If we needed further proof that higher ed is a “winner take all” game, this modest $400 M donation by John Paulson to Harvard is a clear indication.
And interestingly, the trend in Higher Ed is the same “networks effect” that has driven Facebook, Apple, Google, Twitter, etc.
I am beginning to have some interesting discussions with Globecomm on potential ways to profitably survive in such a market space when one is NOT the winner. The only example type I have found so far are the feeder fish who thrive as they harvest the barnacles on whales (providing symbiotic value).
It seems like second tier universities, like NMSU, will need to embrace some radically changed business model in order to survive in the long-term.
What if an established platform can’t accommodate, by it’s very established forms and MO, the speed of change? Or what if there’s an aspect of the new that doesn’t “work” well in the established platform?
For example, if much of training on the job as supported by cloud tools, depends on real time and accumulated data generated by users themselves, and perhaps “edited” or “produced” by users themselves, to a certain degree…. would the established network be able to accommodate a bottom up model of content creation, which would sort of by definition strain at previous restraints?