The University as an iceberg

A university is much like an iceberg, where most of its people and resources lie underneath the surface.

The tip of the iceberg, the part that you can see easily, is the corporate leadership of the university and their supporting professional services team. These elements include the university council, rector, vice-chancellor, faculty leadership, contracts office, technology transfer office, and so on. It is relatively easy for most organisations to see a university at this level, and for many universities, the corporate leadership will be actively looking to engage with medium and large companies. But from our experience, even though engagement with this part of the university might lead to a memorandum of understanding and/or a statement of intent, it is only when working with the nine-tenths of the workforce that are labouring away below the surface, employed in research, teaching, and scholarship, that any appreciable delivery and impact can be achieved.

There is only a loose coupling between the corporate part of the university and individual researchers and departments. Researchers will most likely identify themselves first with their discipline and subject specialism, prior to any identification with the institution in which they are based. Obtaining value from the 90% is therefore about developing alignment with the individual researchers, investigators, and expertise leaders. Aligning with the tip of the iceberg is straightforward; the playbook is all about partnering both above and below the waterline.