Paradigm Shifts - New Year Update from the CEO

As it is late for our New Year but early for Chinese New Year, let me wish you a Happy New Year anyway! (The Year of the Dog, in case you wish to know.) I trust that most of you managed a pleasant break. 

You will see that we are in the middle of significant website and IT platform upgrades. Some of you will know the trauma associated with such projects and I apologise that there are still some glitches evident to you. However, we are now using enterprise level systems that should provide enhancement opportunities for years to come. We hope you like the appearance and we shall be adding features during the year.

Do you know what BCC and CC means on your emails? Or rather do you know the origin of the abbreviation? Some of us are old enough to remember carbon copies and blind carbon copies! But why on earth should we use these terms now? There is no relevance at all in an electronic world.

These terms, however, embed an idea. The literal meaning is no longer relevant. Paradigm shifts are not always obvious and may only be noticeable some time after they occur. I suspect we need paradigm shifts to help some people new to asset management concepts ‘get it’ - it’s not simply a matter of cold logic.

For 2018, I am setting myself the goal of finding methods to persuade engineers that asset management is not a branch of engineering! As a recovering engineer myself, I think I am entitled to take this on. I am very glad that TC251 issued the guidance in May 2017: “Managing Assets in the context of Asset Management”. But this does not wholly meet the challenge. Do you have any good ideas to help me? We also need some paradigm shifts in accountancy and audit but that’s for another day.

I am just about to attend the next meeting of TC251 in Paris. We have some interesting matters under discussion, such as ‘value’ and what should be advised by ISO55002 and related standards or guidance documents. There is also the matter of what governments should do according to asset management principles and a significant body of work on financial aspects, too - potentially a Technical Specification. This will be followed by a physical meeting of the Global Forum and the IFRAMI Conference. 

I look forward to briefing you in February.