Anders Ahlund has worked for EF, one of the giants in the international education industry, for 22 years. From his position as President of International Sales & Marketing, he is well placed to answer questions about the global footprint and vision that EF has.
The PIE: So let’s start with asking you how you got involved in the industry.
AA: It was a coincidence. Back in 1991 I wanted to go abroad for a year, take a gap year which I never did while I studied, so I found this job in Switzerland with EF and I figured I would go there for a year and then I go back for my career in Sweden. 22 years later I’m still with EF, have moved around the world, was back in Switzerland but moved to Dubai a few years ago.
The PIE: You’re based in Dubai now?
AA: I am based in Dubai but spend also some time in Zürich.
The PIE: You’ve had a pretty interesting global career, what has been your favourite city to be based in?
AA: Very tough question. I tend to see the positive in each city. Boston is of course a fantastic city and so is Zürich, so it’s a very close call between those cities. Dubai is also an amazing city.
The PIE: And how would you describe your role? Global troubleshooter?
AA: That could be one description, but I’m mainly developing new markets, so I am in charge of the developing, opening new markets as well as supporting our worldwide agent network and EF’s offices in the Middle East and Africa.
“Pretty much the day the regime fell we re-opened the office in Libya”
The PIE: How big is your worldwide agent network?
AA: We normally officially don’t talk about numbers but we have a substantial amount of business coming from our partner network ,we call it indirect sales, educational agents, travel agents, selling teachers, selling leaders etc. and it’s a substantial part of our business.
The PIE: So what is substantial in terms of per cent?
AA: It’s more than half; it’s substantial.
The PIE: As an undisputed market leader, everyone looks to EF to see what you’re doing next, so which world regions will be a priority for EF in the coming few years?
AA: I think it’s quite easy to take a look at the map where EF has presence today and where EF doesn’t. South America, Europe and Asia are rather covered, so the future markets to approach will be Africa and the Middle East.
The PIE: Which countries in Africa?
“We put a lot of effort into finding the right people”
AA: We just opened up in these past 12 months Libya and Algeria.
The PIE: You have mentioned Libya to me before, you were in there straight away, weren’t you?
AA: That’s correct. Unfortunately we had to close for about seven or eight months but pretty much the day the regime fell we re-opened the office and it’s going well despite security issues and visa rejections, money transfer limitations etc.
The PIE: And how do you manage global HR when you are in so many countries?
AA: We always try to send an international manager to a new market to bring over the knowledge that we need. The international manager is then recruiting locally because we do strongly believe that is necessary. It is sometimes a struggle to find in somewhat closed countries like Iran and Algeria people with an international mind and a good English level and preferably an international degree, but we put a lot of effort into finding the right people.
The PIE: Can you disclose the number of students you teach in a year?
AA: No.
The PIE: You have had a huge growth in China, haven’t you?
AA: The growth in China has been phenomenal and is continuing at a very fast pace so we are very happy with the Chinese market.
The PIE: What about India, do you do much in India?
AA: On the language side we don’t do much in India. On the higher education side, like the MBA programme side, we do a lot in India as well as on our private high school side.
The PIE: Looking ahead to the next 10 years or so, how do you see the language market evolving?
AA: It will of course vary a lot from country to country. And it also will depend on the visa situation in the countries as well, what requirements they will put up for higher education. But for sure the products in the future will be more and more integrated and complex.
The PIE: How much is Bertil Hult involved with EF these days?
AA: It is a family-owned business; Hult is the sole owner so of course he is involved in the business, but not on a daily basis.
The PIE: EF is very different in terms of its distribution because you have so many offices which you own which are sales offices around the world. How many of those do you have?
AA: We have about 250 offices in 55 countries today.
The PIE: And how did that strategy happen? Was it very organic?
AA: It’s organic I would say, 99%. We have not taken over agents abroad and then tried to integrate them into our own organisation. We have opened up a couple of markets every year since the start in 1965 and that is the method we continue to grow both on the distribution side as well as on the production side.
“We have opened up a couple of markets every year since the start in 1965”
That is also very different to how other competitors are expanding. They try to speed it up and buy schools already up and running with very different company cultures and they try to integrate them into their own group of schools. That is not the way we believe to be the best and most efficient. We would rather grow slightly less fast and do it our way to maintain consistency of quality.
The PIE: So EF never acquired another school?
AA: I don’t want to say never, but very very few rare cases.
The PIE: What is the global work force of EF?
AA: If we count teachers, leaders, activity staff, as well as the office and administration staff it’s close to 34,000.
The PIE: And what do you think consumers see as your USP [unique selling point] compared to the other hundreds of competitors you have?
AA: I do believe that the students appreciate that they have EF all the way, so they get consultation from the very beginning from EF staff or well-trained agents that know the products very well. They have seen most of the schools, they have been trained thoroughly before they have been put in front of a customer and in case there are any issues during the course, there is always someone that speaks their language that they can speak to and get things right. That is definitely one point.
“September 11th, 2001 had the strongest and most sudden impact to the business”
Another one is the size of our schools, which is much bigger than most of our competitors. It means that we can offer on a weekly basis an intake of all different levels. And the fact that we separate the long-term students from the short-term students, so an academic year student can study in a very settled environment with the same teacher and the same classmates throughout the year is another strong point. At other schools they are mixed with short-term students and the environment changes every single week.
The PIE: How else does EF continue to innovate? Is Englishtown a big product for you?
AA: From the very beginning, EF has developed its own curriculum and textbooks. That was taken to the next level seven years ago when we introduced the EFEKTA learning system which is an integrated curriculum that mixes roughly 80% traditional face-to-face teaching in a classroom and 20% self-studies in a multi-media lab where online activities come into place. Englishtown is one of the driving parts of EF in terms of developing new online content all the time.
The PIE: Do you have students who only study online with you?
EF won an “innovation in marketing” award for its videos
AA: Of course, millions. We do have some distributors selling those packages, but it’s also mostly sold online to the student consumers directly.
The PIE: You won an award from GoAbroad.com for your “Live the language” videos. How do you tap into what young students want?
AA: Again because of our size, we manage to have strong in-house marketing departments for both online and offline marketing with excellent talents who are at least young in their minds and very creative people. We have produced some very good materials both printed and in video.
The PIE: What has been the biggest challenge of your career?
AA: There have been of course many challenges during the 22 years that I have been in this industry – anything from wars, disease outbreak to changes in visa systems. In the last couple of years there have been so many but I think maybe it was September 11th that was the worst and had the strongest and most sudden impact to the business and the travel pattern of the students.
