Management

August 18, 2008

Plan for Failure

Posted by Kevin | (1) Comments | Print This Article

An important point raised during this morning’s workshop on “The Power of Partnerships” (yes, my second workshop on partnerships — can you sense a theme?) was about planning for failure. Jeff Tenenbaum, an attorney with the Venable law firm (and an excellent attorney he is — he is our organization’s outside counsel) talked about ensuring that the legal documents drawn up in any partnership include a well-thought-out exit procedure (be they some sort of cooperation agreement or the creation of a jointly-owned legal entity).

“Planning for failure” is something that those of us with an entrepreneurial bent have a hard time getting used to. It’s a gung-ho nature and optimism that fuels many outrageously successful things. But part of maturation as an association executive is recognizing that the world’s roadside is strewn with many great ideas and grand visions that fell down along the way. And it’s one thing to try something new and fail all by yourself; when other parties are involved, it can get messy.

As Jeff asked — what happens when the partnership ends? Who owns the intellectual property? How are assets split? Who can end it, why and how? It’s important to address these issues at the beginning, while being very careful and clear-eyed, before the stars in your eyes dim.

August 17, 2008

Around the World, Everybody’s Got an Agenda (Just Like In the USA)

Posted by Kevin | (0) Comments | Print This Article

Good workshop today on “International Partnerships” from the CEO of the Society of Petroleum Engineers assisted by the manager of the association’s Dubai office. Primarily focused on case studies of SPE’s activities co-presenting conferences and events on various continents. I attended and took note because we may be looking at some international partnerships down the road. A few key points:

• Choose partners wisely. You need to know their real motivation, their real agenda — and as one audience member noted, you can’t just come out and ask them.
• Of course, in some parts of the world, you may not have a choice — in order to access the nation and the appropriate market, you’re going to have to use a particular partner (either because the government wants it that way or because the organization has a lock in some other way)
• Know your exit strategy and make sure you have a way to get out of the partnership should you need to. SPE CEO used example of one agreement they have that is only for three events, so to continue, agreement will need to be renegotiated.
• Make sure management responsibilities are clearly define and allocated — shared responsibilities difficult if impossible to make work.
• In agreement, spell out clear performance benchmarks and tie them to revenue sharing — for example, if three groups partner on an event, make sure they are each responsible for 1/3 programming to ensure 1/3 share of any surplus.

Interesting that more than half of SPE’s board is from outside the US but they are still sometimes perceived as a US organization.

Finally, speaker got a good laugh from the audience with the line, “We may be not-for-profit, but we’re also not-for-loss.”

August 13, 2008

Tools of the Trade: Central Desktop

Posted by Kevin | (1) Comments | Print This Article

Just a quick review of an online app some staff teams might find useful: For the past ten months or so, my team of 9 staffers has been using Central Desktop (www.centraldesktop.com) to keep track of to-do lists, share/edit documents, and calendaring. I have to say it’s a useful and inexpensive little tool that does exactly what it says it will.

I picked it after looking at several of the other similar groupware-type websites out there, like Basecamp, and found them a little too complex for our needs. All I really wanted was for a way for the team members to assign each other tasks and keep track of them, update documents, and note calendar items, particularly out-of-office times. Central Desktop meets all these very simple needs with a very intuitive interface. It doesn’t feel like you have to learn a new way of doing things.

The document sharing/editing has been very useful; for example, we have a number of complex tracking documents that compare various sales and membership numbers, week by week and year by year. With Central Desktop, the staffers responsible for those areas keep the reports updated online, and I can access them anytime, anywhere.

While it may be nicer to have a more integrated system with our database and website, for our purposes, Central Desktop works well and other small teams may want to take a look at it. You can also set up regular email activity updates (you can set the frequency from immediately to weekly); there is also a secure RSS feed option that looks kind of interesting, but I haven’t played with it, finding the email updates good enough for me.

