Tag Archives: higher education

Competitive Advantage Comes From Internal Capabilities

In a nutshell, over my past 10 posts, I have advocated that most private colleges and universities should pursue a focused differentiation strategy based on a unique mission and vision that solves a significant problem for its target customers. My … Continue reading

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Why Do Kids Go to College?

In graduate school, I had a particularly curmudgeonly professor who claimed that college was simply post-adolescent day care, and that parents paid tuition and other fees just to get their kids out of their hair for four years until they … Continue reading

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The Rankings Game

A few months back, I was meeting with one of our alums, and he asked me how I would categorize universities in terms of quality. I was taken by surprise, so I had to think for a minute, and then … Continue reading

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The Limitations of the “Comprehensive” University

There is a prevalent sense among academics that a university is meant to be “comprehensive” i.e. provide a full range of programs and degrees at the undergraduate and graduate level. In fact, the dictionary definition of a university is a … Continue reading

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Why Should I Go To Your School Instead of a Cheaper One?

The first half of most Strategic Management textbooks are often filled with the various models of Michael Porter. Around Chapter 4, the Strategic Positioning model is usually introduced: Like many of Porter’s models, Strategic Positioning is easy to grasp, but … Continue reading

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Can Private Universities Compete on Price?

When I began teaching Strategic Management in 2003, Southwest Airlines was just entering the Philadelphia market. This proved to be very disruptive for the dominant incumbent, US Air. Whenever Southwest enters a market, the first impact is that overall fares … Continue reading

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Good Intentions, Bad Outcomes

There is an acronym that every undergraduate business student knows (or should know). That acronym is SMART, and it is used to determine whether a goal or objective is effective. There is some variation of wording, but the acronym stands … Continue reading

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The Cost of Textbooks

I found an industry besides healthcare whose prices are rising as fast as college tuition! Not coincidentally, it is the textbook industry. According to the GAO, textbook prices are increasing at twice the rate of inflation, lagging tuition by only … Continue reading

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The Cost of Higher Education

I always enjoy @fredwilson’s blog (A VC), so I was intrigued yesterday when he deviated from his usual topics of technology startups and the venture capital industry to comment on the costs of higher education. He made some good points … Continue reading

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Welcome to my New Site

This is the continuation of a blog I started a few years ago on Blogger, then migrated last year to my own site. I’ve been pretty haphazard about posting, and it hasn’t gained much traction. Hopefully, I’ll be more consistent … Continue reading

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