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perspectives
Paul Bellantone, CAE
President & CEO
I
n the November issue of
PPB
, Chair
Tom Goos, MAS, summarized his
term over the past 12 months. In that
column, he talked about the Association’s
undertaking of a strategic planning
session and his pride in the work of the
PPAI Board and staff on the resulting
strategic plan. He mentioned a new
mission statement and the idea that the
plan focused on taking the Association
from transactional to relational.
The newmission statement—
PPAI is the
trusted leader delivering essential knowledge,
resources and community to ensure the
success of our members and the industry
—
says a lot, not only about where we are going
but perhaps where we’ve been.
As we prepared for the strategic
planning session, our session facilitator,
Seth Kahan, took the time to talk with
members. He participated in focus
groups, made phone calls and interacted
with members one on one. It was the
feedback from these members that let us
know we had become the trusted leader.
I take great pride in knowing that the
organization has positioned itself as such.
But the fact that the phrase is still a
part of our mission statement is meant to
show that we will not rest on our laurels,
and as we move forward we not only fully
embrace this title, but we plan to focus
on it in the future. We will strive in every
aspect of our operation to remain your
trusted leader, and in doing so, we will
move the organization from transactional
to relational.
You may be wondering exactly what
that phrase means. I must admit, after the
strategic planning session, I had to think
about it a bit myself.
It means that our strategic plan will take
us beyond simply trying to acquire new
members and sell additional benefits.
It will focus us on reaching deeper into
the members we have and enhancing a
deeper relationship.
Let’s consider each of the four goals:
1 Drive meaningful member value and
engagement.
is goal says nothing
about getting more members. It
is, as I like to refer to it, our Love
goal. We want our members to love
us, to trust us and to engage with
us—however you choose to engage
with us. Whether we’re talking about
super users/brand advocates, or the
creation of knowledge communities
where content will be king, our focus
is value and engagement—and is
relational in every sense.
2 Advocate for the industry
. A long-
standing goal for the Association,
advocacy is something we will
continue to execute on your behalf.
But what changes with this strategic
plan is that we want to build a
stronger relationship with you, so
that we advocate together. Each of
you has an opportunity to be a part
of our buyer outreach e orts by
getting involved in our Get In Touch!
campaign. is million-dollar-plus,
ve-year campaign, will only see its
full potential if we work together. Our
e orts on the legislative and product
responsibility sides are not dissimilar
in that they too will garner the most
attention and draw the greatest
success when we work together.
Stronger relationships between you
and your Association will build a
stronger industry for the future.
3 Deliver and leverage strategic
foresight.
By having a greater
understanding of what’s ahead, we
can better prepare for our future. is
goal looks to nd and track emerging
trends that will or could have an
impact on our industry. It’s not just
looking at what disruptors might be
coming our way and the implication
of such, but what opportunities are
being created for the industry by
these trends.
4 Manage an efficient and progressive
organization.
How do we retool
PPAI to deliver second-to-none
member experiences, interaction
and engagement? is might be
a deeper dive into technology to
enhance member interaction with
the Association or developing more
personalized relationships with
each of our members—basically
allowing you to customize your PPAI
membership in a way that best meets
your needs.
Transactional to relational. You see,
no mention of acquiring more members,
selling more booths or anything that is
transactional. Those may be a byproduct
of this strategic plan, and I hope that they
are, but it is not our focus. You loving this
organization is our goal.
Our strategic plan will take us beyond
simply trying to acquire new members and
sell additional benefits. It will focus us on
reaching deeper into the members we have
and enhancing a deeper relationship.
Moving From Transactional To Relational
4
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JANUARY 2017
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