anything, however, is the symbolic message that we care enough to come around to the employer's
turf and see how we are doing.
In large cities with two or more colleges, BLITZ WEEK may have to be a coordinated effort. However,
this could increase the impact.

c. CALLING AN EMPLOYER
This is even simpler than Employer Blitz Week. All known employers for a specific program are listed
and then divided up among instructors. Each instructor then is obligated to call a key person at that
company at least once every two weeks. This would likely mean that no instructor has to make more
than a couple of calls every day on the average. Sometimes the instructor will visit the person at the
company site. In any case, even a small program with perhaps five instructors would be contacting 100
employers every two weeks with an average of two calls per day per instructor. Debriefing sessions
could be held every couple of weeks, and the program head could follow up on any significant threat
or opportunity.

d. WINNERS
Most people who become successful today are university graduates. Virtually everyone who gets
anywhere in community and technical colleges are university graduates. But even we—the last who
should forget—do not always remember that some of our past graduates have gone on to great success.
Some have risen in companies, others have started companies, and still others have acquired a taste for
learning and have become prominent researchers and scholars. And do we trumpet their success? We
could. Names and pictures and accomplishments of our WINNERS could be widely displayed in our
communities and in various media.

Strike It Rich

Colleges and their programs do have a choice on what marketing mechanisms to use, but they do not
have a choice on whether to market or not. Monopolies have a captive market and usually learn that they
do not have to be responsive if customers have no other choice. But community and technical colleges do
not have a monopoly, even if they act like they do. Competition is increasing and coming from every
direction. Programs which do not market their graduates will wither away, and institutions with too many
such programs will fail.

The role of marketing in Just in Case institutions varies. In the most traditional college, there is no
marketing at all or, if there is, it is in student recruitment. Most of these traditional colleges have inched
forward, putting only their toes in the water, and proudly announced that they have an industry liaison
coordinator. This is clearly a move forward; but the question is, from a Just-In-Time perspective at least,
what are the other 100 or 500 staff members doing? What can one do to open up doors if the other 500 are
still in the coffee room?

Marketing is integral to the Just-In-Time College. Indeed, every staff member at a JIT institution has
marketing as part of his role. This is reinforced by gainsharing, the process whereby everyone's income is
partly a function of the institution’s success. Marketing would be so integral that it would not be discussed
in terms of whether but only in terms of how it can be improved.

John S. Scharf
Program/Staff Development Division

For further information, contact the author at Kelsey Institute of Applied Arts & Sciences, P.O. Box 1520,
Idylwyld Drive & 33rd Street, E., Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, CANADA 57K 3R5.

Edited and reprinted with permission of College Canada (September 1, 1985), Association of Canadian
Community Colleges, 110 Eglinton Avenue West, 2nd Floor, Toronto, Ontario, CANADA MA4R 1A3.,

See Innovation Abstracts, Vol. VIII, No. 7, for a full discussion of the Just In Case and Just-In-Time concepts.

 

 

Suanne D. Roueche, Editor
March 6, 1987, Vol. IX, No. 7

INNOVATION ABSTRACTS Is a publication of the National Institute for Staff and Organizational Development, EDB 348, The University of
Texas at Austin, Austin, Texas 78712, (512)471-7545. Subscriptions are available to nonconsortium members for $35 per year. Funding In
part by the W. K. Kellogg Foundation and Sid W. Richardson Foundation. Issued weekly when classes are In session during fall and spring
terms and once during the summer.

© The University of Texas at Austin, 1986
Further duplication Is permitted only by MEMBER institutions for thelr own personnel. ISSN 0199-106X