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Office of Institutional Excellence

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What is Institutional Excellence?

Institutional Excellence is an innovation philosophy built upon Lean principles and focused on people, processes, and technology to drive quality, efficiency, relevance in service delivery.

Practical application of Clemson's Institutional Excellence philosophy includes strategic planning and execution through aligned operational plans informed by risk and business continuity considerations, as well as data-driven problem solving. These combine to culminate in strategically-aligned improvement projects designed to increase value and achieve the university's strategic vision.

Our Mission is to partner with the university community, championing transformational thinking through facilitation, assessment, and implementation of strategic and key operational initiatives, to enable Clemson's mission.

Our Vision is to be a leader in institutional excellence in order to elevate Clemson and drive us to be a model administrative and operational team in higher education. We will achieve this vision by fostering an institutional culture that embraces change, resilience, and continuous improvement. At Clemson University, Institutional Excellence is comprised of three complementary and interdependent operational functions, or lenses, to focus transformational work throughout the University:

  • Strategic Planning and Execution
  • Enterprise Risk Management and Business Continuity
  • Operational Excellence

Leveraging all these functions in strategic and operational planning throughout the university is critical to Clemson's ability to align and prioritize activities and resources to achieve national preeminence in education and research and dedicated service to our state and nation.

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How does it work?

University Prioritization

The University's strategic plan, Clemson Elevate, is the basis for prioritizing projects, initiatives, and resources across the university. These strategic priorities, along with associated risk and continuous improvement opportunities, form the foundation for all Institutional Excellence work, whether led from within the Office of Institutional Excellence or other organizational units.

The Office of Institutional Excellence partners with Excellence Leads across the university to align organizational strategic and operational plans, risks, and continuous improvement projects to Clemson Elevate by employing lean principles and data-driven problem solving techniques. We also provide training and a network of resources to support university wide improvement initiatives.

Clemson Elevate

Strategic and Operational Lenses

Strategic Planning and Execution, Enterprise Risk and Business Continuity, and Operational Excellence work collectively to provide a collaborative assessment and strategic approach for driving successful University initiatives. Each area, in partnership with the others, supports all continuous improvement activities related to the University's strategic plan.

  • Strategic Planning and Execution

    Development and implementation of strategic and operational plans at all levels of the university:

    • With line of sight from the university’s strategic plan through individual employees’ performance plans
    • Integrated across university organizations to leverage similar activities and initiatives
    • With specific, measurable actions and projects designed to achieve organizations’ and Clemson’s strategic goals
  • Enterprise Risk Management and Business Continuity

    Enterprise Risk Management: Provide a risk governance framework and guidance to assist University leadership and stakeholders in identifying events and actions that have the potential to keep CU from reaching the strategic mission and goals.

    • Risk identification, assessment, prioritization, validation, mitigation, reporting and monitoring.
    • Support CU with a risk conscious culture that aligns with the strategic mission and values of the university.

    Business Continuity Planning: Provide guidance on how CU will continue to operate during unplanned outages. This includes determining critical functions and priority of recovery. Partnering with CCIT to validate recovery strategies for technology.

  • Operational Excellence

    Drive a university-wide culture of continuous improvement using a Lean foundation (elimination of waste) through strategic project execution, change management expertise, stakeholder collaboration, and other specialized project services.

For more information, e-mail InstExcellence@clemson.edu