1) be introspective and 2) act on the results (change…) #naisac

— Lorri Carroll (@lcarroll94) February 26, 2015

What success requires: Hard truths 5 out of 5 heads said: Truth telling is needed for even modest change #naisac

— Lorri Carroll (@lcarroll94) February 26, 2015