EDUCAUSE and Baseball

EDUCAUSE and Baseball

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As a thousand attendees conclude their journey from Educause 2019 in Chicago while the MLB baseball playoffs are on television, I wanted to write a little bit about baseball and recap my participation at two recent conferences with the focus on information technology.  To be fair, although I am a former long-time college baseball coach, I am the CFO at Ithaca College and will be providing a CFO’s perspective to the changing landscape in higher education and the urgency for digital transformation.

I am a firm believer, especially with tight budgets, that when we send members of our institution to professional conferences in their respective fields it is important for them come back and share what they have learned. This increases the body of knowledge and the institution’s intellectual capital learning best practices, growing the attendees’ professional networks, strengthening existing business partnerships, and gaining potential new business partners.

Well, I should certainly hold myself up to the same standard. Therefore, recently I was honored to serve on two panels. The first panel was at the Oracle Higher Education Summit in July 2019 at the annual NACUBO conference in Austin, Texas. I was joined by esteemed colleagues from the very prestigious universities Vanderbilt, UCSD and URI. The second panel was at Oracle Open World in San Francisco, California in September 2019 discussing the transition to the SaaS Platform with another impressive group of colleagues from Rice University and University of Wisconsin - Madison. The following is a recap of those conferences with some baseball sprinkled in! I promise there is a connection. 

Higher Education is under a business model onslaught. The business model for most institutions is financially unsustainable. Most institutions are student dependent for their revenue. Tuition discounts rates are averaging 50% for first year students. The overall value of liberal arts education is being debated. And the overall demographics of potential students entering college is diminishing. The result is that many terrific institutions are subject to closure, merger, and acquisitions. It is very daunting for all stakeholders. How do we address all of these challenges? We can’t afford poor decisions. Therefore, becoming a data informed institution is imperative to be operationally efficient with the ultimate goal of student success. Data is today’s currency, and the only way to realize the benefits is through digital transformation. 

I have been honored to serve as the Ithaca College’s CFO since July 2018. Ithaca College is a private, residential, liberal arts college in central New York with about 6,500 undergraduate and graduate students and a lot of the same challenges described above. As I started my tenure we had already committed to a cloud strategy making the decision to move our HR and Finance enterprise wide systems to the cloud through Oracle’s HCM and Finance/ERP products.  The goal is to ultimately leverage these systems to develop a culture of data informed decision making.

As some people know, although I have been an educational administrator for over 20 years, I was also a Head Baseball Coach at the Division III level for 13 years. I love working with student-athletes and the game of baseball and all the data analytics that go with the sport that you find on the back of the baseball card. In the professional world, baseball has become a world of the “have” and “have nots”. The gap has become very wide. The teams with the largest payroll were almost guaranteed to at least get into the playoffs each year and most likely win the World Series. Higher education has become very much the same where the few institutions with large endowments and brand recognition are winning while the remaining quality institutions grind each year to meet the dynamic needs of the changing student.  Unless we change the game through data analytics and go through a digital transformation like baseball and highlighted by a recent joint white-paper by NACUBO, AIR, and EDUCAUSE, the gap will continue to widen and the students will be left behind.   

Therefore, how can you compete with those institutions with large endowments and endless student demand? How can we fill the gap of “haves” and “have-nots”. If you have not read the Michael Lewis book, “Moneyball” or watched the Hollywood portrayal of the book, I would recommend it as a parallel solution. The movie is just as good and dramatizes the transformation of the Oakland A’s in the early 2000’s from a “have not” franchise with famous actors like Brad Pitt and Jonah Hill, to perennial contenders as they disrupt the world of baseball through data.   I think this part of history in baseball can mirror the forth coming digital transformation in higher education.

There are so many great vignettes in the movie that can be translated to our industry. The premise is how do you win games? You win games by scoring more runs than the other team. Sounds simple. The only way to score runs is for players to get on base and score while preventing your opponent from doing the same. This is what you should measure getting on base and advancing till you score. This is very similar to getting a student through each of their four years until they graduate. The more a student graduates the more you win. 

Here are four terrific scenes in the book/movie:

Scene 1: The A’s scout team (admissions counselors) was sitting around a large conference room table and discussing how they were going to fill out their roster (1st year class) for the next season with a limited budget (institutional aid). The group of scouts was debating historical metrics such as the 5 tools in baseball (throw, hit for average, hit for power, speed, and defense) and the resulting salary implications and institutional limitations. This is not much different than the GPA, SAT, student recommendations, and extra-curricular activities tool box. 

However, the A’s General Manager, Billy Beane, was focused getting on base and runs because that is the only way to win games which is the objective. To score runs you need players that get on base regardless of how the historical metrics look. The thinking was that high salary players translated to winning games based on old metrics. Meanwhile if you mine the data, and not look at historical metrics solely, you find gems such as Scott Hatterberg and Chad Bradford. These players were typically disregarded because they don’t look like your typical player but get on base or get outs very inexpensively, resulting in operational efficiency.

Scene 2:  Worth noting was the need for the players to change and to buy-in to the mission of the organization, to win through getting on base and eventually score more runs than their opponent. Dave Justice was an aging all-star who was used to hitting homeruns. He did not do that as much anymore but he was still very valuable because he got on base. He was an important player to succeed, but he needed to understand the need to change and the why.

