4. Outline
• Futureproofing: what/why/how?
• Trends in language education markets
• Building competitive advantage
• Innovation: theories and models
• Building innovation skills - activities
• Innovating in your offer
5. Futureproofing
• Differentiating yourself
• KYC
• Anticipating needs
• Innovate ahead of the market
• Digital learning strategy
• Driving customer perception
• Choosing positioning on
price/quality/innovation
6. Trends
• Language policy impacts
• Decline of general English: ENPP -> ESP
• Rise of instrumental English
• Rise of EMI
• Digital disruption – adaptivity
• The Atlantic wars
• Commodification
7. Language policy impacts
• Ministry of Education (MOE) decision space
• Baseline benchmarking
• Reform ambitions
• Graduation targets
• MTB-MLE
• EMI
8. Rise of instrumental English
Decline of general English: ENPP
English opens doors to:
• Education
• Employment
• Mobility
Rise of 21st century skills, ESP, EMI/CLIL,
Pathways etc
9. Digital disruption – adaptivity
• Digital Learning Strategy
• Personalisation / Individualisation
• Adaptive learning
• Adaptive testing
• Meta data profiling
• Auto-grading research – Cambridge ALTA
10. The Atlantic wars
• Internal ELLs: 10% = ca. 5 million
• Growth in CELTA in USA
• Growth in market share for US inbound
• Strength of US ambit market
• Visa & work permit issues
11. Commodification
School Teachers C/book Accreditn. Exam
prep
USP??
School1 CELTA Headway EAQUALS Camb/
Trinity
20% cheaper/avg.
School2 CELTA Headway British
Council
Camb/
Trinity
Large gardens
School3 CELTA Headway BC/
EAQUALS
Camb/
Trinity
Central location
School4 CELTA Headway IH/
EAQUALS
Camb/
Trinity
Elearning subscription
School5 CELTA Headway EAQUALS Camb/
Trinity
Tablet class-set
School6 CELTA Headway ISI/
EAQUALS
Camb/
Trinity
Indiv.service agent
18. Innovation is….
• A new product…
• A new market
segment…
• A new course type…
• A new way of
supporting learning…
• A new service quality
for students…
• A new experience for
students…
• A new attitude…
• A competitive
advantage…
“Innovation is about
adding value to
the product or
service”
23. Ekvall’s innovation
climate dimensions
• Challenge
• Freedom
• Idea time
• Dynamism
• Idea support
• Trust and openness
• Playfulness and
humour
• Conflicts
• Debates
• Risk-taking
24. Innovation culture
Leaders... 1 to 5
(5 = high)
Energize Our leaders inspire us with a vision for the future and articulation of
opportunities for the organization.
Our leaders frequently challenge us to think and act entrepreneurially.
Our leaders model the right innovation behaviours for others to follow.
Engage Our leaders devote time to coach and provide feedback about innovation in a
timely manner.
In our organization, people at all levels proactively take initiative to innovate.
Our leaders provide support to project team members during both successes and
failures.
Enable Our leaders use appropriate influence strategies to help us navigate around
organizational obstacles.
Our leaders are able to modify and change course of action when needed.
Our leaders persist in following opportunities even in the face of adversity.
25. Task – Innovation Culture/Climate
2 - complete the Climate questionnaire about
your own institution and then discuss the
results & implications with your partner(s)
1 - Describe the Innovation Culture in your institution:
28. Cover Story - template
Cover Headlines
Sidebars Quotes
Imagine a Sunday Times
feature on your school:
• What would the Cover
photo show?
• What would the
Headline be?
• What would the
Quotes from
students say?
• What would the
Sidebars explain?
29. Building confidence – ‘Elevator Pitch’
Participants give ‘Elevator
pitches’ as a 2-minute, 1-
slide presentation, to put
forward an innovative idea
to the small group
Listeners take notes & ask
questions, suggest
improvements
Listeners vote for the best
pitch in their group
1
2
3
Option: Listeners have to re-
pitch one of the ideas that
they had heard, as a 30-60
second (no slide)
presentation
The presenter of the best
pitch in each group then
goes on to a panel of ‘Star’
presenters
Panel re-pitch their ideas to
the plenary group, taking
questions to re-shape the
idea: vote for best.
4
5
6
32. Appreciative Inquiry – ‘Just imagine’
The Appreciative Inquiry model consists of:
• Discovery
• Dreaming
• Designing
• Delivery
The BBC’s ‘Just Imagine’ activity:
• 10,000 people created 98,000 ideas
• Which were reduced to 15,000 suggestions
• Resulting in 35 concrete initiatives
‘’Appreciative Inquiry is another
innovative approach that uses
structured dialogue to create a
collective image of a new and
better future for an organisation.
