The idea of a university seeking a strategic advantage reminds me of a story I heard years ago while in Massachussetts. The bridge connecting Boston and Cambridge is commonly known as the Harvard Bridge. The story goes that when it was built the state offered to name the bridge for the Cambridge School that could present the best claim for the honour. Harvard submitted an essay detailing its contributions to education in America, concluding that it deserved the honour of having the bridge named for the institution. MIT did a structural analysis of the bridge and found it so full of defects that they agreed that it should be named for Harvard.
Trends define the context in which the organisation functions.
In order to identify and create strategic competitive advantages we must first identify critical trends, particularly emergent ones, and forecast their future direction. Secondly we must derive implications for effective planning, and construct plans to take advantages of the opportunities they offer or ameliorate their consequences if they may impact negatively upon the University. In order to do this we must look widely in the social, technological, economic, environmental and political sectors locally, nationally and internationally. Globally there is a re-examination by society of the value and purpose of higher education . Government demands for review of the higher education systems - the Dearing Report in Britain, President Clinton s Address to the Nation in February 1997 and the West Review in Australia reflect this questioning of the objectives and benefits of university education.