In order to partner with public television and compete successfully in the emerging digital marketplace, universities will need to develop successful relationships with their public television partners that accommodate organizational differences. They will also have to manage interest, curiosity, concerns and suspicions of internal and external stake-holders as they learn about this new initiative. Internal constituents, faculty and students, will have to be convinced that the new venture adds value without undermining the educational mission of the institution or diverting scarce resources. External constituents, boards and state oversight organizations, will also have to be convinced of added value and that policies and legal structures can be maintained. Friends of the university must be educated to understand how a new venture can enhance the institution's educational goals.
Developing and supporting an initiative in the digital marketplace demands doing business in a manner that will challenge traditional university culture. As a new business in a competitive and emerging market, the venture will need to be flexible and able to tolerate a high degree of risk and uncertainty. Traditional shared governance structures produce a slow and thoughtful decision-making process. Traditional oversight entities, non-profit or state-appointed boards and government agencies, tend to be conservative and inflexible.
And yet a venture of this type cannot succeed without, at least, the implicit support of both internal and external constituents. The initiative must be crafted in a way that clearly does not compromise or compete for resources dedicated to traditional educational efforts. Internal constituents must be not only kept aware of the ongoing effort but, whenever possible, engaged in planning efforts that link the venture's goals to the institution's educational goals. They must also be engaged in the decisions about how projected net revenues can be employed to support the educational mission of the institution.
Governing board members must actively support this type of non-traditional, new initiative. As fiduciaries they bear direct risk of any venture that goes bad. University administrators will need to apprise board members of potential risks and expected returns related to entering the new digital marketplace and make sure they are current with the progress of the venture. Board members of public universities, must be prepared to explain or defend the venture to state officials should that become necessary.
Additional relationships exist between a university and the larger community. Donors, alumni and community members are interested in major initiatives undertaken by their university. It is critical, especially in the case of donors and alumni, that the presence of a new venture be understood in relationship to institutional goals. Friends of the university who understand the value of entering the digital marketplace may be sources of fiscal support, investment resources, sources of advice and counsel and defenders of the institution should the initiative be challenged.
Although universities and public broadcasting organizations have many similarities--non-profit entities, managed with board oversight and within certain state and federal laws and regulations--they are different cultures with different ways of doing business. The new digital partnership will entail crafting a new, common culture driven by the need to work collaboratively and by the nature of the new business. All efforts should be made to keep external influences out of this new cooperative venture, to ensure the business is structured to facilitate success. However, any organizational structure should remain sensitive to the primary entities and to their missions.
