attended a corporate governance training session last week. This is not my first training update and although important to keep current, there is generally not much that changes your perspective. During the strategic planning portion our instructor gave us an example of “looking around the corner” as a Board to anticipate business changing threats. The example was from her experience on the Board of a heavy construction, bridge building, rock crushing company. During their planning it was suggested that a potential opportunity and threat was 3D printing. How is that even a topic of interest for such an industry? Well it turns out that 3D printing also called additive manufacturing (AM) refers to a process used to create three dimensional object-layers of material formed under computer control to form an object. A picture of a robot building a bridge was shown on the screen. Indeed, this technology was printing a bridge with the extrusion of molten metal by a robot. Although not commercially feasible today, it will be, missing any game changing development could spell the end of your company. If you have some spare time you can learn about the printing of everything from human organs to car parts. If we can just live long enough perhaps they can print a new and improved version of us!
I have learned a lot during my Higher Education task force work. The committee is intended to encourage innovative thinking and future visioning with best practices-scaling up what is working while considering new approaches. An integrated system that rewards collaboration and is agnostic to which delivery channel you choose while making credit interchangeable. The goal is to add 40,000 students to the 25-34 age group achieving one, two or four year degrees. This needs to happen by 2024 to meet the State’s 60% goal. Although the State funded public institutions can expand, it will take a multi faceted approach. I started with looking “around the corner thinking” and it will take that mind set to change and take the State of Idaho’s Higher Education system to the new level. Higher Education leadership is actively involved in the group and have added great insight as we look at alternatives.
Thomas Edison said “there is a way to do it better-find it.” Sage observation in our everyday world. Couple that advise with this anonymous thought “it is not about ideas, it’s about making ideas happen.” Implementation is a skill set we can all improve upon.
Enjoy the week end. Mike