‘Executive’ Archives

The Future of the AMS – A free e-book

I participated in a panel discussion of AMS experts on the future of the Association Management System (AMS) hosted by Aptify. An e-book was created from that discussion and is available for free from Aptify via this page: Click here and scroll to the bottom If you're thinking about the ...

Champagne Tastes on a Beer Budget

You've probably heard that phrase before. Essentially it means wanting much nicer things than we can actually afford. Or expecting much more than what we've paid for. In my 14 years of consulting, I've noticed that a small minority of associations suffer from this affliction. For example, I once ...

You Can’t Measure Success without Clear Objectives

I was speaking with two contacts at a client of mine about their multiple membership programs. One of the programs they told me about had 1,500 individual members paying $100 each (which by my math is $150,000 annually). They were asking my advice on whether the program was priced correctly. I ...

Too many choices? That’s why you need a consultant

In the book "Switch" by Chip and Dan Heath, they tell the story of a jam sale conducted by gourmet food store. One day, the store put out six types of jam. The next, they put out 24 types of jam. The display of 24 jams attracts a lot more customers, but the display of only six types of jams ...

Everything takes longer than you think it will (especially hiring!)

I am, admittedly, an incredibly impatient person. It's one of the reasons I LOVE the internet; instant gratification. I can get the answer to that question about a movie, or immediately order something I want (from Amazon, natch), without ever having to leave my home (and often without even having ...

Did you expect them to just KNOW how to do it?

I was once on a tour of a plant where conveyor belts were being manufactured. I noticed that one of the machines had several people standing around it, and the machine did not seem to be working well (if at all). I asked the tour guide what was going on, and she replied "Oh, we always have problems ...

All choices involve trade-offs

The economist and political writer Thomas Sowell once wrote: "There are no solutions, only trade-offs." What Sowell means, of course, is that every decision we make in life involves a trade-off. Choosing to ride the bus, for example, involves giving up some freedom of choosing your own route as the ...

Of data, big and small

Two interesting articles on big data have come across my transom in the past few days, and I wanted to comment on them. The first article is from Inc. magazine entitled "5 Trends to Ignore in 2013" (Hat tip Elizabeth Engel). One of the five trends the author suggests small businesses ignore (and ...

Are you asking your customers (or members)?

I recently received the monthly newsletter from Matrix Group, one of the many  vendors on my list of AMS vendors. In the newsletter, Matrix's CEO, Joanna Pineda, outlined how Matrix had hosted a "town hall meeting"  with their customers, in order to outline new enhancements to the product, as ...

Technology philosophy #7 – Have a disaster recovery plan

This one isn't so much a philosophy as just a sensible business practice. You MUST have some type of disaster recovery plan in place. And not just for your technology, but for your entire organization's operations. (By definition this includes all of your technology.) Back in late 2001, a ...