Dedicated students, distinguished colleagues and dear friends,

Happy Friday!

Over the centuries, organizations have charted their paths forward in many ways, typically in the form of strategic planning. These forward-focused planning exercises use available and predictable knowledge to develop an intended direction and to communicate expected milestones and timelines toward achieving goals. The most successful strategic planning processes are exactly that: processes – not a one-time undertaking with rigid directional mandates. In that sense, well-developed strategic plans are flexible enough to allow course correction due to unanticipated opportunities and unpredictable circumstances. Indeed, thoughtfully laid out plans are predictor-corrector in nature. Nonetheless, they serve as roadmaps with vision, mission and objectives to be achieved. They provide a sense of direction and guide the organization along a path to success.

Here at S&T, four significant events necessitated a comprehensive overhaul of our decadal strategic plan for the next five years: 1) the unfortunate Covid-19 pandemic, 2) establishment of a new sense of direction for the university: our North Star goals, 3) the transformative Kummer gift and establishment of Kummer College and four Kummer Institute Centers, and 4) a new leadership team.

Accordingly, we developed our comprehensive strategic plan to provide a vision and a clear sense of direction for the university. Shaped and nurtured in collaboration with faculty, staff, student leaders, and other internal and external stakeholders, our plan carefully lays out the mission, objectives, and implementation strategies. It also highlights achievement milestones, timelines, and assessment metrics for every unit of our university. Implemented properly, it guides our investment priorities, and helps accountable and responsible individuals assess gaps and address them. Of course, our plan also allows enough flexibility to exploit a rapidly changing educational and technological environment.

Similar to organizations, successful individuals can develop a carefully thought-through personal strategy to ensure balance and alignment of their personal and career objectives. And since most college students plan their fields of study during their first year or soon after, I encourage our incoming freshmen – in fact, all our students – to subscribe to the process of strategic thinking, envision your future and develop your own personal strategy. Putting it bluntly, your future is in your own hands, and your destiny is yours to develop. The sooner you start thinking about it, or at least think about thinking about it, the clearer the road ahead becomes. Now is a good time to lay the foundation of a successful future.

Looking back at my own career path, I encourage our students to also contemplate your career aspirations beyond the immediate years of college or early in your career. Many of our most successful alumni, indeed graduates of many institutions, have explored opportunities adjacent to or far beyond their fields of study. S&T graduates routinely transcend their primary discipline boundaries and discover success in fields such as medicine, law, business, aviation, art, public service, or graduate studies in pursuit of master or doctoral degrees. Envisioning a future far beyond early post-graduation years is a critical element of possibility thinking toward one’s destiny.

Nearsighted or farsighted, I encourage our students, particularly new students, to become insightful and plan for the success that awaits you. You will not have 20/20 vision for this exercise – no one does – but as you enhance your planning SKAs (skills, knowledge and abilities), you will make course corrections on your journey to achieving success and helping others.

Clearly, we are both responsible and accountable for the eventual outcome of our journeys. Tomorrow we will be accountable for our responsibilities of today, and it is not sufficient to just want to succeed, we must ensure that we will succeed. Subscribing to strategic thinking, and developing and implementing a personal strategic plan, will enhance our chances of success and achievement of our envisioned destiny.

Warmly,

-Mo.

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Mohammad Dehghani, PhD
Chancellor
mo@mst.edu | 573-341-4116

206 Parker Hall, 300 West 13th Street, Rolla, MO 65409-0910
chancellor.mst.edu