alumni futures

How Not to Rank Alumni Networks

The generally reliable Economist magazine published something a little naive early this year.

In a February column titled A ranking of business schools' alumni: Network effects, the magazine listed the business schools with "the most useful alumni."

There may be a reliable methodology for determining such a ranking, to some approximation. But The Economist's method isn't it. Their methodology is simple. To quote them:

Each year, The Economist asks students to rate their school's network. 

So what's wrong with this system?

[There may be a reliable way to find the 'most useful' alumni,
but The Economist's method isn't it]

Simply put, it is in the direct interest of every student surveyed for others to believe that the student attended an influential and successful institution. This confers the maximum perceived value to their degree.

For that reason, every student asked to rate their own school's network should rate it as highly as possible.

In this survey, that would be a 5 out of a possible 5. The students at Dartmouth College's Tuck School of Business seemed to understand this: they ranked their network 4.98 out of 5.

It's surprising that the ratings of the top 10 schools dip as low as 4.71. Maybe the schools should offer more marketing courses to their MBA candidates? 
 

Thank you to John Arboleda for sharing the Economist article with his network on LinkedIn, where I first saw it.

My New Role: Vice President with GG+A

I'm thrilled to announce that effective immediately, I am joining the consulting firm of Grenzebach Glier & Associates (GG+A) as Vice President.

As a consultant focused on alumni relations, I will advise a wide variety of institutions on alumni outreach, strategy, governance and programming. It is a pleasure to join GG+A's Chris Marshall in this effort. Chris has led GG+A's focus on alumni relations for more than two years. With GG+A's global footprint, I'll be able to reach and help many more institutions than I can as a solo consultant under the Alumni Futures banner.

I will phase out Alumni Futures as a consultancy, working part-time for GG+A at first, and ramping up to a full-time role in the coming months. However, I will continue to blog periodically from Alumni Futures, and will maintain the pages and resources available here. And of course I'll still be on Twitter as @alumnifutures.

About GG+A
Founded in 1961, GG+A is a global firm with a focus on education, arts and culture, healthcare and the voluntary sector. Grounded in philanthropy advising, the firm is steadily expanding its work with alumni communities of all kinds. Given the challenges that alumni relations professionals face, this is a great time to increase and strengthen the guidance these communities receive from experienced experts.

[It's a great time to strengthen the guidance that
alumni professionals receive from experienced experts]

And coming soon...
Soon, I will also share with you another exciting project I'm pursuing, on the future of alumni relations. I'll be seeking your insight, feedback and thoughts on the coming second century of organized alumni relations.

A word of thanks
This is also a great opportunity for me to express my sincere gratitude to the thousands of supportive subscribers, friends, clients, readers and followers of Alumni Futures since 2007. As I transition to my new role, the Alumni Futures Advisory Group will phase out its work. I offer my sincere gratitude and appreciation to all of them - Elizabeth Allen, Hanna Rodriguez-Farrar, Andrew Gossen, Paul Jamieson, Charlie Melichar, Jeff Schoenherr and Michael Tate – for their advice and wisdom over the years.

To discuss consulting of any kind, contact me via my GG+A email address:  [email protected].