After meeting with the core team at Occidental College, we created a two-phase project to answer the team’s key questions and chart a profitable, sustainable path forward.
Phase 1: Financial Evaluation and Analysis
We created an inclusive schedule of discovery with campus visits, focus groups and surveys to gather insight from all stakeholders, including leaders, bookstore staff, faculty, students and others. From these sessions, we explored the store’s performance and offerings, as well as how members of the campus community perceived and utilized the campus store. Importantly, we also invited stakeholders to share what they hoped the store could become and how it could better serve the whole campus community.
After all data was captured, we drafted a thorough findings and recommendations report that shed a bright light on the campus store’s performance, challenges and future state. We facilitated a robust reporting session with the leadership team, and moved to phase two.
Phase 2: RFP and a New Direction
With clarity and alignment on the campus store’s unique challenges and opportunities, we crafted an RFP to solicit proposals for a contract managed provider. The college was clear, however, that they sought to retain current campus store staff as well as the existing space.
We led the process of evaluating proposals and conducting interviews, and made a recommendation to the leadership team about the final selection. Once the provider was chosen, we drafted the operating partnership agreement, and advised on the entire process of signing, on-boarding and collaborative approaches to set up the vendor and college for long term success.
