Leading Existential Change in Higher Ed Episode 4 of 7

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SPH Consulting: Mergers and Acquisitions in Higher Education

Gary Stocker, Ricardo Azziz

9 episodes

1 month ago

Higher education is in the midst of great change and transformation, and SPH Consulting Group is here to guide you. Not unexpectedly, major future-oriented institutional restructuring, including mergers, acquisitions, consolidations, corporate conversions, and closures, are increasingly common. An environment that is characterized not only by significant challenges, but also by even greater opportunities. Important and complex institutional transformations that require careful consideration of many potential partner opportunities, a defined pace and process, and expert support. SPH Consulting Group is ready to serve as the partner of choice, advising, guiding, and assisting college and university governing boards and executives as they consider major future-oriented institutional restructuring strategies. SPH Consulting Group is a team of experienced higher education experts who have actively and directly managed to success the many major restructuring events institutions of higher education face and consider in today’s climate. We provide a variety of services that will help ensure full and complete consideration of the strategic options for major institutional transformation available to higher education leaders and, when it is the right decision, the successful execution and implementation of the chosen strategy.

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Management

Education,

Business

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Leading Existential Change in Higher Ed Episode 4 of 7

SPH Consulting: Mergers and Acquisitions in Higher Education

25 minutes

1 month ago

Leading Existential Change in Higher Ed Episode 4 of 7

This episode reviews two more competencies from the 2025 book: "Leading Existential Change in Higher Ed: Mergers, Closures, and other Major Institutional Restructuring"
Authors: Ricardo Azziz, Lloyd A. Jacobs, Bonita C. Jacobs, and Richard Katzman.

Podcast 4 Chapter(s): 8, 9

Competency 5: Building change-oriented teams

Competency 6: Leading from the front and engaging directly

Below are the questions Dr. Azziz addresses during this episode.

Competency 5: Building change-oriented teams

1. Case: CU Denver and /Anschutz Health Sciences merged and then kind of unmerged as the Board of Regents ended up naming separate chancellors for both campuses. Is that an indication of how challenging public college mergers can be?

2. Building a team. You have been in the role as president of a college merger. You note in the book that this BSC is primarily the leader’s idea. Step us through how that played out in the Georgia merger you led. Talk about how you put together your team as you merged two colleges in Georgia. What did you learn? What were the biggest challenges?

3. P. 143: “We emphasize throughout this book that the legitimate use of power and authority will be necessary for a BSC leader and a BSC project to be successful. Loyalty is the inverse of authority, at least regarding the management of a team. You go on to say that a BSC leader must prioritize loyalty in the BSc team members above the assignment of authority usually seen in higher education.” Expand on that, please.

4. You also noyr in that same area that BSC members must genuinely believe in the proposed initiative. How do you see that playing out in most Mergers? What about leveraging interim leaders?

Competency 6: Leading from the front and engaging directly

5. P. 153 The case study for this competency is Newbury College (MA). President Josephy Chillo.

6. You talk about leading from above. From behind and from the side. That is in contrast to leading from the front. Step us through the difference and the opportunities or challenges of each approach.

7. Let’s focus on leading from the front. You list the pros and cons on page 161. Talk about those.