Entrepreneurial Leadership in Higher Ed:
TCU President Shares 5 Strategies for Success
As higher education grapples with changing enrollment trends, questions about return on investment and increased competition, this moment may be the most competitive and challenging yet for colleges and universities. But Daniel Pullin, the president of Texas Christian University (TCU) in Fort Worth, Tx., sees plenty of upside.
“Today’s obstacles also present opportunities for innovation and differentiation,” Pullin said, “which is especially true when higher-education leaders adopt an entrepreneurial approach, are willing to experiment with new ideas, own their mistakes, pivot as needed, and prioritize and make decisions consistent with their mission.”
“The prospects for higher ed in the decades to come are very, very promising, so long as institutions seize the opportunity to innovate at every turn, stay centered on their values, and rise up to meet the needs of society,” said Pullin, a former business executive and Harvard MBA with nearly 20 years of higher-education experience, including his prior service as dean of TCU’s top-ranked Neeley School of Business.
At TCU, leading with an entrepreneurial mindset is engrained in the university’s DNA and is a big reason for TCU’s upward trajectory. Despite the financial headwinds facing many higher-education institutions, the 151-year-old TCU earned an A+ financial rating from Forbes and is ranked the No. 2 best-run college by The Princeton Review. As other institutions close or merge with others because of sliding student numbers, TCU’s award-winning academics and student experience have contributed to a record retention rate for first-year students of 94.3 percent.
According to Pullin, “At TCU, if you can dream it, you can do it. Our community has entrepreneurial grit, the ability to see, aspire, achieve and shape the future, and the commitment to doing it together.”
Below, Pullin shares five ways an entrepreneurial leadership style drives success in higher education.
1. Establish Your Think Tank
“Great organizational performance comes through strong relationships,” Pullin said, “and leaders who lean on each other are best placed to ask tough questions, offer fresh ideas, and break from tradition when needed.”
At TCU, Pullin has been intentional about building his own informal think tank of trusted leaders, including the Board of Trustees and TCU chancellor Victor Boschini. Members of the board recently spent time exploring more broadly the future direction of higher education. The result was a charge to create an all-new strategic plan for the next decade to ensure TCU will meet the challenges of the future through innovation and creativity.
“When you look at our performance metrics, in most cases, we're hitting all-time highs for the institution,” Pullin said. “For the board to then have the courage to lead from a position of strength…to say, let’s go ahead and make this great place even greater was exhilarating to me and inspiring to the broader campus community.”
Other think tank members include the president’s cabinet. There, Pullin makes time to build relationships, including establishing mutual expectations of leadership and creating standards for how people collaborate as they tackle challenges. Setting those high standards has allowed Pullin and cabinet members to build relationships and trust.
“We work extremely well together. Before we get into the content of any particular matter, we’re always disciplined enough to understand the context against which we have to make decisions, and we prioritize the health of the entire organization and our community.”
Elsewhere, Pullin meets regularly with governance leaders on the Faculty Senate, Staff Assembly, Student Government Association, and Graduate Student Senate, each of which are key parts of the think tank. This allows TCU to adhere to its commitment to shared governance and inclusivity.
The broader community is part of TCU’s think tank, too. Annually, Pullin holds at least four public forums to acquire feedback that may be instrumental to a change in strategy. And just last year, the campus community joined together in a project to re-examine and re-commit to TCU’s values, resulting in four core values that represent TCU’s culture and mission.
2. Practice Strategic Disruption
“Strategic disruption describes challenging the status quo and pushing boundaries to drive strategic goals and make an impact,” Pullin said. To ensure that new programs or initiatives are successful and meaningful, organizations must disrupt with purpose and intention. Active strategic plans must have clear goals and initiatives, and they can’t be filed away and forgotten.
University leaders are currently preparing to present the plan for discussion less than a year after the board of trustees’ charge to develop it.
“Our prudently compressed time frame now allows TCU to quickly adapt and innovate to meet the needs of students, faculty, staff, and external stakeholders now and into the future,” Pullin said. “Already, the cycle time of what’s necessary to make sure our organization is vibrant, current, and impactful as possible has changed. We’re creating a plan that informs TCU’s next 150 years of setting Horned Frogs up for lasting success.”
