After a recent meeting of association CEO’s, I shared a cab back to the airport with a marketing manager for a large pharmaceutical company. We were speaking of doing business in a world that is reeling from the effects of Enron, recession, terrorism and the threat of military conflicts across the globe.
As he ticked off all the problems his corporation faced, and how the management was nearly paralyzed at the prospect of their anticipated head-on collision with that 800-pound gorilla called “change,” he stared out the cab’s window and said “You’re really lucky. You don’t have to deal with it-you’re not a business.”
Once my jaw finally started moving again, all I could muster was: “Trust me. We’re more than a business.”
As a professional medical association, AANS members’ needs must be addressed on a variety of levels: educational; informational; socioeconomic; legal; clinical training; social. But to identify those needs, fulfill them, and sustain viability, we are subject to the same laws of business and commerce as any for-profit corporation.
And like any business, we must produce an ultimate “product.” Service is the product on which we stake our reputation-and the primary benchmark our members use to separate us from other marketplace alternatives. Like any business, the product we produce must be superior. The consumer-physician has the choice of services offered by a variety of other associations-businesses: state, regional, other national and international associations.
There is no difference between AANS and a for-profit business in another very tangible-some would say, brutal-reality: If the economic models of AANS are not kept in exact balance, there is no amount of good intentions or best wishes that will keep the AANS doors open. Once expenses are contained, revenue streams must be realized in order to provide the highest quality services to members. The real world marketplace, dues-paying neurosurgeons, decide with their wallets where they receive the best service for the dollars they spend.
Anyone who doubts how “business trends” affect AANS needs only look to the past 18 months. The downsizing of the AANS infrastructure and cost centers, and the resulting stabilization of its finances presaged what corporate America has gone through since. And that was just to “right the ship.” All that has happened up until now at AANS was just repairing damage below the waterline and making us seaworthy.
Of course, ships aren’t made to just float in a harbor. AANS must now venture out to fulfill its mission of providing neurosurgeons and their specialty with the best service and value for their dues. The goal of providing superior service is to provide what is best for the member neurosurgeon, not for organizational hubris.
Peter Drucker wrote: “People at the top of an organization are not paid for being clever. They’re paid for being right.” One ways to be right for AANS staff is to understand what makes us unique in the physician service business, while recognizing the business aspects of serving our physicians.
As a physician-centered organization, AANS must treat its members better than a corporation treats its customers. But when it comes to living up to standards of what you receive for your dues dollar, how to ensure the stability of the association of which you are part owner, and how to increase operating revenue to expand quality services and hold your dues down we are much more than a business.
Thomas A. Marshall is the AANS executive director.