ACRL News Issue (B) of College & Research Libraries 288 / C& RL News Strategic p lan n in g in higher education B y B a r b a r a B. M oran Assistant Professor, School o f Library Science University o f North Carolina at Chapel Hill Stratagems for survival in the 80’s. S tr a t e g ic planning, a m anagem ent innovation at first used prim arily in business and industry, has slowly but steadily been transform ing the way col­ leges and universities cope w ith an uncertain fu­ ture. Since the late 1970s, the practice of strategic planning has become fairly widespread in Ameri­ can institutions of higher education. This article will explain how strategic planning differs from conventional planning, how it is used in colleges and universities, and how it can be used to advan­ tage by academic libraries. Background Although colleges and universities have paid lip service to the im portance of planning for m any years, little effective planning actually w ent on. Many adm inistrators thought th a t planning for the future was a waste of time. Patterns and practices were established to take care of the day-to-day op­ erations of the institution, and most long-range changes were m ade in reaction to events rather than in anticipation of changing circumstances. Some colleges and universities did attem pt to do some long-range planning th a t often resulted in a so-called “m aster plan ” for an institution or an en­ tire system of higher education. U nfortunately changing circumstances usually m ade the detailed forecasts in these documents obsolete very quickly, and most master plans were left to gather dust on an adm inistrator’s bookshelf. This lack of planning produced no serious reac­ tion as long as resources for higher education were plentiful and student enrollm ent increased each year. D uring the 30 years following W orld W ar II, there w ere both enough resources and students available to keep academ ia prosperous. However, during the 1970s circumstances be­ came less auspicious. Federal funding designated for higher education was cut back. Inflation had a devastating im pact on the already tightened budg­ ets of colleges and universities. Changes in dem o­ graphic patterns resulted in a shrinking num ber of 18-22 year olds, and com petition w ithin higher ed­ ucation for funds and students intensified. It soon becam e apparent th a t m any colleges and universi­ ies were not going to survive in this straitened fi­ nancial climate unless they set priorities and devel­ ped strategies for reacting to this changing and ompetitive environm ent. The strategic planning process can help an insti­ ution cope w ith an uncertain future environm ent. ts dual purpose is to relate an institution to its envi­ onm ent and to provide unity and direction to all ts activities.1 The central focus of strategic plan­ ing is to develop a good m atch between institu­ ional activities and environm ental demands. Strategic planning requires th a t an institution ecome active rather th an passive. As George Kel­ er describes it: To think strategically is to look intensely at con­ em porary history and your institution’s place in it nd work out a planning process th a t actively con­ ronts the historical movement, overcomes it, gets n top of it, or seizes the opportunities latent in it. A am pus w ith an academ ic strategy has a b attle R o b e rt C. Shirley, “Identifying the Levels of Strategy for a College or University,” Long Range Planning 16 (June 1983): 93. t o c t I r i n t b l “ t a f o c June 1985 / 289 plan to get stronger or better in the teeth of histori­ cal conditions. It reads the face of history—or, to change disciplines the ecological environm ent— skillfully and then devises a scheme to survive in it and transcend it. W ith an academic strategy a col­ lege or university leaves the passive m endicant or­ der and becomes an active knight-errant.”2 Strategic planners must decide w here they w ant their institution to be in a given num ber of years, and then choose the strategies necessary to allow them to reach this goal. As a p a rt of this process, resources are deliberately concentrated in highly goal-oriented programs. Steps in planning How does a college or university begin to plan strategically? According to Kotier and M urphy, strategic planning typically involves six stages. The first step is to analyze the environment. In ­ stitutional strategies must be modified as the envi­ ronm ent changes. The major questions to be asked in this step are: W hat are the m ajor trends in the environm ent? W hat are the implications of these trends for the institution? W hat are the most signif­ icant opportunities and threats? The aim of this analysis is to docum ent the most significant trends around which the organization must form ulate its future goals, strategies, and structures. Careful a t­ te n tio n should be p a id to both en v iro n m en tal threats and opportunities. Threats are those factors th a t can lead to the stagnation, decline, or death of an institution or one of its programs unless correc­ tive action is taken (such as the declining pool of