To ensure the new plan remains a living document that is relevant and impactful going forward, TCU also has created a new cabinet-level position, chief university strategy and innovation officer, held by Tom Wavering. Once the plan is approved, Wavering, a national strategy and innovation leader, will track TCU’s progress on plan initiatives, ensuring milestones remain on track.
“Tom will be a go-to senior leader to help us live and advance the plan, including how we’re progressing against performance targets and metrics,” Pullin said. “A plan is only as good as its ability to be executed through clarity, communication, and a strong culture. To have a senior leader that is working across all levels of the organization, as well as our external partners who are essential to our vision, is our exciting reality.”
3. Be Ready to Pivot
“Many believe higher education moves at a glacial pace, but, to thrive today, campuses must be constantly ready to pivot. Being agile requires having the right data, asking the right questions, and inviting curiosity,” Pullin said.
As example, two years before the U.S. Supreme Court ruling allowed student-athletes to monetize their name, image, and likeness (NIL), TCU leaders recognized an opening to better serve student-athletes to help them navigate the emerging opportunity. When the NIL decision became official, “TCU’s 500+ student-athletes became entrepreneurs overnight, and we needed to offer tools to allow them to be successful,” Pullin said.
To serve those students, TCU offers an NIL certificate program within its business school that’s open to any student-athlete. Students learn about entrepreneurial brand management, business formation, and financial literacy, among other topics.
By anticipating and planning for change, TCU is ready to shift as needed to respond to market changes and poised to broaden its impact on student-athletes and prepare them for life-long success. According to Pullin, “these are the types of technical and life skills that will endure, not just for the four years they're playing or after, but for the next 40 and 50 years of their careers.”
4. Make Decisions Based on Data
“Many have said, ‘knowledge is power’ and data allows leaders to trust their instincts while using past trends and patterns to vet their hypotheses,” Pullin said.
At TCU, data has been critical as the new strategic plan reflects feedback from over 10,000 different voices through internal and external surveys and augmented by insights from over 200 community meetings, town halls, and workshops.
TCU’s wide collection of leaders have come to the table with their ideas, leveraging their widespread expertise. According to Pullin, “Collecting and analyzing data has uncovered some exciting opportunities, the insights for which help our leaders make better decisions and allow them to explain their rationale, especially when the insights diverge from legacy ways of thinking.”
“This inclusive process provides our leadership team enhanced confidence to pursue the pathways that will matter the most. Data provides the discipline to make us stronger and better leaders as we test our gut. Data either validates or refutes that gut feeling. It’s a bit of a proxy for the scientific method, which so many of our world-class faculty and research-active students identify with in their research — a model that’s proven itself over time.”
5. Lead by Example
“Leading by example — albeit with an entrepreneurial mindset — requires taking risks and being open to mistakes, while also empowering others to do the same,” Pullin said. “Innovative leaders welcome, support, and cheer new ideas. They show that asking questions and strategic thinking is everyone’s job.”
At TCU, Pullin logs thousands of steps across campus in his purple sneakers, a nod to the university’s colors. Always working to be approachable and relatable, the shoes seem to serve as an icebreaker, as he appears accessible with faculty, staff, and, especially, students.
And he’s still very much in the thick of TCU’s “shop floor,” as he calls it. Despite his many responsibilities as president, Pullin still makes the time to teach an entrepreneurship and innovation class, which recently had the chance to get a sneak peek at the new strategic plan to gauge their reactions and thoughts.
“Deploying an entrepreneurial leadership style serves not only as a catalyst for innovations on campus, but it’s a teaching moment for students that informs how they might build and lead in their own future careers in our dynamic world,” said Pullin.
“This moment presents a real opportunity for leaders in higher ed to not just talk about the theory of entrepreneurship or innovation, but, rather, to show tangible, real-world examples of how their institution is harnessing the power of thinking differently. Students can see strong leadership in action, not just in the pages of a textbook, but on the grounds, in the corridors, classrooms, laboratories, and performance halls of their university.”
This content was paid for and created by Texas Christian University. The editorial staff of The Chronicle had no role in its preparation. Find out more about paid content.
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