Penn’s senior vice president and chief transformation officer Thomas Murphy discussed his progress as chair of the Operational Transformation working group of “Penn Forward” in a question and answer interview with Penn Today.
Operational Transformation is one of six working groups within the “Penn Forward” initiative announced on Sept. 3 by Penn President Larry Jameson. In the interview, Murphy spoke about his goals for the working group, which aims to improve non-academic services at Penn.
Murphy is leading a team of 12 and is scheduled to deliver a final planning report by Dec. 5.
“I think it really starts with understanding what we’re trying to solve for and recognizing the concerns that schools and centers have about transforming the service model,” Murphy said. “Trying to understand what those areas of concern are, where the friction is, and what hot buttons may move the dial — where are you struggling? Where can we improve?”
Murphy emphasized the importance of asking questions and “getting to know people on campus.”
“I asked a lot of questions and spent a lot of time getting to know people on campus in my first six months,” he said. “Because of Penn’s unique culture and operating model, it was important that I not try to apply my experience in public companies. It was important that I adapt to Penn, not the other way around.”
Murphy also stressed collaboration as an essential part of Operational Transformation’s mission.
“We have a mighty team of very focused people from various divisions and schools, and a great consulting organization that has done a lot of this work in higher education at our peer level,” Murphy added. “In all, we’ve met with over 200 people, including 50 school and center leaders and 150 subject matter experts who manage operations in some of these environments.”
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He went on to highlight Operational Transformation’s website, which aims to facilitate communication between project members and the Penn community by allowing people to submit ideas and suggestions regarding the progress of non-academic services. According to Murphy, they have received “hundreds of responses, including those from the Penn Forward website’s suggestion form.”
Reflecting on his experience, Murphy said that Penn’s schools and centers showed “a level of enthusiasm and open-mindedness” to engage that he hadn’t anticipated.
“I love Penn, and while I was really looking forward to retirement, I am re-energized by this program and the opportunity to play a small role in Penn’s future,” he said.
