A Whole New Game Plan
The Energy of Many
By Bruce MacMillan, C.A.
BY THE TIME THIS COLUMN HITS YOUR DESK, THE CHAMPION OF THE MPI FANTASY FOOTBALL LEAGUE WILL HAVE DONE A TOUCHDOWN DANCE, received a phone call from the president and earned priceless bragging rights as football impresario uber alles. This success cannot be attributed to learning the game from Vince Lombardi. It’s probably due to the individual’s ability to assemble powerful decision-making information from the mountain of data generated each week by the events produced by the National Football League and then acting on it to drive the team performance.
And just like in sports, the ability to measure and analyze relevant data is now among the most prized competencies for successful business professionals. It is an important part of speaking the language of business, and, unfortunately, one that we, as an industry, struggle with.
For years, we have called ourselves a relationship-based industry. We are and always will be. We’ve also lamented, to the point of an art form, that the business and organizational value created by our energy cannot be readily measured in terms that the CFO or CEO can appreciate. Well, it’s a new decade with a new business imperative for our profession. It’s time to get over it once and for all and start making measurement and the resulting business storytelling core competencies for our profession.
The ongoing digital revolution, be it on the desktop or in your hand, makes gathering the measurement of data and creating and sharing the results much easier than ever. And part of our job in equipping you with what you need to speak the language of business is connecting you with the most relevant tools and best practices to ensure your success. But the commitment to performance measurement has to start with you.
The good news is that in a year when our industry suffered countless business and image setbacks, the silver lining was around the release of unprecedented performance measurement research on the strategic role of meetings, events and business travel. Findings by Oxford Research (through U.S. Travel) and Forbes Insight joined our own MPI Foundation EventView study to trumpet that meetings and events were key to business recovery. But we cannot stop there and make performance measurement the purview of the Ph.D.’s. If we want to get C-suite support and professional growth, we have to get into the game now. It has to be part of the professional business outlook and playbook that meeting and event professionals deploy on a regular basis.
Success in professional sports is no longer just about game-day performance. The measurement and data gathering before and after the game has evolved to the point where it enables the preparation of a killer game plan that can be the ultimate competitive advantage. It is no different for meeting professionals. What we do makes a difference on bottom lines everywhere. It’s time to make measurement and data gathering a vital element in our own professional game plan. Touchdown guaranteed. One+
BRUCE MACMILLAN, C.A., is CEO and president of MPI. He can be reached at bmacmillan@mpiweb.com. Follow him at www.twitter.com/BMACMPI.