Like the animated cartoon figures that keep on running on thin air over and past a cliff, until they suddenly realize there is no longer any ground underneath them, assns often continue functioning in a "business as usual" mode until they realize their traditional membership support is not coming back.
While it is funny watching
the expression on cartoon figures' faces change the instant before they drop
like rocks, it is not so funny watching the decline and fall of assns. As an
assn leader who might be faced with declining membership due to mergers and
acquisitions, what, if anything, can you do to avoid this fate?
First you should be
reassured that your assn is far from being alone when it comes to declining
membership. This nearly universal decline in membership, for trade assns and
professional societies alike, is due to four overriding trends:
1. Over the past two
decades, a globalizing economy has led to increased levels of mergers and
acquisitions in virtually every economic sector. Companies are seeking
increased efficiencies and are trying to better position themselves to serve
and compete in new markets.
2. Technology is changing
at an ever-increasing rate causing whole industries to disappear.
Computer leasing is one
industry that was thriving in the 1960s, ¹70s and ¹80s when computers were huge
and expensive. Now that computers are pocket-sized and affordable this
multimilliondollar subsector of the leasing industry disappeared virtually
overnight. However, technology is also creating new industries (such as in
healthcare with the MRI and PET scan equipment manufacturers and users).
3. As a communications
vehicle, the easy to use, inexpensive, and instantaneous Internet has made
networking, education and training, business transactions, marketing, and the
exchange of ideas affordable and available to virtually everyone. Faced with
this reality it is not unusual that the value and relevance of traditional assn
membership should be increasingly called into question.
4. A generational aversion
to "joining" borne of watching the upward and downward ties of
loyalty dissolve between employer and employee. Many younger staffers believe
that loyalty does not pay and financial security is based on networking and
having and maintaining the skills set and credentials needed to be relevant in
a rapidly changing economy. Among many in the younger generation there is
perceived to be no intrinsic value in joining an assn; you buy what you want
and move on, even if it means paying a nonmember price.
These trends have
certainly created a changed scenario for the assn world, but not a totally
bleak one. Despite what is happening to the majority, some assns are actually seeing
their membership grow. Some assns have indeed benefited from these trends and
increased their membership by pursuing niche strategies. Others seem to have
resisted the laws of physics and have grown their programs, publications and
finances despite declines in membership.
The niche approach
includes growth through acquisition - picking off competing assns that have
fallen on hard times - or by creating a new assn to serve the needs of a new
growth sector in the economy. This approach is not long-term focused -
tactical, not strategic. A strategic perspective is needed if an assn is to
enjoy any sort of security beyond the next few years.
Managers must realize that
while the four long-term trends present undeniable challenges, each also
present "critical opportunities" (I use the word "critical"
because, to adapt a phrase from "The Godfather," these are
opportunities you can't refuse!):
1. Business consolidation
is a reality that will continue for the foreseeable future. Rather than pinning
their futures on diminishing membership numbers, assns that are thriving are
seeking to make themselves indispensable for what they can do that for-profits
cannot.
Assns can serve as
liaisons between government or the public-at-large and private sector interests;
compile industrywide statistics on business, social, human resource, and other
economic trends; design and promote professional and manufacturing credentials;
and serve as a resource for continuing education and training.
Some assns, seeing
declines in their traditional US market, are designing globalization strategies
of their own - taking their considerable store of intellectual and financial
resources into fast growth markets abroad where sister societies have yet to
take root.
2. The pace of technological
change will only continue to increase, as will its impact on business and
professions. Assns that have adapted best to this have made the change part of
their culture.
They annually undertake
top to bottom strategic planning, and identify emerging trends.
3. The Internet's impact
simply cannot be underestimated. Assn publications are now available through
the Internet. Education and training programs, virtual conferences, and
networking through listservers and chat rooms are also important services assns
can provide. Online testing and certification services are likely to follow. If
your assn is not on this train, it should be!
4. Assns that are growing the fastest are
measuring growth by users/consumers of products and services and not members.
Rather than trying to fight this trend of declining membership loyalty,
successful assns have defined themselves according to the market they serve and
taken steps to ensure they serve it well.
No comments:
Post a Comment