Terms in positions are often four or five years or less. Further, appointments of new presidents or chancellors are often followed by multiple changes in vice presidents and deans so that the new executive can have his or her own team to implement a new agenda. The effect of this is to destabilize the university and to have it change in fits and starts. Business outcomes are easy - profits. University outcomes are complex and difficult to determine and evaluate.
Businesses can and do fail, by hundreds.
Universities cannot be allowed to fail. Universities must be moral leaders. Businesses sell things - soap powder, lawn mowers or automobiles. Businesses are not societal critics. Universities must be.