In recent years, university leaders have had to strategically adapt to an increasingly challenging landscape in higher education. Business schools in particular have had to develop new initiatives to promote growth and provide students with the requisite skills needed to succeed in the 21st century. This paper is a case study of one business school’s ability to lead change by way of visionary leadership and through the use of advisory councils as key stakeholders. The case focuses on Saint Leo University’s promotion of stakeholder engagement and its strategic use of advisory councils. The paper applies a five-stage stakeholder engagement model to explain the case of Saint Leo’s business school’s stakeholder engagement. The paper concludes that a multi-stage stakeholder approach involving advisory council engagement can help provide strategic leadership and help promote the growth and success of a business school. Furthermore, the stakeholder-oriented approach to advisory council engagement can be applied to other higher education institutions as well as to organizations in other sectors.
Keywords: Stakeholders, Advisory councils, Leadership, Strategy, Business schools.