In a session on “Adding Economic Modeling to the Strategic Plan,” a team from St. Edward’s University (TX), consisting of George E. Martin, president, David A. Dickson, vice president for financial affairs, and William H. Cahill, vice president for information technology, with support from Glen R. Stine, vice president, Kaludis Consulting, presented a practical case study of the role of economic and financial modeling in strategic planning and in discussions with both campus and outside constituencies such as boards and rating agencies.

Shortly after arriving in Austin in 1999, Martin began to implement a comprehensive strategic plan that included multi-year forecasting and effective communication with all campus departments. Once goals were set, a sophisticated model—in this case incorporating historical and current data for 25 variables—allowed useful answers to a range of questions: What do we need? When do we need it? Which resources are and will be available? Are we achieving results? Should we change the plan? The panel showed how charts and graphs make the connections between variables easier to understand. Such tools can be helpful in discussions with a broad range of campus constituencies in achieving campus-wide agreement on the strategic goals.

The presentation reinforced the usefulness of economic and financial impact modeling that converts data into useful information for forecasting, feasibility testing, and risk analysis.

View presentation slides from this session.