Few industries have been as hard hit as restaurants in the pandemic. But alongside widespread closures of franchises and family-owned establishments, restaurants have also become the site of rapid business model innovation: there are the reinvented patios and “streateries” lining the streets of cities; the Korean take-out spot, temporarily turned “mobile bodega," delivering bleach and hand sanitizer overnight; and the restaurants offering virtual experiences to accompany take-out orders, like meeting the fisherman who caught the sushi-grade tuna on the tray.
Colleges and universities face their own tough reckoning this fall—with some institutions already suspending plans for in-person instruction and more schools likely to follow in their footsteps. What can higher ed learn from the restaurant industry, not only in how to pivot quickly in a crisis, but about competition, market positioning, and strategy for the long-term?
1. Will higher ed competition become winner-take-all?With more students than ever enrolling in online or newly remote programs during the pandemic, some have speculated that online mega-universities and national elites will soon take over higher ed. What could this mean for master’s programs, where already the most growth has been happening in online programs while face-to-face enrollments steadily decline? Are we at the dawn of a winner-take-all era?
Here’s the good news: winner-take-all competition doesn’t dominate higher ed yet. It’s true that the top 20% of institutions confer about 75% of the degrees—both in grad and in undergrad. And some grad programs, like computer science or cybersecurity, are highly concentrated with a small proportion of…