Building resilience is how we move forward

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Three pillars to help institutions adapt, perform, and grow

Higher education challenges, including demographic shifts, federal funding volatility, AI’s rapid advancement, and shrinking talent pools, are not temporary. They are part of the environment in which colleges and universities compete, grow, and fulfill their missions. To thrive today and tomorrow, institutions will need to build the capability to sustain momentum even through disruption.

In brief

Resilient institutions advance their missions by developing a clear, adaptable strategy and relentless focus on driving financial and operational excellence, capitalizing on enabling technologies, and executing a workforce strategy that is responsive to the future of work.
Sustaining progress in a rapidly changing environment requires the ability to lead effectively, make timely decisions, and navigate risk, compliance, and change.
Together, these capabilities help institutions remain focused on their priorities while adapting to evolving conditions.

Strategy as the foundation

Colleges and universities face a convergence of pressures, and the current outlook makes clear these challenges are structural rather than episodic. Building resilience requires planning for uncertainty, not waiting for stability. Otherwise, institutions risk building strategies that are overtaken by events.

An institution's strategy is foundational, but that doesn't mean it should be static. It should provide a strong, adaptable framework that is regularly revisited and refined to respond to changes in policy, competition, the economy, technology, and other external factors.

When it isn’t, institutions tend to respond to symptoms rather than underlying issues. They invest in narrow solutions to immediate problems while the real need goes unaddressed, and resources become fragmented. The cost of that pattern is visible across higher education, where even well-resourced institutions have been forced to adapt their operating models under pressure rather than by design.

A strong strategy creates alignment around the choices that matter most, helping institutions navigate uncertainty, strengthen long-term health, and advance their missions with purpose.

Mission is the North Star

What institutions need to do is to recommit to their mission and find ways to extend that mission into the current environment, whatever the challenges may be. It's not about a leopard changing its spots.”

Peter Stokes

Managing director

At the center of it all are institutional missions. “One of the mistakes colleges and universities can make when they think about resilience is that their mission needs to adapt,” says Peter Stokes, managing director and former vice president at Northeastern University.

“In reality, what institutions need to do is to recommit to their mission and find ways to extend that mission into the current environment, whatever the challenges may be. It's not about a leopard changing its spots; it's about remaining true to your founding principles and values while modernizing them and being responsive to the needs of the market you serve,” he adds.

Strategy determines how missions are delivered. Yet, strategy is often treated as a compliance exercise completed every five or 10 years and revisited only when circumstances demand it, such as when a new president or chancellor steps into the role. Resilient institutions take a different approach. They treat strategy as an ongoing discipline that guides decision making, resource allocation, and institutional priorities every day.

Strategic leaders continuously refine how they deliver on missions as conditions evolve. They prepare for multiple futures rather than betting on a single outcome. They measure outcomes, adjust course when needed, and ensure that people across the institution understand how their work contributes to broader goals.

As Samantha Fisher, managing director, says, “When every member of the community can describe the strategy in broad strokes and see their contribution to it, strategy becomes an operating principle rather than a leadership document.”

Don't skip the basics: Hidden barriers to resilience

Institutions focused on building resilience often look outward, reaching for a bold new strategy, diversifying capabilities, or pursuing transformative initiatives. That instinct is understandable, but resilience often breaks down because institutions overlook the fundamentals.

Before chasing the next big idea, the productive move is an honest assessment of the basics. Questions worth asking include:

Is your cabinet structured to make nimble, accountable decisions?
Is your budget planning process informed, documented, and collaborative?
Is your budget model designed to support your strategic priorities?
Is your strategic plan realistic and actionable, not just aspirational?
Do your academic processes support agility in your academic portfolio to respond to evolving student demands and workforce needs?
Does your data infrastructure support accessible, accurate reporting and decision making?

These are not the questions that make headlines, but they are the ones that drive everything else. Institutions that skip this work may see early gains, only to watch them erode. At risk is the need to repeat the effort years later with fewer resources, narrower options, and a community that has lost confidence in leadership's ability to follow through.

Three pillars that make resilience possible

Institutions do not become resilient through a single initiative or strategic decision. Rather, resilience emerges when adaptive governance and operating models, continuous improvement, and digital and emerging technologies work together to strengthen performance and adaptability.

While every institution's path looks different, organizations that successfully navigate disruption consistently develop capabilities across these pillars, viewing the process through a systems lens.

Approaching these areas as separate initiatives, rather than interconnected pillars, limits their overall impact. Technology provides a common example. Many organizations focus on applying new tools, including AI, to existing processes rather than rethinking how work is performed.

Similarly, other institutions make budget decisions without planning how short-term gains may affect long-term outcomes, how they are made and communicated, and how work gets done, without considering the workforce that leads and performs it.

Adaptive governance turns decisions into action

Resilient institutions create governance structures that enable timely, informed, and mission-aligned decision making. This remains a challenge across higher education, where decentralized cultures and consensus-driven traditions can slow institutional response.

Lee Smith, managing director and former associate vice president at the University of Louisville, with former director positions at the University of Alabama at Birmingham and Emory University, says, “Leaders cannot overlook governance structures and processes. There are a couple of pieces to this. One is articulating who will drive decisions on campus. The other is developing structures and processes to make those decisions. It’s important to think about it in an end-to-end way.”

Adaptive governance preserves collaborative decision making while clarifying lines of authority. The opportunity is not to reduce the number of people participating in the process, but to create greater clarity for how decisions are made and how priorities are advanced. The critical distinction is not who contributes information and perspective to a decision, but who ultimately makes it, and when.

