Page 125 - Crisis in Higher Education

5

A Customer-Focused, Resource

Management Perspective

When organizations face a broad set of problems related to product cost,
quality, and customer satisfaction, they have fundamental problems that
are most likely caused by errors in strategic planning. These firms have
misjudged customer expectations and have not put in place the appro-
priate resources nor allocated them properly. A successful organization,
whether it is a for-profit or not-for-profit, must do the following:

1. Identify its customers and markets, including a clear understanding
of its customers’ wants.
2. Design goods and services to meet those wants.
3. Determine which resources are needed, assemble them, and allocate
and manage them in order to design, produce, and deliver products
at prices that customers are willing to pay.

Through this process, organizations create value for customers by
producing a good or service with benefits that exceed its price.
In higher education, dissatisfaction is triggered by excessive student loan
debt, limited access, low graduation rates, long completion times, and poor
job placements (not in all fields of study but in some). Strategic planning
is difficult because universities face a trifurcated customer—students who
pay and learn, third parties who pay, and organizations that hire gradu-
ates. (Going forward, these organizations are called employers or poten-
tial employers.) As illustrated in Figure 5.1, customers’ expectations must
drive resource acquisition and management. As part of the process, uni-
versities must design products (curriculum) that meet customers’ needs.

97