Strategy and organizational growth
Set direction, evaluate opportunities, and define the priorities and capabilities needed for long-term success.
- Where to play and how to win
- Market insight and economics
- Priorities and capabilities
Our approach · The ElevateED method
Built from the inside out.
Strong learning institutions grow from a healthy organizational foundation. When educators have the support to do their best work, and learners have the conditions to thrive, great learning can take hold. Great learning, in turn, is what makes an institution last, financially and otherwise. We work in that order.
Select a ring to explore it. Each one is built on the one inside it.
01 · The center · built first
Organization
The board that owns the school, the leader who runs it and the money that sustains it. Get this right and everything outside it has something to stand on.
- Board and governance
- Head of school and leadership
- Financial model and capital plan
- Data, systems and compliance
How we decide · The strategy cascade
Clear choices, built in the right order.
Most learning institutions do not lack plans. What they lack is strategy, an integrated set of choices about winning. We start every mandate with five questions, in order, each forcing the next. The answers set the choices; the inside-out sequence delivers them.
The strategy cascade comes from Playing to Win by A.G. Lafley and Roger Martin. Our work is the translation to education.
- 01What do we aspire to?Learning, full seats, a balance sheet that carries the mission
- 02Where will we play?Which families, which programs, at what price, on what campus
- 03How will we win there?Why a family, a student, or a donor chooses you
- 04What must we be great at?The capabilities those choices demand
- 05What systems make it stick?The routines and measures that keep the choices honest
How we build · Why the order matters
Most school projects start with the building. Ours start with the people who will run it.
ElevateED is the next chapter for a team that has spent their careers building and running exceptional schools at the institutions that set the standard.
A campus can be finished on schedule and still open into a school that isn’t ready. Getting the sequence right is the difference between a building and an institution.
The usual sequence · outside inThe ElevateED sequence · inside out
01Find land and design a buildingBuild the organizationGovernance, leadership and a financial plan that holds.
02Hire people to fill itDesign the learningAn academic model built on how students actually learn.
03Write a curriculum that fits the roomsBuild the campus around bothSpaces, enrollment and funding shaped by the first two.
04Hope the culture followsStay until it runs on its ownOperations and leadership development through year three.
The build sequence
From first conversation to a school that runs confidently.
OrganizationLearningCampus & community
PhaseStartYear 1Year 2Opening day+1 yr+2 yrs+3 yrs
Illustrative sequence for a new school. Every project is set to its own calendar, phases overlap by design, and new phases may be added as plans are approved.
Phase 01 · Organization
Vision & feasibility
Pressure-test the idea before anyone draws a building.
ElevateED leads
Market and demand study
Site and capital scenarios
The founding case for the school
Next steps
Define who the school will serve
Approve the move to planning
Success deliverable
A feasibility study and investment case a board can act on.
What we do
Six disciplines. One team behind all of them.
Each discipline maps to a ring in the method, so whatever you bring us, we know where it sits in the sequence and what has to be true before it.
Leadership and institutional effectiveness
Align leadership, talent, systems, and resources, with support ranging from targeted improvements to full school operations.
- Leadership and talent
- Culture and governance
- Operating structures, up to full operations
Learning and academic innovation
Shape academic models, curricula, programs, and assessment, grounded in learning science and the student experience.
- Academic models and curricula
- Programs and assessment
- Faculty development
Enrollment and engagement
Reach prospective students, families, and partners through strategies that strengthen enrollment, relationships, and participation.
- Positioning and recruitment
- Admissions
- Experiences that keep learners connected
Philanthropy and finance
Advance donor campaigns, structure capital, and develop financial models that sustain the mission and support growth.
- Financial models
- Philanthropic planning and campaigns
- Capital options
Campus and facilities development
Deliver turnkey campuses from first drawing to opening day, and guide institutional launches and major expansions.
- Site and facilities planning
- Design and construction oversight
- Budgets and owner representation
Ways to work with us
A whole school, or a single part of one.
New schoolAll three rings, in order.From feasibility to opening day and the first three years, with one team accountable for the whole sequence.For founders, philanthropists and sponsors starting from a vision.Build a new school →A single partOne ring, done properly.An academic model refresh, a campus project or a capital campaign, built to fit the school a partner already has.For boards and heads of school with a specific initiative.Scope an initiative →Turnaround or acquisitionStart back at the center.Steady governance, leadership and finances first, then renew the learning, then the campus and enrollment.For boards facing change and sponsors acquiring a school.Plan a transformation →
Every build starts at the center.
Tell us where you are, from a first idea to a school that needs to change. We review every inquiry and will follow up within two business days.
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