BOURNEMOUTH UNIVERSITY
What’ s more, this plan required BU to become a leaner organisation. Gerry explains:“ Lean does not mean salami-slicing budgets year after year until the organisation is hollowed out. That approach has been the sector default for too long, and it delivers short-term relief at the cost of long-term capability.
“ What lean actually means is eliminating waste, removing duplication and ensuring every pound we spend serves our mission. It means funding quality by managing cost, not compromising quality in order to manage cost.”
To achieve this, the university is investing in building financial literacy across its internal teams, to create conditions for managers at every level to understand their numbers and feel empowered to drive efficiencies.
In Gerry’ s view, a lean culture only takes root through“ distributed ownership, not top-down mandates”.
Crucially, this distributed accountability cannot be driven by financial insight alone; it must be backed by infrastructure modernisation.
Aligning digital transformation with cultural change A fundamental aspect of executing BU2035 is ensuring the cultural transformation is paired correctly with an agile digital strategy to build confidence alongside new technology. To achieve this, Gerry aims to bring together the team that has traditionally run the university’ s major projects and the team that drives digital change, to help deliver every strategic project the same way – whether or not technology is at its heart.
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