Ushers New Look Foundation Strategic Challenge

Shawn Wilson, the President of Ushers New Look Foundation, has contacted Accenture with a new project request. After initial conversations with the client, your Managing Director, Marty Rodgers, sends you an e-mail regarding the project.
-----Original Message----From: MRODGERS@Accenture.com Sent: October 2013 8:37 AM To: InnovationChallengeTeam@Accenture.com FW: Subject: NLF Student Trainer Growth Strategy Team: Welcome to the New Look Foundation project. I am excited to have you on the team as we help the nonprofit Ushers New Look Foundation develop a peer trainer operating model that allows them to keep pace with their growth in student enrollment. As context, I met with our key client Shawn Wilson, the President of New Look, and here are some notes I captured based on my conversations with him. Shawn explained the problem their organization is looking to address, which is preserving what they feel is the Special Sauce that allows them to be successful: Were really proud of our peer-to-peer influence model, and feel that its the Special Sauce that allows us to be successful. Ever since we adopted our new blended learning approach, were experiencing tremendous growth in our online student enrollment. Were worried that we currently do not have a consistent method of identifying and training peer trainers and fear that without one, we wont be able to keep pace with student growth and lose out on our peer-to-peer special sauce. New Look's model to support youth leadership encompasses four core programs with three levels of leadership certification, which was developed in partnership with Emory University. Of all of its unique elements, New Look is most proud of its peer-to-peer influence model whereby students leaders in the more advanced phases of the program mentor and train students in earlier phases of the certification program. Our team has a significant opportunity to help an organization that is having a positive impact on Americas youth and communities across the country. Along with this e-mail, I have attached a New Look Foundation Insight Deck, which provides useful background information on our client. I will be offline for most of the day working with another client, so I am putting this project in your hands. New Look wants to move quickly on this engagement, so tomorrow, get together to brainstorm some initial thoughts on how to address this challenge.

We have a great relationship with New Look and the leadership is expecting great work from the Accenture team. Hopefully we can impress New Look with our solution and eventually work with their team to implement the proposed strategy. Regards, Marty Rodgers ___________________________________________ Martin Rodgers Executive Director, Accenture Nonprofit Group To learn more visit: www.accenture.com/nonprofit

Marty also forwarded an e-mail that he received from Shawn Wilson, President of New Look, that you can read below.
-----Original Message-----------------------------------------------------------From: President@ushersnewlook.org Sent: October 2013 7:23 AM To: MRODGERS@Accenture.com Subject: Student Trainer Growth Strategy Marty, It was great running into you at the conference last week. I would like to take you up on the offer to think through how we can develop a consistent process for identifying and training student trainers. Ultimately, we would like to maintain our 1:20 student trainer-student ratio to have a total of 2,500 student trainers by the 2015-2016 school year, which is when New Look is projected to reach an enrollment of 50,000 students. We have brainstormed strategies for this internally and are hoping your team can provide a fresh perspective. One thing we are struggling with is how to maintain our peer-to-peer special sauce as we continue to grow virtually at a rapid pace. We want students to have meaningful, interpersonal relationships with their peers. However, we have limited financial resources, so we do not have the ability to hire additional staff to focus on student training. How can we identify and train student trainers in a manner that can be replicated across our entire organization? Based on your experience, is it possible to maintain an impactful peer-to-peer model with the level of growth we are experiencing virtually? If so, how? In terms of how we currently identify and train student trainers, we operate loosely on a franchise model, with the Atlanta Chapter serving as the exemplar for the other chapters across the country. This family style has worked to date, however, we are finding that as we continue to grow, it is necessary for us to develop and document processes that are consistent across the organization. We currently have one Atlantabased staff member that travels to other chapter locations and delivers in-person trainings to those students that have been selected to serve as student trainers. However, this role is in addition to his regular day-to-day responsibilities and is not a sustainable solution. Additionally, we want to do a better job of keeping our students engaged as alumni once theyve graduated from the program. We must do a better job of bringing these students back, along with other adults, to act as utilize as volunteers for the organization. There have been several times when I have been asked How can I get involved?, and I have not been able to offer a clear, consistent answer. I hope this provides a bit more clarity around the areas in which we need your help. I will be traveling extensively for the next two weeks, so my team will provide you with some background notes and data exhibits to support your analysis. I look forward to hearing your ideas at the final meeting. Regards, Shawn Wilson
__________________________

Shawn Wilson President, Ushers New Look Foundation