How are student clubs like businesses?

I once went for a consulting workshop where the instructor, Mr Danon Gabriel - an SMU alumnus who spent 3 years honing his skills at Dragonfly Consultants - compared student clubs to businesses. And although the long-term goals of student clubs and their incentive structures resembles that of a civil society organisation or an interest group, Danon is right to point out that there are many similarities between student clubs and businesses.

Here are some similarities:

(1) Competing for talent
Just as businesses compete for talent, student clubs compete for members. Membership in certain clubs does require specific skills, attitude and goals, which explains why certain clubs head-hunt for members or have interview processes to screen potential applicants. Think you are not engaging your members sufficiently? Don't be surprised if they "jump-ship" to another student club where they bring along their skills, and more importantly, their commitment.

(2) Competing for customers
Businesses have their customers but student clubs have their target audience as well: ranging from the public and supporters of their cause, to clients (especially for groups providing specialised services) and sponsors. As such, they need to continuously provide a value proposition for their target audience, and develop certain competencies to distinguish themselves from other similar clubs. This also means creating a certain brand identity.

(3) Watching the bottem-line
All organisations run on budgets. They can afford to splurge when there's a surplus, or tighten their belts when cashflow is low. But what people fail to recognise is that student clubs often adhere to the same accounting standards that businesses have in place. For instance, they have to submit their yearly budget and account for all profits (if any) and expenditure to the school administration that provides them with the bulk of their funding.

(4) Managing operations
Businesses have their chain of command and designated departmental roles. Student clubs have their hierarchy and their specialisation of labour such as marketing, logistics, events and so on. The President acts as a CEO and oversees a team of managers who are his executive committee (EXCO) members. Members within the club also function as employees who are answerable to the EXCO.

Also, student clubs do face the same internal challenges as businesses: the dangers of groupthink, existence of information silos, creating a suitable culture and set of values, and so on.

(5) Incentive structures
Wages aside, members join student clubs to meet new people, learn new skills or to apply current ones, gain experience and recognition for their contribution, or simply join out of interest. In the corporate world, there are many employees who go beyond wages and work for the above reasons.

Since most student clubs resemble businesses, they can also adopt strategies and management techniques that businesses use. Here are some recommendations student clubs can use to beat the competition and strengthen their operations:

(1) Understand one's value proposition - and strengthen it!
It's important to know what your club is good at, or what distinct services you can contribute to the public. If your club is advocating a specific cause like environmentalism, your value may lie in organising workshops and forums for the public on conservation, or leveraging on industry contacts to give talks on eco-friendly technology. By having a consistent vision and core competency, your club will remain relevant to your target audience.

Of course, it also pays off to strengthen your value-addedness by improving the quality of services or diversify into providing new services. Often, it helps to have a system of continual dialogue with all your stakeholders to get constant feedback to improve your club's branding, services and operations.

(2) Build a brand to win over partners, supporters and the target audience
If a student club is well-managed, delivers services that are relevant and professional, and has projects that are seen to be effective and sustainable, why shouldn't its stakeholders continue to support it? After all, I have always believed that having a good brand will help a student club increase, or at least retain, her stakeholders.

What makes a good brand then? I believe it all boils down to the professionalism of the club in delivering excellent services, and communicating their value proposition and vision to its stakeholders.

(3) Practise market segmentation
Many student clubs perceive their target audience to be just...students. However, does that mean that the faculty and staff are irrelevant? As always, there is value to be tapped by customising the message to suit the right audience or market.

Or why not leap-frog the immediate school market to target the public? There are many avenues for student clubs to publicise their events and activities, namely online channels, the media, and also the use of social networks.

(4) Utilise power of social networks
What are social networks? They are social structures consisting of individuals or organisations linked by values, ideas, interests, and so on. Your network of friends is a valuable social network, and so are the friends of your club members, and so are the friends of their friends. Build up those social networks and you will find a ready pool of supporters that you can turn to.

While it's common nowadays to advertise events on face-book and online forums, the corresponding amount of spam and information limits the effectiveness of such impersonal channels. Word-of-mouth by friends and the personal touch of telling your friends about your club or project remains a viable and powerful channel for communication.

(5) Unlock the power of partnership marketing
Partnership marketing, like relationship marketing, focuses on building sustainable partnerships for your student club to create a stronger brand by leveraging on the identity and core competencies of your partners.

Often I realise that many student clubs are loft to partner each other, or to venture out of their comfort zones to partner external organisations. Often, this means that they will lack access to specific audiences or core competencies that these potential partners can offer.

A project run with many partners can potentially lead to loss of autonomy over the project direction and focus, but it does contribute to your club's branding by indicating that there's plenty of involvement, interest and cooperation in your project. The public tends to notice more of such projects, while potential partners might want to join in the bandwagon (since we are all driven by herd mentality).

The key to a successful student club also lies in intangible factors that shape how members communicate and work with one another. Creating a distinct organisational culture is part of the approach to retaining members and talent, and unleashing the full potential of your members to contribute. I will examine more of this in a separate post.