How can a Center of Excellence create economic value?

UCOR committed to delivering a Sustainability Center of Excellence to the DOE as part of its contract. After two attempts to define a cost-effective approach failed, UCOR needed a successful result that would be responsive to the DOE and create economic value for the surrounding Oak Ridge community.

MY CLIENT

UCOR is a partnership between URS (now AECOM) and CH2M Oak Ridge LLC. The partners provide cleanup services to the Department of Energy’s (DOE’s) Oak Ridge Reservation, primarily focused on cleanup of East Tennessee Technology Park (the former Oak Ridge K-25 Site). Visit UCOR.

MY WORK

• Facilitated a 6-month-long strategic planning process to define the scope of a new Center of Excellence
• Benchmarked center of excellence business models, unique strategies, sources of value, and best practices
• Conducted stakeholder mapping and interviews with potential clients
• Facilitated a series of meetings and workshops with team members to develop business model options, assess viability and strategy for each; then synthesized outcomes into a final strategic plan

RESULTS

• An innovative, cost-effective, realistic strategy endorsed by decision-makers, achieved in half the time/cost compared to attempts by two previous teams.