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Aligned Pathways: Fostering Strategic Business Engagement in Education

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Aligned Pathways: Fostering Strategic Business Engagement in Education Aligned Pathways: Fostering Strategic Business Engagement in Education Olga Berlinsky June 2014 M-RCBG Associate Working Paper Series | No. 29 The views expressed in the M-RCBG Fellows and Graduate Student Research Paper Series are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect those of the Mossavar-Rahmani Center for Business & Government or of Harvard University. The papers in this series have not undergone formal review and approval; they are presented to elicit feedback and to encourage debate on important public policy challenges. Copyright belongs to the author(s). Papers may be downloaded for personal use only. Mossavar-Rahmani Center for Business & Government Weil Hall | Harvard Kennedy School | www.hks.harvard.edu/mrcbg Aligned Pathways Fostering Strategic Business Engagement in Education Olga Berlinsky Joint Degree Policy Analysis Exercise and Capstone Project Masters in Public Policy Candidate, Harvard Kennedy School Masters in Business Administration Candidate, Harvard Business School Class of 2014 Advisors: PAC Seminar Leader: Phil Hanser Harvard Kennedy School: Jane Nelson Harvard Business School: Jan Rivkin March 25, 2014 This PAE is submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master in Public Policy. This PAE reflects the views of the author and should not be viewed as representing the views of the PAE's external client, nor those of Harvard University or any of its faculty. 1 Contents Executive Summary ........................................................................................................................................... 3 Introduction: social need and market opportunity ....................................................................................... 7 Current state of business involvement in education ................................................................................... 11 Proposed solution: Aligned Pathways business model overview ................................................................ 16 Mission and vision ....................................................................................................................................... 16 Focus areas.................................................................................................................................................... 16 Services .......................................................................................................................................................... 19 Customers ..................................................................................................................................................... 21 Revenues ....................................................................................................................................................... 24 Costs .............................................................................................................................................................. 25 Non-profit status ......................................................................................................................................... 25 Business model evolution ........................................................................................................................... 26 Customer insights ............................................................................................................................................ 28 The corporation’s perspective ................................................................................................................... 28 The schools’ perspective ............................................................................................................................. 31 Competitive landscape: building business-education partnerships ........................................................... 34 Direct competitors ....................................................................................................................................... 34 Indirect competitors .................................................................................................................................... 36 Measuring impact ............................................................................................................................................. 38 Building and scaling the business .................................................................................................................. 39 Business development ................................................................................................................................. 39 Fundraising plan ........................................................................................................................................... 43 Human resources ......................................................................................................................................... 44 Scaling ............................................................................................................................................................ 48 Workplan ....................................................................................................................................................... 49 Risks and mitigations ....................................................................................................................................... 51 Founder profile ................................................................................................................................................ 53 Appendix: Example consulting projects ....................................................................................................... 55 Appendix: Financial projections and operational assumptions ................................................................. 60 Appendix: Interviews conducted ................................................................................................................... 65 Works Cited ...................................................................................................................................................... 66 2 Executive Summary Social need and market opportunity There is an education crisis in America that affects students, families, and ultimately, businesses. A major proportion of US school children lacks proficiency in basic reading and math, and many students drop out of high school or are poorly prepared for college. Businesses that seek to employ American workers will face severe difficulties – by 2018, there will be an estimated shortage of 3 million jobs in the American economy, where the employer needs will not match the skills of the local workforce.1 Businesses recognize this problem and many of them see the need to address it: education is the #1 social issue in which companies believe they must play a role, and they donate an estimated $4 billion each year to the sector.2 But they face many barriers when they try to engage – they do not understand the needs of the education sector, they struggle to form cross-sector partnerships, and they do not know what impact looks like. Therefore, they often reach for low- hanging fruit with basic, shallow initiatives that are easy to measure and easy to market. Doing so prevents businesses from effectively leveraging their unique capabilities and competencies to truly make a dent in the education crisis. Current state of business involvement in education There is a wide spectrum of business engagements in education, from long-term, deep, and meaningful initiatives to the most basic one-off projects. As the exhibit indicates, there are two dimensions that characterize business involvement: the depth of engagement (strategic or transactional) and the type of engagement (programmatic or advocacy). One-off, simple, basic Deep, system-changing engagement engagement Transactional Strategic Level 1: Level 2: Level 3: Level 4: Plug the gaps Individual impact System change Game change Examples: Examples: Examples: Examples: • Financial • Individual • Work-based • Jobs matching / donations scholarships learning/ credentialing • Service projects • Tutoring apprenticeships • Human capital (eg, paint school) • Mentoring • Technology development Programmatic • School supplies • Contests development for • Curriculum drive schools, teachers development Strategic advocacy: Transactional advocacy: “Business as expert” “Business as corporate citizen” Example: major manufacturing employer Example: Fortune 100 company lobbies for advocates for more vocational training in Advocacy longer school days local public high schools 1 Alliance for Excellent Education, Education and the Economy: Boosting State and Local Economies by Improving High School Graduation Rates, Issue Brief (Washington, DC: Alliance for Excellent Education, 2011), p. 4-5. 2 Tom Donahue, "An Active Role for Business in Education," U.S. Chamber of Commerce Foundation, July 15 2013, http://education.uschamber.com/blog/active-role-business-education, accessed March 2014. 3 Strategic engagements are those that are tied to the core of the business, leveraging the unique expertise, skills, and resources of the business in order to make an impact on the education system. Conversely, transactional engagements are smaller-scale attempts by a business to plug the gaps in the school system, providing funding or volunteers to meet school needs. These transactional engagements are not necessarily less effective
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