Overseas operations
5 The global challenge
5.1 The frontiers of cultural work constantly shift. Some of the challenges described in the Council's previous Corporate Plans have changed and new ones will develop during the next decade. Maximizing opportunities within existing frameworks such as the Commonwealth is important. At the same time, new allies, partners and competitors are joining more familiar ones such as the United States, France, Germany, Australia, Japan. Eastern Europe in 1990 presents a ready example of the impact of political change on cultural relations: a whole new range of opportunities has arisen, as the international effort to encourage and influence change gathers momentum and creates export openings for British educational, technical and professional expertise. These opportunities and the Council's response to them are discussed in detail in chapter 7.
5.2 Such opportunities and challenges reshape cultural relations and have impact on Britain's role. A wide range of response is called for: a new style of operation in Eastern Europe; swift provision of educational resources in the context of the British aid programme in Southern Africa; conduits for British research and trade as the European market barriers come down; professional and price-competitive contract services for ILAS in Asia, Africa and Europe; a watching brief for opportunity in Afghanistan and Iran, and for change in China; professional and market-sensitive reactions to increasing and urgent demands for ELT.
5.3 Constructive responses demand flexible and diverse resources. The Council is uniquely equipped to marshall and deploy the British effort and to maximize the advantages to be gained. Its offices in ninety countries overseas each offer a single point of access for all aspects of British culture, science and education. They are complemented by a nationwide network at home in close contact with government, academic institutions, the professions and business. One of the main challenges for the Council lies in the effective co-ordination of the British resource and its professional application to ensure the greatest return to the UK on investment.
5.4 The Council faces a number of strategic issues some of which require critical choices in three areas:
P
External planning
⚫ how to integrate the Council's independent activity, determined by the Board and funded by the government grant, with that of government and national bodies
• how to build on the traditional relationship
with sponsoring departments to construct a productive and beneficial relationship based on mutual understanding, appropriate to the 1990s.
Internal planning
• how to reconcile the Council's multiple roles of broker, agent, practitioner, business partner and business manager
• how to maximize income and diversify its sources while retaining quality control and cost effectiveness
⚫ how to maintain quality and flexibility while cost-cutting for maximum efficiency gains or price competitiveness
Geographical planning
• how to deploy limited resources for maximum advantage to Britain in high-priority areas, without damage to relations with Britain in lower-priority areas
• how to maximize the purchasing power of government grant funds
• how to improve measurement of the benefit to Britain of cultural relations.
6 Strategy
External planning
6.1 The Council's relationship with its sponsoring departments has in recent years changed markedly from the traditional grant- funded one, and become increasingly complex.
6.2 The Council's grant-in-aid is provided by the FCO (75%) and ODA (25%)1, the diplomatic and aid wings of the Foreign and Commonwealth Office. It comprises, in 1990/91, 28% of the Council's total programme compared with 39% in 1980/81. The Board controls policy for the expenditure of this grant. To supplement it, the Council wins income from other sources. This additional income derives partly from revenue, but mainly from agency work for clients, who determine the policy to be carried out. FCO and ODA are also the Council's principal clients. In its agency work, the Council is administering aid and scholarship programmes which its own grant-funded activity both complements and supports. To ensure mutual benefit and understanding, the Council is developing a scheme of policy and planning dialogues through which priorities and key objectives are discussed with sponsors and used to inform Council planning.
6.3 This process is well developed with the diplomatic wing. Formal reviews of plans and priorities with the FCO's Cultural Relations Department are supported by regular
1
% based on 1990/91 figures
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