August 8, 2008

How to Grow in a (Shrinking?) Economy

Posted by Kevin | (6) Comments | Print This Article

I’ll leave it up to the so-called “experts” on what the economy is really doing at the macro level, but it’s only stating the obvious to point out that the last year has been a hard one for certain industries. So the question is, How can an association achieve revenue growth in a year when its members are facing economic challenges?

With the recent closing of our most recent fiscal year, I finally feel comfortable addressing this question with a few tips and thoughts based on our own experience doing so.

Create new products for your core market that meet a real need. Our core products are the standards and technical manuals that lay out how our industry is supposed to do its work. One of the things we hear most often from members and non-members is that the standards are very difficult to understand and require outside training. In late 2007 I worked with an industry trainer and launched a new series of computer-based training sessions that take the concepts and explain them in plain English in bite-sized, self-directed segments. The first three packages in this series produced a brand new six-figure revenue stream. My tips:

Make sure you are listening to members and exploit what they are telling you about your products, and about potential new products.

Look at your bestselling products and create ancillary products around them. For example, if you sell books, create training programs that explain them or demonstrate how to use them, or create audio versions if they lend themselves to that sort of treatment. The key is to look at what’s working and build on it.

Now is not the time to cut back on marketing. In addition to our usual product catalog and email marketing, we upped the ante with new monthly product mailings and an even more aggressive but targeted series of promotional emails. We experimented with landing pages, fax broadcasts, telemarketing, and even Google advertising. By being smart about how we spent our money, we were able to do “more” marketing (with significantly better results) at less expense. My tips:

It’s very possible to reduce printing and mailing expenses significantly while still producing high quality product through such things as paper choice, printing technologies, layout and “fold” (for example, take advantage of the new postal regulations and avoid flats).

You must have a way to easily segment and target emails. If you send emails to everyone, or even if you send emails to certain broad channels (”newsletters” or “product specials”), then you are not getting the most out of email marketing. You must have a way to send emails, for example, to everyone who opted into receiving product specials, *AND* who also purchased a particular product, registered for an event, etc. (and just as importantly, who *DIDN’T* purchase, register, etc.)

Do not rely on one marketing channel! Hit your markets in multiple ways.

Repeat, repeat, repeat! I think it’s a waste of time, for example, to mail a promotional flyer once. It’s more effective if you mail it twice, or three times, to the same audience. I also have decided it’s a waste of time to send “building” campaigns (for example, a series of postcards that “build” on a particular theme), unless the campaign is REALLY clever. Send the same thing, repeated.

Retention is always important, but especially so when an industry is facing economic turmoil. Many associations think the key to improving retention is to remind members of the value that membership offers. However, we have found that the key to improving retention is to remind members that they owe money. With members expiring throughout the year, we begin our dues renewal process (both paper and email) five months out from expiration. Our retention rate held at around 90% this year. My tips:

The number one reason given for not renewing is “I didn’t realize I had expired.” Take away this excuse! Don’t be afraid to be persistent, almost annoying. Do not wait until the last minute to begin the renewal invoicing process.

Reach deeper into your core marketplace to find new audiences. I’ve talked ad nauseam about my belief that successful associations focus their efforts on expanding products and services for their core market, rather than take what they’re already doing and seek new markets. Part of exploiting the core market, though, is finding new decision makers within that marketplace. For example, we are launching a little two-day conference this October aimed specifically at a common lower-level management position among our members (as opposed to the owner or top-level position who is our usual audience). By early July we’d already surpassed our budgeted attendance expectations for this new conference, and added an overflow hotel; now we expect the event to completely sell out. My tips:

Look at your membership base (particularly if you are a trade association) and find new audiences within that base who may be interested in new educational or product offerings. First, you have to know what (and who) they are. This means being very familiar with typical member operations and being aggressive about collecting names and email addresses. (For example, our member “primary contacts” can login through our website at any time and add other employees to their account, giving us access to these valuable contacts and their job titles.)

