Our Process
In May 2019, Babson President Stephen Spinelli Jr. MBA’92, PhD, launched a strategic planning process with a clear goal: Engage the entire Babson community to rapidly develop a shared strategic plan for Babson to thrive in a changing environment.
Together, the Babson community formulated 10 guideposts to frame and shape the strategic planning effort:
Strategic Plan Guideposts
- Put students first
- Transcend #1 ranking in Entrepreneurship—LEAD entrepreneurship education
- Develop a business model that will thrive in a volatile marketplace
- Collaboration is a necessity and competitive advantage
- Diversity, equity and inclusion fuels collaboration and can differentiate the College
- Serve as our alums’ lifelong, go-to educational resource
- Be market driven—think outside the campus, engage stakeholders
- Practice what we teach-ET&A-market driven, disruption, pilot and pivot
- Entrepreneurship “everywhere”—reach more people in more ways
- Be bold, be disruptive, be different—we are leaders
Across the stakeholder spectrum, community members contributed more than 4,400 ideas and insights—including email and online feedback, survey responses, and event participation—to guide and inform the strategic plan.
250
155
3,407
26
173
481
74
50
Six strategic planning task forces comprising more than 170 stakeholders, working diligently to analyze data, integrate community input, and generate ideas. Their collective efforts produced 30 guiding principles and 40 recommendations following more than 54 formal working sessions.
Following an intensive effort to synthesize the task force recommendations, a strategic framework was presented to the Babson College Board of Trustees in October 2019. The Board unanimously endorsed four strategic principles as a framework for developing a comprehensive strategic plan. This framework was shared with the Babson community at a Community Forum.
Strategic Principles
Inspire and empower entrepreneurial leaders to thrive in any context
Build and leverage the most impactful, networked, global entrepreneurial community
Engage learners on their terms
Model entrepreneurial leadership
The Synthesis Team continued to integrate and refine the Task Force recommendations and to generate strategic initiatives aligned to the strategic framework and principles. These proposed initiatives included:
- Own Entrepreneurial Leadership
- Deliver Education Where and When Learners Demand It
- Develop Additional Education Models
- Bolster Entrepreneurial Activity in Key Regions and Sectors
- Radically recreate the organization
Those initiatives were reviewed with the Board of Trustees in February and the full Babson community in early March.
With continued refinement over the summer months, the College’s leadership team worked to finalize and articulate the new strategy, One Babson Delivering Entrepreneurial Leadership Anywhere, Impacting Communities Everywhere.