Merger Update
Dear SCIP Members and CI Community:
We would like to take this opportunity to update you on the status of the SCIP merger with the Frost & Sullivan Institute. Stage one of the merger has been completed with the membership vote that approved the merger option. The voting closed on May 15 with 94 percent of the voting members approving of the proposed merger.
The next stage is a process which began on Monday May 18 with a review an internal review of SCIP process, functions and services to seek potential synergies when merging with FSI. The process is to seek efficiencies in operations to expand our marketing base, grow our membership and conference attendance, and examine the opportunity for new and expanded services.
A discussion will begin shortly with the merger team from FSI and the SCIP team to define those synergies and determine an implementation plan. The review, evolution, and implementation of this opportunity will occur in a slow and measured process over a period of months–not weeks. The entire Board of Directors is focused on reviewing each stage and process to find the formula that provides the maximum value proposition to the entire membership. The Board will keep you informed via the SCIP website, the SCIP Voice, and SCIP Online as details become available.
If you have questions or suggestions please contact either Martha Gleason, SCIP Chair, or Ken Garrison, SCIP CEO.
Martha Gleason and Ken Garrison
SCIP09 Photo Gallery Now Available!
Did you miss SCIP09? Fear not. We have a photo album for you to peruse from the best CI function of 2009. Click here!
SCIP Issues Press Release on Merger
Check out SCIP’s public statement about our merger with the Frost & Sullivan Institute on the SCIP website.
Opportunity
I’d like to share with you thoughts from a member as SCIP moves forward to a new chapter.
Ken
I have been told that I have led an interesting and exciting life. What I have done is make use of the opportunities that have been offered to me. Opportunities are always exciting. So now SCIP, along with membership approval, can make use of an opportunity it now has. This is very exciting for SCIP. Where does it take it? What does it do?
SCIP, although a professional association, has more than just a mission statement. It has a life of its own. It must live CI. In the life of a professional association, this means promotion of the discipline around the world, instituting pride in the practitioners of the discipline, teaching established methods of practice in the discipline for those just beginning and newer methods that enable the discipline to progress to another level. In addition, there is the social side. Members of any discipline have a need to interact. They must get together with others who share their own interests and “speak CI.“
SCIP has performed all the above for many years admirably and, with their new opportunity, will continue to do so in the future. I hope to see many of you at SCIP events in the future where we can all help SCIP make the most of their new exciting opportunity.
- Carolyn M. Vella, Meritorious Award Winner, Helicon Group
SCIP/ Frost & Sullivan Institute merger
A discussion on the Competitive Intelligence ning site, started by Kieran Michael Brown, has covered several aspects of the upcoming SCIP/ Frost & Sullivan Institute merger . Copied below are several comments from SCIP members which you may find of value.
Bonnie
From Melanie Wing:
I think this is a great opportunity to further SCIP’s goals and to extend the reach of competitive intelligence. Since I was president of the board in 2003 - 2004, I have watched the financial vulnerability of SCIP limit the ways that SCIP can add value to practitioners and the broader business universe. I am, personally, really excited about the opportunities that this merger creates.
I have to believe that the SCIP Board of Directors reviewed many different options to ensure the future of SCIP. These are smart people that have the best interests of the SCIP members and the CI profession at heart. Moving forward in any endeavor requires the acceptance of change and this is one that is a long time in coming and has the potential to make a real difference if SCIP and its membership embrace it and wait to see how it evolves. There is probably a great opportunity for SCIP members to become involved in shaping the future of the organization and increasing the value of SCIP membership and CI to a broader audience.
From August Jackson:
I’m digging out of a pile of work (this is a running-to-stand-still kind of day) but did want to quickly share my thoughts and why I voted yes for the merger. I have three main reasons for having done so:
1. Infusion of cash. SCIP entered the year with a deficit, and Chicago was not the financial success we wanted it to be. It was what it was in this economic environment, but it just didn’t generate enough cash to build a bridge over the chasm for SCIP. Like a lot of associations SCIP operates somewhat from paycheck to paycheck, and the take-home pay from this one wasn’t what it needed to be. I get a lot of value from SCIP, and I don’t want it to go away.
