"If the Business of the School Fails, the School Fails Too"

Business Skills for Leaders: What do Outstanding International School Leaders Really Need?

There's a moment in this conversation where Dr. Helen Wright puts the whole topic in one sentence: if the business of the school fails, the school fails too. It's the kind of line that stops you mid-scroll — because most school leaders didn't get into education to think about EBITDA, retention curves, or cost-per-headcount. And yet, at some point in every leader's career, the spreadsheet becomes just as important as the syllabus.

What this conversation is really about

This webinar brings together three leaders who've each learned the business side of school leadership from a different angle. Helen Olds, Director of the British International School, Jeddah, talks about transparency not as an all-or-nothing exposure of the numbers, but as a discipline of showing your team the reasoning behind a decision, even when you can't share every line item. Mark Whitfield, GCC CEO of Outcomes First Group, makes the case for simple, unshakeable financial principles that flex by market — built from a career that's taken him from a UK classroom to running schools across the UAE, Europe and Ethiopia, each with a completely different tax burden and budget reality. And PJ Roberts, Managing Director of Operations at the Australian International School, Singapore, brings the sharpest lens on value: why the same resource can be a "so what?" in one school and a genuine "wow" in another, and what that means for how leaders decide where to invest.

Moderated by Dr. Helen Wright, the conversation doesn't shy away from the tension at the heart of school leadership: the pull between educational purpose and business reality. Rather than treating that tension as a problem to solve, the panel reframes it as something more useful — a creative, necessary balance that, handled well, is what actually protects the classroom from short-term thinking. From there, the discussion moves into the language leaders are expected to speak fluently but rarely get trained in: budgeting frameworks, the three data points that matter most, and how transparency with staff builds trust even when you can't share every number.

Inside the full recording, session goes deep into territory that's genuinely useful for anyone stepping into — or already carrying — senior leadership responsibility. Mark walks through how he builds simple, transparent financial frameworks that flex across tax jurisdictions and fee points, without ever losing sight of the classroom. Helen Olds shares the "cake" analogy she uses with her leadership team to make budget trade-offs visible and fair, plus her approach to zero-based departmental budgeting. And PJ unpacks the concept of stakeholder satisfaction — must-haves, wants and wows — and why the same iPad means something completely different in a premium Dubai school than it does in a lower-fee school elsewhere. There's also a candid exchange on the three business metrics each leader actually watches to know whether a school is thriving.

And if you'd rather start with the headlines, the accompanying takeaways resource distills the panel's key frameworks and quotes into a quick-reference format — from the "learning versus the factors that affect learning" principle to the data points worth tracking first.

Both the full recording and the key takeaways resource are available below — just pop in your details to access them.

Business Skills for Leaders is part of the Outstanding Schools webinar series. Featuring Helen Olds (British International School, Jeddah), Mark Whitfield (Outcomes First Group) and PJ Roberts (Australian International School, Singapore), hosted by Dr Helen Wright.