In today's world, the relevance of organizations that serve the third sector of education really can't be overstated. At the same time, relevance can be squandered if the products and services learning businesses provide are not creating any demonstrable impact. Given the wide range of choices now available to learners - many of them free - revenue and retention will … [Read more...]
5 Key Aspects of Getting a High Return on Your LMS Investment
Do you wonder - or worry - about LMS ROI? When it comes to determining whether to implement a new or replacement learning management system, it’s important to ask, “What will the return on investment be?” Oftentimes, organizations struggle to try and answer this question—or even worse, it isn’t ever asked at all. In this episode of the Leading Learning podcast, Celisa and … [Read more...]
Are you market-focused or product-focused?
When making decisions about the strategic direction of your business, do you focus primarily on how you can improve your core products and services, increase their market penetration, and take them into new markets or market segments? Or, do you focus more on identifying new needs in your established market and continually developing offerings to meet those needs? In my … [Read more...]
The Fatal Temptation of Best Practices
I find it is very common for learning business leaders to want visibility into the "best practices" of other organizations. It's an understandable desire: why reinvent the wheel, or worse yet, make unnecessary mistakes when you can learn from what other organizations have already done? An understanding of best practices can save a lot of effort. Problems almost always arise, … [Read more...]
Inform. Perform. Transform. What do your educational offerings do?
There are three broad levels at which educational products and experiences deliver value: inform, perform, and transform.* An appreciation of them is essential not only for pricing, but for formulating a successful education business strategy. Inform Educational products at this level primarily communicate information. They speak to the lower levels of Bloom's … [Read more...]
How to Choose a Learning Management System (LMS) – and Get It Right
Wondering how to choose a learning management system (LMS) for your learning business and actually get it right? We have done a lot of technology selection work over the years and have delivered many Webinars and workshops related to our 7-step selection methodology (which, while often aimed at learning management system (LMS) selection, really applies to selection of … [Read more...]
The Catalog and the Conversation
Chances are the catalog your customers and members are using is not your catalog. Or, at best, it is only partially your catalog. Really, The Catalog is the first page or two of the search results in Google. If you aren't showing up there, then there is a decent chance your prospective customers never see your catalog. At the very least, you won't attract many customers who … [Read more...]
Do you treat learning like an event or a process?
I see this as a "beautiful question" that can spark some very productive discussion when asked of the right stakeholders in your learning business. It's a question that can fundamentally impact both your education business strategy and your ongoing operations. If you treat learning like an event, then you probably place a great deal of emphasis on logistics. You focus on … [Read more...]
Balancing Points in the Business of Lifelong Learning
As part of my ongoing writing, speaking, and consulting, I spend a lot of time thinking about lifelong learning, the market for lifelong learning, and the business of lifelong learning. Clearly, we are at a point where there is tremendous opportunity. The need and demand have never been larger. At the same time, there is a lot more competition. The dynamics of the market are a … [Read more...]
The Career Retention Business
A colleague on a board I serve on commented that he's not sure how to keep millennials in their job for 18 months, much less get them involved in an association. It's a concern I've heard echoed by numerous association executives and board members, but I think it is one that is largely misplaced. Certainly, employers need to worry about retaining their employees - millennials … [Read more...]
The 4 Ps of Marketing Your Learning Business
Here’s a question: how would you say most people define marketing? Our suspicion - based on a lot of experience - is that when most people think of marketing, they think of advertising, or other forms of promotion. But there's much more to marketing than promotion - and even promotion has more to it than many appreciate. In this episode, we cover the 4 Ps of marketing - … [Read more...]