Okay, I woke up this AM and had a great idea for a whole new masters degree program, something I have not seen before but that I am pretty sure would go wide fire once introduced. Who in a college/university would be most receptive to a 'pitch' for a new degree program and how baked would the content need to be before approaching them for an initial pitch. Has anyone done this type of thing before and has experiences they would be willing to convey?
As for who would be most receptive to a new degree program, it would help if we knew what degree program are you thinking of, as it would make a difference as to whether any given university saw that particular degree title as being within their scope. As for how "baked" it would need to be, I think a more fully developed degree plan would be much better than a simple question as to whether such and such university would offer XYZ degree.
Okay, that answers part of the question, thanks. I am hesitant to disclose what I am thinking of because I am still in the "impressed with myself for thinking of it don't give it away" mode.. It is in the popular category of business/technology along the lines of an MBA (maybe even MBA specialty focus) or MS in some type of systems/technology category but different enough to stand out and even complement any of these other business oriented degrees..
5 or 6 years ago, a friend and I had what we thought was a terrific idea for a new MBA program. It's great advantage was that it only took 6 words to describe it, and once one heard those six words, they tended to agree with us that there was terrific promise and potential. We decided that it would be appropriate to present it to one school at a time, and give them a short time (under 30 days) to respond -- instead of using the shotgun approach now common in book publishing, of sending it to many at one time. We were not faced with the classic inventor's dilemma: how much do I say in advance? What if they say no, then steal it? We believed the idea was essentially unstealable. Then we reflected on whether to describe it in an unsolicited letter to a key person, and ask for a meeting . . . or to play coy, say we had the idea, then ask for a meeting where we would explain things. While the latter notion was appealing -- I tried it successfully years ago, with regard to a friend's invention -- writing to the top guy at Xerox saying that I had something that would knock his socks off, and only asked for 3 minutes of his time, and would come to Rochester to show him -- how could anyone refuse that -- he didn't -- we decided on the former. Those six words The results were unexpected. First RA school we approached flew us to a meeting on the east coast; we talked; they went home . . . and two weeks later, offered us 40% of one of their MBAs -- they would make "our" program into four courses of one of their ten-course MBAs. We were very encouraged by the response, but felt we could do better. Second approach was a large European school. The head of the department and a colleague flew to California to meet with us. On the spot, they offered to make our program an optional 20% of their online MBA. I thought there was real potential in that, but my friend really wanted the full Master's program. The discussion was challenging, and the end result was that we said no to them, followed by a parting of the ways with my friend. (We're still friends, but not considering doing business together. He is quite adamant about this being 100% of an MBA, not a part of one.) I don't know if he is pursuing things further on his own. I do suspect that if one said the 'magic' six words to all the distance MBAs on Jonnie's list -- 200+ -- there would be some takers. But, based on two out of two approaches, possibly a partial MBA involvement would be all that one could expect. It's an interesting moment, David, and I wish you well.
Thanks for the information, as always interesting and relevant. I'm going to put the outline for the program together in two parts, as a standalone Masters and as a 4 course MBA specialization. I know just a few of the deans in the online programs I've attended, I'll start with them using your "30 day" methodology. If I can't convince anyone, I'm going put it together as free professional training and develop a certificate program I'll administer myself through my company, and see what happens.
You don't have to share specific numbers but how would that deal have been worked out? Were they going to give you a lump sum for the idea or would you have gotten a cut of the tuition for everyone that enrolled into the program? Or was it a licensing type thing where they pay you something every year they have the program active?
Bazonkers: You don't have to share specific numbers but how would that deal have been worked out? Were they going to give you a lump sum for the idea or would you have gotten a cut of the tuition for everyone that enrolled into the program? Or was it a licensing type thing where they pay you something every year they have the program active? John: We were hoping for a royalty arrangement: so much for each student who enrolled in the program (if it had been a full MBA) or so much for each course enrollment (if it had been a series of courses that were part of a larger MBA program). We liked the model of the Heriot-Watt MBA. When the program was being developed in the late 1990s, new textbooks were commissioned for each of the courses: some absolutely from scratch, others were to be the authors' existing texts heavily modified for the distance learner. At the start, courses cost $500, and I think the authors got a royalty of 10%. Expectations were not all that high at the start. Our initial marketing contract had a goal of 50 US students a year. We signed up something like 800 the first year, and many thousands more in the ensuing years. Worldwide, the program reached 10,000 students within 6 or 7 years. The course author we met in Edinburgh who was driving a gold Rolls-Royce was probably not atypical. Four people have sent me private messages asking what was the six-word description of our proposed new MBA program. Jay Conrad Levinson's Guerilla Marketing MBA. _
The British school we approached was, at the time, selling its MBA courses for £800. It was they who brought up the notion of the 800-pound Guerilla.
