Principled Innovation LLC

The radical choice

March 14th, 2010

What is the most radical choice association leaders can make today?

This is the question I chose to open my business model innovation workshop last Monday at the Great Ideas Conference in Colorado Springs.  I selected this question because it recently came to my attention that at least some association leaders are concerned about the idea of business model innovation because they see it as “radical.”

Radical?  Really? (Yeah, I was pretty surprised myself.)

In truth, the most radical choice association leaders can make today is perpetuating the status quo as a strategy for long-term success.  The belief that the next trajectory of success will be discovered simply by doing more of what your organization has done for the last 25, 50 or 100 years reflects a profound misunderstanding not only of today’s operating environment for associations, but also the complex challenges our community faces going forward.  From my vantage point, meaningful business model innovation is anything but radical.  It is the only responsible choice for association leaders interested in building “thrivable” organizations for the 21st century.

What does it mean to be thrivable?  For me, thrivability is the capacity to flourish by capitalizing on the powerful forces of paradigm shift.  Thrivability is about letting go of what our organizations have always done, and designing the “next practices” that will enable new value creation.  In the 21st century, it is the innovators that will thrive and associations need to be among them.

The radical choice?  Now more than ever, you cannot be certain you know what it is.

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