WHY IS STRATEGIC TRACTION®
SO IMPORTANT RIGHT NOW?

New Demands: Institutions must deal with a marketplace characterized by more diverse,demanding, and sophisticated consumers (students, parents, government sponsors, benefactors); heightened competition; new approaches to teaching and learning; and evolving information technology.

Rapid Change: Faster cycles of change-in knowledge creation, student needs, education delivery, technology, and other areas-shorten timeframes for decision-making and decrease the planning horizon.

Financial Pressures: Increased capital intensity heightens the financial stakes. Resource-deployment and capital-allocation decisions must be viewed as investments in change, made with the expectation of healthy, measurable educational and economic returns.

Great Expectations: Competition for leadership talent has intensified, as have the demands on that talent. College and university presidents operate under increasing pressure and shrinking tenures. A president is expected to master market forces to the institution's advantage and register significant, visible accomplishments on his or her watch.

Greater Risks: The world in which colleges and universities operate is a risky place and gets riskier every day. Institutions need the capacity to take calculated risks. Decisions carry more financial materiality, margins for error are reduced, and mistakes are very expensive to overcome.

Obsolete Methods: Outdated mental models, operating practices, and organizational structures can artificially limit an institution's options. Because tradition is at the core of higher education, colleges and universities are often wedded to the past by principle or habit, rather than intent and purpose.

Leadership Dilution: The increasing shift in the president's role to focus more time and energy on an external agenda often creates a leadership gap, particularly in small to mid-size institutions. Institutions need to adequately expand the circle of leadership and management to create a cadre of officers and staff capable of carrying the strategic vision and managing to it.

Evolving Relationships: Use of partnerships, strategic alliances, mergers, and acquisitions has increased dramatically. New kinds of relationships can only become more important in the higher education landscape. Forging and managing relationships are part of the new work of the institutional officers (as is maximizing the value of intellectual property). A meld of jointly determined focus, direction, and alignment is essential if cultures are to come together, work together, and stay together.

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