It’s no secret that setting up, changing, or leading an industry service organisation is not easy. Nor is it a secret that these organisations can create unique value for businesses.
A modern industry body is an incredibly powerful means for businesses to influence the external system that enables and accelerates innovation.
That’s why so many leading businesses around the world participate as members of business and industry organisations.
Back when I first started writing emails and talking with clients about how world class industry service organisations can be transformative, the interest I received soared when I explained what the real problem was.
Industry bodies were not innovating fast enough to keep up with the changing needs of businesses.
Leaders were choosing incremental change for industry organisations when transformation was needed.
They were becoming less relevant and mediocrity crept in.
But there was a problem. One that caused me no end of frustration.
The problem is that no matter how well I communicated some of my best tips and value in my emails and in client meetings, it wasn’t translating to many sales.
You have likely run into this issue yourself. For example, where businesses don’t join an industry body that could produce real benefits for them.
Or when businesses don’t buy a service or product that would make a huge difference to their productivity.
Or when government programs don’t narrow efforts onto delivering the transformative changes for which they were established and instead spread efforts widely to appease everyone.
The writings of email marketing whiz Ian Brodie gave me a wakeup. I realised that I’d overlooked one of the absolute fundamentals.
If someone doesn’t think they have a burning problem to solve there’s no reason for them to buy anything.
It was the trigger for me to clarify the problem and describe the symptoms and solutions in a way that communicated their significance for leaders.
I wrote a white paper in 2019 and it provoked people to think about their own situation. Further, it revealed how my thinking was different to other consultants, and it provided readers with some guidance about solutions they could use.
What followed was a cascade of significant new business and new subscribers to my email.
The paper remains relevant today, but the context has changed dramatically.
After the pandemic, the emergence of generative AI and my experience of living and working in Indonesia on two-way trade partnerships for over a year I have developed some fresh perspectives.
There are important nuanced implications for intermediary organisations that exist to transform the institutions and regimes that hold back innovation.
I will be sharing these insights with you over coming weeks and months and doing it through a new platform called Substack.
Until next week.