Add niche events and mini-conferences to your schedule. Some associations try to bring in new people from their market by constantly adding new “tracks” to their annual meeting or coming up with alternate marketing approaches. I’ve found this to have mixed results. People in specific operational or professional segments will be drawn more to a an event that is specifically for them than they will by a new workshop series at a bigger event. And the niche event can bring in new sponsorship and exhibitor dollars at a higher price since the audience is so targeted.

Don’t stop experimenting, and take risks. Not everything will work; for example, we tried a regional one-day marketing seminar this year that was not successful enough to try again. This doesn’t stop us from innovating and experimenting. This fall we will be launching some new subscription-based online applications quite different from anything we’ve tried before. And we are building on the series of CDs mentioned above, with four new packages slated to be released in September and October. Another niche event will be launched next spring. My tips:

Stop thinking that you are in the business of doing whatever it is you happen to do now. Move in new directions.

Embrace a “guerilla” approach to media and technology for producing these new products and programs. None of the things we did this year that brought in high revenue cost us very much at all.

As you can tell by now, I believe strongly in product, product, product. Products are key to growing an association and making it possible for it to continually enhance services and advocacy for the industry it represents, no matter what the economy is doing (and none of the things we did this year were done specifically in response to the economy).

If the only things you sell are membership and meetings, then you’ve focused your model around two things that are most likely to be scrutinized, and possibly abandoned, by companies and people whose confidence in the economy is shaken.

May 12, 2008

You’re Only As Good As Your Guarantee

Posted by Kevin | (3) Comments | Print This Article

Mickie Rops asked a question on the ASAE listserve last week, and a few of the responses have left me scratching my head. She wanted to know if associations offer refunds for webinars or web conferences, in particular if someone claimed a technical difficulty.

A few of the responses have seemed near apoplectic at the idea of ever giving someone a refund.

I say — big mistake. You should be offering a 100% satisfaction guarantee on everything you do and sell (including membership). You should be offering refunds cheerfully and happily, without requiring people to jump through hoops to get them.

This doesn’t mean you shouldn’t ask questions — offer options (a free something, or a credit of some sort) — but ultimately, if someone is asking for a refund (or even if they’re just casually mentioning that they didn’t like something), that means that they are unhappy and your goal should be to make them happy. Give them a refund.

Remember, we are not in the transaction business, we are in the relationship business. Guarding over the money you’ve been given to perform a service or provide a product means that you are obsessing over a transaction and hurting the relationship. You may win the battle and lose the war.

Trust me, I know that there are people out there who will try to game the system and complain over every little thing in hopes of scraping back every nickel and dime. But they are the exception, and they can be dealt with (you should have some way of identifying repeat offenders in your system). A better plan is to identify the game players and then bar them from participating altogether. Don’t treat all your customers like the exception.

(By the way, I am assuming that what you are offering is of high enough quality that refund requests are relatively rare. If everybody’s asking for a refund — then they definitely deserve one, and you should rethink a lot of things.)

May 8, 2008

6 Tips for Growing Your Association Career

Posted by Kevin | (5) Comments | Print This Article

Since time immemorial (or, well, at least as far back as when I was a fresh-from-college entry-level association guy all the way back in 1992), ambitious young people have entered the association world and thought, “The world is very different from what these old fogies are used to. Things are moving faster. Communication methods are changing. People want more. Nobody’s joining associations just because they think it’s the right thing to do, they want real value. These old dusty procedures and programs and organizational structures are too rigid and irrelevant and we need to do new, innovative things that break through the false barriers.”

Yes, it’s true; some people actually thought those things before there was a “Web 2.0.” In fact, they thought those things before there was a web at all.

Even back in those pre-millenial days, the fact was that:

– Some young people entered the association world and leapfrogged to new areas of responsibility, new positions, new leadership roles, new salary rungs at a rapid pace.
– Many young people didn’t.
– The distinction between the two groups had less to do with the organizational traits of the association they worked for, and more to do with the personal traits of the individuals involved.

In short, to grow your association career, one of the biggest mistakes you can make is to let your generation define you. Your success does not depend on your generation’s success. Only you can own your own career.

Based, once again, only on my own experience, here are six quick tips for building a career that you can love.

