Change your bolts
During a discussion I helped to moderate earlier this week (the results of which will appear in the May issue of Associations Now--keep an eye out!), a CEO told a great story about a factory she knows of that makes bolts. Previously, the factory had focused on making bolts for yachts, but, clearly, the yacht market isn't what it was a few years ago. They're still a factory--they haven't gone into business as a call center or a hardware store--but they've changed their focus to start making bolts for another an industry that's growing rather than shrinking.
That led me to wonder: What are we doing in associations that's (essentially) building bolts for shrinking markets rather than growing ones? And how can we change our internal machinery to make it possible for us to build bolts for new, growing markets in addition to, or instead of, the shrinking ones?
A few thoughts occurred to me:
- Take a hard look at your programs and products for the next several fiscal years. Do you realistically expect growth (even after the downturn ends)? If, realistically, you expect flat or shrinking revenues, should you consider dropping or restructuring the program or product? After all, you can almost certainly expect expenses to rise over time rather than fall.
- Look at what slows your association down. Once, in a meeting, I made a comment about associations not typically being "blindingly fast." The other attendees laughed in agreement. But at the time I started to wonder, why can't associations be blindingly fast in our responses to the business environment? What's holding us back? Find ways to be more nimble, and your association will be able to aim for those new, growing markets quickly once they're identified.
- Create an early warning system. Social media offers some great opportunities in this area, but more traditional research could be helpful as well. What are your members and nonmember prospects spending money on (especially if they're not spending it with you)? What ideas does that give you for ways you could change your own offerings to better provide them value?
What other ideas do you have?
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Comments
Great post, Lisa. I think you can look at different sectors of members and potential members as growing or shrinking markets. I work on social and a/v media for our association, and my manager and I were just talking yesterday about how sometimes we create initiatives (especially Web 2.0 services) that may not appeal to some of our older members but will bring in new (and younger) members.
Posted by: Catherine Imperatore | March 27, 2009 2:04 PM
Catherine, thank you so much for the comment! You're absolutely right--different membership sectors may have different growth potential. Different geographic regions may have different potential as well--maybe you've saturated the market in New York but there's a lot of potential in California, or maybe your association could look at expansion outside the United States.
Of course, what I often see is that it can be difficult to divert resources from a flat or shrinking membership sector to focus on building up resources for a growing membership sector. What do associations need to do differently to help them change that, I wonder?
Posted by: Lisa Junker | March 30, 2009 4:13 PM