available students). O pportunities are areas in which a particular organization is likely to enjoy competitive advantages. The next step is to conduct a resource analysis. Here an institution should identify its distinctive competencies—those areas w here the organization is especially strong—as well as the resources th a t it lacks. In evaluating its strengths and weaknesses an institution should go beyond its own perceptions and learn how the institution is perceived by its key publics—faculty, students, parents, alum ni, con­ tracting organizations, and others. Step three is to examine basic institutional objec­ tives and goals. Because of the analyses perform ed in the last two steps, it may be necessary to reform ­ ulate existing goals and objectives. An institution should specify both w hat its current goals are and w hat its goals should be, so th a t it will have a clear picture of w hat it wants to be like at the end of the planning period. Next, the college or university must determ ine strategies to help it achieve its goals. This involves two tasks. The first is to develop an academic p o rt­ folio, strategy. This portfolio provides a systematic approach to exam ining academ ic program s by 2George Keller, Academic Strategy: The M an agem ent Revolution in Higher Education (Balti more: Johns Hopkins, 1983), pp. 143-144. ­ ­ looking at both quality and the centrality of the program to the institution. The second is to evalu­ ate the m arket viability or dem and for each pro­ gram. On the basis of these evaluations, decisions can be m ade to reduce or elim inate programs and develop others. Fifth, an institution should develop a product/ m arketing opportunity strategy by deciding w hat new program s it should add and into w hat markets it should expand in order to m aintain or increase future enrollment. This allows the adm inistration to imagine new options in a systematic way, to make decisions about which should be adopted, and to develop a m arketing strategy for any new options th a t m ight be developed. The last step is to design or im prove the systems the institution will need to develop and carry out the strategies chosen to help it achieve its goals.3 The major purpose of all these steps is to allow an institution to attain or m aintain a strategic advan­ tage over its competitors by first selecting the ap­ p ro p riate areas to em phasize, determ ining the shrewdest courses of action, and then making the changes necessary to reach its goals. How it’s different The differences between strategic planning and conventional planning are immediately apparent. First, strategic planning focuses on the institution’s environm ent more than traditional planning. T ra ­ ditional planners usually view an institution as a closed system while strategic planners adopt an “open-system” model, recognizing th a t m any key elements th a t determ ine the long-range destiny of an organization occur in the outside environment. Second, the tim e orientation in strategic plan­ ning is short-range and m edium -range. Unlike conventional long-range planners who plan for the distant fu tu re, strategic planners feel th a t long range plans will almost always fail because envi­ ronm ental conditions change rapidly and plans be­ come obsolete. Strategic planners concentrate on short-range and m edium -range issues and usually work w ithin a tim e–fram e of three to five years. Unlike typical long-range plans, strategic plans are never “w ritten on stone” but are continuously up­ dated as the need arises. A third difference is th a t strategic planning is un ­ dertaken w ith the awareness th a t there are com­ petitors in the field, and th a t individual institutions will need to plan in order to be in the most advanta­ geous position. There has always been competition in higher education, but for many years this com­ petition was masked because of the increasing stu­ dent enrollm ent. The com petition is out in the open now, and institutions must be aw are of the competitive nature of the field in order to survive. A fourth difference is th a t strategic planning is 3Philip Kotier & Patrick E. M urphy, “Strategic Planning for Higher E ducation,” Journal o f Higher Education 52 (Sept–Oct. 1981): 473-487. 290 / C &R L News prim arily the task of top m anagers rath er th a n in­ dividuals in a planning office or on a com m ittee. Only top level m anagers have the pow er required to make the necessary decisions and then im ple­ m ent them . Of course, in colleges or universities, the opinions and advice of all constituencies should be solicited before the plans are m ade. Nevertheless the planning itself is done by senior adm inistrators and is a “top-dow n” rath er th an “b o ttom -up” pro ­ cess of planning. Finally, instead of focusing on the nuts and bolts of everday operational issues, strategic planning deals w ith the larger issues, concentrating on the institution’s purpose and missions, its relationship to its environm ent, and its share of the m arket. The emphasis in strategic planning is always on the “big p ic tu re.”4 L ib rary applications