Rather than asking people ‘What’s
wrong?’, you ask people what’s
good about their organisation and
how it could be made even better.
Asking people what’s wrong tends
to create problems rather than
resolving them.
‘‘Appreciative Inquiry’’ focuses
people on what’s possible, unlocks
experience and knowledge and
releases employees’ creativity.’’
33. Reflection
Ask your partner the ‘Just Imagine’ questions
1. What has been the most creative/valued experience in your time at
your school?
2. What were the conditions that made that experience possible?
3. If those experiences were to become the norm, how would your
school have to change?
36. Brainstorm – How-Now-Wow
Originality Axis
FeasibilityAxis
Evaluating brainstormed ideas
Write ideas on Post-Its, then assign
to Affinity Group on chart
How (yellow):
original, difficult to implement – ideas
that are innovative, but not feasible.
Good for setting future goals.
Now (blue):
unoriginal, easy to implement – This is
for used ideas that are familiar and
known to work well
Wow (green):
original, easy to implement –for
creative ideas that can be executed.
Aim for as many ideas as you can.
39. Disruptive innovation
Cases:
• Kodak’s film business died
• The DVD rental business
died
• Travel agents are dying
• Insurance brokers are
dying
• The CD business is dying
• The newspaper revenue
model is dying
• Terrestrial TV is under
threat from streaming /
archives
• The textbook business
might be the next to
suffer…
The Innovator’s Dilemma, Clayton Christensen
40. Disruption concepts
• Disrupt from the bottom of the market
(Intel Celeron)
• Disintermediate
(Expedia, PayPal, Spotify)
• Move from Commodity to Experience
(Starbucks, Netflix)
• Emotional branding
(Apple, Prius, Whole Foods, Dyson,
Gucci)
“Some brands have moved
from the commodity
category into experience
and emotion.
Emotional branding is
about appealing to
customers’ needs,
aspirations & ego to create
an emotional bond.
Brands can create growth
and relevance with
consumers by moving from
Marketshare to
Mindshare.”
41. Reflection
• Where do you think ‘disruptive innovation’
will come from in your market?
• How can you disrupt yourself?
• How can you protect yourself against others?
43. Zones of Innovation
• Course product – getting them enthused
• Course types – providing what learners want
• Customer service – delighting customers
• Pre- & Post-experience – upgrade
• Learning experience – building measurable success
• Classroom design – update Technology use
• Teacher training – broadening skills
• Learning outcome – what they can do afterwards
• Learning reward – certification, prize-giving video
• Maintenance – making a customer for life
44. New value propositions…
• New learning models:
– CLIL
– Personalisation
– Learner autonomy
– Out-of-class offer / Flipped
• English for work and mobility:
– Business English
– EAP & ESP
– EMI
• English Plus...
– Golf
– Cooking
– Mandarin
• Lateral diversification:
– TVET: vocational English
– professional qualifications
– business content
– inter-cultural training
– ESOL (if Anglophone location)
• Geo-diversification:
Teaching at a distance
– Distance blended learning &
elearning
– VOIP
– Mobile
– Telepresence
45. Reflection
In what area(s) of the
VALUE PROPOSITION & OFFER
would you like to innovate in
your institution?
• Product
• Service
• Market
• Process
46. Innovation in
CUSTOMER EXPERIENCE
• Before booking
• After bookingBefore
• On arrival
• During the courseDuring
• At the end of the course
• After the course
After
47. Vox Pop Cashless service
Missed a lesson….?
Enhanced experience
Touchpoints
48. Reflection
• How can you improve the customer
experience?
–Before arrival
–During the course
–After leaving the school
50. New pedagogical models:
In-class vs. Out-of-class
Before Class In Class After Class
Activities:
• Writing
• Comprehension
questions
• Online workbook
• Practise vocab with
Apps
• Formative
assessment
Activities:
• Reading & Listening
activities
• Study text
• Learn vocab online
• Grammar in Use
activity with Apps
Activities:
• Speaking activities
• Pairwork
• Concept questions
• Communication
activities, games
storytelling
• Mentoring
51. Reflection
• How can you improve the Learning
Experience, and learning outcomes?
• How can you improve the Teaching
Experience, and the teachers’
development?
–Innovation in teaching methods
–Innovation in teacher development
58. Take Away
Define your area of
competitive
advantage
Define your
enhanced Value
Proposition
Evaluate your
Innovation Culture
1
2
3
Empower your staff
to be innovative
Generate
innovative ideas
Implement and
iterate
4
5
6
