Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to provide concepts and strategies to successfully introduce and implement curricular change; especially, related to incorporating diversity management into academic programs. Design/methodology/approach: Utilizing documents and accounts from two agents involved in the change process and an outside observer, an inductive-deductive approach is applied employing concepts of exploration and exploitation from the organizational innovation literature in order to describe a 12-month process and the resultant curriculum at a major European university. Findings: The paper demonstrates the importance of external conditions, organizational structures and their relationship to strategies that balance exploration and exploitation to graft a new academic concentration to existing academic programs. Practical implications: The paper offers concepts, strategies, and lessons to assist colleges and universities to assess the internal and external organizational environment and the availability of resources and to plan approaches to successfully introduce and develop curricular change around sensitive topics such as diversity, gender, equality. Originality/value: This paper is the first to apply George March's work on organizational exploration and exploitation to curricular change. It offers valuable information for those seeking to create a more inclusive curriculum. (Contains 1 table and 6 notes.)