The Strategic Direction of ASEM

Discussion points relating to the strategic direction of the American Society for Engineering Management:

I came up with a more unifying theme that gets around this segmentation issue. Historically engineering has been very vertical - - you get these vertical cylinders of knowledge with little interchange or interaction across disciplines. I really think organizations and the public have wised up to this problem - - the future is for engineering and engineers to be much better at systems thinking and multi-disciplinary in their problem solving and management. The development of horizontal thinking and management is the future.

That is where ASEM steps in – the mechanism that goes outside the traditional boundaries and helps the engineer and manager to start making the horizontal connections. Not just networking with another civil - - but “uber-networking” - - the opportunity to connect and interface with other disciplines, leaders and ideas. That is a powerful idea and message with respect to the future.

Can you imagine a local ASEM chapter in the DFW area that brought together the leaders within the various engineering disciplines - - civil, mechanical, petroleum, electrical, industrial, etc, - - no other organization exists at the management level.

One quick point - - - I see my "primary" professional organizations as ASCE, SAME and INCOSE (I have a doctorate in EM and MBA and a MS in Systems Engineering) - - - however, I always think in terms of being a civil engineer. I am sure a mechanical engineer who is an engineering manager or who has an EM degree probably thinks in terms of being a mechanical engineer. Not initially in terms of being an EM.

To network, grow and enhance the organization - - I am going to take the brochure to a SAME meeting or an ASCE meeting or an Engineers without Borders meeting and hand it out to other members and friends. The point is that brochure needs to convince the civil or mechanical engineer that there is value in joining another engineering organization. No one is going to cancel a membership in ASCE to join ASEM. The secondary organization is probably going to always be ASEM. The problem is that civils want to hear about civil management issues and chemicals want to hear about chemical management issues - - you end up having to really segment the brochure message and information. Really need a unifying theme to all this - - something like engineering management is universal. And most engineers are not going to buy into this - - because the basic engineering disciplines are already highly segmented in the first place.

I think my ASCE membership runs $350 per year - - the ASEM is what $90. Most companies are going to pay the primary ($350) - - the ASEM is coming from their own pockets. What do they get from ASEM that they don't get from ASCE? Kind of the $90 question!!