Marketing Core services

Core facilities should be clear as to why they exist and how they can fulfil their 'mission'. Although meeting a financial goal may not be the whole reason for a core to exist, it is part of the overall objective of the facility. The mission (education, providing a service that is useful, obtaining results that are not possible by other means etc) and financial goals should be complementary to each other, not in competition. As is often the case, an organizations goals and objectives can change over time, this process will be a dynamic one. Part of the procedure though will be how to make sure that the core facility is known and approaches to this can vary:

• A business plan is useful. The core manager should be planning well in advance (years, not months, a 5 year rolling plan is something that many managers use). Tools should be in place to monitor machine usage, observe trends in the type of experiment being undertaken by users and keep up with machine developments both in cytometry and in allied technologies.
• Advertisement of the facility, what it can do and what it will cost the users is important.