|
| ||
|
|||
|
|
New Models of Associating
Association leaders regularly review current business literature for guidance on strategy and successful practice, adopting principles from books by leading business gurus, corporate CEOs, and those shorter parables for lessons in management. With topics as diverse as TQM, re-engineering, one-to-one marketing, change management, the “Experience Economy,” and stories of mice chasing cheese, books and magazines roll out a neverending assortment of the next new thing. Recent trends just may reveal that associations themselves are the latest craze. In the last decade, associations felt the threat of dot-coms peeling off the profitable segments of the industry and were compelled to face the realities of the new economy, technological transformation, and the shift to the “information age,” in which wired users are able to access what they want, when and how they want it. The next buzzword became “value proposition:” What do our customers/members want from us, and how do they want it delivered and at what price/exchange? That conversation has echoed through the association community as the competition for members’ loyalty, time, and dollars has leaders examining their organizations’ structures, benefits, governance, programs, activities, and strategic positions in the marketplace. Some have merged with other competitors, changed their missions, or otherwise re-engineered their organizations. The association “corner on the market” was thought to be “community,” but few seemed clear about the successful application of it and how to harness the concept of community as a business model. We might just find the lessons of how to become better associations from the very people who are appropriating our models — and often doing it better than we do ourselves. American Express has its members; airlines have frequent fliers; retailers have loyalty card carriers; and to ride a Harley is to join a whole subculture. For better insight into association models as a business strategy, we looked at two successful but very different organizations — Fast Company magazine(FC) and the Willow Creek Community Church (WCCC). 
Related Commentaries:
More Articles From Winter 2005 Issue
Top ^ |
|
|||||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||||||
Winter 2005
