B2B without the BS

Stop Doing, Start Building

Posted by Robert Bell under Associations

In the last post, I wrote about a small association that is struggling to master change.  For over 25 years, this association has performed very valuable service in bringing together competitors who have to share an asset that is owned by the American people.  Only by sharing it, in accordance with rules set by the government, can those competitors stay in business.

The government regulations only go so far, however, so technical and operations executives at these competitors have to hammer out the details.  For more than a decade, they did their hammering-out in working groups of the association.  The compromises they reached then make possible services that you use every day.

But then, the activity began to fade away.  The big fights were fought to satisfactory ends.  Increasingly, the competitors contacted each other directly to work out small stuff.  Or they engaged consultants to help them, and the consultants negotiated on their behalf.

The association was left with the crumbs: minor issues that companies brought to them for resolution, updating past recommendations to the government regulatory authority, and putting on an annual conference that attracted fewer than 100 loyalists.

But here’s the strange part.  Today, there are lots of new conflicts among users of this shared asset, with billions of dollars hanging in the balance.  There are big hairy issues that need resolving.  An independent third-party – able to address the technical and implementation aspects – is just as important now as it was then.  But the association is not getting a piece of it.  Why?  Because the conflicts involve companies that are relatively new to the market and have never even heard of the association.

In other words, the market changed and the association did not change with it.  They have been losing money for a decade because their leaders have been devoted to doing – to understanding problems, defining solutions and crafting consensus.  That’s what they are passionate about.  Their passion has benefited the industries they serve – even ones that don’t know they exist.

But they have not spent enough time building.  What the association lacks is a structure that ties its technical achievements to financial success and that prepares it for a future of constant change.

It was the management consultant Peter Drucker who wrote that today’s business is the enemy of tomorrow’s.  Most of us are so wrapped up in solving today’s problems that we neglect the vital work of thinking about tomorrow and taking steps now to prepare for it.  The future of this small association hangs in the balance but these smart, dedicated people have the opportunity to build a truly sustainable organization – if they will just stop doing and start building.

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