In October 2008 Impetus asked OC&C Strategy Consultants to undertake a strategic review of portfolio charity IntoUniversity, and specifically to look at a number of issues relating to the sustainability of IntoUniversity's growth in the medium term. Strategy consultant Vicky Walton was a member of the OC&C team working on the project.
OC&C concluded that IntoUniversity (IU) has a strong position with good growth prospects especially in inner London, a well-developed centre model and an excellent reputation.
OC&C identified a number of operational changes that may be helpful as IU scales up. These include widening the funding base, and increasing the operational management and head office capacity.
How did you get involved?
I started at OC&C in January 07, and this was my first project
of this kind. Impetus projects are highly sought after, so I was
really pleased to be chosen for one. They are completely different,
and give everyone a chance to put the principles we apply all the
time in our corporate work, to use in a charity. It's really
exciting because there, it's not about how to make money, but how
to use what you've got most effectively, which is quite a different
way of looking at things.
What was the challenge you were working
on?
IntoUniversity have this enormous growth plan, and what we were
there to do was to help them think through what they needed to put
in place, both internally and externally, as they expand from 3 to
12 centres by 2013.
What surprised you?
Every single person I met was so passionate, so completely
sold on the idea of what they were doing and how they were doing it
and that this was the best way of doing it. They are all very
dedicated, and much more emotionally involved than we usually find
with other clients. People [at IntoUniversity] aren't doing this
because they want to be high powered. They do it because they want
to see the impact they're having on people, every day. It's a
completely different incentive system to corporate life. It was
awesome to see!
How was the experience for you?
I loved working on this project. It's nice to think you're
putting something back rather than helping someone else get a bit
richer. It's very rewarding, to help a charity keep doing the
things they're doing and hopefully do even better things in the
future.
This project allowed us to explore all different aspects of the charity and think about things in a different way. Which is really valuable because that's really what you do strategy for, to have detailed discussions, apply the right principles and look for new solutions.
What will you remember most?
IU's mission is to educate children who wouldn't necessarily go to
university to think about university from a very young age so they
have something to aspire to. One of the programmes IU runs is a
week-long workshop for primary school children, and one day we went
to one of sessions at IU's Lambeth Centre. We sat in on a primary
school class there where only one student in the whole class knew
what exams you do at age 16. They had no idea about secondary
school or university. It shocked me, because I was always brought
up with this goal of going to university. Here were all these kids
who just hadn't heard about it and it was amazing seeing what they
were being exposed to. That little week has actually opened their
minds up to what the possibilities are. It's all about people's
aspirations and what they believe they can achieve.
What do you hope for, from the work you did?
That IntoUniversity achieves its goal. I'd love to keep in
touch, to know how things are going. As part of our work with
IntoUniversity, we connected with another Impetus charity, Speaking
Up, which OC&C had worked with before. It was great to talk to
the chief executive and understand from him how we'd helped, what
he'd been through and where he'd got to, which is growing an
awesome charity. It would be fantastic to talk to IntoUniversity in
a couple of years' time, and to know we've made a real
difference.
Would you do it again?
Yes, I'd love to!! I'm doing my best now talking to the
person in charge of staffing, to try to get another Impetus
project.
Read about OC&C employee Daire Taylor's experience working with beat, and find out about how our individual pro bono experts have worked with Impetus charities and social enterprises.
Working with Impetus is like putting a turbo-charger on your organisation.
Craig Dearden-Phillips MBE
Chief Executive, Speaking Up
