Industry Associations - Change Objectives to Change Mindset

What are the role of Industry Associations? Are our associations living in previous century? Are our associations making their members ready for the future? Most Important what Industry Association thinks about customer they serve as Industry? 

I surveyed OBJECTIVES of some of the associations mainly servicing retail clients. These are Retailers Associations of India (RAI), Cellular Operators Association of India (COAI), Association of Healthcare Providers India (AHPI), Insurance Brokers Association of India (IBAI), Indian Bankers Association (IBA) & Maharashtra Chamber of Housing Industry (MCHI). 

Its is interesting to mention that:

1) IBAI has put up their memorandum of association to know the objectives.  We all know how the objectives of business is defined in the Memorandum of Association. Somewhere in About Us I found a para on objectives which talks about protecting the interest of members , interaction among members and educating the members etc. Nothing on code of conduct ,  ethics and values. 

2) IBA - None of the 19 objectives talks about customer service, satisfaction or customer experiences. One of the objectives though talks about - To project a good image of banking  as a service industry.  So no customer in sight and even focus is on projection of image not creation of Image. 

3) MCHI - None of the seven objectives talks about customer at all. Its all about their members. No responsibilities towards customers. Nothing on code of conduct ,  ethics and values. 

4) COAI - One of the objectives talks about - To undertake continues efforts for customer satisfaction. Nothing on code of conduct ,  ethics and values. 

5) AHPI - None of the 5 main objectives talks about customer service, satisfaction or experience. However there is a reference to the words like reach, affordability and safety of patients.  They did talk about ethical standards for members. 

One association which I found more proactive about the customers and ethics is RAI. Customers are the heart of any industry and business. Unless at association level customer culture is not talked about or kept at the center, members are likely to turn apathetic towards customer service and experience. Yes members for their owns sake are doing something for customer care and satisfaction but is it not the responsibly of every business association to percolate customer culture & ethical Behaviour in its stake holder members?

6) RAI - One of the 5 objectives states - To work for customer delight by helping retailers create the right retail environment.It also talks about transparency, code of conduct and right values. 

How far have they succeeded is a matter of debate. 

All associations are interested in expanding the reach, knowledge share, govt liaisening  in policy making. However unless associations focus on CUSTOMER their members are out to serve, associations will be failing in their role. 

I would like to end with the quote from the research report on Association Forecast 2012 by Shelly Alcorn who interviewed executives of 200 associations in the US. 

" During the course of conducting this project, we became convinced that associations are losing their ability to differentiate themselves in the marketplace, not because of a lack of innovation and creative capacity, but through a wholesale adoption of language and management techniques more suited to the purely corporate goal of product production, not experience creation. " 

Experience creation is the goal of every business and associations catering to any industry must keep this objectives at the center. They must enable their members in achieving better customer experience. Then and then they will align all other objectives to achieve this central objective. Market share growth , Govt policies,  best practice and networking  opportunities everything is secondary to better customer experience creating mindset and capability.  

Like a country where CITIZEN must be at the core of all activities , for any company and industry - CUSTOMERs have to be at the center stage. For Tarde & Industry Associations its members' end customers are the Customers.

  

Rajat Gupta & MCHI - Court Judgement

Well the title suggests some co-relation between the two judgement. 

Yesterday Mumbai High Court delivered a judgement on VAT to be Payable by the builders. Therefore no relief to the builders for which the case was in court. 

I have been observing since last few years, every court and consumer body are delivering judgement against the builder or builder body MCHI. There is a news about some or the other cheating by builders more often. Press is full of negative news about the builder community. 

In such a scenario what is the role of MCHI or CREDAI? I haven't seen any advertisement in the press by MCHI other than their regular exhibition 3/4 times a year. That are the only times they are seen in the press. That's it. 

What financial market regulator SEBI does? They are out in the press many a times during the year to educate and make investors aware about the market. They are concerned about the fraudulent companies and think that investors should not be fooled or looted by these companies and there fore education and awareness. These kind of initiatives build perception. 

Rajat Gupta of ex Mckinsey got support letter from 400 top notch people of the world and his sentence was reduced substantially by the judge. It was only token sentence of Jail. His good work and his perception about otherwise individual conduct had an impact on the judge and it saved him from rigorous punishment. 

Therefore if one wants to be seen and heard from the heart , perception in the market plays significant role. The way good perception helps to reduce the gravity , bad perception will act negatively. 

MCHI talks about their consumer grievances cell. Why don't they publish data on how many complaints they received and how many issues were resolved? Why don't they come out in press periodically to make consumer aware about bad practices in the industries and dos and donts while buying home or dealing with builders? No concerns for consumers  and only time to go to press is when they want to sale their products. This will not work.   

Bad perception is being created by some of their members by their conduct and no effort to create good perception effort by some aggressive proactive action , how can you win trust of consumers, authorities and even courts? 

Food for thought for MCHI to ACT and ACT proactively for the betterment of consumers at large and not only for the benefit of their members. Rajat Gupta and MCHI both are impacted by their perception - one positively and one negatively. 

Are U selling your Products or Passion !!! ???

Mumbai's top most and all other Home Builders had an exhibition during 6th to 9th of Oct in Mumbai. I visited the exhibition to know about products of companies engaged in Mumbai's most powerful industry. 

Barring one developer one can not make out the differentiation in what they do and how they do. Similar style exhibition outlet, similar style suited , booted and tied representatives (kind of uniform) , SOP driven receptionists, more or less same display patters, same monotonous scripted sales speech. Absolutely no innovation.  Well their sales collateral had some quality variance.

The one company referred above was THE ONLY ONE outstanding. Beautifully designed exhibition outlet shows the passion with which the company is working. Every company there , were out to sale their properties but this company added passion with creativity in their just 4 day efforts. 

Known as Nahar Group , they had lovely nest with chirping bird sound , classy color combination and lovely sales collateral. They brought their project location's natural ambiance live there. { rest all had some or other pics to demonstrate their locational advantage }.  

This company was not selling HOMEs but selling their deep PASSION.

What are u Selling ?????? [ go back to drawing board, design board, HR policies, customer experience policy and shake it up, now , Today ] .

{ Happy to note that exhibition organizing body (MCHI) recently awarded them best designed exhibition outlet. This also shows HOW easy it is to get noticed if you add some creativity to what u do, as there are very very few who do what they do passionately. }