Overview
A large government-backed philanthropy organisation in the Middle East had an ambitious idea of creating a global hub of research excellence by attracting top talent from the best universities across the world to their emerging world-class facilities. In order to support this ambition they needed to understand how to best create a compelling narrative that would make it attractive for academic talent to relocate.
The Challenge
Overcoming reputational barriers is as much an art as it is a science, so we needed to understand both the emotional and factual perception drivers of critical stakeholders around the world in order to create a narrative that would resonate with them on various levels. On the other hand it was also important to involve local audiences so that they understand the rationale behind attracting foreign talent to their country and would not be alienated in the process.
Our Approach
After an extensive phase of desk research as well as subject matter expert interviews, we were able to identify the most important potential institutional partners as well as the key decision-makers within them across the targeted countries. We then devised a type of co-creation approach and set up various engagement sessions that sought to unpack their sentiments towards our client’s undertaking. From these insights across the various geographies we were able to devise targeted engagement frameworks based on certain decision-maker archetypes.
Key Insight
Our initial focus was on the respective individual researcher and his/her ambitions. It quickly emerged that the personal and/or family situation was of equal importance and we also had to focus on many “softer aspects” of the war for talent. Another insight was that we needed to zoom in on the respective career stage and consider only temporary placements and not put pressure on long-term tenure.
The Outcome
The initial engagement model has led to the relocation of various world-class research groups and excellent academics to our client’s facility in the Middle East. This has produced a lot of positive public attention and created various breakthroughs in important research areas which makes it easier to create a talent pipeline. This venture has also become an important part of the government’s post-oil growth strategy.