Vision Mission and Strategy Webinar

Laboratory animal programs are complex organizations with multiple and diverse components —veterinary services, husbandry, facilities, logistics, vendor management, and customer service which all require individual and group skills to execute effectively.

Getting all the disparate parts of the organization to function in a synchronized manner can be quite challenging. With lab animal programs across academia and the industry undergoing consolidation within the current economic scenario, misalignment and lack of purpose can be compounded, creating confusion and breakdown of operations.

Successful and innovative corporations manage mergers, acquisitions, and geographical obstacles by incorporating key business management concepts into their daily operations. These organizations develop vision and mission statements to serve as focal points for individuals within the organizations to identify themselves with the organizational processes and to give them a sense of direction. The success of these large entities is often related to the purpose-driven approach that a unified vision and mission provides to the organization.

Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey, went through the largest merger of academic institutions in the country in 2013, resulting in an organization with multiple geographies, facilities, and programs. An unintended consequence of this merger was the ripple effect that it had on the multiple lab animal programs within the different colleges leading to organizational dysfunction, a drop in quality, and disenchantment among the staff.

Associate Vice-President of Rutgers Animal Care, Jeetendra Reddy Eswaraka, BVSc, PhD, DACLAM, ECFVG, will discuss how by utilizing the same business tools as large corporations, Rutgers Animal Care Program was able to emerge from these difficult times to become an efficient, focus-driven, and central organization serving multiple campuses — all accomplished within the past five years. Dr. Eswaraka and his team hope that their story will help other lab animal programs facing similar challenges to utilize some simple, proven tools to bring about big change.