Disruptive Innovation Needed in Higher Education

What is disruptive innovation? It may be more elucidating to start by naming some of the disruptive innovators of our era. Apple's Steve Jobs, Amazon's Jeff Bezos, Ebay's Pierre Omidyar and Meg Whitman. Then there's Facebook's Mark Zuckerman, Skype's Nikklas Zenstrom and Paypal's Peter Thiel. These guys (used loosely) never believed for one second that there is nothing new under the sun.

Disruptive innovators are insanely creative. They are, by definition, rule-breakers, and so almost invariably end up as entrepreneurs. They have to set their own rules, or create a world in which there are no rules. Richard Branson and his rocket ships. Like that.

Whether or not they are in it primarily for financial success, they do operate in a for-profit sector where that insane creativity, outrageous resourcefulness, unspeakable risk-taking, and staggering self-confidence can command riveted audiences with venture capitalists. They make things happen. To use Steve Jobs' words, they "put a ding in the universe." I like it.

I, on the other hand, work in higher education, in the Academy, where tradition and conservative policy (sometimes legit and sometimes the fear wolf in sheep's clothing) are everyday realities. While I "get" the twenty million reasons put for forth for this way-of-being-in-the-world, "tradition" and conservatism of vision and action can create potentially great procedural and energetic roadblocks, not to mention budget-blamed ones. Paradigm shifts go somewhere else to be born. Sometimes even just simple change is impossible or so slow the pain of it will kill you. Or your spirit.

No wonder the disruptive innovators don't live in the Academy. They would go nuts.

So here's the thing. The world is moving a billion miles an hour. Fact. This habit of riding the Titanic of some academic traditions is sending many academics and institutions to the bottom of the wine-dark sea. Example: An esteemed professional colleague of mine, Adam Karwoski, is a social media consultant to institutions of higher education. He recently addressed forty administrators at a major state university, and upon ending his dynamic presentation, he was met with no questions. None. Zero. They were showered with data, shown competitors' social media sites, offered strategies for enhancing alumni and donor relations and generosity, and much more.

"Yeah, s'not in the budget."

$3500 to create a total social media campaign and provide a huge boost to recruitment efforts (read "ROI").

"Yeah, s'not in the budget."

Ok, then. Except as a president of a graduate institution, I know there is always room in the budget for great ideas and initiatives, just the way the totally booked Hyatt has no room for me and you, but miraculously finds a room for the president or the pope. They just do. And there is always money. Especially for initiatives that will add to a current income stream, and, for many institutions, create new ones.