Having a background in music, a Bachelor’s degree in Communication and experience as a radio program director, production director, public affairs director, and on-air announcer, as well as a Master of Education degree in technologies-enhanced learning, I found myself in a working environment that used none of this – car sales.  I had to learn more about cars than I ever wanted to know.

But looking back, I found that the experience I gained helped me to become a successful marketing and development director as well as a sales professional.  One of those concepts was that power – usually called horsepower – doesn’t get you started quickly.  Horsepower only helps with speed after your moved into the higher gears.

The important aspect of a quick “takeoff” from a stop is torque.  Torque isn’t acceleration power – it’s turning power.  Cars with a lot of horsepower and a lot of torque will spin a vehicle’s wheels until the engine’s horsepower catches up with the turning power of the wheels.

Most people think that if a car has more horsepower, it will get you to where you’re going faster.  However, if you have too much horsepower for the torque rating of the vehicle, you’ll get there, but you’ll burn a lot of tire before you get going.

That’s why you may feel like you’re spinning your wheels when it comes to trying to increase enrollment or advancement revenue.

There are three main factors that determine the power a vehicle has:

1. The engine – and the amount of horsepower it generates
2. The transmission – since it determines the torque ratio.  It’s the transmission’s gearings which directly determine the amount of torque (turning power) delivered to the wheels.  Lower gears have higher gear ratios to multiply engine torque to increase acceleration and climbing power, while higher gears (with lower gear ratios) sacrifice torque for higher speeds and fuel efficiency.
3. The condition of the tires.

Assuming that the maintenance of the engine, transmission and tires has been performed, there are also two other factors that can affect the vehicle’s performance:

1. Fuel quality and octane rating.
2. Road conditions.

The point is that there are always five elements in every complete system.  There are at least 3, but a fourth is usually hidden within one of the other elements.  The fifth one then presents itself…usually as something that’s taken as a given, rather than being a determining factor in the completing the system.

Your school’s Advancement efforts have 5 elements that interact with one another.  There are also 4 other systems at work in the school, and each of them have 5 elements.  Some of the elements are larger that the others, but they’re important elements nonetheless.