Cross-Border Collaboration: Sell Successfully Overseas by Learning the Local Needs
Too many US organizations see foreign markets as good “resell” markets—places where they can make an easy profit by reselling US products they’ve already developed. It is a mistake that even the most sophisticated organizations make. Earlier this year national newspapers in the United States headlined stories...

[More]

Assisting countries in need fits with most associations' missions
Billions of dollars are spent each year to help develop the economic infrastructures of developing and new market economies around the world.These moneys are channeled through programs administered by the US Agency for International Development, the World Bank, Inter-American Development Bank, Asian Development Bank, African Development Bank, and European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, just to name a few.

[More]

International Growth: A Look at Four Options
The Institute of Internal Auditors, Society of Human Resources Management, and American Oil Chemists Society have found creative - and different - ways to expand internationally. Here are four techniques that might take your organization down a global path to success.  

[More]

Should it stay or should it go? Assessing essentials.
Of course, it is easier to manage a business during economic boom times. In times of recession and slow growth, every problem is exacerbated. Business managers who solve problems in tough times not only prove their mettle, but also build stronger organizations. 

[More]

Is a Global Strategy Beyond Your Means?
"Affordability" is a term that comes up a lot when association executives discuss international programs, members and issues.  In this difficult economy most association executives find it politically easier within their organizations to focus their intellectual and financial resources entirely on domestic activities.  But such decisions should not be taken lightly.  If care were taken to examine the opportunities that are thus being lost in the international arena association executives might well see that they are sacrificing their organizations’ future relevancy for questions that are far more short-term and that have far less strategic value. 

[More]

Chapter checklist: Ease the creation of your local network
Depending on which association executive is asked, chapters are either the bedrock of an association, or the source of headaches—or both at the same time!  However, when functioning well, an association that has a strong national or international headquarters, backed by a strong chapter network, is a force to be reckoned with and may well be the model that is best suited to the needs of globalization.

[More]

The Right Hand for chief staff execs (part 2/2)
Chief executive officers (be they elected or appointed) often feel pressured by conflicting demands, performance measures, and lean budgetary resources. Administrative staff may not have the high level capability to serve as an extra pair of hands to lighten executive burdens.  Outsourcing alternatives can pick up the slack in key areas that require executive attention – governance, management, fund development, communications, and conference planning – to serve the CEO who can do anything but not everything. 

[More]

The Right Hand for chief staff execs (part 1/2)
CEO’s often feel pressured by conflicting demands, performance measures, and lean budgetary resources.  Administrative staff may not have the high level capability to serve as an extra pair of hands to lighten executive burdens.  Outsourcing alternatives can pick up the slack in key areas that require executive attention – governance, management, fund development, communications, and conference planning – to serve the CEO who can do anything but not everything.

[More]

Make friends in high places: Smart lobbying
Thomas Edison defined genius as being “10 percent inspiration and 90 percent perspiration.”  Effective lobbying also is defined primarily by hard work—even though many believe it is nothing more than “having friends in high places.”

 [More]

The Impact of Self-Organizing Groups
I think you have put your finger on key characteristics of the new economy--technology-enhanced, global, fluid and rapid change--that represent both a threat and an opportunity for organizations of all kinds. 

 [More]

The Fee-for-Service Model Migration
Twenty to thirty years ago the majority of associations derived up to 80 percent of their revenues from membership dues (from ASAE sources). However, this scenario began to change in the past two decades. Younger people ceased joining organizations with the same enthusiasm as their parents, and when they did join, it grew harder to keep them. As a result, many membership organizations began to experience a graying of their membership base.  

[More]

AMC Client Close-Ups
Leaders of organizations who have turned to Association Management Companies (AMC) to run operations are mostly positive toward that model.  Bobette Reeder, past president of a professional society, recalls that her organization was very grass roots, and growing rapidly.  She took her organization from one where checks were lost behind desks to an AMC with a much higher level of professionalism, a service model with administrative backbone.   

[More]