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SDForum
Everyone associated with SDForum was almost solely focused on achieving those two goals. That's what kept momentum going and allowed members, volunteers and staff to push forward toward the group's overarching goal of helping people be more successful by making the right industry connections and better understanding business trends and best practices. But with the merger came an inherently long list of challenges. "We pulled together two very different cultures comprised of many talented people -- with no shortage of opinions and ideas about who our audience really is and how we should move the new organization forward," said SDForum Executive Director Sandy Herz. Herz found herself smack dab in the middle of an extremely active organization full of people with good intentions but very little consensus on where to go. Serving the greater San Francisco Bay Area, particularly Silicon Valley, "SDForum tries very hard to provide good value to our membership. We sponsor several events each month such as major networking events, seminars on how to successfully start and grow a technology company, member-led technology special interest groups, one-on-one meetings between entrepreneurs and venture capitalists, angel investors, coaches, attorneys and more," said Herz. Helping Hand With success stories like HotMail, Liquid Audio and 3Ware among those who relied upon SDForum, Herz knew she needed a cohesive plan to create order in the chaos but she wasn't sure where to begin. When New Business Strategies President Christine Crandell heard of SDForum's need, she offered her firm's services to guide the organization through a true strategic focusing process. "I know Christine very well because she has been an active SDForum member and sponsor, serving on our Executive Council. She has also taught courses and she has run our sales and marketing conference for three years. I understood very well how much value New Business Strategies could provide and immediately accepted their offer," she said. Planning the Future First, New Business Strategies assessed the overall marketplace and opportunities as well as SDForum's internal capabilities. This involved facilitating meetings with different parts of the Executive Council to discuss the organization's weakness and threats as well as defining its mission, goals, and strategy tactics. New Business Strategies also worked directly with people at other levels who would actually "own" the areas where the strategies and initiatives will be implemented in 2001. "It wouldn't work for me to just walk in and say, here's what you're going to do," said Herz. "Everyone had to buy-in to the plan and see how they could not only make things more valuable to the membership, but also to themselves." It was through that level of interaction that New Business Strategies guided SDForum leaders to identify some key goals that the group had never really considered. "While we always knew there was an underlying community to our organization, it wasn't anything we consciously thought about or tried to cultivate," said Herz. "New Business Strategies helped us to see the importance of developing a cohesive community that would compel people to join and stay involved in the organization." "Historically, people would join, attend a few classes, and then move on. If people remained engaged, it didn't have to be that way, but we had to consciously cultivate our community." New Business Strategies helped us outline the strategy and tactics for nurturing that sense of community as well as defining ways to grow and retain members -- another related goal for SDForum. "New Business Strategies' strategic planning process looked at our group from the highest level, helped clarify our mission and spell out specific actions and measures in a timeline format to help us achieve high level goals," said Herz. What It Will Mean "New Business Strategies was able to find the exact processes to work with the large volunteer base that serves our membership. We are now much better positioned to be bigger, better and more effective in the next two to three years," said Herz. "Now with a well articulated plan, I can go back to the volunteers at all levels and say as we agreed, here's who we are and where we're going. What's the best way for us to take advantage of your talents?" she added. Giving Back As a nonprofit organization, SDForum often relies on the talents and contributions of sponsors who can help the membership. "Through my years of interactions with New Business Strategies, it is clear that giving back to the community has always been their philosophy. By helping to make SDForum more effective, the entire industry becomes more effective. The impact is really profound. Companies that enlightened are few and far between. We are so very pleased that New Business Strategies guided us along in the creation of our new strategic roadmap," summed up Herz.
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In fall of 1998, two software-related professional organizations merged to form the Software Development Forum (SDForum). The new SDForum was poised to provide developers and entrepreneurs with more resources and contacts for starting up a new venture than any organization of its kind worldwide. To bolster longevity, SDForum centered all efforts on achieving financial stability and growing its membership to 2,000 people by the year 2000. In less than 18 months, the group claimed "mission accomplished." But then what?