Today’s CIO TO DO is to plan for the worst financial scenarios. Most of us are facing uncertainty in the fall. Our state appropriations will likely be lower. Some of our students will choose not to come back, some will not be able to afford to. So 3 things for us to do now:
1) Build a financial plan for what can be deferred or rethought. We probably have some of this now but putting things in priority order by ROI helps make the decisions about where to invest and where to defer much easier for others to understand and buy in. The ROI calculations are important because they show that we are a business leaders.
2) We need to protect and develop our teams. We should expect travel restrictions and hiring freezes, and perhaps furloughs and layoffs. We have to help the people we have grow for two reasons. First, because they deserve our loyalty. They are the people who got us through this moment. It’s the right thing to do. And second, we may not have the ability to bring in new or additional people for a while.
3) Finally, fight across-the-board cuts. They have unintended consequences. If we all cancel Educause this year, how long will it survive? The old business maxim is that you cannot cut your way to profitability.
This is urgent and we need to do it now.