The fizz factor: lessons from the corporate world for managing reputation in higher education

1. OCTOBER 1, 2014 Michael Stopford

2. Scope
1. Competitive landscape
2. Reputation management – process and levers
3. Communications – fizz and focus

3. Scope
1. Competitive landscape
2. Reputation management – process and levers
3. Communications – fizz and focus

4. Global Competition
Today’s higher education landscape is global
• The competition is global
• The opportunity is global
In today’s competitive landscape a university has to be
as intentional in protecting, safeguarding, enhancing
and promoting its reputation as any corporation.
You face global competition just as multinational
corporations do. You compete for the best students,
the best faculty, the best managers: globally, not just in
your cities, your regions, your countries.

5. Rankings: Impact
International student recruitment: our young friends in Guangzhou
and Shanghai now have a lot more choices. They can go to Michigan
or Chicago, Manchester or Warwick, Melbourne or Adelaide or
Toronto – or stay at home in one of their new campuses.

6. Corporate Reputation Rankings
Fortune:
World's 50 Most
Admired Companies
Harris
Interactive/WSJ:
Reputation Quotient
Business Ethics
Magazine/CRO:
100 Best Corporate
Citizens
Reputation Institute:
RepTrak Pulse
United States
Reputation
Institute: Global
RepTrak Pulse
Key Attributes
1: Innovation
2: Leadership/
Management
3: Community
Responsibility
4: Environmental
Responsibility
5: Quality
Products/Processes
6: Financial
Performance
7: Workplace
8: Good Governance
Covered Not Covered

7. University Reputation Rankings

8. “Deconstructing” the rankings
Outcomes…
how “schools ranked highly received increased visibility and prestige, stronger
applicants, more alumni giving, and, most important, greater revenue potential.”
(to quote Boston magazine again).
What do they measure?
University rankings systems craft their lists by measuring a combination of the
performance and perception of higher educational institutions
REPUTATION = PERFORMANCE + PERCEPTION
Deconstructing…
Focusing on peer assessment. Which is where reputation is almost a self-fulfilling
prophecy: your reputation depends on how your peers perceive your reputation.

9. Some Key Rankings
International
• Shanghai Jiao Tong World Universities Rankings
• QS World University Rankings
• TIMES World University Rankings
National
• US News and World Report University Rankings (USA)
• Forbes America’s Top Colleges (USA)
• Princeton Review (USA)
• College Factual (USA)
• LinkedIn (USA…brand new!)
• The Sunday Times University Guide (UK)
• Maclean’s University Rankings (Canada)

10. QS World University Rankings
1. Massachusetts Institute of Technology
2. University of Cambridge
3. Imperial College London
4. Harvard University
5. University of Oxford
6. UCL (University College London)
7. Stanford University
8. California Institute of Technology
9. Princeton University
10. Yale University
Perception criteria – 50%
Top 10
1. Academic reputation (40%)
- Based on survey data
2. Employer Reputation (10%)
- Based on survey data

11. TIMES Higher Education World University Rankings
Perception criteria – 45% Top 10
1. California Institute of Technology
2. Harvard University
3. University of Oxford
4. Stanford University
5. Massachusetts Institute of Tech.
6. Princeton University
7. University of Cambridge
8. University of California, Berkeley
9. University of Chicago
10. Imperial College London
1. Teaching (15% on peer
assessment, 15% performance
data)
The learning environment - the
dominant indicator here being
the results of the world's largest
invitation-only academic
reputation survey.
2. Research (30%)
Volume, income and reputation
for research excellence among
its peers, based on the 10,000-
plus responses to our annual
academic reputation survey.

12. Shanghai Jiao Tong Academic Ranking
of World Universities
1. Harvard University
2. Stanford University
3. Massachusetts Institute of Tech.
4. University of California-Berkley
5. University of Cambridge
6. Princeton University
7. California Institute of Technology
8. Columbia University
9. University of Chicago
10. University of Oxford
Perception criteria – N/A
Top 10

13. US News and World Report University
Rankings (USA)
1. Princeton University
2. Harvard University
3. Yale University
4. Columbia University
4. Stanford University
4. University of Chicago
7. Massachusetts Institute of Tech.
8. Duke University
8. University of Pennsylvania
10. California Institute of Technology
USNews is just about to launch
its own world university rankings.
USNews
Perception criteria – 22.5%
• Undergraduate academic reputation (22.5%)
• (survey data, opinions of those in a position
to judge a school's undergraduate academic
excellence)
Other Criteria
• Retention (22.5%)
• Faculty Resources (20%)
• Student Selectivity (12.5%)
• Financial Resources (10%)
• Graduation rate performance (7.5%)
• Alumni giving rate (5%)
Princeton Leads U.S. News List; Dartmouth Drops From Top 10
….student outcry over sexual harassment and reports of fraternity hazing
…….. ‘Animal House’

14. Scope
1. Deconstructing the rankings
2. Reputation: performance and perception – and process
3. Communications enhancing reputation

15. #1: Coca-Cola, Marketing, US
Scope
1. Deconstructing the rankings
2. Reputation: performance and perception – and process
3. Communications enhancing reputation

16. #2: The New Yorker, English, NYC

17. UNESCO database
http://www.uis.unesco.org/EDUCATION/Pages/international-student-flow-viz.aspx

18. UNESCO database
http://www.uis.unesco.org/EDUCATION/Pages/international-student-flow-viz.aspx

19. UNESCO database
http://www.uis.unesco.org/EDUCATION/Pages/international-student-flow-viz.aspx

20. Scope
1. Competitive landscape
2. Reputation management – process and levers
3. Communications – fizz and focus

21. The Student as Consumer
Reputation and student choice go beyond academics, just as
companies are perceived to be more than their products.
• Safety
• Sustainability and ethics
• Athletics
• Cafeteria/food service
• Prestige
• Cost
• Internships and jobs, etc.
• Location
• The most beautiful campus
• The best social life

