Board Chairs and Leaders
Effective governance in higher education is harder than ever, with a public that is increasingly skeptical of the real value conferred by undergraduate and graduate education, cultural and partisan warfare that seems increasingly situated on campuses, worrisome demographic trends, the widening prevalence of budget deficits and related uncertainties about the traditional business models and revenue sources of universities, and an alphabet soup of federal and state agencies who together make higher education one of the most pervasively regulated sectors of the national economy. Wrighton Cannon Consulting LLC would be especially valuable when: the president is concluding; during the search for the new president; soon after the new president takes office; and when the Board and management are confronting particularly stressful challenges. We can help board chairs and those next in line for chair responsibilities other board leaders in executing their responsibilities by working with them to:
Develop orientation programs for new board members
Design and implement successful strategies for recruiting the most promising presidents and annually assessing the president’s performance
Establish and sustain “best practices” in differentiating their governance functions from the management functions of the president and their executive team
Optimize the time, energies and talents of board members in ways that both increase their engagement with, and commitment to the institution, and that offer the president and their executive team the support they need to lead effectively
Collaborate most effectively with the president and their executive team in institution-wide strategic planning processes intended to establish the university’s most vital objectives and pathways to success
Develop or update university wide “enterprise risk” and compliance programs
Assess Board committee structures, charters, agendas and approval protocols to help optimize Board members’ focus on, and informed engagement in truly major governance issues
Our Approach
We offer the following options for working with board leaders:
90-Day Package
A 90-day “package” consisting of four to six confidential meetings per month preceded by our deep “desk review” of the institution’s structure/finances/programs/challenges via materials provided by the client upon our request or available online
120-Day Package
A 120-day “package” consisting of four to six confidential meetings per month preceded by our deep “desk review” of the institution’s structure/finances/programs/challenges via materials provided by the client upon our request or available online
Short-term
A month-to-month, terminable arrangement with a short termination notice feature
Long-term
A longer term relationship with Wrighton Cannon Consulting LLC could be possible if mutually agreeable
Implementation
To implement our approach, we recommend the following:
Principals As-Needed
During any period of engagement with Wrighton Cannon Consulting LLC at least one of the partners would be available as needed, as the partners understand that important issues arise at inconvenient times
Scope of Relationship
The partners of Wrighton Cannon Consulting LLC would be available to engage with individuals specified by the board leaders