CA-based Association for Strategic Planning commends agency for strategic practices

The Federal Aviation Administration has been given an award that recognizes it as an organization “at the leading edge of strategic practice” by the Association for Strategic Planning, a California-based professional association dedicated to advancing strategic thought, development and practice. The Association awarded the FAA’s Flight Plan 2004 – 2008 its prestigious 2004 Richard Goodman Strategic Planning Award for continuing excellence in strategic planning and stimulating innovation in the strategic planning process.

“This award and other recent recognition should change perceptions that it is not business as usual at the FAA,” said FAA Administrator Marion C. Blakey. “The FAA’s Flight Plan charts a course toward working smarter, faster, and being held accountable for results.”

Non-profit and government applicants for the award were evaluated by a panel of Association for Strategic Planning judges drawn from corporate and academic specialists in strategy and management. The FAA’s Flight Plan was selected based on several key criteria, including competency in strategy formulation; utilization of industry trends; knowledge and use of customer data; realization of strategic goals; application of earlier lessons; innovation; and use of performance measures to determine successes.

Updated yearly and matched to a specific budget, the FAA Flight Plan for 2004-2008 sets measurable goals and initiatives to achieve increased aviation safety, greater airspace capacity, international leadership, and organizational excellence. The FAA Flight Plan supports directly the Department of Transportation’s Strategic Plan and the President’s Management Agenda. Further, each FAA office has standardized and linked its respective annual business plan to the Flight Plan. A computerized tracking tool not only monitors the status of each Flight Plan objective, but also promotes agency transparency by allowing the public to track the FAA’s progress on its web site.

Founded in 1999, with chapters in San Francisco, Los Angeles, and San Diego, the not-for-profit Association for Strategic Planning is made up of expert strategists from academia and the private sector. The association explores cutting-edge strategy principles and practices that enhance organizational success and advance organizations’ knowledge, capability, capacity for innovation, and professionalism.

The FAA Assistant Administrator for Policy, Planning and Environment, Sharon L. Pinkerton, accepted the award for the agency at the Association’s annual Strategy in Action Conference in Los Angeles on November 8. Previous Richard Goodman Strategic Planning Award winners include the Computer Science Department of the California State Polytechnic University Pomona in 2003, the Los Angeles County Department of Public Works and Qlogic Corp. in 2002, and The Townsend Agency in 2001.

FMI: www.faa.gov/AboutFAA/FlightPlan.cfm, www.strategyplus.org