2. Access to technology. I have been on SCIP about this one that their approach to web technologies is behind the times and makes it a challenge for them to deliver value to members. Frost & Sullivan have a technical infrastructure and expertise that will provide a platform and knowledge transfer to enable SCIP to improve the delivery of on-line services. I intend to be a very strong advocate for taking advantage of these new tools and expertise to drive member value and higher profitability (for starters SCIP will likely have a much more attractive cost base for their webinars).
3. Marketing. Frost has a big customer list, CRM platform and marketing savvy that SCIP cannot replicate. This will help us drive membership, drive attendance and drive participation.
Frost & Sullivan bring more to the table than just a cash investment. They bring real assets, expertise and scale that can drive real member value. I know the Frost guys are savvy enough to realize the importance of a vibrant ecosystem of CI vendors and practitioners. Rather than simply dominate or try to monopolize the space they are smart enough to understand that they have an important part to play in raising the tide that will lift all boats (to paraphrase the recently departed Jack Kemp).
(Disclaimer: My employer is a Frost client and I spoke at their Competitive Intelligence MindXChange this past January and received free registration to the event in exchange for that presentation.)
From Ken Sawka:
Basically, from what I understand, it boils down to this: no merger, no SCIP. I’m sure the Board has explored all other alternatives, and we as members need to trust their judgment (we did elect them, after all, and if you don’t vote in board elections then your bad) that they are operating in the best interests of the membership. When I was on the board in 1999-2001, there was not a board meeting at which the words “is this in the best interests of the members” were not spoken. SCIP has operated on the financial ropes for many years, and in this economy there really is no way out. I think the F&S Institute is a great partner — certainly better than others that could have been under consideration — and that the members will benefit from this decision.
SCIP is unique in that it has a relatively narrow focus, unlike SLA which includes librarians and information professionals of many stripes. SCIP reminds me of the old Planning Forum, which went under about 10 years ago and has really yet to re-emerge to its past glory under its successor organization the Association for Strategic Planning. Better that the Board avoided the complete demise of the organization and sought out a merger with what I understand to be a very effective and stable organization.
From Ellen Naylor:
I’ll be voting YES although I’m sad it comes to this cash infusion by F&S, but yet I am grateful and hopeful that F&S will bring about new opportunities for the profession. We have seen the writing on the wall for a number of years now as CI is such a narrow niche. I am reminded about some of the responses in Bill Fiora’s post, “Are we in a rut?” Perhaps F&S, with its good marketing, will broader our reach for CI, something we have strived for, for years.
From Craig Fleisher:
Dylan said the times they are a’changing… and this is a change that can potentially blow a breath of fresh air and hope into the CI community and SCIP as an association. I’m supportive of this recommended change, particularly in light of the unpalatable alternative (-s) and a realization that SCIP’s business model, as it was and has been constituted, was ill-prepared to deal with the adverse economic context the association finds itself (and many of its peer associations) in.
F&S have a long-standing relationship with the CI community and at least a few of their key people have moved from that base on to bigger and (apparently) more lucrative things. I have participated in a fair number of successful F&S CI-themed events in various places around the globe through the years to know that they have a depth of management and marketing expertise that can potentially assist SCIP’s achievement of its core objectives.
As I have long been on the record saying, I remain far more interested in driving the automobile by peering out the front windshield than doing it by looking at the journey through the rear-view mirror. Even those individuals in the Ning community who aren’t members of SCIP can recognize the “tipping point” nature of this confluence of events. If the new F&S/SCIP combination is going to work for CI and the entire community who has a stake in the discipline, it will be up to everyone who has a stake in this to step up, be counted, and do what they can.
SCIP members should show their elected Board and the dedicated staff members their confidence by supporting the proposal. As in all things, time will be the best judge of the correctness of that position, but we ought to give it a chance and try to help it succeed. I’m hoping for better times ahead for SCIP and for the larger CI community of which the association has been the critical institutional force… let’s give SCIP/F&S a chance.
