The Business Landscape Analysis: Where We Are Today

This is the third in a series of articles from the STC Transformation Team—Editor

In the last article "The Transformation Process Explained," we discussed the methodology of the transformation process. In this update, we will discuss the findings from the Business Landscape Analysis, which describes the current state of STC.

Business Landscape Analysis Explained

STC at its core creates services for its members. As we venture into emerging communities, we are faced with the prospect of making important decisions, often with very little information. The first and the main task in inventive problem solving is to identify and formulate the problem. We ask, "What is the big picture? What are the trends shaping these communities? What are the detailed scenarios that are creating value?" A landscape analysis answers these questions.

The Process

We solicited the input, ideas, and concerns of a significant representative sample of the leadership of the organization: past, current, and future presidents; past and current executive directors; board members; and representatives of chapters of all sizes, SIGs, academia, and industry. We solicited input of the membership at large by way of the blog. We gathered internal information and competitive and non-competitive comparisons. Once the information was gathered, John Nardone, consultant, created the Business Landscape: a "snapshot in time" of STC today. With this information, we will begin to create a model of what the transformed STC will look like in three years.

The Results

The following is a summary of key themes and issues from the STC Landscape Analysis:

• STC's best opportunity for growth is to lead its members and the industry into the future by focusing on emerging disciplines and growing opportunities within technical communication. STC must ensure that the needs of its core writer/editor base are met at the same time.
• STC would be better able to lead the industry if the organization had more members who were at higher management levels in their companies and in academia.
• STC's real value would be more visible if more corporate managers become members.
• STC's greatest benefit to its members is a forum for the exchange of information and ideas. Currently, STC is the world's largest organization providing such a forum to technical communicators—and by "technical communicator," we mean anyone who assists people in getting the most from the technology in their lives. STC would better serve the membership by leveraging new technologies to build this benefit.
• STC would better serve its membership if it had a formal structure to its education/training program. The popularity of the telephone seminar program has uncovered a significant demand for educational programming that is content-rich, valuable, and convenient in delivery. Now we need to develop a strategic education plan that uses a variety of formats.
• STC should celebrate volunteerism and reward the contribution of the individual. STC should provide better "cultural support" for its volunteers by recognizing and showing appreciation for volunteer effort at all levels.
• In STC, membership interaction is a key benefit that is primarily generated via involvement in chapters and SIGs. We need to enrich this benefit by developing means of encouraging and ensuring involvement by members early in their STC experience, and in that way, increase commitment to and longevity in the Society.
• STC would better represent the membership if more key communities were represented on the board. Currently, geography is the primary factor considered in nominations.
• STC will benefit financially by rethinking how services can be delivered in new and different ways to ensure financial stability and longevity.

Coming up next:

The next article in this series will share the "straw man model"—that is, a model of STC as it might look after transformation. This model, though speculative, will provide a starting point for our discussions about STC's transformation.