By Katherine Bethany – President, SAVE International
Hello Value World readers. It is with great excitement and a bit of trepidation that I take over as your President of SAVE International.
For those of you who were not at the SAVE International Value Summit in Philadelphia late last month, you missed a great event. Next month’s Value World will have a formal wrap-up, but since I’m writing this first column on my way home from the event I thought use the opportunity to give you my impressions while they are fresh in my mind.
The summit featured several training opportunities available post and pre-summit – from the number of participants and from the feedback I received these were a big hit. A couple of questions we are considering, and your feedback on these is welcome: What topics should SAVE offer as training in the future? Should SAVE provide training at other times in the year (other than at the summit?) Is in person, electronic or a mix of the two the best way to offer training on our core competencies?
Many participants at the summit were interested in the rollout of the new Certification Program. Our Certification Board has been working hard to get this done, and Bob Rude made several presentations explaining where things stand and describing the changes. Managing change for an organization of “Change Agents” is definitely not an easy task, and I know you will join me in thanking the Certification Board for their efforts and encouraging them to keep up the good work. Keep your eye on Value World for more updates on this effort.
While the training was a hit, I think the biggest excitement at the summit was from our two keynote speakers: Dr. Charles Brandon, Office of Business Transformation US Army, and Mr. Jack Kweder, Alfred Benesch & Company. It was interesting that both keynotes discussed the need to get involvement/buy in from senior management in organizations. (And they did not compare their speeches ahead of time.)
These speeches and the discussions overheard between participants crystalized in my mind a big challenge for SAVE International – how do we get the decision makers in the upper levels of a wide variety of organizations to become excited about how the Value Methodology can assist them. Because quite frankly without that kind of excitement, the use of the Value Methodology will continue to decline. To solve this challenge, I will be looking to you for ideas and assistance.
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