From Colleen Meeker:
I also voted yes to the merger. My Board term ended December 2008, and believe me, the Board and SCIP leadership have had the best interests of the membership in mind in their actions during my full term, and especially during the last year as the realities of the recession affected SCIP’s budget and revenue stream.
I see great benefits in the F&S arrangement, to help maintain the value that SCIP is already providing to members and the CI profession, as well as to help it make some of the new investments and changes it would like to pursue, especially for the global membership.
SCIP has struggled with finding a realistic way to move off its dependence on in-person learning delivery and to build up a body of knowledge from which to better serve the global membership. Noble intent only gets a lean association so far, and investment capital to all SCIP to build an offering in advance of revenues has not been in the picture. This discussion is great because it has touched on so many of the challenges SCIP has faced and the possible future that the merger offers.
I’m happy that SCIP’s not going anywhere, and neither am I. I have received huge benefit from my membership over the years, and I’ve tried to volunteer and give back. I’ll continue to do that under the new structure.
From Bill Fiora:
I am also in favor of the agreement with F&S. Every major change brings opportunities to those who have the mindset to take advantage of them. As with the current recession, there are companies that are hunkering down, and there are companies that are aggressively turning negatives into positives and positioning themselves for the recovery. I suggest that we adopt the latter mindset.
Having served on the Board for almost 5 years, and as Treasurer for 3 of those years, I know all too well the financial constraints under which SCIP has operated. For close to ten years, the Society has been working to rebuild itself after the last downturn (and financial mistakes made at that time.) From my perspective, the business model for many individual associations (including SCIP) has not been viable for years. Rather than seeing this current situation where SCIP is in trouble as a deviation from the norm, I think the years when SCIP was profitable were deviations from the norm. At that time, a number of fortunate events allowed the Society to accumulate enough cash to postpone the inevitable. As a financial model, it simply doesn’t work – at least not for an organization of our size and membership structure.
A few benefits of the F&S deal appeal to me. First, F&S can help us to build a larger “tent” for SCIP. I see a future SCIP as a combination of a small number of full-time CI professionals, and a huge number of business professionals who are not members, but who can benefit from the CI skill set. To date, the Society has been unable to attract that huge number, and the reach of F&S can allow us to do that. Second is the benefit of shared services. If the F&S Institute functions as I understand it will, SCIP will share the costs of maintaining membership systems, web sites, office space, etc. These are not insignificant costs, in terms of both time and money.
Fundamentally, F&S will benefit from a larger and stronger SCIP. Their purpose here is not altruistic, but I imagine their goal is to be seen as a center of forward-thinking research and analysis. Working with SCIP builds that image. While the cynic in me worries that F&S will simply co-op the SCIP brand and destroy the Society, it would be far easier and more profitable for them to help SCIP grow, and thereby profit from their association with us.
Each of us needs to decide if we want to work within this new structure or not. I encourage you to think creatively about the positive aspects of this arrangement before you decide. If you vote no, and then work to establish a better alternative, I wish you the best of luck. We all owe our jobs to competition, and we can all benefit from new ideas and new thinking. Voting no to “punish” the Society for what you believe it didn’t see or didn’t understand, however, accomplishes nothing. I encourage all of you to vote yes and to bring your good ideas forward.
From Fred Wergeles:
I, too, will vote YES for this proposed merger. I echo the the comments of Colleen Meeker, Bill Fiora, Melanie Wing and Craig Fleisher - all colleagues of mine on the SCIP Board during my tenure. I can’t remember one Board meeting in which some very good program idea or new concept was raised, only to be frustratingly postponed or deferred due to a lack of human or financial resources.
I sympathise with Mark Johnson’s (and other’s) comments concerning his frustration in trying to offer changes to the organization. Having been the Board member responsible for Chapters (and the current Connecticut Chapter Chair), I know too well that it is a painstakingly slow process to try to move a big ship that is under-powered - that was the predicament SCIP was faced with due to the lack of funds.
The merger with F&S hopefully will provide not only much-needed financial resources to undertake new initiatives to increase member value, it will also offer increased exposure to a broader audience for the Competitive Intelligence discipline, the profession and those that ply this unique and important talent.
I look forward to supporting the new organization.