Our Services & Representative Experience
We work across the full spectrum of strategic challenges facing higher education institutions, including academic health sciences centers. Our consulting engagements are designed to bring clarity to complex decisions and build consensus around a shared strategic direction.
University Strategy & Strategic Planning
University leaders navigate complex tradeoffs across academic mission, financial sustainability, enrollment, and governance. We help presidents, provosts, and trustees develop integrated strategic plans that align resources, prioritize investments, and guide institutional decisions.
Our strategic planning engagements draw on deep institutional diagnostics, financial modeling, competitive benchmarking, and inclusive stakeholder engagement to build genuine leadership consensus around priorities and strategic direction.
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Representative Engagements:
University-Wide Strategic Planning
A university president developed an ambitious set of academic priorities spanning all schools and missions. Working with the CFO and Provost, we developed an integrated resource plan to fund these priorities, including detailed financial modeling for a major science initiative requiring over $2 billion in incremental resources. Our comprehensive review of university resources informed both capital campaign target-setting and ongoing efficiency improvements in administrative functions.
School of Public Health Strategic Priorities and Resource Plan
We supported a new dean in comprehensively evaluating programmatic priorities and available resources. Through a series of workshops informed by deep benchmarking of peer schools across all mission areas and financial forecasting at the department and school level, the leadership team reached consensus on shared goals and a new organizational structure. The school is now following a phased roadmap to build cohesion across departments while improving resource allocation and cost efficiency.
Engineering School Strategic Assessment
A school of engineering engaged us to support a comprehensive self-assessment of recent progress and identify structural, operational, and programmatic priorities. We worked with the Dean and school leadership to analyze internal and peer benchmarking data and develop specific actions to improve governance structures, budget models, and organizational clarity.
Leadership & Organizational Design
University leadership teams often struggle with unclear decision rights, siloed accountability, and organizational structures inherited from prior eras. We help provosts and presidents redesign how their leadership teams work: evaluating current structures and accountabilities, identifying gaps and overlaps, and resetting roles and decision rights to fit today's priorities.
These engagements draw on structured interviews across leadership teams, benchmarking against peer institution models, and collaborative design of new organizational frameworks.
Representative Engagements:
Office of the Provost Organizational Review
At a time of transition in long-standing institutional leadership, we conducted an organizational review for the Provost. Our team interviewed over 30 institutional leaders to map current accountabilities and identify gaps and overlaps. We also benchmarked against ten peer land grant provost offices. The project resulted in a redesigned provost office structure with improved connections to enrollment management and research leadership.
Executive Leadership Organizational Review
During a period of senior leadership transition, we conducted a comprehensive organizational review of a large research university's executive structure. What began as an assessment centered on the CFO role expanded to include the full executive leadership team. Through confidential interviews and peer benchmarking, the project produced an implementable organizational design that clarified accountabilities, strengthened coordination, and aligned leadership roles with evolving institutional priorities and operating realities.
New Schools & Major Academic Initiatives
Launching a new school, unit, or major cross-cutting initiative requires navigating complex questions of strategic rationale, financial feasibility, governance, and implementation sequencing. We guide university leaders through the full decision-to-action lifecycle: evaluating whether and how to proceed, developing detailed plans, and supporting execution during the startup phase.
Representative Engagements:
Planning for New Interdisciplinary Institute
We partnered with a major research university to develop a strategic plan for a newly launched, highly interdisciplinary, university-wide institute. Through stakeholder interviews, peer case studies, and a series of facilitated leadership workshops, we helped articulate a compelling vision, evaluate and prioritize initiatives, and define a practical roadmap linking ambition to execution. The resulting plan aligned academic, operational, and financial considerations while building shared ownership among internal and external stakeholders.
School Budget Model Design
When a school of public health became independent from its associated school of medicine, we guided the Dean and leadership team through designing a new standalone budget model. This included financial diagnosis, scenario modeling under different model structures, and specification of model elements aligned with the school's emerging strategic priorities—maintaining incentives for collaboration and joint responsibility across departments.