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Presented at the:

April 30, 2010 Monthly Research Forum

By

Fathi ElloumiAssociate Professor, Management Accounting

Faculty of Business, Athabasca University

Stage-Gate Approach: A Conceptual Model for Structuring and

Managing Partnerships in Higher Education Institutions

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Overview Context/Motivation (What?)

Drivers (Why?)

Facilitators (When?)

Components (How?)

What is Stage-Gate?

Why Stage-Gate?

A Modified Stage-Gate Model for Partnerships

How Does It Work?

No Pain, No Gain

Comments

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Context/Motivation (What?)

Financial problems in Universities http://www.aucc.ca/recession_e.html

Government failing to allocate adequate funds to universities

The return of 'voluntary' retirementhttp://oncampus.macleans.ca/education/2009/12/30/the-return-of-voluntary-retirement/

Staff cuts to bring larger classes on campus

Staff accepting unpaid days to preserve jobs

Universities seek students, private contracts amid funding crunchhttp://www.cbc.ca/technology/story/2009/04/16/tech-090416-university-funding-crunch.html

Universities’ protectionism

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Context/Motivation (What?)

Strategies for university growth (Monga, 2009)http://www.nationalpost.com/todays-paper/story.html?id=2069593

Looking for an alumni connection

Setting up partnerships with foreign universities to provide joint education and training programs (emerging education markets)

Focusing on own strengths (no spray-and-pray)

Looking beyond traditional partners (i.e. large corporations in

emerging markets)

If implemented correctly, these partnerships can generate much-needed revenues for funding Canadian programs.

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Opportunities in the International Market

• Transfer credit articulations (course/program)

• Shared course delivery

• Access routes to degree courses: such as the ‘2+1’/‘2+2’ modes

• Exporting staff of the university for in-country delivery

• Double degrees granting

• Student exchange

• Faculty exchange

• Research

• Establishment of a campus or training centre in the target country

• Others

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Compelling Reasons to Partner (Why?)

Strategic fit & importance

Partnership & Competitive Advantage

Market attractiveness (size, language. i.e. India, China)

Core competencies leverage

Technology/technical feasibility

Financial reward versus riskFinancial reward versus risk

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Facilitators (When?)

Resources: Assets/Cost efficiencies

Ability to accommodate different institutional cultures, assumptions and practices: A unified vision

Shared values, trust and institutional championsShared values, trust and institutional champions

Procedures for decision-making

Accreditation / cross credit transferAccreditation / cross credit transfer

Expectations Alignment (outcomes, leadership, management, marketing, benefits sharing, accountability)

Technology

Open communication

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Components (How?)

Building Blocks of Partnership

Identify logic model elements

Establishing objectives

Identify critical initiative activities

Clarify roles

Work plan & schedule

Budgeting

Quality assurance

Risk assessment

Intellectual Property Rights

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The Partnership Model(Adapted from Lambbert, Knemeyer, & Gardner, 2009)

DriversCompelling Reasons

to Partner

Decision to create, adjust,

or terminate partnership

FacilitatorsSupportive environmental

factors that support partnership growth

ComponentsJoin activities and processes

That build and sustainThe partnership

OutcomesExtent to which performance

meets expectation

Drivers set Expectations of outcomes

Feedback to:• Components• Drivers• Facilitators

Potential

Buildingblocks

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Why do so many partnerships fail to deliver value?

• Often because they shouldn’t have existed in the first place

• ill managed, ill structured

• Governance problem

• Non sustainable model…

Partnerships are costly to implement

Require extra resources, communication, coordination, and risk sharing.

A need for a conceptual & operational model for structuring & managing

partnerships.

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What is Stage-Gate?

(Cooper, 2005)

• A conceptual & operational map for moving new initiatives from idea to launch and beyond.

• A blueprint for managing the new initiative process to improve effectiveness and efficiency.

• Similar to buying a series of options on an investment model: Initially, one purchase an option for a small amount of money Then, does due diligence Finally, decides whether or not to invest

• A series of these rounds of “due-diligence-and-buy-options” stage constitutes a Stage-Gate framework.

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Each Stage followed by a Gate

Stage Gate

ActivitiesIntegrated

AnalysisDeliverables Go/Terminate

Information gathering activities by the project team

An integrated analysis of the results of the activities by the project team

The result ofIntegrated analysis – input to the gate

A Go/Terminate decision point – results are assessed & a decision to invest more is made

Source: Cooper Robert G, The Stage-Gate Idea-to-Launch Process – Update, What’s New and NextGen

Systems, J. Product Innovation Management, Vol. 25, Number 3, 2008, p 214.

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Stage-Gate Versions

Idea Stage

Gate 1

Stage 1

Gate 2 Stage2

Gate 3 Stage3

Gate 4 Stage4

Gate 5 Stage5

Stage

1 & 2Gate 3 Stage

3 & 4Gate 5

Stage

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Stage 1 & 2

Gate 3

Stage3, 4, 5

Scoping Business Case

Development Testing Launch

Outcomes

Outcomes

Outcomes

Post-Launch-Review

Scoping Business

Case

Post-Launch-Review

Post-Launch-Review

Source: Cooper Robert G, The Stage-Gate Idea-to-Launch Process – Update, What’s New and NextGen Systems, J. Product Innovation Management, Vol. 25, Number 3, 2008, p 219.

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Why Stage-Gate?

Bases on due-diligence practices

Establish clear and transparent criteria for partnerships evaluation

Consistency of partnerships review/control

flexible/adaptable process

Audit partnerships at key stages

Develop best practices

Share lessons learnt/continuous improvement

Promote more effective governance

Quality Assurance

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A modified Stage-Gate Model for Partnerships

Idea Stage

Gate 1 Stage 1

Gate 2 Stage2

Gate 3 Stage3

Gate 4 Stage5

Drivers:Understandingthe opportunity

Facilitators:Supportive environmental

factors that support partnership growth

ComponentsJoin activities and processes

That build and sustainThe partnership

OutcomesExtent to which

performance meets expectation

Gate 5Feedback

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How does it work?

Each stage

Designed to gather information to reduce key partnership uncertainties and risks

Costs more than the preceding one

The process is an incremental commitment one

Activities at each stage are cross functional and are undertaken in parallel.

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How does it work?

The structure of each gate is:

Deliverables: visible, based on standard menu for each gate.

Criteria against which the stage deliverables are judged (a checklist)

Outputs – a decision (Go/Terminate/Hold/Recycle)

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More effective governance

Ensuring that gates really have teeth

Go/Terminate decision

Resourcing meetings ($$$$)

Define who the gatekeepers are

Putting gatekeeper rules of engagement in place

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No pain, No gain

No partnership for its own sake.

Universities can’t afford arbitrary marriages leading to divorces.

Implementation of any system requires extra effort.

Universities are used to casual or intuitive decision-making.

Gates are introduced to eliminate decision-making inefficiencies.

Accountability, Feedback, and continuous improvement.

The market for partnerships is now highly competitive.

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Future Research

Test this model

Case studies

Improve it

Design it as a tool with its different components

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Thank you !

Questions? Comments?

You can e-mail comments to: fathie@athabascau.ca