ODP/TAMU is faced with a number of challenges that will require a variety of
adjustments during the coming year. We have successfully responded to the first of
these challenges--new budgetary rules and requirements set by the Budget
Committee (BCOM). At the direction of BCOM, we have significantly reduced our
base budget (core services) by more than $1 million by reducing expense categories
across the board (e.g., travel, training, inventory, maintenance, equipment, software,
shipping, library, and staff). These savings provided resources that were set aside to
support programmatic enhancements and innovations, also known as Special
Operating Expenses (SOEs), such as engineering development projects, upgrades in
our shipboard laboratories, and new data management capabilities. This has been a
difficult process requiring a great deal of time and effort by many as they responded
to new requirements to vigorously define and ascertain the costs for the full range of
services that we provide. Excellent lessons were learned, however, because at a
time of budget austerity throughout the federal government, this kind of budget
definition will be an essential component of the new way that ODP/TAMU will
operate. The Budget Committee has approved more than $2.8 million in proposed
projects that will contribute to enhanced capabilities across our operation. At a time
of constrained funding, our total proposed budget for FY97 is only 1.76% below
FY96.
This recently met demand to redefine our budget is only the first of a series of
challenges designed to focus resources on the achievement of the most significant
science objectives in the most efficient and cost-effective fashion. I can identify at
least three challenges that loom on the horizon, all waiting to test our capacity for
change.
The advisory structure of ODP/TAMU has stated that the Program will incorporate
the principles of project management as an operational paradigm. Our incorporation
of project management will be phased over approximately 2½ years, starting this
summer. Our plan is to start with those project elements that we can seamlessly
incorporate into our operation. We have been given the task of defining the way in
which project management will be applied to our activities, and the managers have
already spent several days working with a consultant on a number of project
management models that can be incorporated. These models will be introduced to
many of our staff for evaluation and modification during three two-day seminars that
are scheduled in May and June in College Station. I believe that project management
will be a great asset for us because it will integrate and streamline our activities
both within and between our functionally defined departments. In my first nine
months at ODP/TAMU, I have become convinced, both from direct observation and
from discussions, that over the years ODP/TAMU has become too
compartmentalized by functional responsibilities. Program management techniques
will help us communicate and operate more effectively through the creation of teams
that are dedicated to specific projects.
To help plan for, and adapt to, future programmatic requirements, ODP/TAMU will
have to develop a Five-Year Strategic Plan (FYSP). We have not as yet designed a
FYSP developmental strategy in detail, but we anticipate engaging in this activity
during the next few months and look forward to receiving ideas from everyone in the
organization. Copies of the Long-Range Science Plan have arrived and been
distributed to all interested parties. The Long-Range Science Plan will be a keystone
in deliberations about how our service elements should be configured in the future.
The creation of a five-year plan will identify a set of programmatic goals that we
want to achieve. These goals will, in turn, serve as guideposts that will define the
course for ODP/TAMU through the turn of the century. With our priorities
established, it will then be incumbent on ODP/TAMU to establish whether our
presently defined organizational framework best addresses the demands outlined in
our five-year plan. This exercise in institutional evaluation is probably the most
challenging task that an organization can face, and it will require resolve and
wisdom to find the best solution for ODP/TAMU.
ODP/TAMU must triumph over these challenges if it
is to succeed beyond 1998 and into the 21st century.
To do this, we must strive to identify cost-effective
and innovative ways to provide our services. Our
historical operational models have served us well in
the past, creating an outstanding record of service
during ODP/TAMU's first decade, but these models
are not necessarily the way to proceed at a time of restrained funding. Let us not ask
how the past can condition our future, but rather ask how can we adopt new
strategies to improve on our past.
Paul J. Fox
Director of Science Operations
Ocean Drilling Program
College Station, Texas
