36th STAR Board Policy 2014 by STAR (Study Association Rotterdam School of Management, Erasmus University)

POLICY DOCUMENT 2013-2014 th XXXVI STAR BOARD

PREFACE

Year after year STAR draws a policy document, this document is the result of the 2014 strategy session which took place under the supervision of STAR alumni working for PwC, Bol. com and the Boston Consulting Group. After this week full of intensive idea generation, decision making and strategy building we came to the following consensus: we will continue to create a strong fundament for the upcoming years.

‘‘

we will

continue

to create a

strong fundament

for the

upcoming years

”

As can be seen in previous policies we build our strategy based on a so called strategy map, in which we identify the value drivers that help contribute to four main focus areas of our association. By supporting students in their career choice (1) and their academic development (2), make sure they have fun (3) and meanwhile realize what they can contribute to society (4) we try to provide a total package which enriches the life of RSM students. None of all this would be possible if it weren’t for the students that organize the various activities that underpin these pillars, our ‘Active Members’. We aim to develop them during the organization of their activities and sincerely believe that this is of crucial importance to our association. To describe the best possible situation in all of our focus areas we use a layered structure in our strategy map. This layered structure consists of the following four layers: fundamentals (base layer), active members (1st layer), projects (2nd layer) and members (top layer). We will explain the content of these layers in the following chapter. Furthermore we would like to stress that our association is ran by and for students, we thus always welcome feedback regarding our approach, events and/or strategy. Please feel free to contact any board member if you would like to discuss your own ideas. On behalf of the XXXVIth STAR Board,

Bas Louwman Chairman

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Our Strategy Map

The Policy

Fundamentals

Active Members

Projects

Members

36 STAR BOARD

Bas Louwman, Ron de Koning, Kirsten Parren, Sterre Swen, Annabel Hoefnagel, Laura Hendrickx, Mathew Dibble, Floris Wesselink & Michelle Groenendijk

INTRODUCTION

FUNDAMENTALS What do we need to keep STAR running? What will we need in the nearby future to improve our association? All aspects that are fundamental to the day-to-day operation of our associations are taken into account when establishing this layer in our strategy house. ACTIVE MEMBERS Our Active Members are essential to our association. By organizing activities for their fellow students that touch one, or more, of our pillars they help enrich the life of RSM students. Besides enriching others, we like to help them enrich themselves as well. A year as an active member is therefore ideally a fun, but most of all a challenging personal experience. PROJECTS Throughout the years STAR has established a broad portfolio of various activities. Although these activities are good as they are, there is always room for improvement. Within this layer of our strategy we identify the topics that help increase the quality of our projects and help optimize the processes that are attached to it. MEMBERS An association like ours is what it is because of its members. With 6,500 members, including both bachelor- and master students, we serve a large variety of RSM students. These students all have specific demands and we try and meet the demand in every possible way. How do we meet this demand and keep our association a cohesive group of students?

OUR STRATEGY MAP

Figure 1.1 Strategy Map

UNDAMENTALS

KNOWLEDGE MANAGEMENT

FINANCIALS

Year after year we find ourselves to be surrounded by new, talented, students. Although that offers a new challenge and experience to these people, we believe that our association should focus on improving our events rather than reinventing the event every year.

At STAR we believe that every single project should be able to run on its own resources. Naturally we create synergy where possible, but we intend to run a zero-sum budget for every project and for the entire association over the course of a budget year. How do we do this?

Although the infrastructure to do so is there, we believe that they still lack effectiveness. We collect enormous amounts of data, which we in our current operations do not use to their full potential. In an ideal situation our CRM system is completely up-to-date. It includes all members, their personal data, purchases they did and events they attended. With this information we can decrease the amount of mail/information delivered to members which is perceived as â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;SPAMâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;. By having a continuously updated CRM system we can define our target groups better and serve them with the for them relevant information. Besides our CRM system, a more quantity focused approach, we intend to collect knowledge on a functional level as well. Therefore every committee will create its own white book, which meets set requirements. White books should be both committee and function specific. By all means, creating a learning experience is at the core of our organizational values, but learning and getting the project to a higher level (quality increase) is preferred above reinventing and thriving for the same result. A sitation is need in which all data is stored on the STAR server and no documents are lost in the transfer to the new committee. Committees also meet with the predeceasing committee to evaluate their year in terms of events.

