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The ideal process for strategy definition starts at the institutional level. After a broad-scale institutional strategy is defined, the schools define (or refine) their individual strategies, and then the programs follow suit. Different institutions might leave different facets of their strategies undefined (or with a default value defined), but coherence of strategies across units makes it easier for programs to get their messages to the market successfully (and with less expense).

Higher Education Strategy Series: This is the third entry of this series. This page describes the whole series and provides links to all of the articles.

A university can have a strategy, as can a school, a department, and a program. A school can set a strategy for its online programs. All of this is true, but the question remains: At what organizational level does creating a strategy have the most impact?

Higher Education Strategy Series: This is the second entry of this series. This page describes the whole series and provides links to all of the articles.

For some, a strategy is something that has been written — sometimes through a process that involves countless meetings and untold memos — and then put on a shelf to be forever ignored. Others have operated in an organization that, as far as is known, does not have a strategy. A lucky few of us have worked in an organization that has a clearly stated strategy. In this article I make the case for having a strategy and at what level of the organization it should be defined and be operational.

Higher Education Strategy Series: This is the first entry of this series. This page describes the whole series and provides links to all of the articles.

Extension Engine helps higher education, nonprofits, and learning businesses create online learning experiences. Over the last seven years, we have focused on creating remarkable custom learning experiences. These are designed intentionally, over time, with an eye to differentiation and competing successfully in the client's chosen marketplace. As our salesman, my job is to find an organizational fit between a prospect and Extension Engine.

The Executive Education business is facing a crisis and a long-term change in its environment. What is needed is a commitment to re-inventing Executive Education in an online world. Leaders need to define a vision for online that incorporates the learning experience, platforms, strategy & marketing, and success metrics.

Finally, and most importantly, they must make four decisions that will determine if, when, and how much Executive Education revenue will ever rebound. Leadership’s answers will determine a school’s fate in executive education.