Consulting

Our Consulting Services Division is staffed with a team of Senior Consultants, all of whom have been successful school heads across the globe. They bring expertise in a range of international school operations, including board governance, strategic planning, curriculum development, business & finance operations, marketing, and much more! This combination of practical knowledge, a global perspective and personalized attention that our Consultants provide sets us apart from any other recruiting firm.

For information about Business & Finance, HR, Admissions & Advancement and Marketing services, please contact Rajiv Bhat, Senior Consultant.

BUSINESS & FINANCE: Implement Best Practices to help you achieve your mission.

  • Financial modeling and budgeting.
  • Divisional profitability and tuition analysis.
  • Procurement (purchasing) best practices.
  • Finance office staffing, policies, manuals, audit and compliance.
  • Enrollment analysis, class size, campus capacity.
  • Benchmarks and key ratios relevant for international schools.
  • Opportunities for income diversification.
  • Co/Extra – Curricular efficiency in fees and funding.
  • Balance sheet and loan portfolio optimization.
  • Webinars and online workshops on key business and finance processes.

ADMISSIONS: Build your school's applications, enrolment and retention

  • Optimize department structure, roles and skillsets to grow enrolment  
  • Develop an effective enrollment pipeline, improve retention and maximize reenrollment. 
  • Understand enrolment pipeline to improve forecasting and budgeting. 
  • Develop an effective admissions enrolment reporting dashboard. 
  • Build an exceptional customer experience to strengthen relationships and conversion. 
  • Understand your market, create a plan to optimize outreach and engagement. 
  • Review and optimize admissions CRM software at your school. 
  • Developing the most effective Admissions Policies. 

    HUMAN RESOURCES: Attract the best talent to your school.

    • Assessment of the school’s overall value proposition for employees.
    • Improved recruitment, onboarding, and retention practices.
    • Compensation benchmarking.
    • HR policies and procedures including staff handbook and other materials.
    • Developing the optimal mix of overseas and host country national employees.
    • HR department staffing and budgeting.
    • Designing a new employee mentorship program.
    • Performance evaluation systems and procedures.
    • Review and recommendations of school policies on DEI and child protection.

    ADvancement: DEVELOPMENT, FUNDRAISING AND ALUMNI RELATIONS

    • Optimize department structure, roles, and skillsets to support Advancement initiatives. 
    • Create a vision and strategic plan for fundraising to grow income, engagement and alumni relations. 
    • Build a compelling narrative to support school capital projects, scholarships and teaching and learning needs. 
    • Create a 5-year roadmap with campaigns, programs and income targets.  
    • Develop compelling materials and engaging programs and events for parents, alumni and other donors. 
    • Optimize Fundraising and Alumni CRM platforms. Establish best practice Fundraising and donor policies. 

    MARKETING & COMMUNICATIONS: Enhance your school’s brand presence.

    • A marketing & communications strategic plan that creates a powerful narrative and story about your school.
    • Guidance on overall school branding and brand identity.
    • An improved communications toolbox, including website, social media and email marketing.
    • Marketing strategy to effectively compete in your market.
    • Managing communications for fundraising campaigns, school events, sports meets, student artistic events, school Annual Reports etc.
    • Developing an affordable marketing and communications budget.
    • Webinars and workshops on best practices in school branding.

    For information about our other services listed below, please contact George Entwistle, Director of Consulting Services.

    GOVERNANCE

    • Developing Good Governance: Includes roles and responsibilities, effective practices, and implementation methods.
    • Board Structure and Composition: Provides ways to move to a more "hybrid" or self-perpetuating board by reviewing and revising constitutions and by-laws.
    • Policy and Procedure Reviews: Includes “slimming” policy manuals to shift procedures to operational handbooks. Also includes aligning policies and practices, evaluating and recommending policies.
    • Board and Head Evaluation Methods:
    • Transition Planning: Provides information designed for heads, boards, and board chairs.

    PLANNING

    • Strategic Planning: Includes school mission and vision, strategic goal-setting, action-planning, evaluating, and updating.
    • Start-up School Planning and Assistance
    • Feasibility Studies: Includes school expansion, additional programs (such as a high school program), etc. 
    • Survey Design and Data Analysis: Provides professional support and advice in audience identification, survey design, data collection, and analysis. 

    ADMINISTRATION / PERSONNEL

    • School Institutional Assessments: Provides ideas from an external, objective, and professional perspective. 
    • Staff Communication, Decision-Making, and Team-Building: Includes cross-cultural methods, effective and efficient meetings, etc.
    • Community Involvement Strategies
    • Compensation Reviews
    • Teacher Recruitment and Retention Strategies

    EDUCATIONAL PROGRAMS & SERVICES

    • Guidance Services: Includes student advising, development, and leadership in areas re­lated to secondary guidance, life-skills, and col­lege counseling programs.
    • Curriculum Development: Includes introduction of IB, bilingual, experiential and service learning programs.  
    • Host Culture and Cross-Cultural Studies: Provides ways to integrate your host country into your regular curriculum. 

    Did You Know…?

    CEO of Search Associates, Jessica Magagna, was born in Morocco and attended the American Community School in Iran while her father was headmaster.