The Vicious Fractal of Complacency: When Leadership Trades Agency for Comfort
Complacency is one of those words we think we understand immediately—usually as a character flaw. It conjures images of laziness, low standards, or people who simply don’t care. But in the real world, complacency is rarely that simple. More often, it’s what happens when friction becomes familiar. When complexity becomes “normal.” When the path of […]
Enterprise Planning—Take the Reins
Most institutions and their vendors are still framing technology conversations around transactions, analytics, and user experience: better HR, cleaner financial reporting, faster close, fewer manual touches. That work matters, but it is not the operating capability that will differentiate institutions in our current climate of volatility as a constant. Over the next five years, the […]
Bhusri Returns as CEO: Can Workday Accelerate Innovation Pace?
Workday reset its leadership model. On February 9, 2026, Workday announced that co-founder and executive chair Aneel Bhusri is returning as CEO, effective immediately, replacing Carl Eschenbach, who stepped down the same day. This is the third act in the following timeline: During this time, Aneel was still very present as the board chair with […]
A K-12 Dean’s Perspective on TEFA: Promise, Process, and the Reality for Families
As conversations around the Texas Education Freedom Accounts (TEFA) program continue to evolve, I wanted to step out of my usual higher-ed analyst role and spend time listening to someone who is dealing with TEFA at ground level. I asked my wife, Jenifer Winn, M.Ed. to sit down and answer a few questions about TEFA […]
Making Platform Capabilities Central to Modernization Decisions
Modern cloud administrative solutions, including finance, HCM, and student, have delivered one clear set of outcomes: standardized, configurable processes where customers cannot customize the core application. That’s real progress, based on the critical weakness of legacy on-premises solutions —expensive customization and the need for massively disruptive upgrades. But it also created a very different data […]
Your AI Isn’t a Tool. It’s an Intern.
For the last few years, professionals have asked if AI would take their jobs. Now, in early 2026, we are seeing the first clear signals. While the long-term future of work remains unwritten, current data suggests that for now, AI is not replacing most roles. Instead, it is fundamentally transforming them. The right question to […]
Reimagining ERP Starts by Letting Go of the Past
Stop Replacing Systems. Start Reimagining Outcomes. In many ERP replacement initiatives across higher education, institutions say they want reimagination. But what often shows up in practice is something else entirely: a deep, almost gravitational pull toward requirements. Pages and pages of requirements. Detailed mappings of legacy processes. Endless conversations about how the old system worked […]
Design Principles: The Missing Link Between Strategy and Technology in Higher Ed
Most institutions don’t fail because they picked the “wrong” system. They struggle because the technology decisions made along the way are not anchored in shared, strategic guardrails. That is the role of design principles. Design principles are short, durable statements that describe how your institution will make technology decisions across selection, implementation, and operations. When […]
Oracle’s Vision Comes Together: The Company That Now Builds AI from Silicon to Service
There comes a point when a company stops talking about what it wants to become and starts proving what it already is. That was Oracle this week at AI World 2025 in Las Vegas, a company now emerging as a unified force rather than a collection of disconnected ambitions. For years, Oracle’s story has been […]
From Anxiety to Action: Your 90-Day AI Upskilling Roadmap
A significant gap is opening between those who can leverage AI and those who can’t. This guide is a practical roadmap to ensure you’re on the right side of that divide. Why This Matters (And Why It’s Not All Doom) Over the past year, I’ve had countless conversations with colleagues and clients who are excited […]
