The Fox and the Hedgehog

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Opinion

The Fox and the Hedgehog

9/6/2007

By Terry Calhoun

There are times when I just do not "get" what many others understand in a natural way. For instance, I submit that neither roller coasters nor gambling are attractive ways to spend time. Roller coasters don't frighten me, and they are uncomfortable. The drive on I-94 to Cedar Point is a whole lot more fun (and scary) than the rides are. As for gambling, why not just spend your money on something tangible, rather than what is obviously a losing proposition, or make a contribution to Kiva and help someone who really needs it, with a micro-loan.

Another thing I don't really "get" is the business management "hedgehog concept." The whole thing apparently comes from a Greek poet, Archilochus, who wrote: "The fox knows many things, but the hedgehog knows one big thing." Okay, so right away I think, "I want to be a fox!"

But, no. Apparently, in the business world, the thing to be is a hedgehog. The argument is made, and seems to have been made first by Jim Collins in Harvard Business Review's December 2000-January 2001 issue that: "The fox knows a little about many things, but the hedgehog knows only one big thing very well. The fox is complex; the hedgehog simple. And the hedgehog wins."

So why is this something I have been thinking about? In the run up to the beginning of this school year, a lot of people I know have been thinking and talking about the recent offers by Google and Microsoft to run colleges' and universities' students' e-mail systems for them. The hedgehog concept is often voiced by those who want to "outsource" functionalities, like e-mail, within an organization. It was one of the driving philosophical forces behind the spate of articles early in this century about IT being "just" another piece of the infrastructure.

Why not, the argument goes, stop fussing around running your own e-mail servers when "running e-mail" is not something you can be really, really good at and isn't something that relates directly to your core business of learning? Companies like Google, with its Gmail, already provide state of the art competencies in e-mail, and your students are familiar with that interface. In fact, most of them probably forward messages from whatever account you give to them to their Gmail accounts anyway.

What does the university get? It's attractive to think about getting rid of the chore of providing e-mail services. And we're not just talking about the technology here. With the appropriate legal agreements, the service provider, not the university, is responsible for things like data security and confidentiality, as well as legal requirements. Google and Microsoft, of course, have lots to gain from your students being captive users of their services, as students and then through the rest of their lives.