A budget consists of both revenue and expenses. As long as we increase our acquisition revenue, we can increase expenses: by which we create more value towards our (active) members. The acquisition revenue is the basis for the balanced scorecard together with tight budget control. It provides the resources to ensure training programs and develop new projects. Furthermore we base our acquisition strategy on 6 topics: 1. Intensive account management together with RSM. Leading us to an higher positioned entry, combining our resources from the STAR Board, RSM MBA and RSM Career Services. 2. Expansion of our company portfolio, including the diversity (among them internationally orientated companies, more small medium enterprises and start-ups and A-partners) 3. Increased usage of CRM for both tracking and monitoring. 4. Increase our Social Media presence, such as posts via LinkedIn en Twitter, logos and videos via screens on campus, placing internships on our career page. 5. Appealing proposition of internship and a large diversity of companies (as it comes to size, geographically and branch) 6. Optimizing the usage of cross-selling for committees

CTIVE MEMBERS

INVOLVEMENT

DEVELOPMENT

With over 280 active members, which are occupied with other activities as well, we see that it is increasingly difficult to keep this group involved and cohesive with STAR and their fellow active members. In a social context there are generally factors that are not easily influenced, we however see that there are facets which are not yet optimally used that could contribute to more commitment.

Our active members commit themselves to our projects because of the personal development it offers them. Apart from the committee experience STAR offers them the possibility to participate in events and trainings focused on their specific needs.

Besides social involvement we believe that a voluntary driven organization, as STAR, would benefit from a strategical involvement as well. Having our active members involved in our strategy implies that they feel more committed to their project, as they see how it contributes to the various value drivers we think are important. In an ideal situation you would crowd source your strategy, implying that your members deliver our strategy.

Currently every active members hands in their personal development plan, in which they indicate their current skills, their ideal skill set and their outlook for the upcoming year. We want to create a situation in which active Members are well aware of the fact that STAR is offering them trainings they indicated. In that case they will actively ask for certain trainings and thus more of a fit can be created between the supply and demand. Active Members know STAR cares about their development and the learning experience they go through. In the case of offering trainings: there should be a pull instead of a push strategy. We should deliver what the active member wants. We try and enrich them in their development, via de personal development plan, thus trainings are an important part of their experience. In an ideal situation, part of the reasons people become active at STAR is because they are offered an extensive extra-curricular training program, hosted by non-profit- as well as corporate organizations.

ROJECTS

MANAGE EXPECTATIONS

IMPROVE PROJECTS

In several of our projects there seem to be a discrepancy between what is expected and what is delivered. This is the case for some of our flag ship projects, as well as our own recruitment. Resulting in a disappointment for the individual and a negative result on the perception of the association.

As indicated in the introduction we try to improve our projects every time. There are two main projects that are part of our focus area for the upcoming year. It includes some of our flagship events, as well as one of the main triggers people become a member of our association, the booksale.

Besides improving our portfolio to meet expectations, a rather large percentage of this is caused by bad expectation management. Improving the clarity on the odds of getting picked and the procedure that is relevant to the situation should cause an increase in positive feedback.

With regards to our flag ship projects, we focus upon the Erasmus Recruitment Days and the STAR Management Week. In these improvements we target the information systems that are part of these projects. Although the specifics are different for both projects, respectively an relatively unfriendly user interface and unclearance in the exact procedure are large bottlenecks for these events. For both we will create fluent processes for the relevant projects. There is no un-clarity when using the system and the manual workload for the committee decreases.

EMBERS

STUDY SUPPORT

CAPACITY & PROPOSITION

In recent years, as a contribution to academic support of our students, we started to offer a broader range of products. STAR tries to add value to the life of RSM students by supporting them in reaching their full potential in class as well. By offering a portfolio which includes both curricular and extra-curricular support we come closer to our core values as a study association.

Unfortunately we have to disappoint a lot of students when it comes to our events. Due to high amounts of application and/or a high level of competition, we find that students don’t always receive the spot of their preferred choice. In some cases our current portfolio proposition does only scarcely meet the demand of students, which indicates STAR has to diversify and extend this portfolio.

Although the portfolio is already relatively diverse, from summaries to language courses, we will continue to contribute to the ‘study support’ in the near future and will actively pursue new additions.

As a student association we aim to provide students extra-curricular experience. Our relations with our corporate partners could increase our value to students when it comes to this. By collecting available internships on our online career page, we offer students (besides becoming an active member) another opportunity to gain this extra-curricular experience.

QUALITY To fully engage all 6,500 of ours members, we will have to maintain and meanwhile improve the quality of our events. Although STAR has large events to improve the engagement of members with STAR, such as the big STAR parties, IBA social drinks and sale of books, we acknowledge that there are steps to be made in the upcoming year in terms of quality. We see the amount of visitors for the big STAR parties is decreasing. We note that the (student) party seen in the city of Rotterdam has developed itself tremendously, in both quantity and quality, throughout the last couple of years and will reposition ourselves according to the market demand. Besides the social aspect of our events, a broader analyses of our event portfolio has to be made to fully picture where our associations loses the commitment of its members.

Besides career related events we also offer a variety of academic events in which we try to inspire and enlighten the RSM student. We aim to have these events recognized for their high quality standards and their inspirational and educational character. Among this range of portfolio adjustments, we will continuously keep the (currently underserved) international RSM students in the equation.