In December 1997, AI personnel from Boulder, Louisville and Hilton Head gathered to use our own DesignShop processes to help us meet the challenges of rapid growth. We developed mission, goals, and objectives statements and focused on what resources and timelines we would need to better serve our growing market.

Mission.  Athenaeum International's (AI) mission is to support the MG Taylor ValueWeb^TM activities through architecture, design and development of customized environments and tools for the knowledge intensive workplace.  As an industry leader, AI continuously enhances its designs, services and fulfillment methods to better support individual and collaborative work of Transition Managers Throughout the world.

Goals.

• Be recognized as a cutting edge organization by our peers in the industry and our clients through increased emphasis on design of environmental solutions.
• Consistently provide high quality services and products that meet and exceed the requirements of our clients, providing superior workplaces.
• Develop our ability to design and deliver our products and services under the principles of mass customization.
• Support our ValueWeb entities through strengthening the capacity of our partners and suppliers to deliver their products and services.

Objectives.

• Develop new products and solutions specifically designed to meet specific clients' requirements and emerging needs in the general market.
• In order to develop that class of products, we must develop design capability and nurture the relationships that allow us to work closely with our clients, suppliers, and partners in the Design/Build/Use model of rapid prototyping.
• Support creative work places through delivery of architectural armature with systems combining both custom and stock furniture, information technology, and support services.
• Increase the ValueWeb capability in both design and production to accommodate $20 million in annual sales by 1999, including individual furniture pieces, furniture systems, technical systems, and entire environments.
• Standardize production of mature lines to improve quality and reduce production costs, increase the capability to design and develop high quality custom pieces and new lines.
• Develop, test and market technical systems capabilities and products, including Remote Collaboration.
• Balance the flow of revenues and expenditures through judicious planning and management. This includes immediate capital expenditure for a C N C  manufacturing facility in Boulder to facilitate production growth and prototype manufacture.
• Develop the effective use of all resources, including the people in our extended network. This includes development of a communication system which facilitates feedback, production, systems engineering, and configuration management.

Plans and Strategies.

• Expand our resource base, including more use of the MG Taylor network
• Better serve our clients through improved communications and marketing materials and more use of client feedback.
• Develop an increased manufacturing capability either through increasing in-house capacity or widening the ValueWeb of manufacturers.
• Improve data bases and technical systems for communication.
• Conscientiously steward our resources through more detailed accounting
• Continue on-going R & D projects in the areas of armature design, technology, and marketing tools