Managing Strategy

Higher education institutions are under increasing pressure to produce corporate and strategic plans, both for external audiences (such as funding bodies and other 'partners') and for the internal purposes of setting and achieving goals. They are significantly dependent upon public investment and the expectations of public bodies as well as upon a fast-changing market for their products and services.

David Watson sets out what strategic management can and should consist of in a modern, essentially democratic, university or college, and how to make it work. He examines for instance:
* how universities and colleges should go about satisfying legitimate external and internal requirements for their corporate plans.
* how they should maximize their strategic assets and opportunities and minimize their weaknesses and threats.
* the role of governance and management in setting and achieving a strategic plan.

This book demonstrates how the academy has to adapt to meet the needs of its rapidly changing host society as well as of a more diverse and plural internal community, whilst maintaining a range of historical commitments. The result is an account of strategic management that is simultaneously careful of traditional values, restorative of those that have fallen into abeyance, and genuinely innovative.