Radical Survival Strategies for Struggling Colleges

When Steve Thorsett crunched the numbers, things looked grim.  Business was flagging. His flow of customers had fallen to a 10-year low, down nearly 20 percent since 2015. By the year after that, annual expenses were outpacing operating revenues by $14 million. In an increasingly unforgiving market, Mr. Thorsett needed to do more than chip away at the margins of this problem. He could make cuts, but that was complicated in his industry, and would likely only speed the downward spiral. To differentiate himself from his competitors, this chief executive determined that his operation needed to grow bigger, not smaller.