Quick Summary:
The Final Word
“Delay occasionally makes sense. But it carries real costs.”
What an insanely simple, true and scary statement made way back toward the beginning of this issue by Pathify co-founder and CFO James McCubbin. I wouldn’t say the CRO (sales, marketing, customer success, loves to throw lavish parties as frequently as possible for Pathify customers) and CFO (spreadsheets, financial statements, risk management, hates looking at the receipts from the same lavish parties) always sing from the same sheet of music…but it turns out Jimmy and I couldn’t be more aligned on the chilling effect errors of omission currently deliver in higher ed.
Let’s play out a theoretical (and sadly common) scenario:
An IT leader at The University of Parthy hears frequently from students a major success blocker remains the impossible complexity of the frankensuite of systems needed to get through each day. This leader grabs a few others from IT, evaluates solutions, identifies one as the objective best, then builds a business case that persuasively outlines why U of P should purchase and implement. The leader engages relevant peers and departments, and people broadly agree this would be a major step forward…then one person says, “we’re all kind of hanging on for dear life right now — let’s punt on this till next Semester.” Next Semester becomes next fiscal year — and Parthy continues to disappoint and confuse students, further exacerbating enrollment issues.
Right now some of the most expensive decisions institutions make are the ones they refuse to make.
And guess what — don’t feel too bad if you’re looking back on this year and starting to worry about that thing you decided to wait on. It’s human nature. (Or nurture. Or both. Need to think about that).
Let’s continue the theoretical (and common) scenario:
“You know what, if we punt till next Semester we’ll be able to gather more information…be more certain,” says the VP of MarComs. “We’ve lived with things the way they are for a while now — what’s one more semester in the grand scheme of Parthy,” says the VP of Student Affairs. “Things may be clearer during our next planning cycle, and let’s see what happens with enrollment — maybe the budget will be less uncertain,” says the VP of Finance.
This discourse seems perfectly reasonable in the moment because it feels non-binding. When you leave the door open to change in the future, it feels like you’re just a small step away from making the right decision that brings real improvement. You feel pretty good while avoiding the fear attached to buying.
Making the decision to move forward? That doesn’t just feel binding…it often truly feels as if you’re handcuffing yourself to all the bad things that could happen if even the smallest thing goes wrong. This, despite the fact a broad consensus of very smart and talented people seriously evaluated and identified an objectively better path forward based on a financially rooted business case.
And The University of Parthy continues to pay the price of the problem they set out to solve — indefinitely.
As someone who’s been selling his entire professional life, I’m no stranger to helping buyers wade the tempestuous waters of indecision. What’s making life increasingly challenging for buyers and sellers today though appears to impact higher ed more than any other industry. Budget constraints will always exist — but not like we’re seeing today as institutions grapple with significant enrollment and image issues.
Traditional recruiting pools continue to shrink, lost revenue from decreased international enrollment creates significant shortfalls, while material tuition increases conflict with the degree ROI calculus driving most prospects’ decisions.
Choosing not to invest in technology that improves the student experience becomes a self-defeating prophecy. “Not yet” must be recognized as a decision with serious potential for financial risk.
The real challenge manifests as institutions choose to do nothing because of uncertainty. Choosing not to invest in technology that improves the student experience becomes a self-defeating prophecy. “Not yet” must be recognized as a decision with serious potential for financial risk.
And one of the most important factors enrollment teams must leverage to break the pattern.
“Sounds great — the CRO of a cool not-so-little software company that just so happens to sell an app that completely revolutionizes the way the entire community experiences technology tells me I should always buy. I can picture a couple uses for this magazine I probably shouldn’t verbalize,” says the VP of Enrollment.
Hold on! Give me a couple more minutes — I’ll get to the point.
I’m not saying every buying decision should be a yes. I’m saying it’s worth reframing buying decisions to truly consider whether the expected cost of waiting outweighs the expected cost of moving forward. How will waiting impact enrollment? How will moving forward impact enrollment? If we recruit a few less students and melt a few more next semester — how will that compare to the cost of buying something that could avoid that? (Or even move those numbers in the opposite direction).
The reason for indecision today involves two factors:
Potential buyers who believe a purchase will result in significant improvement remain fearful even the smallest chance of failure could be catastrophic to their futures.
And buyers fail to break through the increasingly common institutional default of “this is a great idea, but let’s come back to it when things settle down a bit”.
When things get tough, organizations tend to adopt a posture of certainty in order to make decisions. This often creates a never-ending, circular phenomenon that leads to further analysis, which extends decision making, which creates more uncertainty, which leads to more analysis…and on and on. It’s a fascinating paradox in organizational management — institution or business. Because doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different result…well we all know the answer to that Jeopardy clue.
Before postponing a buying decision — ask these questions. What does the problem we’re trying to solve cost us each month? Will it get worse if we delay another year? What additional information would actually change the fact we think this is a great step forward?
If the answers to these questions truly show “not yet” presents lower financial risk — take that piece of software and punt it off into the ether. If the opposite’s true — get with the seller and craft a plan that makes the “not yet” stamp disappear.
Finally, don’t be afraid to ask more of ed tech companies. If guarantees remove risk and fear — ask for them. If funky, unorthodox commercials cut through indecision factors — ask for them. If project management resources seem thin — ask for them. This is not all on you. Higher ed tech companies that don’t get creative to address your fear and help your institution take on a bit of risk (especially in this ridiculous climate) are definitely not long for this world.
All buying decisions come with a cost. All non-decisions come with a cost. The former reduces the budget. The latter may result in fewer conversions, increased melt, disengaged alumni, and another semester (or decade) of “not yet”.
“Delay occasionally makes sense. But it carries real costs.”
Well said Jim…let’s hold off on building next year’s T&E budget.
About the Author
Gary LaFever is General Counsel of Pathify, where he leads the company’s legal, privacy and AI governance work. He works closely with higher education leaders navigating questions of student data, vendor accountability and AI oversight. He believes the strongest governance is the kind an institution can show rather than assert, in documentation specific enough to answer the question actually being asked.