I love shoes! So when I go shoe shopping I diligently try to focus my efforts on a specific style of shoe that meets my set budget. Let’s say for example a functional yet dressy ballet shoe that is great for travel with a price tag of $100. After hours of shopping I find myself at home admiring the $250 Stuart Weitzman black pumps that are in the box in front of me. So what happened? Why did I buy a different shoe that cost more?
What happened is after examining many ‘so called bargains’ I realized that a quality name-brand and higher priced shoe would be the smarter purchase. It would wear better, definitely make me feel better and stay in style longer than the shoe I originally intended to buy. In short, my purchase was a better investment.
So what does my shoe fetish have to do with advising corporate executives on why their organization should have a meeting and event strategy? The straight forward short answer is meetings and events are a strategic investment into increasing business effectiveness, competitiveness and profitability.
Meetings and events are marketing and communication-driven and every meeting and event, regardless of audience, includes all the essential marketing and communication ingredients: messaging, branding and visibility. They are most effective when they are designed to support the CEO’s vision, strategy and goals. This is why meetings and events are aligned with marketing or communications and not with procurement.
Procurement does have a part to play specific to contractual needs and issues. But its role is not to make decisions on corporate brand or the best way for leadership to unleash its people potential. These decisions should not be based on what’s the most cost efficient approach. But rather what is the most effective solution that will improve organizational results.
Today’s state of economic uncertainty has made cost cutting a reactionary band aid fix. But any c-suite will tell you long term growth is not feasible if an organization operates in a permanent state of cost containment. The bottom line is senior executives understand that vision and strategic goals cannot be achieved through belt-tightening but rather by making strategic and effective investments. Organizations develop strategic plans for marketing, communication and advertizing campaigns so why not for meetings and events?