Which strategy are you using?

So which are you playing, offense or defense?  Given what has been happening in the economy, every natural impulse would be to fall back on the defense, to figure out how to hunker down, scale back, and otherwise lay low.  But, this may be the most critical time of all to be on offense, especially about making sure every parent in your school understands the value proposition on offer, that the educational program, mission and way money gets spent all align, that any programmatic weak spots are promptly fixed, and that your marketing is in high gear.

Many factors will correlate with which schools emerge from the downturn in robust and thriving shape. Some are uncontrollable at this point--pure random luck, blessed geography, not being too dependent on troubled sectors such as financial services, among others.  Maybe the biggest factor, if past experience in downturns is any indication, is controllable; it is the willingness to go on offense, to tell one's story, raise funds, make data-driven bets about what matters most to your customers.

So, offense or defense.  Which will it be?  Oh, and keep in mind that it's one or the other, the middle ground is just another way of playing defense (badly).