Colleges and universities w hich are using strate­ gic planning methods have found them useful for developing systematic and m arket-oriented plans to meet an uncertain future. Institutions th a t are actively planning for the future are faring better th a n those w hich are passively aw aiting a future th a t m ay never arrive for them . If strategic p la n ­ ning is w orking well in colleges and universities, could th e libraries in these institutions also benefit from strategic planning? To d a te little in fo rm atio n has been available about the use of strategic planning in academ ic li­ braries. However, a recent Association of Research Libraries SPEC K it on strategic planning reported th a t a survey of 30 ARL m em bers’ planning efforts revealed the existence of some library plans w ith strategic features: “ M ost d o c u m e n ts a re d e s c rip tiv e of li b r a r y strengths and weaknesses.… They address ques­ tions of w h at the library does especially well, w h at the library does th a t no other departm ent can do, and w hich user groups represent prim ary client groups. Second, these plans contain considerable speculation about the future prospects of research libraries. W hile these speculations tend to be more general th a n a form al scenario, they do attem p t to anticipate tre n d s…and look at the broader context in w hich libraries perform , including economic de­ velopm ent, university prospects, and political con­ straints. T hird, the plans identify specific priorities and define the costs of desired courses of action. F i­ nally the docum ents…suggest an activist posture on the p a rt of library leadership in shaping the views and actions of the university com m unity.”5 How can academ ic library adm inistrators bene­ fit by adopting strategic planning methods? Sev­ 4J. Victor Raldridge & Patricia H. Okimi, “Stra­ tegic P lanning in Higher Education: New Tool or New G im m ic k ? ” A A H E B u lle tin 35 (O c to b e r 1982): 17-18. 5Association of Research L ibraries, Strategic Planning in A R L Libraries, Spec Flyer 108 (W ash­ ington D .C .: ARL, O ctober, 1984), pp. i–ii. eral elements in the strategic planning process are especially relevant to libraries. For instance, the emphasis on identifying program s w ith special ad ­ vantages or opportunities and concentrating re­ sources in these program s could benefit m any li­ b ra rie s . Too m a n y lib ra rie s h a v e b e g u n new program s w ithout ending old ones and their re­ sources have been spread too thinly. As a result, none of the program s are really effective. Strategic planning w ould force a library to identify those a r­ eas in w hich it has a com petitive advantage and let it concentrate its resources there. The strategic planning emphasis on studying the external environm ent and attem pting to identify com petitors w ould also benefit most libraries. Li­ brarians m ust m onitor environm ental change and become m ore proactive and entrepreneurial if the library is to be funded at a rate sufficient to allow it to introduce program s m ade necessary by the elec­ tronic revolution. M any w riters have com m ented th a t the com puter center is likely to be the lib rary ’s most form idable com petitor for funds in the near future, b u t how m any libraries are now planning to meet this com petition? In an era w hen fundam ental changes are occur­ ring in academ ic libraries, the strategic planning focus on such larger issues as institutional mission and goals w ould be especially helpful to library a d ­ m inistrators. L ibrarians m ust move quickly and decisively to take advantage of the opportunities presented, and strategic planning provides a means to develop a b etter sense of direction for the li­ b rary ’s future. Questions such as “W h at business is the library in?” , “W h at business do we w an t it to be in?” , and “How can we get there from here?” could all be addressed m ore successfully by strategic planning th a n by any other type of planning. As academ ic librarians try to stay abreast of the fast changes occurring both in the library itself and in its external environm ent, they will find they can no longer afford to ignore the advantages th a t stra­ tegic planning can provide in establishing a direc­ tion for the library’s future. As Davis wrote: “In the placid w orld of traditional librarianship, strategic planning was an unnecessary and indeed alien idea connoting conniving at its w orst ex­ trem e. The library was m eant to be carried w h er­ ever the satisfaction of the user needs took it. In the tu rb u len t, resource-scarce environm ent of contem ­ porary librarianship, strategic planning becomes indispensable.”6 As academ ic libraries become aw are of the bene­ fits of strategic planning, they, like their p arent in ­ stitutions, will begin to utilize this m ethod of p la n ­ ning to position themselves m ore advantageously to meet the future in a changing and unstable envi­ ronm ent. ■ ■ 6Peter Davis, “Libraries at the T urning Point: Is­ sues in Proactive Planning, ” Journal o f Library A d ­ ministration 1 (Summer 1980): 15.