Weniger Aber Besser

I am continually impressed by the excellent teaching, research, and service prevalent in the School of Business and across the College. As we have conversations about our future and build out our strategic plan, I am aware that we often talk about new classes, programs, ideas, and even new newer ideas. It’s easy. We are academics, and we are trained to think. But there’s a reality that we simply lack bandwidth, or horsepower, to do more in many areas. So, we need to consider the following:

Weniger aber besser

Less but better

This is something I’ve been thinking about a lot for a long time. Recently, in a conversation with Dave Wyman, he recommended, Essentialism: The Disciplined Pursuit of Less. I’ve been reading it, and that’s where I picked up the German phrase. If you want a quick overview, this one is pretty good. I’m still reading, but I recommend the book, and it will be added to our leadership library when I am done. I read a similar book, The Power of Less, by Leo Babauta, years ago, and the message still resonates. Both are written at the individual level, but I think they have organizational implications.

At this time, I think the idea is essential. I know some days you go home overwhelmed. There’s so much to do. The opportunities at CofC and in the Charleston region are tremendous. Students have so much potential or challenges. Your research could go in so many different directions and service; well, there’s a lot to get done. We can’t do them all. So which ones will make the most significant impact? What can we eliminate so that we can focus on the impact? Which ones are we best positioned to execute?

The book was written in 2014 and used SouthWest as a company that exemplifies essentialism. At that time, they were arguably more successful than Apple or IBM because they focused on the essentials. However, since then, we have seen what happens when they stopped paying attention to the essentials.

When we focus on our essentials and execute them, I believe we will be the distinctive business school that will achieve what we want to achieve and be in elite company.

Don’t forget, we are asking for your thoughts as we update our strategic plan, which was started during COVID and put on pause. So we want as much input as possible on a 20-question open-ended survey. You can answer all 20 questions or as many as you would like. And if you know someone who has valuable insights, please forward them the link.

YOU make a difference.

Remember: