Strategic marketing initiative identifies opportunities and threats

Marc Goldsmith
Chair, BOG Strategic Marketing Task Force

Where does ASME want to be in 10 years? A strategic marketing study completed as part of the Continuity and Change Initiative has identified important opportunities that have influenced the restructuring process currently under way.

Commissioned by a task force of ASME's Board of Governors, the study concluded that viability depends on acting now to achieve necessary growth: "ASME International's image is of a membership organization at the top of its game, poised either to climb further in importance as an organization or to fall into decline. The Society's fate is in its own hands. Its challenge as an organization is to identify those strategic issues that are changing the environment in which it has historically operated and then to determine how best to integrate them into its vision, mission and operational and programming structures."

For this study, the Plexus Consulting Group, an international management-consulting firm headquartered in Washington, D.C., administered quantitative and qualitative interviews over a wide cross-section of both ASME members and nonmembers. Emphasis was placed on those employed in industrial sectors that are experiencing, or will likely experience, growth in the future — such as bioengineering, defense, energy and transportation.

The interviews were supplemented with demographic research, an environmental scan, competitor intelligence and discussions with the BOG task force.

According to the study: "ASME International is perceived to be among the strongest of the discipline-based engineering societies. It is also perceived to be fragile with regard to changing global economic and social trends. Its current strength is based on history, but its future could be perilous if the Society does not adapt itself to these changes."

The strategic marketing study identified important opportunities for ASME in global standards, training courses and job referral databases and services, new engineering fields and multidisciplinary fields. The study also cited the need for an organization that can bridge differences between industry, academia and government and between the various engineering disciplines. The study cautioned, however, that if ASME were to fail to seize these opportunities, other organizations would likely fill the vacuum.

In addition, the marketing study found that the growing use of International Standards Organization (ISO) standards for professions and industries throughout the world, plus the global outsourcing of high-tech jobs, have immediate and long-term implications for ASME.

Based upon some key findings, Plexus identified a number of needs that ASME should incorporate into its organizational structure and culture to successfully adapt to the changing environment.

ASME should:

• Develop a market-based culture.

• Globalize structures, programs and strategies.

• Become more flexible, agile and responsive.

• Implement ongoing processes to monitor the rapidly changing external environment and to assess the Society's competitive position.

• Determine what constitutes a member.

• Develop a culture and structure that welcomes and fosters the creation of specialty groups that may require multidisciplinary approaches.

• Reevaluate ASME's vision and mission.

In its recommendations on how the Society should be restructured to position itself for continued and future success, the BOG incorporated the key findings and needs to identify where ASME is today and where it needs to be to remain a viable organization.

Members of the task force that worked collaboratively with Plexus Consulting included ASME members Michael Cronin, Aureen Currin, Richard Laudenat, Thomas Mackin and Monica Moman Saunders. Two others on the Task Force, James Moore and Kok-Chuan Toh, are not ASME members.

The complete Strategic Marketing Presentation and the report's Executive Summary may be found at www.asme.org/change/StrategicMarketing.html.

The 10 Key Findings Identified by Plexus • The primary focus of ASME is on members and prospective members. • The majority of ASME's revenues come from employers, especially industry. • ASME tends to look at the market too narrowly and without full consideration of key segments. • ASME is viewed as one of the top engineering societies in the world, but is also seen as slow-moving, stuffy, conservative and academic-oriented. • ASME is known globally for its codes and standards. • A strong customer-based, market-based focus is essential for future success. • Engineers aspire to management responsibility and high technical expertise. • There is strong interest in entrepreneurship, especially among young engineers. • Technologies identified that will be important in the future are of a multidisciplinary nature. • Engineers and their employers want resources that are convenient and ready to use.

Philip W. Hamilton, managing director, Public Affairs, contributed to this story.

 

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