22. Defining “Reputation”
WEBSTER’S DEFINITION:
rep·u·ta·tion – noun
Overall quality or character … seen or judged by people in
general; a place in public esteem or regard
Reputation is driven by:
• Overall quality or character
• How people judge it, and in what regard they hold it
Reputation is a combination of two factors:
• Performance
• Perception
Performance + Perception = Reputation
22 22

23. A corporate case study – DME is Productive Above a Corporate
Reputation “Floor” When the Majority of Consumers are Receptive to
Communications
-15.0% -10.0% -5.0% 0.0% 5.0% 10.0% 15.0%
Argentina
US
Brazil
Canada
India
Declining DME
Productivity
Ave. –Strong
Reputation
Turkey
Japan
Russia
Germany
France
95%
China:
-33.9% Spain
-16.5%
Great Britain
90%
Mexico
70%
50%
Italy
SA
30%
Australia
10%
Declining DME
Productivity
Low Reputation
DME Productivity
Company Net Favorability
50%
10%
Increasing DME
Productivity
Avg. – Strong
Reputation
23 23

24. 1.
Gather
Performance Data
Reputation
Management
Process
4.
Input Into
Business Planning
Repeat process
6.
Validate &
Re-Calibrate
5.
Invest & Act
2.
Gather
Perception Measures
3.
Map the
Findings
24 24

25. 25
High Performance,
Low Perception
Perception
Performance
Leverage
Push
Fix Analyze
Low Performance,
Low Perception
High Performance,
High Perception
Low Performance,
High Perception
Reputation Map: Action

26. 26
Rankings:
A Case Study:
intentional…..
Northeastern University
#49
Top 100
#168
By Max Kutner | Boston Magazine | September 2014

27. 27
Peer Perception

28. Scope
1. Competitive landscape
2. Reputation management – process and levers
3. Communications – fizz and focus

29. Communicating: telling a unified story
A unified story is important. It has to be connected.
What differentiates the institution?
What is its story? Its voice? Its narrative?
What is its unique value?
What does it do better than anyone else?
What makes it distinctive?
What do its messengers - current students, alumni, partners - say about
it?
Georgetown is a world-class research university grounded in
the liberal arts. It has many different centers and programs and
academic disciplines. But it is united by its brand identity, its
“mission” – an altruistic, service-oriented purpose through the
Catholic and Jesuit tradition
Northeastern is about coops – and opportunity = and jobs

30. Communicating: The Connected College
Connectivity
The Connected College
How we communicate in our
hyper-connected
hyper-competitive world
Reputation being formed every
day by the millions upon
millions of little communications
transactions
Chief Listening Officer?
College confidential
Yik Yak
02-14-2013 at 2:27 pm edited
November 2013 in Women's Colleges
The WC experience sounds like
something I would love. But like most
girls, I still want the chance to interact
with boys, have guy friends, and
date…
…Which interact the most and
in what ways with nearby
coed schools?
Also, what type of guys are connected
to the colleges?
….I've heard that -most- guys at
counterpart Hampden-Sydney are
conservative, partying, "manly men"
types (which aren't my
type personally).

31. Communicating: Story Telling
Your reputation with students, faculty, alumni, donors, corporate partners, and
government funders ... is all connected.
So you have to treat it holistically, recognizing the connectivity.
Not just a collection of academic departments and programs and research
centers – brand identity, a story, that informs all branches
One way of doing that is through story-telling and story-mining – the stories that
every institution embodies.
We have to be careful here and not “unauthentic.”
Visual – video – infographics
Curate the content ... creating conversation.

32. Fizz or Flop? Goucher’s Video
“trivialization” of education
in America

33. Fizz or Flop? Remember New Coke

34. Brand Authenticity
The University of California released a statement Friday that it would cease use of a newly
released logo following “a significant negative response by students, alumni and other
members of our community.”
Daniel M. Dooley, senior vice president for external relations at the University of California
Office of the President, wrote that the response to the new logo had resulted in an
unfortunate community controversy.

35. Communicating: The Tone
Be transparent
Human
Honest
Modest
Informative
Helpful
Humorous (if possible)
Non-defensive
Authentic
Credible
Acknowledge mistakes
Interactive
Targeted and individualized
Unified and integrated
Personal and responsive

36. Communicating: Global
Global – the ultimate connectivity
Our marketing, our appeal, our platforms have to be consciously,
intentionally GLOBAL and internationally connected
You need to use communications to
• Expand your reputation globally
• Communicate and market your offering overseas
• Support overseas ventures, campuses, programs and initiatives
• Forge and sustain international institutional partnerships
• Recruit international students
• Create a global culture

37. Communicating Convergence
Universities are now centers for building connections – Partnerships,
Relationships and Networks
Business schools have to be entrepreneurial and innovative.
• They have to incorporate creativity: previously the province of the arts.
Technology infuses everything; it has escaped from engineering.
International permeates every sphere; not just in International relations
Communications must acknowledge convergence – forge a uniting identity.
The new architecture of communications – design thinking
Now accepting ideas.
Now accepting innovation.
Now accepting applications.
Xxx University, Class of 2018.
Your scores don't define you. Your ideas do.
Your scores don't define you. Your ideas do.
You are more than a transcript.
You are more than an SAT score.
Show us who you really are.
You are more than a transcript.
You are more than an SAT score.
Show us who you really are.

38. The Connected University
• Unique
• Unified
• Intentional
• Interactive
• International
• Convergence – the Connected University
Universities establish
relevance and exert
influence through the
connections they make

39. The transformational agenda…
…can also bring all
kinds of risks

40. Thank you

41. 41
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