Australia’s education exports have created a first class name. With an innovative business approach and some creativity, you too can capitalise on this name and still stand out from the pack when exporting education.
Education is a valuable commodity. Aristotle believed: “All men naturally desire knowledge.” Well, what better thing to sell than that which everyone desires?
But while education is Australia’s fourth top export and generates annual revenue of $12.5 billion, according to figures by the Australian Bureau of Statistics, it doesn’t offer much room for SMEs to move. Or does it? While the 450,000 international students currently living and studying in Australia provide the bulk of this revenue, that isn’t to say exporters can’t explore other avenues. Education is still a roomy market; if entered with a bit of innovation, that is.
For International Coach Academy (ICA), going online was the best approach to going global. “We already knew Australia wasn’t a big market,” explains Robyn Logan, ICA strategy director and founder. “Being online, we realised there was a potential to expand.”
But what separates ICA from every other coach training school? “This is the key to our success—we localise our curriculum,” says Logan. Even now, she finds there are many companies that fly trainers into a country and deliver the same program each time with the mere addition of an interpreter. Instead, ICA visits countries it’s interested in exporting to, does market research to grasp the concept of coaching at each location, and then builds a team of experts on the ground that specialise in training, education and language. Like any other product, successful education exports need more than a one-size-fits-all approach, says Logan.
Following all that, for ICA, the lengthy translation process can begin. “But instead of just doing a literal translation, we do a cultural and conceptual translation,” explains Logan. “There are certain concepts that don’t translate well.”
ICA is also relaunching its website as a social networking site in five languages to build an online community for its students scattered around the globe. Whether it’s business, not-for-profit, or spiritual coaching, students will be able to find a contact.
ICA now has its sights set on rapidly developing countries Brazil, India and China—three of the four ‘BRIC’ economies (Russia being the other)—which will eclipse the current richest economies by 2050, according to the Goldman Sachs investment bank thesis.
For Logan, it’s really a simple numbers game. “There are 20 million people in Shanghai [alone], and then you look at the uptake of broadband in China. Australia has appalling broadband, and we’re an online training company,” she explains.
However, ICA doesn’t simply look at countries to export to, says Logan. “We’re looking at language groups. So when I mentioned China before, we’re looking at Chinese for the range of Chinese speaking people around the world.”
Austrade’s Export Market Development Grant (EMDG) has also been fundamental to the development of ICA, adds Logan. The grant reimburses up to 50 percent of export promotion expenses. “Once we got that, we were able to visit the countries,” she explains. “You learn a lot by actually being in the country and getting a sense of the people and the culture.”
Another education exporter who benefited from the EMDG grant is Roger La Salle, director of Matrix Thinking, which he describes as “a tool that businesses can use to find ways to build, and at the same time, engage with their staff”. Following the publication of his book, Think New in 2002, La Salle found himself on the speaking circuit, but it was only when the director was approached about licensing his material and having it taught in Northern Ireland that he fell into export. Now, La Salle’s unique approach to thinking is taught in 23 countries.
“When you see an opportunity, or a potential opportunity, you must follow it at least some part of the way,” says La Salle. And that’s just what he does; he once flew from Sydney to Melbourne and then drove to Ballarat, just to discuss working in South America over some coffee. Guess which region La Salle now exports to?
So what’s La Salle’s secret to exporting his education format? “The answer is by finding people overseas, investing a little bit of money into travel,” he says. “And if people like your delivery and the material is valuable, this will ultimately develop a life of its own,” La Salle explains. “People talk when they like what they hear.”
To this day, La Salle has profited from presenting face-to-face, even if he does at times require an interpreter. However, he has found that speaking in English is more effective, and that’s why La Salle now targets India. While he’d like to export to China, he says the language barrier makes it tricky.
At the end of the day, La Salle doesn’t think exporting has to be difficult. “If you’ve got a good product, you know how to present it and it delivers value to people, the word will spread.”
Building the Economy with Knowledge
The world’s economy is precarious—you never know when a disaster, like the US subprime mortgage crisis, is going to huff and puff and blow the whole thing down. So what’s the best way to withstand today’s unstable global society? By building an Aboriginal knowledge economy, says the Desert Knowledge Cooperative Research Centre (DKCRC).
It’s about time Aboriginal knowledge was respected and valued for its significance not only to a sustainable society in Australia in the future, but also its potential global contribution, says Jan Ferguson, managing director of the DKCRC. “Aboriginal knowledge too has value, sometimes in very special ways—such as the sense of community, or a spiritual attachment to country—and sometimes in very practical ways, such as knowing what grows and lives in the desert and how the desert works. Then there is cultural knowledge, expressed in art, music and dance especially.”
Knowledge is the world’s most valuable traded commodity and forms the backbone of exports, says Ferguson. Most countries talk of developing their knowledge in fields such as IT or biomedicine, but they should also look at developing and exporting indigenous knowledge, she adds.
But while exporting indigenous knowledge can be profitable, it’s important not to overlook intellectual property. “The first thing we do is sit down in partnership and identify what the Aboriginal knowledge in the project is—they own that completely,” explains Ferguson. “Then we agree on how benefits resulting from the use of the knowledge are to be shared. The vital thing is not to take Aboriginal knowledge for granted, any more than you would other forms of intellectual property.”
The DKCRC believes that with the right approach, indigenous knowledge is a lucrative export for both the economy and the environment. “Indigenous people in all countries share one thing in common—a deep understanding of the natural world and how to live in balance with it,” says Ferguson. “As humanity taxes on the earth’s resources ever more heavily, this kind of insight and wisdom may play an important part in leading us towards a more sustainable global society,” she adds. “As the world’s oldest living culture, Aboriginal knowledge has much to contribute to us all.”
Innovate Your Processes
Director of Matrix Thinking Roger La Salle has just released his latest book, Think Again: Innovate Your Processes, which he launched in Puerto Rico earlier this year.
Think Again is on process innovation, which goes beyond manufacturing, says La Salle. “In fact process innovation applies to everything we do, manufacturing, services and even management processes. It aims at improving business outcomes by cutting costs. Properly implemented process innovation comes with little risk.”
Available at www.amazon.com or enquire via his site at www.matrixthinking.com
