Higher education is facing a series of tough questions: (1) Is its business model broken beyond repair?; (2) How can costs that are fast outpacing median family income be reined in?; (3) How can higher education demonstrate that students are getting the quality education they expect and deserve?; and (4) Is higher education competing in ways that lower costs, increase access, and improve quality? The answers are difficult to determine, and higher education has few precedents from its past on which to draw. It may be better served by board members and other college leaders looking outside its boundaries to other sectors. Higher education shares some important characteristics with the health-care sector. Both are dominated by large cadres of highly educated staff, have complex bottom lines, are market-driven and strongly influenced by public policy, and are made up of value-driven organizations. Some of the insights that higher education can gain from health care include: (1) flawed systems generate flawed results; (2) the focus should be on needs, costs, and undervalued services; (3) wisdom comes from customers; (4) change is driven by hard facts; and (5) balancing demands with purpose is most important. (Contains 1 online resource.)