Author: Geert Letens, ASEM President

Newsletter March
Le nouveau est arrivé! Many among you may recognize this French expression as the official annual kickoff of the race that eagers wine lovers around the world to take part in the traditional tasting of the year’s Beaujolais Nouveau. In the context of our society however, I would like to use this well recognized marketing slogan to encourage you to get a taste of the new editions of two core products of our society: the first annual book version of the ‘Engineering Management Journal’ (EMJ) and the fourth edition of our ‘Guide to the Engineering Management Body of Knowledge’ (EM BoK).

As you may remember from previous newsletters, ASEM decided to partner with Taylor and Francis to publish EMJ in order to bring more visibility and recognition to our academic journal that during several decades already highlights the state of research and practices on the management of technology, technical professionals, and technical organizations. The partnership with Taylor and Francis provides ASEM members electronic access to all EMJ articles and allows them to use advanced search options to look for specific content. What is new however, is the book that most of you should have received by now that bundles all the knowledge from the EMJ articles of 2015. While I hope you will enjoy this new flavor of EM wisdom, I also want to encourage ASEM members to use the EMJ membership access on the ASEM Website and click ‘Alert me’ underneath the EMJ pictogram (this does imply that you register for Taylor and Francis Online) to continue to receive alerts when the new quarterly electronic edition of EMJ appears. It will allow you to stay tuned of all new recent developments in our field!

At the same time, I am very happy to announce the official release of the fourth edition of our ‘Guide to the EM BoK’. As the EM BoK continues to serve as our fundamental repository of concepts, principles, procedures, and practices in the field of engineering management, the fourth edition incorporates important feedback and extensions from various practitioners and international contributors. I want to thank our editor Hiral Shah and co-editor Walter Nowocin for their work on these important additions that are in line with the international growth of the society.

But there is more new wine coming to a theatre near you soon. During the recent Spring Board Meeting in Charlotte, the ASEM Board of Directors took two important decisions that certainly will further stimulate EM certification based on the EM BoK around the world. First, we agreed to start the translation of the EM BoK and the EM Handbook in Chinese and Portuguese, addressing a need brought forward both by our Chinese partners of the Chinese Academy of Engineering and our recently founded section of ASEM in Brazil. And second, and most important to our current members, we agreed to offer free electronic access to the EM BoK and EM Handbook for our professional members. We will send you specific information on how to gain access as soon as our IT specialists have addressed the technical details of this decision, but we hope you are as excited about this as we are – we strongly believe this allows ASEM to offer a very attractive value proposition for ASEM Membership: EMJ, EM BoK, EM Handbook, Practice Periodical, Webinars, newsletters, conference discounts,…
This is a strong value package addressing the needs of both academia and industry. It results from our continuous efforts to speak for the engineering management profession around the world. Still we want to do better. And with your help, we know we can do better. Are you interested to contribute to our success? Just send me an email – we have several options for new active volunteers available!

Geert Letens, PhD PEM
ASEM President 2015-2016 President@asem.org