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Plans are for business as usual ; strategies are for when that won ’ t do .
A tactical response
In dealing with the pandemic are we planning for the battle or the war ?
By Martin Betts
The pandemic has many characteristics of a global conflict .
War is often about turmoil and chaos and we have had much exposure to that in the last year . Wars often last a long time . Our need to deal with further pandemic waves , new strands and even new viruses is likely to be on the horizon for a while yet .
War experiences have been depicted as changing over time and our responses to them evolving through acceptance , adjustment and resettling into some old , or maybe more new patterns .
Good strategy is essential to victory in war , as is the ability to adapt to its challenges . So how important are both strategy and adaptation to the ability of higher education organisations to survive the current pandemic , and come out the other side stronger ?
Our recent HEDx podcast guest Theo Farrell , a Professor of War Studies and DVC Education at The University of Wollongong , argued that strategy is the most misunderstood and maybe overused of terms . He also argued that most people confuse strategy with plans . Plans identify and prioritise current objectives . Strategy is what you need when you face a crisis or major challenge , in focusing organisational attention and effort on the small number of things that will deliver long-term success .
Plans are for business as usual ; strategies are for when that won ’ t do .
On the podcast we ’ ve been exploring how universities need to change their strategic plans in light of the events of 2020 . Farrell is suggesting a whole different approach that recognises the need to put aside current plans , and focus on a strategy for major change to not only meet the current COVID crisis , but emerge stronger .
And I do not , as yet , see any Australian University using the current crisis to radically transform their business model and fully differentiate .
The battle seems to be for business continuity and the safeguarding of staff and student experience . There is some attempt at building momentum , but this all appears to be within our existing business models . Will we see real strategies , as Farrell defines them , being developed during the current crisis ? How radical will our leaders be ? How radical can they be , given their means of appointment , how they are measured , their governance and regulatory context , and the cultures they operate in and create .
If this were a war , it might take a while for the winning strategy to become clear . Will the current superpowers prevail , will local resistance forces prevail , will new powers rise through the turmoil ?
Tweaks of current plans might focus on immediate challenges . What we really need , however , is a strategy to reinvent our value proposition for a radically different future of lifelong learning , and a complete transformation in digital delivery for transformed student expectations .
I see a need for universities to assemble expertise in digital resources and learning design . They need to execute current plans as best they can , while also considering radical strategy . That is likely to require accessing external expertise , and not from just the normal large consultancies that have built service offerings out of solving yesterday ’ s problems .
It might mean a search , in new places , for leaders from within . Where previously vice-chancellors were mostly recruited with backgrounds as DVCs Research , perhaps the time has come for DVCs Education and Academic , with their experience of leading disruptive change , to fill the top job .
But beyond adapting , the sector clearly needs radical new thinking and out of the box ideas . Does it require questioning whether a new business model is needed to compete in the new markets that will be created , in the global arena , and by doing things very differently ?
What has happened in the past , in times of great wars and beyond ? We often celebrated the success and leadership of those who saw us through a crisis , but then looked to youth and new ideas for the transformed world that followed . In higher education , they might be from the rising cadre within our institutions , and might just as likely be from start-ups and new entrants to the sector .
When Winston Churchill declared this to not be the “ beginning of the end , but the end of the beginning ”, did he have any sense that , in triumphantly leading through a six-year war , he would end up being replaced by new radical leadership when the war was over ?
The lesson I see is that winning battles for business survival is one thing , and re-establishing business continuity , postpandemic , is another . But the real winners will be those that begin developing a strategy now for the period of regrowth , new starts and innovation when this really is all over . ■
Martin Betts is Emeritus Professor at Griffith University and founder of HEDx .
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