Enterprise Development
Advancing strategic partnerships with leading companies
Enterprise Development initiates and incubates strategic collaborations between ASU and a focused set of influential companies. Working in close coordination with leaders across the ASU public enterprise, we align ASU’s charter and capabilities with a company's strategic business goals to build partnerships for sustained impact.
How we work
Enterprise Development helps move promising company relationships from early interest to coordinated action. We do this by connecting senior leaders, clarifying shared priorities, and coordinating across the ASU public enterprise.
Pathways for collaboration
Enterprise Development works with ASU units to align partner priorities with university capabilities.
InStride and workforce education partnerships
Enterprise Development works closely with InStride, a public benefit company co-founded by ASU to adapt education and training offerings to specific business needs at scale.
In 2014, Starbucks and Arizona State University launched a groundbreaking partnership to expand access to higher education.
Building on this success and ASU’s vision of increasing access to education at scale, ASU co-founded InStride in 2019 to extend these opportunities to more working adults.
Today, InStride tailors ASU’s learning assets into strategic education and skilling solutions that upskill and reskill employees to fuel mobility, strengthen retention, and deliver measurable business impact.
Enterprise Development works with corporate partners, InStride, and academic units across ASU to identify where workforce education partnerships can support employer goals.
1M+ learners.
75 enterprise partners.
ASU and InStride are redefining workforce development through education at scale.
Enterprise collaboration examples
Enterprise Development helps advance company relationships with potential for broad, charter-aligned collaboration across the ASU public enterprise. The examples below reflect work advanced in partnership with colleagues, units, and leaders across the university.
Case study examples:
Context
As organizations navigate rapid workforce transformation driven by AI, automation, and changing talent expectations, McKinsey and ASU identified an opportunity to convene leaders around the future of work-integrated learning. The summit was designed to explore how higher education and industry can collaborate to better prepare talent at scale.
How we partnered
Enterprise Development team helped align stakeholders across ASU, including Work + Learn teams and Public Enterprise Leadership, to shape a coordinated engagement with McKinsey. Together, the teams designed a multi-session summit experience focused on how work-integrated learning will better prepare students for new workforce.
Impact
The summit convened university presidents, Fortune 500 corporate executives, federal and state workforce officials, leaders of major philanthropies and EdTech innovators to address an urgent question: How do we make work-integrated learning available at scale? The summit explored the contours of the challenge nationwide and the roles individual organizations as well as cross-sector collaborators can play in addressing the challenge of scale, building upon the innovative work by those attending and beyond. Read more here.
Context
As healthcare organizations navigate AI disruption, workforce transformation, and rising pressure to improve outcomes while lowering costs, Cigna and ASU identified an opportunity to build a broader strategic partnership. Initial conversations focused on executive AI upskilling, workforce development, and long-term collaboration across healthcare innovation initiatives.
How we partnered
Enterprise Development convened stakeholders across ASU, including W. P. Carey, InStride, ASU Health, Learning Enterprise, and executive leadership, to align university capabilities with Cigna’s strategic priorities. Together, the teams launched multiple AI in Action workshops for senior leaders while also shaping long-term pathways in health innovation, workforce development, executive education, and applied research.
Impact
Seven AI in Action executive workshop were delivered or scheduled within five months. The collaboration also established a foundation for broader enterprise engagement, including workforce upskilling, health innovation initiatives, and talent pipeline development.
Context
As demand for copper and other critical minerals accelerates alongside growth in AI, advanced manufacturing, and electrification, Freeport-McMoRan and ASU identified an opportunity to strengthen domestic resource competitiveness through innovation, workforce development, and applied research. Together, the organizations are exploring how Arizona’s mining expertise and ASU’s cross-disciplinary capabilities can help modernize the future of mining.
How we partnered
Enterprise Development helped coordinate collaboration across ASU units including Ira A. Fulton Schools of Engineering, School of Earth and Space Exploration, W. P. Carey School of Business, Knowledge Enterprise and ASU Foundation to align university expertise with Freeport’s strategic priorities. The partnership spans AI-enabled mining research, workforce and onboarding innovation, and curriculum development.
Impact
Within a year, the collaboration advanced multiple initiatives into implementation, including sponsored research in material classification by FSE, a 12-month plan to refine onboarding process by WPC, and a virtual field trip and labs developed by SESE. Read more here.
Context
Labcorp faced a growing shortage of cytology workforce, a highly specialized workforce essential to cancer screenings and diagnostics. In response, ASU’s College of Health Solutions launched an innovative partnership with Labcorp and inStride that provides training to build the workforce tomorrow.
How we partnered
Enterprise Development helped connect leaders across ASU, InStride, and Labcorp to align workforce needs with academic expertise. Through executive engagement, and cross-functional collaboration, the partnership evolved from a shared challenge into the design and launch of a new graduate program tailored to industry demand.
Impact
In less than six months, ASU, Labcorp, and InStride launched a first-of-its-kind online Master of Science in Cytology, creating a new pathway to address a critical national workforce shortage. The program enrolled its first cohort of Labcorp employees and established a model for future industry-driven education and workforce development partnerships. Read more here.
Context
As a global leader in sport, innovation, and consumer engagement, adidas sought to deepen its connection with ASU beyond a traditional sponsorship model. Together, the organizations explored how research, education, talent development, and innovation could advance the future of sport while addressing broader issues such as sustainability, human potential, and consumer insights.
How we partnered
Enterprise Development coordinated adidas Campus Week, bringing together partners across W. P. Carey, Herberger Institute, ASU 365 Community Union, and other university stakeholders. adidas executives engaged directly with students through classroom visits, career panels, consumer research activities, and discussions on trends shaping the future of sport, culture, and business.
Impact
More than 200 ASU students participated in learning and career engagement opportunities during Adidas Campus Week, gaining direct access to industry leaders and real-world insights. The event strengthened the strategic relationship between ASU and adidas while showcasing how university-industry partnerships can create meaningful connections among education, research, talent development, and innovation. Learn more about adidas partnership here.
When to engage Enterprise Development
Enterprise Development is designed to support relationships with the potential to grow into broad, strategic collaboration across ASU.
Engage us when:
- A senior company leader is interested in a broad relationship with ASU
- A company is exploring a strategic challenge and needs help navigating ASU’s capabilities
- A potential collaboration requires coordination across multiple areas of the university
- A relationship could grow beyond a single project, sponsorship, or transaction
Enterprise Development works in partnership with the ASU units closest to each opportunity, helping coordinate early-stage strategy, executive engagement, and next steps.
Enterprise Development team
Enterprise Development sits within the Office of the Chief Operating Officer and works closely with leaders across the ASU public enterprise.
Tell us about your goals
To discuss a potential enterprise collaboration or connect with the Enterprise Development team, please contact:
Email: [email protected]