CASE STUDY
The Client
The London College of Fashion, a constituent of the University of the Arts London, is an educational establishment that offers full time and part time courses around fashion and other lifestyle industries. Notable alumni include Jimmy Choo, Ioana Ciolacu and William Tempest. In January 2017, the school opened the Digital Learning Lab, a space where students and staff can experiment with new technologies and ask advice from technical staff. These developments relate to a broader commitment by LCF to use innovative technologies to the benefit of its students and staff. The college's BA course offering rose by three places in the 2018 rankings, thanks to a strong score in the employability of its students post graduation. The school also comes in second for the business graduate ranking, indicating it is one of the few successful hybrid educators, capable of teaching both creative and commercial disciplines.
Their Business
As a constituent of the University of the Arts, LCF’s model is based on a nonprofit structure of reinvesting all gains into making the University better. An important note, however, is that 76% of its £281.4 million income in 2018 came from fees paid by students who chose to study at the college. This choice, according to a recent student survey, is driven by access to high-quality teaching - through the use of innovative methods. In essence, the more an institution is able to keep students excited about new opportunities in the world through innovative learning, the more applications they can expect to attract.
The Challenge
A 2017 experience tracker showed a nation wide slump in confidence among students. Many of whom no longer felt their course was preparing them well for the digital and evolving workplace. 82% of learners, however, felt these skills would be important in the workplace, but only 50% agreed to feeling equipped. For LCF, careful consideration of this information and effective execution of its response strategy was vital. Too often a university publishes a smart strategy documents which describe its model for addressing innovation issues but then fails to fully integrate this into how it operates and how it creates the customer experience for its students and partners.
Our Approach
The first thing we did, after identifying the problem, was to set out innovation goals for our partnership with LCF based on their mission to ‘Fashion the Future’ and our mission to ‘Create Future Proof Businesses’. We understood that our proposal to bring innovation discussions and exciting new ways to learn had to fit seamlessly into their operations and curriculum. The already established ‘fashion clinic’ set a platform for this. We also leveraged the broader commitment by LCF to use innovative technologies in our efforts to push through our strategy.
The work to be done here involved the development of an ‘interesting panel’ having an ‘interesting conversation’ in an ‘interesting location’. An attempt at appealing to students who typically shunned similar discussions. We found value in sticking to the established process involving expert panelists discussing and answering questions on subjects. Research had shown that this brought about multiple viewpoints, allowing the audience to weigh the merits of each perspective offered. As such, a diversity of opinion was an advantage. However, If the audience included people unfamiliar with the subject, the panel discussion may present information beyond their grasp and there was the risk of our audience coming away from the discussion feeling more confused than informed. This made it very important to choose a theme that the audience could adequately weigh in on.
Equipped with this information, we settled on the theme for our panel discussion.
The Innovative Business Models discussion explored how forward thinking enterprises are restructuring their business models and operational processes in fashion. It hosted panelists from progressive firms like Depop, Away to Mars, Snap Fashion, Box of Intimates and Becoco. It was held at LABS, Hogarth House - a productivity space with industrial open ceilings and carefully curated murals. During the event we encouraged discussions from our virtual audience by utilising mobile phone apps that allowed online contributors to send in questions, whilst creating an open debate atmosphere among physical attendants. We also employed the use of engaging technology to help break the ice and drive conversations. Business owners and prospective entrepreneurs enrolled at the college were also pressed to think up ideas on how they could implement novel innovation and processes in delivering value to their customers.
Our Impact
An outstanding success. After just a few days of advertisement we had hit capacity, the fatest event sell out on the clinic’s platform. Discussions and surveys also showed that the event had met expectations with attendants feeling ‘inspired’ and ‘enlightened about how technology could enhance their business’. The effect of our curated event continued to linger long after we had wrapped up with the client’s social media account seeing a 40% rise in engagement and a growth in attendance at follow up events. In addition, we noticed a rise in the number of articles published around fashion and innovation, citing conversations had at our event - suggesting a more broad influence on discussions in the fashion eco-system.