VOLUME VI – CHAPTER XIII
EGO – ELEVATION
PROVIDE A MEMORABLE EXPERIENCE
Now we see many new high end Schools coming up under the nomenclature of International School. The mere prefix “International” will not make it international. The standards maintained also must adhere to the international level. This new experiment is like marketing the luxury brand. You as a marketer of luxury have to play four tunes to make the customers come to you – product, service, experience and brand as Sivakumar, former MD of NOKIA puts it.
If you want to rope in HNWI (High net worth Individuals) persons who don’t mind splashing money and retain them as loyal customers you have to work on all the 4 tunes.
Sivakumar suggests that for a luxury product, create an aura of romance with an innate mystique about your School.
Secondly you must establish “authenticity”. The author knew of a School which boasted an international status but every year the staff turnover was high and a new Principal every June. The infrastructure was dismal. It should not be a fake product
Those who join this School will be from the top strata and will be used to be served at home for their several needs. So it is natural for them to expect similar service here also. They may feel eligible for it because they pay heavily. Your service should be of such a level to elevate him / her to higher level of distinction vis-a-vis his / her fellow men/women. So your basic tenet becomes “Ego elevation” but this should not degenerate into the students ill-treating those who server them.
The experience they get in your School should be “worthwhile, fulfilling, meaningful, talk-worthy and memorable” to each individual student.
If the School is of outstanding quality, the service is excellent and the experience quite memorable then all those should be packaged together to create a brand of social cachet and social currency. The pedigree is important that lends credibility. The founder of the School the Principal of the School – their names, use of their background lend weight and dignity to your School. Your School need not be a luxury school but it should provide a luxurious experience.
Take a look at the malls those that operate in “low income areas” have a large range of “Value” Brands and those located in higher income areas has a wider range of luxury brands.
Like this you can think of organising your group of Schools
Areas like Vasant Vihar (Delhi) cuff parade (Bombay) boat club (Chennai Adayar) are up market areas – Premium Brand areas.
Govt. Quarters, middle class residential areas, low income housing groups, defence quarters are value brand areas.
But for heaven sake please don’t develop a “SOBO” (South Bombay) Attitude
Once the author went to see a posh public school. In the course of the conversation with the Headmaster, he asked him to, mention about his high profile parents. He asked the author “suppose you put request to a Rolls Royce dealer asking him to inform you about his clientele do you think you will get a straight and correct reply, You won’t because he will never disclose the identity of his customers. So also with us our parents are all high flying so we always keep their identity as top secret like a Swiss Bank” he also said “If you got a defence production unit like the HVF Avadi (Heavy Vehicle Factory) that produces Vijayantha tanks, you will see a board in all senior officers room
“even if you ask the right questions you will get only the wrong answers”
That is the answer to your question” How secretive they are?
Today it seems there is no limit for the school fees which seem to overtake the fees for engineering or medical courses. The beauty lies at the lowest level of the School ladder pre-KG class.
The Times of India reported that the adage “catch them young” seems to be a very costly proposition for parent who want to put their kids in Play School.
It gave samples of three play Schools to find their fees and USDs
A) SEED Pre School – School for Enrichment in Education and Development
- Fees range from Rs. 20,000 – 26,000 per annum.
- Nine centres across Chennai.
- USP – Individual attention, customised lesson plans for each child
B) KIDZEE group of Schools –
- Fees approx. Rs.30,000/- per annum
- 15 centres across Chennai
- USP – Children have freedom to pursue preferred learning pattern way
C) Vel’s Billabong High International School, Neelankarai, Chennai
- Fees can range from Rs.60,000 – 70,000 per annum
- Primary section in Neelankarai and High School in Injambakkam
- USP – State of the art facilities, Children ensured complete comfort
They say they have book clubs, colourful classrooms, playground, Dance floors, activity rooms that focus on experiment learning.
Children move from black board (of their height) to a scale and to paper and then to a book. Month end programme to show-case their talents and prepares parents insisted for that.
