Innovation Update


December 12, 2010

Excellence through innovation

By Jamie L. Freedman

In a briefing before the GW Faculty Senate on Friday, Innovation Task Force Steering Committee co-chairmen David Lawlor and Jeffrey Lenn reported that $17.5 million in savings and new revenue has now been identified toward the initiative’s $60 million goal.

The new total represents a substantial leap forward from the $2.8 million in ITF revenue enhancements and savings announced in May. “Of the $17.5 million, $4.7 million will be budgeted for investment in the university’s top academic priorities in FY 2011 and $6.3 million will be budgeted in FY 2012,” said Mr. Lawlor, senior associate vice president for finance.

According to Mr. Lawlor, $11.5 million of the $17.5 million total derives from the upcoming implementation of the top six innovation ideas generated by the GW community in phase one of the initiative—expanding hybrid courses, consolidating GW’s procurement process through strategic sourcing, expanding study abroad, implementing a telecommuting policy, creating an in-house GW Temp Agency and leased space reduction.

“In terms of savings realized so far, the largest savings come from leveraging costs through strategic sourcing,” he said, noting that $6.3 million in savings have been identified through strategic sourcing to date. The university’s Federal Express costs, for example, were recently reduced by 30 percent without changing business processes. “By creating an in-house Temp Agency at GW, we can probably cut about 40 percent of the dollars we have been spending on temps,” he adds.

The ITF Exploration Committee is now soliciting, evaluating and prioritizing a large number of additional innovation proposals with the goal of identifying the next set of top ideas to move forward on. “We have a six by six process underway,” Dr. Lenn, associate vice president for academic operations, told the Faculty Senate.

“Every six months for the next four years, we will select the next six top innovation ideas to move on and develop implementation plans for them.”

The Innovation Task Force, launched last year, is a university-wide effort to take the university to the next level through innovation. The initiative, announced by President Steven Knapp in November 2009, calls for GW to increase its investment in academic priorities by a perpetual rate of $60 million per year by 2014.

All savings and new revenues accrued toward the initiative’s $60 million will be banked in the university’s Innovation Fund—which is separate from GW’s general operating budget. The fund will fuel a wide range of programs aimed at increasing academic and research excellence across GW. So far, $500,000 from the ITF pool has been allocated to doubling the number of undergraduate academic advisers at the Columbian College of Arts and Sciences.

Provost Steven Lerman is currently consulting with deans throughout the university to determine top ITF funding priorities for the coming year. Updating the group on the process for allocating ITF funds, he said, “I asked each of our deans to report their school’s highest priorities for the next school year, which has yielded a very long and expansive list of potential things to fund. Our intent is to reinvest the ITF funds in top priorities that represent long-term investments in the quality of GW’s academic mission—from new programs and faculty lines to improving the student experience. We have an exciting list of ideas that I think will really contribute to the advancement of GW.”

Mr. Lawlor stated, “It has been a very exciting year. The passion has been pronounced, and we’re looking forward to keeping the momentum going through the next phases of the initiative.”