Executive Voices: ‘The obligation to be a steward’
2012 TRENDS Executive of the Year Gary LaBranche, FASAE, CAE, said he has a tremendous sense of responsibility to the community, and offered advice for other association executives in an interview with 2011 Executive of the Year Barry Melancon, CPA, now available at www.AssociationTRENDS.com.
“I’m struck by how fortunate I’ve been, and I’m also struck by the obligation I now feel to be a steward, to be a carrier of the ideals of professionalism. To think about how we’re going to sustain and develop, not only our professions, but the association movement,” LaBranche said.
LaBranche, CEO of Association for Corporate Growth, said that in this climate of economic and political uncertainty, he is “very concerned about the encroachment on the freedom of associations. The freedom of associations is a foundational right, and is necessary to free enterprise and free speech and democracy.”
He said that associations have seen tough economic periods before and will likely see them again, but that executives should “look for the opportunity and relish the opportunity, as painful as it may be, to reorient, redevelop, reimagine, innovate and change the organization in ways that good times don’t allow.”
“Strategy is key, but the culture…has to be there to link everything together, because otherwise [strategy is] just words,” he said. Part of this strategic advancement often discussed by association executives is how to leverage social media to reinforce the association’s mission and further the organizational goals.
“The more people connect, using whatever technology there happens to be,…the more we’re going to engage with our colleagues, because the more we discover we don’t know, the more we discover that we want to know,” LaBranche says.
He also discussed the idea of international expansion, saying “associations can and should consider global expansion only if they have a substantive need that they can meet through the organization’s structures, services and programs that’s defined in the market. You’ve got to invest in it; it’s not going to happen overnight,” he warns.
He also believes that the role of the CEO is changing: “Where association management is today…is really part of a continuum of change…I think the long-term is, we are going to be more and more positioned as executive chairs, chairing the organizations in a much more up-front leadership role than, perhaps, we ever thought possible.”
LaBranche believes organizations are largely looking outside of the association when planning CEO succession, hoping to draw on a variety of skills and talents, vs. strictly familiarity with the association itself. “Increasingly…we are looking for talent wherever that talent may reside. Increasingly, the notion of association professionalism is not necessarily tied to the place of practice, but the scope of practice.”
Details: www.AssociationTRENDS.com.
