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Consider an institution that was guilty of “a pattern of lurching from one strategy to another, always looking for a single-stroke solution to its problems. It held pep rallies, launched programs, grabbed fads, fired CEOs, hired CEOs, and fired them again.”
Sound like a school system you know?
In fact, it’s the story of grocery store chain A&P, whose corporate troubles in the 1960s and 1970s are reported by business management guru Jim Collins in his book, Good to Great: Why Some Companies Make the Leap… and Others Don’t.
The parallel with troubled school systems is clear. And the reason A&P got into trouble also will be familiar with school board members. The grocery chain lacked a long-term, systemic plan for dealing with consumers’ changing tastes for nicer stores with a wider selection of food and services.
In fact, it attempted a damaging price-cutting strategy “but never dealt with the basic fact that consumers wanted not lower prices, but different stores.”
Business leaders like to talk about their focus on the “bottom line.” But profitsmuch like test scoresare only one measure of success.
Knowing what your customers wantand giving it to themalso plays a role in the success of a business . . . or a school system. Having a plan to meet your goalsand not just stumbling along in what’s known today as “policy churn”also is key to success.
To learn more about the parallels between corporate business practices and school decision making, keep an eye out for the February issue of ASBJ. You’ll pick up a lesson or two from Disney. You’ll learn how Nucor Corp.’s success in the steel industry offers lessons for school leaders.
And you’ll learn how school leaders in Montgomery County, Md.; Yonkers, N.Y.; and Jenks, Okla., took those lessons to heartand improved their school systems in the process.
Del Stover, Senior Editor
