Return to the Transferable Skills for PhD Careers Index
Strategic Thinking as a Health Director and Health Officer in Public Sector
The Missoula City-County Health Department was the first health department in our state to develop an academic health department in partnership with our local university. This was done one year prior to the COVID pandemic and having that structure in place provided us with the foundation for our data-informed approach to mitigation and response.
- Ability to make decisions and solve problems
- Creating vision and goals
- Creativity/innovative thinking
Strategic Thinking as a Commercial Innovation Manager in Public Sector
Thinking about developing future economy around and beyond low Earth orbit, not only the existing lines of business and scientific areas must be developed further towards maturation and commercialization but also new areas with a potential to drive commercial activities must be explored. While the former requires strategic thinking in step by step of scientific and technology maturation towards commercialization, the latter requires a different kind of strategic thinking that tests the existing boundary of imagination. Strategic thinking cannot be decoupled from systems level perspective and keen understanding of the complex and dynamic system - both the current state as well as the momentum and direction of the economy/ecosystem development. In my role, as we interface with a wide range of stakeholders and customers (esp. the non-traditional ones!), I enjoy sharpening both strategic thinking skills as well as systems level perspective of the ecosystem we operate in.
- Creativity/innovative thinking