Acronym

Reporting from the Invitational Forum on Leadership & Management in beautiful Vancouver.

I have two thoughts to share about one of yesterday's sessions with Franck Schuurmans, coauthor of Blue Ocean Strategy.

First is an exercise Schuurmans asked attendees to do, assessing the key attributes of their top products. He got some attendee push back when he suggested that if you gave yourself top marks -- and were honest with yourself -- then that is something to look at as perhaps something that could be cut back. The idea is to not do more than you need to do. If you cut back a little, would your members just as willing to engage, and then you could use those resources to raise your scores somewhere else. The idea was counterintuitive to many in attendance--if you have a differentiator, something that works really well, why would you even consider cutting back on it?

The other thought is the idea of where to turn when looking to develop new products, services, or processes that can serve members. Schuurmans said many times: don't go to your members. One idea is to look at other organizations that do similar but different work than what you do. For example, if main reason your association exists is to create community and networking, look at the way growing churches foster community building; if your association is primarily into advocacy efforts, look at the tactics that good, creative marketers and PR specialists use to affect how people think about the products they are promoting.

Another place to turn is completely unlike areas and sectors. For example, are their any lessons in how "American Idol" became the pop fad that it is? Or look at the presidential campaigns and how they deal with trying to get their message heard--what is effective and what is not?

Finally, he says, ask your noncustomers. These are the people who maybe were a member for a year, did not participate much, and did not renew. It's also the part of the market that you have never captured. Engage these people in conversation, and you're likely to hear things that you'd never hear from your members.