Transforming Process and Structure for Long-Term Growth
Virginia Tech’s Continuing and Professional Education (CPE) organization, a $9.5 million entity with no open enrollment programming and no formal marketing, faced a critical challenge: their internal processes and organizational structure were hindering their potential for growth. Spur's Consulting Group partnered with Virginia Tech to redevelop their structure, improve processes, and position them for future success.
🔍 The Opportunity
Virginia Tech had achieved notable success, generating millions in revenue, largely through word-of-mouth marketing. However, their rapid growth had resulted in inefficiencies in internal processes. The team was held back by a lack of accountability and repetitive actions that wasted time.
Virginia Tech’s CPE unit primarily focused on conferences and events, and their operations were overly complex, with staff members juggling too many responsibilities. With Amazon planning to build a new corporate headquarters in the Arlington area, just two miles from a Virginia Tech satellite campus, the stakes for capitalizing on this opportunity were high. Virginia Tech needed to refine its operations to meet the upcoming influx of professional learners, but its current structure was ill-prepared for the growth on the horizon.
💡 The Solution
Spur worked closely with Virginia Tech’s leadership team, crafting a tailored Organizational Redevelopment strategy that would address these challenges. The engagement began with a thorough examination of the existing structure, processes, and team roles. Over the course of the project, Spur proposed a new organizational structure and streamlined processes designed to support Virginia Tech’s ambitions of entering new business lines and improving existing operations.
“We spent a lot of time on the front end to make sure we were asking the right questions before attempting to answer them,” noted the Spur team. After meeting with 32 Virginia Tech employees, it became clear that the existing team structure could not support a new business line. The solution required addressing inefficiencies within the current structure and freeing up program planners to focus on growth.
Through a collaborative effort, Spur helped Virginia Tech develop a “service blueprint,” visually mapping out each process and ensuring accountability across departments. In doing so, repetitive tasks were delegated, and greater specialization was introduced. The team was able to streamline communication with other departments, such as finance and operations, and improve overall efficiency.
📈 The Outcome
The outcomes of Spur’s work with Virginia Tech were transformative. The redeveloped organizational structure and streamlined processes allowed Virginia Tech to redeploy their resources more efficiently, resulting in $200,000 in annual savings. The recalibrated operations enabled the CPE unit to shift focus from day-to-day tasks to strategic program development, positioning them to take advantage of future growth opportunities.
By the end of the engagement, Virginia Tech had a team ready to support new business lines and a framework in place for expanding into open enrollment programs and certificate offerings. With streamlined processes and an efficient organizational structure, they are now poised to capitalize on the significant opportunities brought by the Amazon expansion and the burgeoning need for professional training in the region.
Could Virginia Tech have achieved these results on their own? Perhaps, but Spur accelerated their path to success. In just six months, the groundwork was laid for Virginia Tech to generate more revenue in new ventures than their current successful business line—all while maintaining their current cost structure.
Shelly Jobst
Director of Continuing and Professional Education at Virginia Tech
“CPE at Virginia Tech was at a critical moment of change and opportunity and bringing Spur in to help us set up our future success was the right decision because it helped organize the unit and got us thinking about best next steps to meet the needs of the university and our expanding community.”