SCIP09 Keynote Set!
We know that many of you who are following our progress for the SCIP09 annual conference taking place April 21-24, 2009 at the Sheraton Chicago Hotel and Towers are very eager to hear who we’ve selected for our keynote speaker. It was a challenging decision this year and certainly one that we took very seriously. Aside from casting a wide net to find the best fit for our field, we spent considerable time reviewing the pros and cons of the last 5-6 keynotes, while also considering the many challenges all businesses are faced within this difficult economic climate.We’re excited to report we’ve found our person for the job! Michael Treacy, author of Double-Digit Growth and The Discipline of Market Leaders, will be with us on Thursday morning, April 23, 2009. With our conference theme of “Growth in Challenging Economic Times,” we’ve selected Treacy because of his applications of growth-oriented insights in any economic environment. Additionally, Treacy is willing to apply his work toward the practice of competitive intelligence and we feel that will leave all conference attendees with insights they can apply at their organizations - namely, driving continued growth in today’s challenging global macroeconomic environment.
Regarding our keynote selection, we requested feedback from several practitioners, vendors and other thought leaders in the CI industry. We’re energized by Treacy’s material and feel we’ve maximized our budget dollars to go up-market for a keynote presenter that will apply his work to our chosen field and give everyone insights into how they can leverage that insight immediately to drive growth within their own organizations. Derek Johnson, Ken Garrison, and Sandy Skipper will be interviewing Michael Treacy face-to-face on September 12, 2008.
We hope you’re equally as excited by our keynote selection and we welcome your constructive insights in terms of how we can make SCIP09 the best-ever annual conference!
Best Regards,
Derek Johnson
Program Chair
Derek.Johnson@AuroraWDC.com
We know that many of you who are following our progress for the SCIP09 annual conference taking place April 21-24, 2009 at the Sheraton Chicago Hotel and Towers are very eager to hear who we’ve selected for our keynote speaker. It was a challenging decision this year and certainly one that we took very seriously. Aside from casting a wide net to find the best fit for our field, we spent considerable time reviewing the pros and cons of the last 5-6 keynotes, while also considering the many challenges all businesses are faced within this difficult economic climate.We’re excited to report we’ve found our person for the job! Michael Treacy, author of Double-Digit Growth and The Discipline of Market Leaders, will be with us on Thursday morning, April 23, 2009. With our conference theme of “Growth in Challenging Economic Times,” we’ve selected Treacy because of his applications of growth-oriented insights in any economic environment. Additionally, Treacy is willing to apply his work toward the practice of competitive intelligence and we feel that will leave all conference attendees with insights they can apply at their organizations - namely, driving continued growth in today’s challenging global macroeconomic environment.
Regarding our keynote selection, we requested feedback from several practitioners, vendors and other thought leaders in the CI industry. We’re energized by Treacy’s material and feel we’ve maximized our budget dollars to go up-market for a keynote presenter that will apply his work to our chosen field and give everyone insights into how they can leverage that insight immediately to drive growth within their own organizations. Derek Johnson, Ken Garrison, and Sandy Skipper will be interviewing Michael Treacy face-to-face on September 12, 2008.
We hope you’re equally as excited by our keynote selection and we welcome your constructive insights in terms of how we can make SCIP09 the best-ever annual conference!
Best Regards,
Derek Johnson
Program Chair
Derek.Johnson@AuroraWDC.com
Passion
In the most recent issue of the Competitive Intelligence Magazine, Joe Goldberg referred to passion in our organization.
I’ve spent the last twelve years of my working career in the association world and, like anyone who lives in that world; I can tell you that we see passion all the time. The passion can be for a cause or in the case of SCIP for a profession. We need that passion. We depend on that passion.
That passion is generally expressed publicly and privately in the form of volunteerism.
A volunteer is a person that donates something to the association. That something could come in the form of time; like those that serve on our board, advisory committees, or chapter leadership. That something could come in the form of knowledge; like those that have donated their time to present workshops or conference sessions, writing articles or chapters in the publications of the foundation. That something could come in the form of being a SCIP champion and supporting the organization. These are just some of the ways that people volunteer.
Like many small associations SCIP depends on this donation from Volunteers. We would not survive without it. We do not grow as an organization without our volunteers or our champions.
I’m often asked, “Why do they volunteer?” I think the best answer is usually, “They believe.” Volunteers believe in the goals and mission of the organization. Thus, they are willing to donate these important services to that organization.
The next question I usually get is, “What do they get out of it?” The answer to that is, “quite a bit,” both directly and indirectly. What volunteering allows them to do is focus on an area, a cause, or portion of the profession that is of interest to them. They can also gain valuable growth by being in positions of leadership and having an opportunity to work with other leaders. This is the type of professional development that an association can offer and give back for that valuable volunteerism.
Over the past several years, SCIP has worked, and continues to work, on these volunteer opportunities. Can some of you speak about your experiences, either in volunteering in general or in volunteering for SCIP specifically? If you do not know where to direct your volunteer time for the organization, please feel free to contact me.
Customer Feedback Questions
A SCIP member is developing a survey for obtaining CI customer feedback for his corporate function and wanted to review surveys others have used. Not having actual survey samples available, I asked the SCIP Fellows to provide suggestions for survey questions.
Below are several responses:
Vernon Prior ( vernonprior@a1.com.au ):
Why was the information needed?
Did it help to make a decision, take action, or solve a problem?
Did it force competitors to change plans, strategies, or operations?
Did it help to make money or save time?
Did it reduce any adverse effects of competitors’ actions?
Were the results measurable and if so what are the figures?
Was it delivered on time?
Would it have made any difference if the information had not been provided?
Ellen Naylor ( ellen@thebisource.com ):
1. What was the decision or action you made as a result of what we provided?
2. Did the analysis/data satisfy the needs for the decision or action you were taking?
3. If so, how?
4. If not or if you could have used more data/analysis, what could we have provided that would have been better?
5. Are there any ROI implications for what you were enabled to do based on what we provided? (e.g. move ahead with a new product or not move ahead with the wrong product that would have cost lots of money or make a sale).
In general, I think it’s best to call your clients after major projects, since people are being surveyed electronically to death these days. It’s much faster and shows more commitment from you than another electronic survey.
Michael Sandman ( msandman@fuld.com ):
We tend to focus on decisions and deliverables. For example:
What decisions did you make differently as a result of the intelligence we provided?
What was the value to the business of those decisions (either in dollar terms or in terms of success)
What kinds of decisions will you be making in the future, and what kinds of intelligence will help you make those decisions?
How well did the deliverable (presentation, reports newsletter) fit your needs?
How could it be improved? (Format, length, content…)