Can ‘Business Redesign’ Work for the University?

Abstract

While fully acknowledging that a university cannot be simplistically treated as a business enterprise, Richard J. Mahoney, Chairman and Chief Executive of Monsanto, considers that many valuable lessons from corporate business can be transferred to the management and development of academic institutions. In this article he sets out his viewpoint in the context of parallels between the dilemma of US corporate business in the early 1980s and that of US universities in the 1990s. His argument is for the adoption by universities of ‘business redesign’ techniques, whereby an organization effectively ‘reinvents' itself through a fundamental reappraisal of its systems, practices and strategies. Along the way, he describes a nightmare and proposes a new Chair of the Department of Junkyard Dog.