Principled Innovation LLC

Are associations ready to be global?

July 7th, 2006

Acronym guest blogger Greg Balestrero, who moonlights as CEO for the Project Management Institute, has an excellent post about the fear of globalization he has witnessed among association CEOs. Greg writes:

I was at [a] meeting of association CEO’s last week in West Virginia. Although the meeting was dominated by trade association executives. I found the meeting interesting. One of the sessions I attended was focused on “doing business globally” which left me really unsettled. I was struck by the isolationism and shear sense of fear displayed by the executives, as well as the high reliance on government intervention to help them go global as an association.

If Greg’s observations accurately describe the prevailing sentiments about globalization among association CEOs, then our community has a real problem. Adopting a global mindset and pursuing emerging opportunities in the global marketplace is a strategic imperative for all associations, even organizations that serve local, state or regional audiences. New collaboration and communications technologies make it possible for every association to develop a best-in-class capability in some aspect of its work, but only if the organization can leverage knowledge, talent and other critical resources available in every corner of the world. For larger organizations, there are new markets to be opened in India, China and elsewhere, but only if leaders approach this complex task with a patient openness to the possibilities and a healthy sense of adventure.

Greg invokes the work of Tom Friedman in his post, and I very much appreciate it since The World is Flat certainly has influenced my thinking about the necessity of innovation for associations looking to succeed in a global environment. (That’s pretty much every association, by the way.) The paradigm shifting forces creating the competitive dynamics of these early years of the 21st Century will not abate anytime soon. Association leaders cannot afford to hole up and hope this conversation goes away. Instead, they must go on offense, by learning as much as possible and then acting with the confident foresight all true leaders possess.

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Entry Filed under: Principled Innovation Blog, What's New?, Innovation, Associations, Extreme Makeover, The Association Innovator