By Jamie L. Freedman
GW’s Innovation Task Force is moving into full swing, spearheaded by a 13-member steering committee, chaired by Associate Vice President for Academic Affairs Jeffrey Lenn, and two working groups—one focusing on business processes and the other on academic innovation.
The business processes group, led by co-chairs Dave Lawlor, senior associate vice president for finance, and Kathy Newcomer, director of the Trachtenberg School of Public Policy and Public Administration, is hard at work generating, evaluating and prioritizing novel ideas to enhance business operations at GW.
“Our goal is to identify innovations in the way the University does business that represent both quality improvements and efficiencies,” says Dr. Newcomer, whose group comprises faculty, staff and students from across the University. “It’s not simply about saving money. It’s about coming up with win-win scenarios to strengthen the quality of the experience across the board for students, alumni, parents, faculty, and staff at The George Washington University.”
The 18-member committee, which meets biweekly, has given rise to a number of subcommittees, one focusing on idea-generation methods and others concentrating on specific categories of ideas, such as energy, information technology, student services and procurement. “We also put together an analytical support team that spends 16 to 20 hours per idea conducting a preliminary analysis of the facts and generating one-page briefing documents which are then brought back to the committee for further discussion,” Mr. Lawlor says.
“It is commendable that they are able to do such robust analysis on a very tight time frame that allow us to evaluate the merits of the ideas that come before us. Our objective is to have at least 50 rank-ordered ideas to present to the steering committee, and ultimately the presidential cabinet this spring.”
One of the business processes group’s early accomplishments was developing a detailed, multi-pronged idea vetting process that initially measures proposals against an eight-criterion matrix. Criteria range from whether or not ideas align with GW’s strategic goals to whether they minimize disruption to current successful business processes.
The group is seeking input from every sector of the GW community on ways to make the University’s business operations more effective, efficient, and innovative. “The more ideas we can garner, the better,” Mr. Lawlor says. “We’re calling upon the entire GW community to support us by submitting their ideas to the Innovation Task Force’s electronic suggestion box at innovation.gwu.edu.
“We want to be as inclusive and comprehensive as possible in our search to find the best processes that will improve the GW experience for all our various stakeholders,” Dr. Newcomer adds.
Mr. Lawlor says that it’s an opportune time to embark upon a project of this scope. “Unlike many other universities that are forced to save to maintain operations in the face of financial hardship, we are in the fortunate position of being able to take on this important and timely initiative to invest in the critical missions of the University in a substantial and lasting way,” he says.
“My partners on the business process team are an inspiring group of experts in their respective fields,” he adds. “From day one, they have embraced our charter in a constructive, insightful and creative manner. We’ve gathered momentum and will surely accomplish the mission set before us.”
Business Processes Working Group Members
Beth Amundson, Registrar
Lynsay Belshe, Senior Advisor to the Executive Vice President & Treasurer
Chris Brooks, Presidential Administrative Fellow
Meghan Chapple-Brown, Director of the Office of Sustainability
Edward Cherian, Professor of Information Systems
Brendan Curran, Student Representative
Adam Donaldson, Manager, Business Management & Analysis Group
Jennifer Joslin, Staff for Business Processes Working Group
Frederick Joutz, Professor of Economics
Michael King, Chair of the Department of Chemistry
Dave Lawlor, Senior Associate Vice President for Finance
Thomas Mazzuchi, Chair of the Department of Engineering Management and Systems Engineering
Tom Morrison, Associate Dean, Law School
Kathy Newcomer, Director, Trachtenberg School of Public Policy and Public Administration
Alicia O’Neill, Senior Associate Vice President of Operations
Andrea Stewart, Library Representative
Roger Whitaker, Professor of Higher Education
Phil Wirtz, Professor of Decision Sciences and Psychology