The importance of community

As some of you may have noticed, this is my first blog for a couple weeks.  A couple external conferences followed by our own Autumn Meeting for members of the ICDP research programme created a pretty demanding work schedule which forced blogs down the ‘to do’ list.  They did however provide the spark for this week’s blog – the importance of communities to business.  By that, I am referring specifically to the gatherings of business people with similar interests to share experiences, rather then the broader meaning of communities of suppliers, retailers, customers or other stakeholder groups.

Each of the three events – the Motor Trader EV Retail Summit in Birmingham in the UK, the ECG Annual Conference held this year in Vienna, and our own Members’ Meeting held in Divonne, near Geneva, were face-to-face meetings.  What was clear at each of the events was how much the delegates gained from the side conversations, during coffee breaks, over meals, or in the bar at the end of the day.  You can try and flatter yourself as a speaker that people are coming to hear whatever words of wisdom (in your opinion) that you have to offer, but the reality is that the speakers are simply the bait to attract the audience.  When people are actually at the event, they will most likely gain at least as much value from the networking and having discussions that may be triggered by some of the content delivered on stage, as they will from listening to the presentations themselves.

It is clearly unacceptable that meetings of this sort are used to “fix things” in the any sense that would breach anti-trust or anti-corruption rules, but the environment does support a more relaxed exchange of views than would be the case in a typical one or two hour bi-partisan business meeting or exchange of documents or emails.  There is more opportunity for testing options and sensing levels of interest, as well as the possibility that multiple conversations over a short period of time can almost act as a mini-survey to see where the general trends are heading, and provide a context for whatever your view was at the start of the event.

This was fairly evident at the ECG event which at over 350 delegates was the largest of the three, and a record for their annual conferences, now in their 26th year.  For those unfamiliar with the organisation, they represent the logistics providers who handle the transportation and storage of finished vehicles from plant or port to the dealer, as well as some related activities.  The key challenge facing the sector and the manufacturers as their customers is that when production slowed during the pandemic, a lot of capacity was permanently lost, and there is now a shortfall of around 30%.  Rates have soared, but the logistics providers remain reluctant to reinvest on the back of short-term contracts that do not give any assurance that their fixed costs will be covered.  Having the leading players on both sides at the same event enabled a more open exchange of views than would happen in a typical contractual discussion.  The case for change was much easier to accept when so many voices from different sides of the commercial divide were making very similar points.  There seemed to be shared determination at the conclusion of the event that the way forward had to be different to the old way.

Our own event was much smaller, but like all ICDP events had representatives from the manufacturers, dealers, aftermarket players and providers of technology and services.  In many cases, they are the people who are tasked with developing the strategy rather than implementing it operationally, but we rarely see entrenched positions and a refusal to acknowledge points being made by the opposite parties in business relationships.  It is instead an opportunity to learn, and secure input that might then influence the strategies as they are developed back at HQ.

What is clear to me is that the level and intensity of this type of discussion would be much more restricted in an online event.  We have all managed to adapt to doing much more business online – using the capabilities of Zoom or Teams to sustain the communities of interest to us throughout the restrictions.  They did a good job within the constraints of the medium – ICDP actually grew its membership over the 2021-2022 period and we delivered consulting engagements for clients who we have still never met face to face.  We got used to more time in bed, lower travel budgets and reduced frequent flier status.  But I have not yet experienced, nor heard of, an online event that provided the same informal and engaged exchanges of views that create the starting point for business communities to develop.

For those of you who are preparing budget submissions or reviewing the submissions of others, can I please ask that you make sure you build back in some of the travel budget that was happily taken as a saving over the last couple years?  We need communities, and communities need some time face-to-face.  The benefits may not be numbers you can express in a spreadsheet, but the last few weeks have convinced me that they exist, and businesses need them.