ChemITC Strategy Renewal

ChemITC Evaluates Strategy Effectiveness, Renews Future Plans

Within every organization, it is essential to periodically evaluate the perceived value of processes used, programs offered and benefits gained. Is this initiative working and generating the desired outcome? Are members satisfied with the results? What impact does today’s economic environment have on growth and participation? What else could we be doing to deliver value to members? These are just a few important things to consider when assessing the effectiveness of an organization.

ChemITC has grown and evolved significantly since its establishment three years ago. Following a few organizational and leadership changes in late 2007, the ChemITC Executive Board felt the time was right to examine progress toward organization objectives and make adjustments to ensure that we are focusing our time and resources in the areas that matter most to members.

To accomplish this task, ChemITC enlisted the assistance of the Boston Consulting Group (BCG) to facilitate its strategy renewal process earlier this year. BCG interviewed 10 Executive Board Members, the outgoing Executive Liaison and three ACC staff members to gauge their perspectives on ChemITC’s strengths and where it needs to focus attention. The survey results will help ChemITC to evaluate what works, what doesn’t, and what priorities can be established from these topics, as well as translate that into an increased value proposition for attracting and retaining members. The strategy renewal process revealed three main goals for ChemITC to work toward: increasing charter memberships; taking cyber security to the next level; and building out benchmarking capabilities.

Topping the list of focus areas for 2008 and beyond is a strong desire to increase ChemITC’s member base, particularly in the charter member category. Over the last three years, ChemITC has built a solid membership of actively engaged chemical companies. However, these chemical company members reflect only a percentage of the American Chemistry Council’s 120 members. In support of this organizational objective, ChemITC’s Operations Management Team (OMT) is initiating a member recruitment campaign that encompasses a variety of activities to encourage more ACC members to get involved in our dynamic organization.

In terms of specific ChemITC programs, the Cyber Security Program remains a respected and important element of ChemITC. Those interviewed find significant value in the advocacy element of the Cyber Security Program and believe that a continued emphasis on strengthening the chemical sector’s relationship with the Department of Homeland Security remains a high priority. There is also a widespread belief that the Cyber Security Program has produced a useful set of guidance documents and tools that effectively enable companies to assess and enhance the cyber security performance of their business and manufacturing control systems.

The importance of measuring progress and compliance beyond the Responsible Care® Security Code was a key takeaway from the survey. In response to this, the Cyber Security Program Steering Team is focusing its attention throughout the remainder of the year on determining possible methods for measuring the tangible impact of cyber security efforts at a sector level. Those interviewed also expressed an increasing need for more coordination with other organizations working on issues affecting the ChemITC membership at an international level, in response to emerging regulations like REACH in other world areas. The Cyber Security Program is looking to its European Networking and Implementation Team to provide guidance on these evolving areas of global focus.

Another key conclusion from the strategy renewal process may not come as a surprise, particularly to those that regularly participate in ChemITC’s Annual IT Survey. Benchmarking activities are highly regarded among those interviewed, who cite the annual survey results as a credible source for measuring performance relative to industry peers and identifying possible areas for improvement. In discussing the value of benchmarking, though, BCG learned that the CIOs are looking for additional insights that can be found by building longitudinal views of the data into annual survey analysis plans. BCG also identified a desire to extend the scope of benchmarking activities beyond the Annual IT Survey.

In the early days of ChemITC, the Survey and Benchmarking Program offered different types of surveys to help member companies benchmark their use of IT. However over the course of the last three years, emphasis has primarily been placed on the Annual IT Survey. The Survey and Benchmarking Program is returning to its roots, developing a plan for re-introducing ad-hoc and roundtable surveys into its service offering. Providing additional surveys on specific topics of member interest is believed to provide immense value to ChemITC members, as well as be a useful benefit for attracting new members to the organization.

As you can see, ChemITC is already taking the feedback drawn from the strategy renewal process to heart, and has begun putting plans in place to address strategic growth areas. By maintaining a member-driven focus, ChemITC is confident that it will remain a valuable arena for chemical company IT professionals to learn from others, connect with peers and successfully lead their IT organizations into the future.