Strategising in a university environment
August 7, 2008
I’ve become a regular reader of Ferdinand von Prondzynski’s blog. Ferdinand is the president of Dublin City University and his blog is a fascinating insight into the life, interest and times of a senior academic. DCU are about to launch a new strategy at the end of 2008 and I’m hoping that Ferdinand will blog the process. As someone with a vested interest in strategy and meaningful stakeholder consultation processes I think it would be fascinating to see a senior manager at this level talk about the reality of these processes from the inside. He describes the particular challenge of university strategies as
that they have to address the balance between the need for an overall organisational purpose and direction on the one hand, and the need to respect academic autonomy on the other. This is a very difficult balance to get right, but unless it is got right the whole planning concept cannot work.
I think that’s about right for any kind of creative working environment – add in the complexity of the public sector and you have a heady mix of competing stakeholder interests.
I do hope that Ferdiand takes the plunge and tells it like it is.
I shall explain what we are doing in the DCU strategy process from time to time – and thanks for the interest!
That’s great to hear Ferdinand – I’ll really look forward to following that on your blog.