Pick the association you work for, don’t let it pick you. You may have wound up in association management by accident (as most people do) but from Day Two it’s YOUR CHOICE to work for the same association. If you know you want to work for associations, but you feel the culture in the association you are in is too stifling, then seek new ground. In my personal opinion, the best opportunities for rapid growth actually lie in smaller associations. Not TOO small and not TOO big — if there are only 2-3 staff people in your organization, you will almost never have the possibility to break free of the mere drudgery of daily work. More than 50 or 100, they may have so many strict levels in their org chart that you will be just as trapped. Seek organizations that have 5-30 employees and a solid record of black ink.

Find people who have worked in the association world for 30 or 40 years or more and listen to them. Ask them questions and then actually listen to the answers. DON’T ask them how you can get ahead. DON’T ask them for answers to specific management question. DO ask them for STORIES. Don’t just listen to their stories — ABSORB their stories. One of the best things I ever did was meet my first boss’s mentor, at that time already retired, with decades of experience in associations. Not only were his stories funny and engaging and filled with wisdom, but his willingness to share — indeed his delight in sharing — lent me a grounded education that would have taken me years to gather on my own. (If your response to this point is, “What could I possibly learn about associations from the way someone did something in the 1960s?” then you are not ready to grow. You cannot possibly advocate for CHANGE if you have only the glossiest understanding of how things got to be the way they are now.)

Become an expert generalist. Your particular professional field notwithstanding, get to know association management as a general field. Seek out someone else’s back issues of ASSOCIATION MANAGEMENT magazine and read them cover to cover. Follow the pertinent ASAE listserves (perhaps even some of the association blogs). Read — absorb — listen. Avoid the impulse to respond to everything or post every thought that pops into your head. Instead, learn from the other people who are out there. BUT, that said …

Speak up! When you have ideas, speak up. Don’t sit there in a meeting and wait to be called on. You do NOT need to wait until some artificial date passes to feel like you have something interesting to say. If you’re smart, and you’ve developed a solid enough grounding to distinguish between “an interesting insight” and “restating the obvious,” then the ONLY WAY to distinguish yourself from others in the organization is to speak up. The biggest mistake is to simply show up and do your work — even if you do it really well, if you are just sitting around waiting for other people to notice it, they probably won’t except when it comes around to annual review time. Then they’ll probably give you a decent review and maybe a small raise. If that’s all you want out of your career year after year, there’s nothing wrong with that.

Take charge of your own ideas. The best way to “grow in responsibility” (and thereby leadership and position and salary) is to offer new ideas and then take charge of them. As I said in the last point, opening your mouth for its own sake and stating the obvious is not a way to endear yourself to leadership. At the same time, opening your mouth with ideas for other people to implement is even worse. It’s not enough to throw out ideas — throw out the plans. “I think we should do X — it would offer Y benefits — in fact, here’s a plan, and it won’t really cost us any money [key point there] and I can take charge of this RIGHT NOW.” Then do it.

Take charge of your boss’s ideas. Your boss muse about something that he or she thinks would be interesting? Grab it and take charge of it. Make it happen. Become the go-to person for “getting things done.” Become the person that the boss (or his or her boss) knows they can dump something on at the last minute and get outstanding results. If you think that sounds degrading or like too much work, then you may not be ready to grow an association career. Because, while nobody wants to spend ALL their time doing stuff that OTHER people feel passionate about, doing so is the only way to get approval to spend time (and maybe a little money) on the things that YOU feel passionate about.

Ultimately, if you are to grow a career in associations, “other people” make the determination as to your growth rate. But they make their decisions based on your personal credibility — not your talent, not your intelligence, not your creativity, but your CREDIBILITY. And only you can control how credible you are.

And finally, going back to my first point — you choose your workplace. It’s possible you work for a jerk, in which case none of my other tips will have much impact. And in which case, don’t bitch about it on your blog or your MySpace page or whatever. Get a new job. (BTW, the more you bitch about your job on a publicly-accessible website, the longer you are likely to stay stranded there.)