Scott Savage discusses new role, ServiceFirst

The Well sat down with Scott Savage, associate vice chancellor for organizational strategy and performance, to learn more about his newly created role and how ServiceFirst will help reduce complexity and simplify operations across campus.

Tell us about yourself and your time at Carolina before this role.

I’m from North Carolina and went to undergrad at UNC-Chapel Hill and completed the PharmD program at the Eshelman School of Pharmacy. I then went to graduate school and did residency training at the Ohio State University, which prepared me for a career in health system pharmacy leadership. I eventually had the opportunity to return to Chapel Hill and work with UNC Health in various pharmacy leadership roles before moving into higher education administration in Eshelman in the roles of executive vice dean, chief operating officer, chief financial officer for the school and for Eshelman Innovation.

Why did this new role appeal to you, and what do you think its impact might be?

During COVID-19, we had to work through allocating support for programs, reevaluating expenses and prioritizing funding within the pharmacy school. We encountered some painful moments throughout the process, but the mindset of overall optimization in higher education, from people to processes, was critical to supporting our strategy and mission, and I enjoyed the work.

This new position blends external operations improvement with my experience at Eshelman, and I’m excited to step into a role that allows me to be a partner as we adjust how we run our current operations and provide strategic solutions for the future. Chancellor Roberts has asked our team to find ways to operate more effectively while continuing to strive for excellence, and we’re making a commitment to a more efficient university that better serves our faculty, staff and students – and our mission.

What are some of your priorities in your first year in this position?

My top priority is to elevate service quality through consistency and accountability. At the Board of Trustees meeting in May we introduced ServiceFirst, our framework to identify, develop and implement strategic, operational and financial improvement initiatives across the University’s administrative and academic services. Over the next year, the intent is to work through the six in-scope functional areas and identify opportunities within academic and student operations. The areas currently in scope are finance, human resources, information technology services, research administration, communications and procurement.

A key component of this initiative is empowering faculty and staff to participate in the process, and the working group is comprised of subject matter experts in each of those areas across campus. This is a collaborative effort to simplify processes and reduce complexity, and it’s important to remember that our goal is to improve operations and evolve.

Some people might be curious or even nervous when they hear about financial improvement or cost-saving opportunities. How does this potentially affect students, faculty and staff at Carolina?

That’s the first question everyone is going to ask, and we understand. In this time of fiscal uncertainty, we have been tasked with finding savings — as is the case across the higher education landscape. But first and foremost, our goal is to improve overall administrative services and operational effectiveness across the University. Many of these services run behind the scenes, but they’re important, and we’re committed to elevating high-quality and consistent service across campus.

We have a set of guiding principles to help us in our approach:

• Think Carolina first, not unit first.
• Focus on service and support, not control and command.
• Build flexibility – there is no one-size-fits-all solution.
• Practice fiscal responsibility for sustainable progress.
• Collaborate across departments and units for shared success.
• Never compromise the student experience.
• Drive operational efficiency to reduce redundancy.

There are existing shared services within University operations that have been successful, and the hope is to take those best practices and explore collaboration across campus. I look forward to sharing more details in the coming months about our goals and next steps.