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The Ohio State University College of Engineering Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering and Geodetic Science Ten-Year Strategic Plan From the Desk of the Chair At CEEGS, we are always looking forward. September 2004 Into the future. Greetings Friends, Alumni and Supporters, Beyond our decade. Hoping to better understand the challenges our students, our faculty, and our constituents Welcome to The Ohio State University’s will face. Department of Civil & Environmental Engineering & Geodetic Science Ten-Year Strategic Plan. We're focused on knowing what society will need from our craft. I am pleased to present in these pages our Not just in the next year. department’s dynamic scenarios for addressing Or the next. uncertainties and questions facing our profession But well into this new century. and our ongoing strategic goals. It represents an enormous amount of hard work and thoughtful Beyond 2010. insight from various internal and external stake- holders, including faculty, staff, students, alumni, When specialization has been replaced by engineers, scientists, policy-makers, business pro- interdependencies. fessionals and consultants. When what may seem like the smallest considerations in Ohio will have significant I am confident that our plan will greatly aid our impact across the entire globe. department in reaching and exceeding many of When even the most natural systems of our the ambitious scenarios and long-range goals society have been fully integrated into the we’ve set forth herewith. human-designed technologies that connect our lives. On behalf of our department, I would like to express our gratitude to the Board of Governor's At OSU, we're looking ahead to the time of The Ohio State University Civil Engineering when we will need to be more than planners. Alumni Association for their financial support and written endorsement of this plan. We More than designers. welcome our partnership with the Board in their More than engineers. role as monitors and oversight of our depart- Table of Contents When marketing, finance, business operations ment's quest in achieving the considered goals and communications are all integrated into of this plan. Developing a Comprehensive Vision 4 our projects. Identifying Our STEEP Forces 6 We’re looking forward to hearing from you soon, Defining Our Core Competencies 7 A time when we will need to be regarding any questions or comments you may problem solvers. have about our plan and our progress in navi- Determining Trends and Key Uncertainties 8 gating its scenarios and achieving its goals. What Is Scenario Planning? 9 Managers and business executives. The CEEGS Scenarios 10 Even policy makers. Mapping Out Our Key Success Factors 12 Oliver G. McGee III, Ph.D., M.B.A. Acknowledgements 14 At CEEGS, we are preparing tomorrow's leaders. Professor and Chair Ten-Year Strategic Plan 15 Appendix 18 The last thing on our minds was Developing a Comprehensive Vision This information was then used as input for our scenario planning – described later in this plan – to define a long- writing a document. This document details the process our task force followed term strategic vision for CEEGS. to collaboratively develop a long-range strategic plan for 1. STRATEGIC ANALYSIS During this critical phase, our team identified a number of our department, mapping out each milestone and the key When our team sat down to begin developing possible (and likely) strategic options that we felt must be decisions that were made. It also includes in the appendix a long-range strategic plan for CEEGS, our mis- considered in a comprehensive plan, as well as what strategic all of the relevant data that was collected and analyzed by External drivers would be required for success in any one of them. Key Audiences sion was to do more than put words on paper. our team. Environment This allowed us to craft a more complex strategic “blueprint” Our mission was to find a better way to define Our process involved four broad steps as illustrated by the that is capable of evolving with our department as forces and a vision and purpose. diagram on the following page. conditions in the industry change and to respond to those To build consensus – and ownership – among It began with a thorough strategic analysis of our situation changes more quickly and with greater confidence ourselves and our associates. to gather the data we needed for informed decision making, both today and in the future. To create a meaningful tool capable of including an audit of our external environment, an internal communicating those goals and objectives self-analysis and the definition of our key audiences. to our many constituents. Internal Self- Analysis This was about process. The fields of civil and environmental engineering, 2. LONG-TERM STRATEGIC VISION engineering graphics, and geodetic science are constantly evolving. What we know and what we need to know SCENARIO change and grow each day. PLANNING To be effective, a strategic vision must be able to grow and adapt, too. There is no one plan. 3. STRATEGIC OPTIONS If it’s approached and designed in that manner, it becomes obsolete as soon as it completed. Key Success Factors Part of successful long-range planning must be to learn. And, in turn, to accommodate that learning in what you are doing. 4. LONG-RANGE STRATEGIC PLAN Today and every day. Vision That was our plan. Mission And this is our story of how we accomplished it. Core Values Goals Strategies Tasks and Actions The world has never been more integrated than it is today. Defining Our Core Competencies After the STEEP forces were identified, our team evaluated And it will never be less integrated than the department’s skill set, resources and learning systems it is today. to determine the core competencies that would effectively With every advance in technology, the interde- define our position in the marketplace and differentiate CEEGS from other competitive programs. It was decided pendencies between our world systems are that these core competencies include: strengthened. • Spatial and temporal infomation processing (STIP) The problems we face as engineers and geodetic scientists become more complicated. • Planning, analysis, value engineering, and design (PAVED) And the solutions require a better understanding of the larger framework in which our social, • Earth systems engineering and sciences technical, economic, environmental, and political forces reside. CEEGS CORE COMPETENCY MODEL At CEEGS, we have embraced the principles Level of Distinctiveness of systems thinking. Required Differentiating That means, as educators, we demand an appre- ciation for not only how things work, but also Asset how they work together. Better. We are intensely focused on what makes a sys- tem greater than the sum of its individual parts. • STIP Resource Type Resource Competency • PAVED No longer can any of those parts be conceived, • Earth Systems designed or managed in a vacuum – either within the University or in our communities. Identifying Our STEEP Forces As the relationship among our core systems Define our core competencies. has grown and intensified, so has the role and To establish a historical perspective for our planning and The first step forward is sometimes responsibilities of the civil and environmental build a foundation for futuristic thinking, our team conduct- a step back. Not just what we do – and do well. But what engineers and geodetic scientists. ed a series of focus groups to examine the social, technical, makes us unique. environmental, economical, and political – the STEEP – forces No one – person or institution – can effectively This is a new approach in our profession. One, that have shaped our world over the past three decades. Our goal was – and is – to identify and cultivate in our opinion, that's long overdue. plan for the future without having a solid our strengths. These findings were then compared to the results of The foundation to stand upon. Wharton School’s Advanced Management Program (AMP36), Protect the investment that those who came We need an understanding of how the body It requires a new perspective and a new type which had conducted a similar exercise, to validate the before us made in our program. of knowledge we have was collected. of engineer and scientist. observations and gain additional insights. In addition to providing interesting points of comparison, the data helped Develop a healthy respect for those who These roots are what will give us the confidence us broaden our views of the industrial/business sector. created it. to branch out into new areas in the coming This understanding of historical events was vital in helping And then work to incorporate these traditions years. us look out into the future and debate what STEEP forces that helped shape our profession and our we may face over the next 10 years, adding a futuristic They provide the strength to feed and to grow department into our daily approach. perspective to our planning and laying the groundwork for our vision. identifying critical trends and uncertainties. The complete data culled from these sessions has been When we began our strategic planning process Our roots form the basis of our work and included in the Appendix of this document, “Summary of in September 2001, our first objective was to our approach. Focus Group Findings” (page 18). take stock in what we've done. Determining Trends and Key Uncertainties One plan can’t negotiate the uncer- No College, University or Academic Unit can tainties of today’s world. operate in an Ivory Tower. From the data collected in our focus groups and our assess- ment of the next ten years, the core CEEGS planning team worked to identify the trends and uncertainties that would To be successful, you need a way to cope with No program can succeed without an awareness ultimately influence our strategic options.

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