Scene 3: When Billy Beane was asking a player that played catcher his entire life to switch positions. As he was trying to sell the move one of the coaches was very realistic and explained that it was going to be “really hard”. This type of realism and support can find potential in employees that nobody knew even existed, but it is critical to acknowledge that change is really hard and support is needed. 

Final scene: To bring this metaphor full-circle the manager of the team, Art Howe, was not willing to change. He continued to write the line-up the way he wanted thinking this was the best way to win. This old mindset produced the same mediocre results based on the roster (class) he was given. Not until the General Manager, through trades of high valued players (historical metrics) that didn’t match the mission, did the manager have no choice but use the roster built for him to win games. After a period of losing, creating a lot of displeased fans, the A’s went on a historical 20-game winning streak and ultimately had a team record of 103 season wins, based on a different use of data analytics and one of the lowest budgets in major league baseball. This was the epitome of operational efficiency and baseball has not been the same since.

How can you translate these examples to your organization as you think about your digital transformation to stay competitive through operational efficiencies? Here are some of my recommendations that I highlighted in my portion of the panel discussions:

Recommendation 1: Engage with your CIO as a strategic partner

It is important to understand that although in Ithaca College’s organization structure where the CIO reports to the CFO, along with Auxiliaries, Facilities, and Business & Finance, this is not the case at a lot of institutions. Regardless of reporting structure it is key to have a strategic partner and colleague in the CIO. Involve this strategic leader as a peer throughout the process to get the perspective on cloud readiness and the opportunities and challenges. I would also stress the importance of cross-functional committees that represent other areas on campus such as Enrollment Management, Institutional Advancement, Human Resources, and Student Affairs. These committees can include a Data Governance Council, Information Security Council, and Tech Advisory Committee. 

Recommendation 2: Confirm Project sponsorship from the very top of the organization

We are blessed to have our Board of Trustees support the vision of a culture of data informed decision making and supporting the capital investments to move to the cloud. And when project management does not go perfect initially that support will exist to continue to support the project. We also have the institutional commitment with our strategic plan “Ithaca Forever” by stating the desire to develop a culture of data informed decision making and assessment with evidence-based decisions. We have many hard decisions to be made, but the commitment that decisions will be informed through data is the key for community support. 

Recommendation 3: Go through a Business Process Review before starting the project

To prepare for major systems implementation you need to do an assessment of “gaps” that exist in current staff (IT and functional) and historical processes. This will provide a realistic approach in how you will support your existing team through supplemental resources (time, staff, financial, and training). I describe this as the recommended “prehab” you would do for knee surgery (wear and tear from baseball). I have gone through two knee surgeries. I did prehab on my second knee. My rehab following surgery was much shorter and ultimately more successful.  

Recommendation 4: Minimize the customization

Do not customize the new system to match the old ways. Be strong and don’t customize. There is no reason to invest a lot of time and capital dollars to have a brand new system that does it the old way.

Recommendation 5: Focus on the “why” not just ROI

Don’t focus on the end of life, or predictable maintenance support, and data security improvements. Or “the cloud is the coolest thing”. Most members of the community don’t understand these needs. Don’t focus on the return on investment (ROI) as much as that is my natural tendency. It will be very difficult to measure leveraging technology to scale that will produce operational improvements. It should also be understood that is not just for operational efficiencies but also as a growth facilitator. Therefore, focus on the digital transformation that will ultimately support student success.

Final Recommendation: Focus on the employees

Change management is difficult, as it was with the Oakland A’s management and players. You need to work before, during and after with your employees and continue to explain the mission and the “why”. These projects are long and additive. There is a lot of fatigue mentally and physically. 

Final thought: Baseball is still transforming and so should Higher Education

Although baseball is ahead of higher education it took 20 years since the A’s and Billy Beane disrupted the game. This is still evident with the parity in this year’s playoffs with the A’s, Rays, Brewers, and Twins. But the industry is still struggling with consumption. Attendance is down. Games are long. Umpires are under scrutiny on every pitch with k-zones and instant replay. Baseball needs to think beyond the traditional fans, geographic markets, delivery model, retention, and quality of experience. As higher education works on its digital transformation, there are many great examples of institutions to learn some best practices, but the journey does not end. Artificial intelligence, virtual reality, and other technologies are just a strike away to continue to disrupt baseball. 


Jenna Linskens, EdD, CETL

Director, Center for Instructional Design & Educational Technology

4y

Excellently written. The parallels of baseball to the higher ed world are outstanding. While change can be exhausting, it can also be invigorating. I cannot wait to see what changes are going to happen at IC. 

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Timothy Carey, Ed.D.

Senior Facility Management Consultant

4y

Very well done, Bill!  Terrific perspectives and first-rate take-aways via your succinct and well thought out recommendations.  Kudos!

Thanks, Bill. That's all well and good until one key player asks to not participate because their glove is cursed...lolz

John Delate, Ph.D.

Vice President of Enrollment and Student Affairs

4y

Incredible article, Bill. Interesting, insightful, and pertinent to higher ed. Nice work.

Andrew Powell

Area Vice President, Application Sales - Higher Education & Research Institutions

4y

Bill, first thank you for your participation on our panels - nothing but great feedback! Secondly, EXCELLENT article and parallels between baseball and Higher Education. I like your analysis and call to action. From a vendor’s perspective i couldn’t agreement more; especially your final two points - focus on the “Why” and the employee. Thanks again!

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