Institutions often find themselves revisiting the same issues through multiple committees, stakeholders, and review processes before decisions are made. While broad input is important, lengthy processes can make it difficult to respond to emerging opportunities and challenges. Clear role definition helps institutions move faster, execute more effectively, and avoid confusion when circumstances change.

The most effective organizations begin by building alignment around the case for action:

Why do we need to change?
What changed that made this a priority now?
If this were solved, what would be meaningfully different a year from now?
What has prevented this from being solved so far?
How will we know this worked?

Once leaders are aligned on those questions, they can establish clear decision pathways, define accountability, and bring the right perspectives into the process, at the right time. Institutions that make progress in this area focus less on centralization and more on decision effectiveness.

People make resilience real

Resilience depends on people who are informed, trusted, and equipped to act. Clear communication about long-term vision and changes to the operating model that support new ways of working ensures everyone is moving in the same direction. The key is to translate the intangibility of institutional resilience as a concept into a rallying cry for key stakeholders, including boards, faculty, and staff.

As Susan Basso, managing director who has served in senior HR leadership roles at institutions such as The Ohio State University and Penn State University, says, “Employees need clear guidance and support systems that can help them process and be successful in the face of change. Collaboration and relationship-building help foster resilience, so it’s incredibly important to listen and create an environment where faculty and staff perspectives are not just valued and accepted but expected.”

Continuous improvement as a balancing act

Building resilience requires investment. It takes time, resources, and sustained commitment. Determining where those investments come from can be difficult.

Across-the-board cuts often create the illusion of progress while weakening long-term performance. They may generate immediate savings, but they can also erode the programs, services, and infrastructure that support enrollment growth, student success, research activity, and institutional differentiation.

A more effective approach is continuous improvement, a disciplined process of aligning resources, investments, and operations with institutional priorities over time.

Leading institutions do not treat financial management as a response to budget shortfalls. They regularly evaluate where resources are deployed, identify opportunities to improve efficiency, and make deliberate decisions about where to invest for future growth.

“If you have to make cuts, be careful not to cut in the areas you need to sustain,” says Jennifer Ramey, managing director. “For example, if retention is important to you, and you cut the services that support it, you run the risk of undermining retention, enrollment, and revenue in the long run.”

Continuous improvement requires leaders to understand institutional interdependencies and to evaluate decisions through both financial and strategic lenses. By balancing immediate pressures with long-term priorities, colleges and universities can make difficult trade-offs with confidence, protect mission-critical capabilities, and strengthen their ability to thrive amid ongoing change.

A technology backbone built to scale

Technology is the infrastructure that connects institutional strategy to execution.

When designed intentionally, it enables information, insights, and capabilities to flow across the institution. It supports today’s priorities while creating the flexibility needed to respond to future opportunities and challenges. When treated iteratively, legacy systems can be expensive to maintain and difficult to exit.

With new technologies and tools launching each day, and AI promising transformative gains in efficiency and effectiveness, important questions are being raised about governance, operations, and workforce readiness.

The institutions making the greatest progress approach technology as an institution-wide imperative rather than a collection of independent projects. They recognize that successful implementation depends on data quality, governance, business process design, organizational roles, and change management.

“The institutions that are going to be successful at developing a more integrated [digital] ecosystem are those that are more purposeful,” says Matt Jones, managing director. “Not only are they going to think about the HR or finance system challenges that are in front of them, but they’re also going to think about how the finance system connects to the research administration and student information systems.”

The goal is to have a digital backbone that evolves as institutional needs change, one that supports the adoption of emerging capabilities, enables the retirement of legacy systems, and delivers reliable data for informed decision making.

Strengthening institutional muscle

The institutions intentionally building resilience are sharpening strategy, strengthening governance, investing in financial sustainability, modernizing technology, and supporting their people.

They recognize that resilience isn't a destination or a one-time initiative — it's an ongoing practice. As Managing Director Rick Rohrbach describes it, "resilience is a muscle that must be strengthened over time."

Institutions that invest now in adaptive governance and operating models, continuous improvement, and digital and emerging technology will position themselves to navigate uncertainty, pursue opportunities, and deliver on their missions no matter what comes next.

Start your resilience journey

Visit our Building Resilience hub to explore the full range of strategies helping institutions overcome today's higher ed challenges and stay ahead of what comes next.

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Connect with our experts

Lee M. Smith

Managing Director

Lee is a higher education consulting leader and former administrator who helps colleges and universities develop strategies to transform their operational and financial performance.

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Samantha Fisher

Managing Director

Samantha helps education organizations design and execute strategies that improve student outcomes, strengthen operations, and support sustainable growth across complex and evolving environments.

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Matt Jones

Managing Director

Strategy and Operations

Matt is a technology leader with over 25 years of consulting experience working with education, nonprofit and public sector entities to develop IT strategies that position their organizations for the future.

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Peter Stokes

Managing Director

Peter is a higher education expert with more than 20 years of industry experience as a consultant, researcher, university administrator and teacher.

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Rick Rohrbach

Managing Director

Rick has more than 25 years of experience helping institutions across higher education and healthcare improve their research program administration, compliance and financial performance.

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Susan Basso

Managing Director

For more than 30 years, Susan has brought innovative and transformational human resources leadership to higher education institutions — in areas ranging from strategy, organizational design and process improvement to compensation models and technology implementation.

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Jennifer Ramey

Managing Director

Jennifer has more than 20 years of experience helping higher education organizations improve strategy and operations to enhance performance and maximize the effective use of funds and campus resources.

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