Reasons for Continuity and Change

Virgil R. Carter
Executive Director, ASME

This edition of ASME News features a number of important articles about ASME's ongoing process to transform itself into a 21st century global organization — a knowledge-based, market-focused, learning organization.

Why is the Society doing this? To put it simply, the ASME model of the 1970s and 1980s no longer provides a consistent basis for the organization's continued development. ASME members and customers alike have told us that changes are needed in order to provide new value and benefit. Industry has told us that ASME remains highly regarded and credible, but that often it does not help them meet new challenges. Others have said that ASME is not sufficiently global.

Virgil R. Carter

The good news is that ASME has many strong assets, and it is well positioned to address these issues. ASME is not responding because it is in trouble; the Society is responding because it has strength, and wants to sustain and expand that strength.

How will ASME change? Again, there are some simple answers: the Society will change by giving new attention to how strategic priorities are set, and by linking annual operations and budgets to achieve strategy. ASME will change by expanding participation options for members and customers, worldwide, on a 24-7 basis. ASME will change by establishing greater innovation with its core assets — knowledge, community and advocacy/representation.

ASME will also change by increasing opportunities for individual engineers, such as young engineers, by strengthening support for industry, government and academia, and by becoming a forward-looking, nimble organization that responds swiftly to new worldwide market opportunities.

Knowing What to Change
Benchmarking other great organizations that face similar challenges is helping ASME's leadership to focus attention in the right places. In his book "Good to Great," New York: HarperBusiness, 2001, respected researcher, teacher, author and management consultant Jim Collins writes, "Enduring good companies preserve their core values and purpose, while their business strategies and operating practices endlessly adapt to a changing world. This is the magical combination of preserve the core and stimulate progress through changed practices." That is what the "Change" portion of ASME's initiative is all about.

Continuity and Change
But in this initiative, continuity is also important. ASME is not changing its core values or purpose. The Society is, however, beginning to recognize the fundamental shift that is taking place toward multidisciplinary engineering and allied sciences. The change is about how ASME will be viewed in 2013: as a global gateway for engineering and scientific knowledge, advocacy and collaboration; as a forward-looking, agile organization that is responsive to the needs of the markets it serves, and as a global leader.

To achieve these important goals, ASME will have to change some of its business models and processes. Rapid technological and scientific advances will need to be anticipated and communicated. ASME will need to advocate new opportunities for knowledge and create communities for members. Global learning, innovation and entrepreneurship will need to be encouraged and fostered. Worldwide strategic partnerships and alliances will need to be strengthened.

We will also need to leverage our volunteer/staff partnership to meet the emerging needs of industry, government and academia with continual new programs and services. We will assess programs annually. Programs and activities that are of low priority will be sunset. If ASME is to generate new goods and services continuously, the assessment and sunsetting of programs will need to be done regularly.

Implementation
ASME is a complex organization that has wisely considered important changes for many years through the ASME Futures Task Force, the Committee on Issues Identification, and many other important activities that date to the late 1990s. While the recommendations comprising Continuity and Change are important and urgent, they will take time to plan and implement.

The Board of Governors is expected to make a final implementation decision in March. Thereafter, changes will be made incrementally, in an orderly manner, over more than a year.

Throughout the planning and implementation, information will be continuously available from a variety of sources, including ASME NEWS, ASME.ORG, and a series of on-site General Assemblies that will take place this month and in February. Opportunities for questions, comments and discussion are available at the General Assemblies, through the ASME Web site, as well as by direct communications with ASME volunteer leaders and staff. Maximizing access to information and commentary is a goal of the Continuity and Change initiative.

As ASME President Reggie Vachon has said, Continuity and Change is intended to make ASME better than ever — better for members, better for the engineering profession, and better for the level of leadership we seek to offer industry, government and academia. With Continuity and Change, the best — ASME — just got a chance to get even better.

Your comments are welcome. Contact me at carterv@asme.org.

 

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