Ep. 103 - Jenny Petty: The Alignment Gap That's Bankrupting Higher Ed Marketing

Jeff Dillon talks to Jenny Petty, Vice President of Industry Relations and Advisory Services at Simpson Scarborough, who has spent over a decade inside higher ed—most recently as VP of Marketing Communications at the University of Montana, where she helped reverse a decade‑long enrollment decline. Jenny brings a rare combination of private‑sector marketing experience (including growing a Facebook community from under 200 to over 1 million at IGT, working with brands like Dolly Parton and Family Guy) and deep institutional knowledge.

Jenny doesn't hold back. She argues that many CMOs are operating from fear disguised as prudence—dressing up inaction as "getting more buy‑in" or "the campus isn't ready." She challenges the instinct to centralize everything when things feel chaotic, warning that org chart changes often mask deeper alignment problems. She introduces the concept of "alignment debt"—the organizational equivalent of technical debt—that compounds quietly until it becomes one of the most expensive problems an institution faces.

For anyone leading marketing, enrollment, or institutional strategy, this episode offers both a diagnosis of what's broken and a framework—assess, align, activate—for actually fixing it.

Key Takeaways

Fear Disguised as Prudence Is Holding Marketing Back: Many CMOs are afraid—afraid of exposure, afraid of making a public mistake. That fear gets dressed up as "getting more buy‑in" or "socializing the idea more." The result is inaction. The institutions that need to change most are the ones that can least afford to wait.

Alignment Debt Is the New Technical Debt: Just like technical debt, unresolved misalignment in people, processes, and decision rights compounds quietly until it becomes one of the most expensive problems an institution faces. It shows up in missed enrollment goals, budget crises, and systems that break at the worst possible moment.

The Scope of the CMO Role Has Become Unmanageable: Job descriptions for higher ed CMOs read like seven jobs in one—crisis communicator, media relations, digital transformation lead, enrollment partner, and more. Marketing can't fix problems with the academic portfolio, pricing, or leadership misalignment. That's not a marketing problem—it's an institutional problem.

Political Savvy Is Necessary—But It Can Become Self‑Protection: You have to be political in these jobs. But the moment political maneuvering starts protecting your own position instead of serving the mission, it stops b