Conference blogs

HE system not in meltdown - facing challenges but we’re [the sector is] in a strong position to meet them.

Number of HEIs will reduce in the coming years. Need senior managers with merger and acquisition experience!

One result of pressure on public funding will be fewer higher education institutions, with increasing input from private sector.

HEIs will develop more distinctive identities - some focusing on more research, some focusing on more learning and teaching.

Sometimes crisis redefines way we look at things.

"Communicate first and think later" -- not the British way I suspect ...

Instant comms systems can create unrealistic expectations. when do you use them? who decides?

When is a crisis over? When you say it is!

Keep a diary of the promises made during sales visits and negotiations. Use it to check contracts and manage vendors.

Everything your organisation says and does in a negotiation has value - need to control the flow of information to vendors.

Budgeted spending is not what sinks organisations - it's the total cost of ownership including the unbudgeted costs.

Rigorous change management processes needed when you're dealing with vendors - Kings have Change Advisory Board once a week.

IT people at Kings are running and managing vendor relationships rather than IT systems now.

LMS suppliers moving to managed only solutions in future. What are the implications for libraries?

If you don't meet your own deadlines, expect vendors to get mean and apply charges.

With regard to commodity based IT services 'we want to use it not run it!'

Look at the impossible from a different point of view - is there a different way of doing it?

Need to be receptive to radical thinking, and creativity to get through this period of instability.

We need war time generals – those that understand how to manage under these constraints to see us through these times.

Look at all current projects - often more than you think you've got - map them in terms of cost and benefit. Then prioritise.

Customers forget how bad it was very quickly and as your standards rise so do theirs.

Transforming function - Process and structure (easy bit), culture, behaviour and knowledge the very difficult bit.

View rest of organisation as customers, keep a good communication channel open, tell them, tell them, tell them again.

If you can't deliver on current commitments, how can you deliver on future ones? Stop and think time.

Being unhappy can be good - it means you want to change!

Big sell for future leaders programme. How will LFHE FL programme ensure they still have a cohort when SD budgets being cut?

Fascinating listening to the tactics and the emotion of an olympic rowing final from someone who was in it.

Can’t win if someone has a bad day. If someone has a bad day you all lose.

If you always know you’re going to succeed then where’s the sense of achievement when you do?