Date: February 10, 2009

Picatinny ARDEC earns Richard Goodman Strategic Planning Award

PICATINNY ARSENAL, N.J. - The Armament Research, Development and Engineering Center is a recipient of the Richard Goodman Strategic Planning Award in the category of government, officials here announced Feb. 2.

The award recognizes organizations for their strategy initiatives and practices and helps stimulate innovation in the strategic planning process.

Each applicant is judged on seven main criteria to include process or competency in strategy, industry analysis, customer analysis, implementation, learning, innovation and performance management.

ARDEC is the first Department of Defense organization to be recognized for the award. The organization submitted a 16-page formal application that details ARDEC's three-phased approach to strategic planning - pre-planning, planning and post-planning - to develop the most effective strategies to benefit the warfighter.

ARDEC Director Dr. Joseph A. Lannon congratulated his fellow employees and said that the award again shows that "our workforce is our greatest asset and is driven to this level of achievement by our need to support our warfighters who sacrifice so much for us."

Association for Strategic Planning officials will present the award to ARDEC officials and the other winners during an annual conference in San Diego later this month.

The association provides an independent assessment of the organization's strategic planning process and is judged by a panel of highly-qualified strategists in the academic and business communities.

There are three major categories for the award to include large business, small business, and government or non-profit organizations.

The award is given on behalf of the Association for Strategic Planning and recognizes the recipients as leaders in the business community.

Dr. Richard Goodman was an expert in organizational strategy and innovation and a professor of management at the prestigious University of California, Los Angeles. Goodman died in 2004 from cancer at age 65 after serving on the faculty at UCLA for 37 years.

Goodman served on the ASP's planning board of directors and helped create the annual award which was named after him.