practice his preferred activities while staying focused and aligned. This is something that Darren has witnessed many organizations struggle with: performing all the required tasks in coordination while maintaining alignment to deliver on Strategic objectives.
Training for Ironman races has taught Darren a lot about the importance of having a vision, setting goals, developing a strategy and plan, and executing the plan according to the strategy. Also important for him is constantly measuring his performance to continuously improve while at the same time doing as much research as possible. Darren is always ready to change and to adapt while leveraging new tools and techniques to achieve the right balance, discipline, and consistency required for success.
Step 4: Strategic Asset Management Planning
It is a beautiful Sunday, a little chilly outside. Debbie and Darren just came back from their morning swimming session. They have been doing this routine for years and enjoy waking up early and having their workout. Debbie is a petite woman but very physically fit. Typical Sunday breakfast consists of lemon juice, half an avocado with honey, toasted brown bread with a boiled egg and cheese, half a banana, and a big cup of tea. They enjoy chatting and watching the news as they have breakfast. After breakfast, it is time for some household chores.
By around eleven o’clock Darren makes himself comfortable in the family room, switches on the TV, and selects a movie. He then fires up his laptop and starts catching up on some of the draft papers from his students. One of them— written by Neel, a brilliant student in his second year—caught his attention. The title of the paper is “Why Physical Asset Management Plans Fail,” and it talks about some of the reasons why organizations are not successful in implementing their asset management plans and fail to realize the best value from their portfolio of physical assets.
One of the key factors cited is a lack of strategy in organizations to operationalize their asset management plans. It talks about the importance of having an asset management strategy and asserts that organizations are in such a hurry to put together their asset management plans, they forget to consider the strategies needed to implement them. In his paper, Neel goes to great lengths to explain what an asset management strategy is and what should be included in it. He references ISO 55002’s definition of a strategic asset management plan:
Documented information that specifies how organizational objectives are to be converted into asset management objectives, the approach for developing asset management plans, and the role of the asset management system in supporting achievement of the asset management objectives.
Darren continues reading the paper, as it is really very well written and makes very much sense in the context of how organizations should be managing physical assets. Darren believes that a few sections like the ones below will be very beneficial to share with Jerry the next time they meet. The sections explain the purpose of a strategic asset management plan (SAMP):
The SAMP sets out a strategic framework that guides future assetrelated initiatives to support the organization’s strategic plan. The plan documents and specifies how the organizational objectives are to be converted into asset management objectives, the approach to develop asset management plans, and the strategies to build and support an asset management system. It helps organizations to set up a framework to be able to make fact-based decisions regarding the building, operating, maintaining, renewing, replacing, and disposing of physical assets to maximize benefits, manage risk, and provide satisfactory levels of service.
In the draft paper, Neel goes on to explain why organizations sometimes fail to implement their physical asset management plan:
Organizations spend time and money preparing fancy binders of asset management plans which end up sitting on shelves collecting dust. The plans are sometimes not executed because of a lack of strategy.
He also explains that it is important to differentiate between strategy and plan:
A business is managed through the development and execution of strategies and plans. An organization may have a plan to roll out a new product. Research, design, manufacturing, marketing, and sales will all happen at specific times according to the plan. The new product will continue to go through the same process, but behind the plan there is a strategy for the new product to be innovative, with an improved design, manufactured with the latest technology, and targeting a certain market to ensure it becomes a success. Why is the same approach not applied to managing physical assets?
Neel clarifies the confusion that exists between the terms “strategy” and “plan,” which are often mistakenly used interchangeably. He explains:
A plan is usually a list of steps taken to accomplish a goal and tackles questions like what, when, who, etc. A plan is always a good thing to have in place to be successful, but it should not be the first step in addressing a task (Figure 3.1).
FIGURE 3.1 Strategy and plan.
A strategy, on the other hand, is bigger than a plan. Strategy tackles the question of why. It has a large scope and looks at the end result as well as the many paths to the desired outcome. Strategy speaks to the reasons why, whereas the plan is focused on how.
A strategy is an overarching framework, a high-level, big-picture, and long-term approach that spans across the whole organization. Given that physical asset management does impact many functional areas in an organization, it makes total sense that a strategy in some form is critical and should come before any physical asset management plan. A well-crafted and well-communicated strategy will achieve consistency and promote collaboration, two key aspects for successful implementation of physical asset management plans.
While reading the paper, Darren starts to realize that this is absolutely true when he looks back at how he actually approached his first Ironman race. He remembers setting the goal and developing a three-year strategy to get to the fitness level required to participate in his first Ironman race. The three-year strategy was broken down into strategies for different aspects of the race, e.g., strategies for swimming, biking, running, nutrition, and equipment and gears required. For example, one of the strategies he had was to focus on “try-a-tri” distance in the first year, a sprint distance in the second year, and an Olympic/long distance in the third year. To execute the overarching strategy and meet his goals, Darren remembers developing training plans for the different strategies with realistic goals to achieve over the years. He realizes that if he hadn’t had an overall strategy in place, but instead started working with only training plans, he may have found himself all over the place with his fitness and performance. Maybe he could have been successful with some luck ... But it is never a good idea to leave things to luck.
Neel talks further about the lack of understanding of the importance for organizations to have a strategic asset management plan. He compares how other functional areas have a strategic approach as well as a plan in place to deliver results, while the physical asset management field seems to be somewhat lagging behind. Very often you will hear about corporate strategy, finance strategy, human resources strategy, or even IT strategy. What about a physical asset management strategy? he argues.
Neel elaborates on what a strategic asset management plan should consist of and what role it plays. First of all, he highlights one caveat that practitioners should be well aware of: the difference between an asset management strategy and a strategic asset management plan.
Neel further clarifies that an asset management strategy is the strategic approach that an organization takes to realize maximum value from its physical assets. It ensures that alignment across all functional areas allows coordination in delivering asset management activities and promotes collaboration
