Are you the boiling frog?

Photo by Ameen Fahmy on Unsplash

Jeff Selingo recently posted on LinkedIn about merger talks between the struggling Wheelock College and booming Boston University. The Boston Globe explained the move bluntly: Wheelock is facing “mounting financial pressure and plunging enrollment.”

How many schools--colleges and independent schools--have looked at their competitors and jumped into the same pot of warm water? "If we want families to enroll here and not there, then we need more [faculty, administrators, facilities, etc]."

To keep up with The Joneses, schools have increased tuition at a fairly steady rate for years (or decades). In doing so, they have turned up the heat on their pot of water.

When demographics were strong and diplomas promised a solid return on investment, then raising tuition wasn't a problem.

But demographics are shifting like sand in the desert. And diploma ROI is uncertain.

There is only one way out of the water that's starting to boil: innovation that adds authentic value.

Where does true innovation come from?

Our conviction is that there is an "order of operations." When carefully followed, this order of operations can lead to genuine innovation.

Mission > Vision > Culture

Is your school like the frog in that pot of water that is getting hotter and hotter? What is your plan to get out?

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