Children encouraged to pursue a preferred area from diverse learning pattern ways such as visuals, musical, inter personal, intra personal linguistic, logical natural and kinesthetic.
All these for a 2 ½ year old child.
Mind boggling Sums
High sounding adjectives
Beyond the reach of the middle class – the common man. Good for people who have some money to splash and show it off as a status symbol
Luxury has to be attractive and powerful. The student should be happy and proud to say:
“I AM A STUDENT OF THIS SCHOOL”
Creating a Hi-Fi School is difficult. Managing the students of such a School has its own problems and in sustaining the substance and the show lies your success. In managing such a School you may have tension when you think who you should be, but you may feel relaxed when you know and act as who you are.
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VOLUME VI – CHAPTER XIV
PLAYING ROLES
Another aspect which the author had tried and done successfully is to play roles now and then. He used to show the peon how to clean the toilet. When a physics lab assistant wanted to go on leave at KV Sambalpur, he asked him what should be done to help the students perform the experiment, noted down step by step went over it with him hands on thrice, read the chapter thrice, assimilated the whole content and process. Then next day he helped the physics master to his satisfaction. When the physical education master requested leave for a day, he asked him to give a Football, Volley ball, Ring tennis and engaged the students in different batches and played with them. At KV Sambalpur the author took Home Science theory classes for a month when she went on leave. Like this he used to play different roles as and when necessary.
This helped him to get a feel of the difficulties faced by each subject teacher and sub staff. When the head clerk took medical leave for a month the author wrote the A/Cs. The head clerk was surprised to see everything was up-to-date. Another occasion the author found it was 10.48 when the bell should have been rung at 10.40. So he quietly went to the office room and pressed the switch for the electric bell. Startled the head clerk got up and apologized. The author told him “Don’t feel bad, every work is our work. Perhaps you have sent out both the peons. So I substituted for them”
On another occasion, another Education Officer was talking to the author. At that time the jeep driver entered. He asked him “My scooter is not starting, please look into it” the driver came back and told him” It has to be taken to the mechanic”. Then the author told him, “Bring some emery paper”. Then he went to the scooter with that and told the driver “now rub the spark plug with this emery paper”. He did so and the vehicle got started. The driver asked the author “Sir how do you know this” he replied “when I was Dy.Director (Training) South Zone in the Ministry of Community Development, Govt. of India, we had two jeeps and one station wagon with me. So to prevent my 3 drivers from taking the vehicles to the workshop often, I learnt automobile engineering with the help of the book “You and Your Car”.
What all these mean is that if you know the Job of each one working with you and they know that you know it, their respect (and fear) for you goes up.
In the recent times we find Dato Sri Tony Fernandes, owener of “Air Asia” Airline, trying his hand in different departments. He works as a gab carrier, check in officer and even a flight attendant. It helps him to get around and understand real problems and needs and also to find out who is working well.
When the author found a peon has passed plus two level, he puts him as an understudy for a lab assistant and after some time helps him to get promoted as lab assistant. The same he has done for people in every cadre.
Whenever the author thinks of Mr.Poduval (who has a PRT in KV HVF Avadi, during his Principalship, later on rose as TGT, PGT and on to Principal) he always thinks of Sri. P. Ponnudurai, Managing Director of “Lion Dates”, who had a ‘Date’ with destiny, worked hard and climbed up the ladder. One remark of Sri. Ponnudurai should serve as a beacon light to every Principal.
“I don’t want to show my face, let my company’s face be there. Nobody should know who is behind the company.
Let your “School’s face” become visible.
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The Divine is a wine that would intoxicate you. The nectar that the Name of the Lord is saturated in produces it. Taste it and you forget everything else; you are transformed. Man is, they say, a monkey that has lost its tail; well, he must lose many more attributes of the monkey before he is entitled to call himself Man. He must dedicate his thought, word and deed to God and surrender to His Will. Then only is this animal entitled to become a Man in whom the Divine is enshrined. – Sri Sathya Sai Baba
