Reforming higher education from within: Lessons learned from other mature sectors of the economy

Transformative organizations are innovative, adaptable, contextually aware, and cross the divide between leaders and their employees to provide products and services at prices that appeal to their customers. Such enterprises continuously adapt, maintain competitive advantages, hire the right people, strategically prioritize goals, and effectively manage performance to achieve outcomes. Effective leadership is characterized by dedication to operational soundness, product innovation and reliability, embracing leading edge technologies to improve performance and service delivery, and after sale service quality to inspire customer confidence and loyalty. Community colleges, colleges and universities who apply these lessons will be better positioned to meet the expectations of their students and other stakeholders. Institutional business models must align with institutional priorities in delivery of the basic educational mission in higher education. The original research for this paper draws upon broad professional experiences in the private sector, a 29-year career as an executive in the banking industry, 4-years as system president of a large urban community college, and 10 years as Clinical Professor of Administrative and Policy Studies.