April_AMP_Digital

HIGHL IGHTS A D V A N C E D M A T E R I A L S & P R O C E S S E S | A P R I L 2 0 2 0 7 1 Do Better Than Our Best As the leading global re- source for materials information, ASM International has supported the materials community with technical content since 1913 through its membership maga- zines, handbooks, conferences, short courses, journals, data and tools, and more recently webinars and the planned Software as a Ser- vice (SaaS), as well as other web products. As you can see from the Thank You letter shown on the next page and the short note from Ashok Khare (ASM President in 2000), shown below, the ASM Leadership not only envisioned the need for digital technology for the materials community way before digital strategies became trendy, but also built ASM’s entry into the digital world by partnering with Granta through a direct investment. What a bold strategic step by our leaders! Today, Granta has estab- lished itself as the foundation of materials informatics, and its value is recognized by the recent Ansys acquisition to advance materials property intelligence and develop sim- ulation technology. Even though the 15x ROI is truly impres- sive, as a membership-based professional society, ASM’s goal of the Granta investment was not its ROI, but to develop digital capabilities to enable ASM to better serve its mem- bers and member organizations globally, digitally, and time- ly.Atthesametime,Grantatechnologyacceleratesthemigra- tion of the materials community into the digital world and strengthens ASM partnerships within the materials commu- nity and interdisciplinary communities of materials users. A natural question to follow is—“How can ASM repeat the success of the Granta investment?”—so ASM can do bet- ter than its best. This is also my personal motto: “Do Bet- ter Than Your Best” as shown on my President Coin below, Zi-Kui Liu, FASM FROM THE PRESIDENT’S DESK whichwas presented to eachmember of the 2000 ASMBoard of Trustees along with the Thank You Letter. The ASM Oper- ations Team has some out-of-the-box ideas as discussed in Bill Mahoney’s column on page 70. We welcome members’ comments on those ideas. It is often said, “If one does not try new things, one will not go far.” At the same time, one has to ask, “Why am I doing this?” It is because everything that ASM does must enhance the three critical areas identi- fied in the strategic plan, i.e., increasedmembership, techni- cal content excellence, and partnerships (See ASM Progress Report: Strategic PlanHighlights for 2020 and Beyond, AM&P, Feb/March 2020, p.56-57). As we look back, a historic and unanimous Board vote in the year 2000 approved ASM’s future relationship with Granta. ASM Managing Director Michael DeHae- mer and I travelled to Cambridge, England to sign the Granta agreement. This Granta investment provided our entry into the digital world. With no guarantees, our Board took a bold calculated strategic step to invest in Granta, thereby enabling us to collectively define our future. Today, as we all sit in a mature digital world, we are poised to become The Global Materials Information Society—collecting materials information generated worldwide, processing and selling it in various desired formats. Our future looks exciting. I hope we are collec- tively able to invent it. With best wishes from and on behalf of our 2000 ASM Board of Trustees, Ash Khare, FASM, 2000 President, ASM International FROM THE PRESIDENT’S DESK