Position Statement
1. INCREASE VALUE TO OUR MEMBERS, OUR PROFESSION AND THE PUBLIC
Aristotle has something to contribute here – it is the intersection and collaboration of all of the individual elements of IEEE that provides the most value – the whole being greater than the sum of the parts.
The whole is greater than the sum of its parts - Aristotle
Fundamentally, its about the problem space and solution and not artificial boundaries. I will work tirelessly to integrate the totality of what IEEE has to offer to make our products, value and impact even greater. The merits of this approach have already been proven in our Metropolitan Area Workshops, providing valuable professional education and certification to support the professional needs of practitioners in an increasingly challenging and competitive job market. We must expand this type of offering for practitioners who continue to be an underserved population within IEEE.
Collaboration is Key
- For Our Members
- Tailored products and services – integrating social networking and collaboration tools with information discovery platforms
- Focus on products for the practitioner
- Career security
- For Our Profession
- Public policies that support the profession
- For The Public
- Strengthen IEEE’s brand recognition
- Increase IEEE’s influence
Some Recent Success Stories … to build on …
– Metropolitan Area Workshops, Smart Grid, Life Sciences, Smart Cities, Rebooting Computing, …
Because professionals have less time, we must create and deliver knowledge rather than just information. Additionally, supporting communities – technical and professional – is at the very heart of serving the needs of our members. I will foster an environment that is nimble and will allow nearly effortless creation and support of emerging communities. I will pursue modern collaborative tools to facilitate these communities for our members. Our focus on enabling effective communities must also include our local geographic communities.
2. 21ST CENTURY BUSINESS MODEL
We need to grow – globally – period. We must engage emerging markets, under-served markets and mature markets. Practitioners are critical to IEEE’s growth and future vitality and viability. I will aggressively pursue new revenue streams – Open Access is one example that provides an opportunity – our focus on peer reviewed archival journal papers needs to expand to embrace new information distribution, collaboration and sharing modalities – combining papers with videos, databases, simulation tools, wikis and others. This new model simultaneously provides an opportunity to support the needs of traditional academics and researchers but also practitioners.
We must develop tailored products and services that are customized to the needs of the individual – one-size does not fit all. Because the professional needs of a software engineer in Bangalore are different from those of a software engineer in Boston, we must first understand the differences and then serve the professional needs of each. The Regional Geographic Strategy has been successfully applied to focus on the unique circumstances and commonality of the local geographic region to improve membership value and drive recruitment and retention. This approach must be expanded to provide even greater impact and member value.
Global Growth
– Grow everywhere
– Emerging markets in Asia, South America and Africa
– Underserved markets in United States and other mature markets
– Focus on practitioners worldwide
New Modalities of Information Distribution
– Combining papers with videos, databases, simulation tools, wikis and others.
– Opportunity to focus on practitioners needs
3. A MORE NIMBLE AND INNOVATIVE IEEE
Innovation is both a technological and a human enterprise: one which IEEE is uniquely positioned to exploit. In order to identify and respond to potentially disruptive innovations, we must promote a culture that encourages innovation and risk taking. IEEE can benefit from the addition of a skunkworks or innovation engine that proactively identifies disruptions and innovations. I will foster an environment of collaboration and innovation across the entirety of the IEEE and provide the mechanism to more quickly move into new technical areas, adopt new engagement technologies and modalities and ultimately lead change rather than follow.
...skate to where the puck is going to be, not where it has been
- Wayne Gretzky
Create a Structure and Culture of Innovation
– Create an organizational structure to proactively identify new markets and potentially disruptive innovations
– Develop a culture that encourages diversity, experimentation, risk-taking, and collaboration
Build Strategic Partnerships
– Other professional societies, industry, academia, and even possibly governments