Just over 12 months ago, we decided to break away from our old brand 'SIRF Roundtables'.
The decision was not easy as the brand has been around for 25 years; however, no one could ever really connect with the SIRF (Strategic Industry Research Foundation) aspect regarding what it meant.
We followed the rule book to help implement a plan:
- Start with the Vision, Mission and Values
- Have a holistic strategy
- Analyse what to keep and what to let go of
- Check out the competition
- Project manage the process
- Tell the world
Simple hey!
I have to congratulate the team on their outstanding work in getting us to the launch in September last year during a challenging period globally.
We came up with:
- The name Industry Partners Australia (IPA) that now resonates with our customers
- Our purpose: we help businesses find solutions by bringing together leading industry professionals, as a community, to share their expertise and knowledge to better themselves and Australian industry.
- Our catchphrase: 'Solutions begin with a conversation'.
- An incredibly interactive website, check it out industrypartners.com.au.
- We developed our strategies around what our customers say are our core strengths.
- Our Evolve2 Leadership Program
- Our ability to connect people to find solutions
- Our diverse and large membership base
- Our events, producing close to 150 per year over six different business streams.
- And finally, our ability to engage our customers to deliver real solutions
Trust me, none of this just came about. It was hard work for everyone and took almost seven months in the making.
So, did we get it all right?
The answer is yes, and no, we nailed the first five steps but forgot about the crucial 6th step, and that is "to tell the world".
We did the usual stuff, made the announcement to our customers, which generally fell on deaf ears, posted some things on social media that had a similar impact but never really nailed it.
So, six months down the track, we are now trying to tell the world about our little known organisation, Industry Partners Australia.
Please help the process by commenting or, better still, sharing our story, following our LinkedIn page and talk to your peers and friends about us.
Gary Silversides; CEO
Related content: Industry Networking
