Scip Merges With The Frost & Sullivan Institute

[Роман]

SCIP Board of Directors has unanimously approved a merger with Frost & Sullivan Institute, another non-profit organization.

SCIP’s merger with the Frost & Sullivan Institute is in line with our organizational strategy, and will create financial security, maintain and grow membership value, and expand the visibility of competitive intelligence to a wider range of corporate senior management. This merger will not change any services you currently receive as a member and will allow you to gain additional membership benefits in the future.SCIP, as an institution and brand, will remain an autonomous, member-driven society.

 

Key Merger Facts

 

The SCIP Board of Directors asks for your support and approval of the merger with the Frost & Sullivan Institute for the following key reasons:

 

• This merger provides the Society with such valuable opportunities for increased membership growth, visibility, and service expansion that it would have justified acceptance on its own merits, notwithstanding the existing financial situation.
• The merger provides for the continuation of the SCIP organization and brand as the non-profit organization devoted to providing membership value and enhancing competitive intelligence as a profession.
• The merger benefits all of our membership constituencies, as it provides resources to grow the membership and stabilize the Society’s finances. Long term financial sustainability will also support the development of enhanced membership benefits.
• The merger allows your Society to continue autonomous operation, led by a membership-elected Board of Directors. SCIP will benefit from the insight and experience of the two additional board members representing the Frost & Sullivan Institute: David Frigstad, Chief Executive Officer and Wyman Bravard, Chairman of the Board.
• The merger will allow your Society to avoid the economic and structural stresses facing other non-profit associations. Most of the 86,054 non-profits in the U.S. are being forced to reexamine their financial structure and investments, and are contracting services, cancelling meetings, considering cessation of operations, or seeking alternative ways (including mergers) to maintain their operations. In a recent poll of CEO’s of non profits 90% were expecting change of some magnitude in the next year.
• SCIP Member Benefits

 

The merger of SCIP and the Frost & Sullivan Institute will maintain the current services you receive as a member and improve your membership value in the following ways:

 

• For CI practitioner members, the merger will help create a clearer career path for you within your organization, enhance CI’s visibility and reach within C suite executives, and provide improved and enhanced membership networking, education, and access to services.
• For the CI vendor and consultant members, in addition to continuing the policy of welcoming participation in SCIP’s events on an equal basis, the merger will create enhanced awareness of CI within companies and additional membership interaction opportunities.
• For academic members, the merger will create an environment where your contributions to the profession will continue to be encouraged and supported. The accelerated development of certification will increase competitive intelligence’s visibility to current and future managers. The merger will also provide additional venues to support your research interests and content development globally.
• For members based outside the U.S., the merger will enhance your ability to benefit from Society membership by providing improved local and regional support, content accessibility, networking abilities, and expanded international regional events.
• For all members, the merger will provide additional volunteer opportunities as the Society expands its membership, activities, and services globally.
• For all members, the merger will allow the overall staff structure and expertise to remain in place; including Ken Garrison functioning as the organization’s CEO.
• Merger Support of Strategic Plans Goals and Strategies

 

1. Competitive Intelligence Profession. The merger will:

 

• Increase the marketing and advocacy capability for CI by providing access to an expanded global constituency. This broadens SCIP’s membership reach immediately.
• Implement and deliver SCIP certification courses to improve the identification of competitive intelligence as a valuable discipline in corporations. This process will be accelerated immediately after the merger is finalized.
• Enhancing corporate decision maker recognition of competitive intelligence as an essential resource. The merger provides increased visibility to C-suite managers at 20,000 corporations globally. A strong standing of the CI profession within their corporate environments is the most viable, most powerful and sustainable growth factor for all stakeholders and constituencies.

 

2. Competitive Intelligence Professionals. The merger will enhance best in class career development opportunities throughout the world by:

 

• Providing members with increased access to career-expanding education and developmental opportunities in related disciplines.
• Creating a marketing base to expand the competitive intelligence network outside of traditional markets and reach new vertical and horizontal groups immediately.
• Expanding current educational offerings in North America, Europe and in 2010 Asia. This includes additional opportunities for face-to-face meetings and electronic delivery of education and information on more efficient platforms with a dramatically larger base of network participants.
• Enhanced membership support to develop information, networking and communication opportunities via the merged resources, formats, and capabilities.

 

3. Organizational Governance. The merger provides synergistic opportunities to increase the Society’s effectiveness through:

 

• Implementing a shared services structure to reduce the overall cost of operations.
• Establishing financial stability that provides for membership growth and builds financial reserves.
• Developing new revenue streams from related service opportunities, which would be unavailable without this merger.
• SCIP’s Board of Directors as noted below is unanimously in favor of this merger.

 

 

Martha Gleason, Chair of the Board

Eduardo Flores Bermudez, Vice Chair of the Board

Scott Leeb, Secretary-Treasurer

Joe Goldberg, Immediate Past Chair

Ken Garrison, Chief Executive Officer

Adrian Alvarez, Director

Erik Glitman, Director

Paulo Franklin de Abreu, Director

Kelsey Hare, Director

Jens Thieme, Director

Flynt Tuller, Director

[CI-KP]

Thanks!

[CI-KP]

May 15, 2009

 

Dear SCIP members and CI professionals,

 

The Society of Competitive Intelligence Professionals would like to officially announce the results of a member vote conducted on the issue of SCIP merging with the Frost & Sullivan Institute. The vote by eligible members was conducted over the past week and the results are in; the vote was 692 in favor of the merger and 43 opposed.

 

The result of the vote was a resounding affirmation that the members want a stronger organization with a global reach as a result of the merger. The response to the vote was the largest turnout of voters on an issue in the organization's recent history. Thank you for your participation.

 

Many of you have already accessed the frequently asked questions on our website, but for those who have not, we'd like to tell you what the merger means for our members and event participants.

 

1) How will SCIP operate after the merger?

 

SCIP will remain an autonomous member-driven Society. The Frost & Sullivan Institute will have two of the potential 13 seats on the Board of Directors. The balance of the board will continue to be elected by the SCIP membership.

 

2) How will the association be governed?

 

The current SCIP bylaws will remain in place and be the governing documents for the society.

 

3) Will SCIP still be called SCIP?

 

SCIP’s name and brand will continue to be used after the merger and SCIP’s code of ethics will remain in place.

 

4) Is SCIP merging with a for-profit company?

 

No. SCIP is merging with another non-profit entity -- the Frost & Sullivan Institute – and will remain a non-profit association.

 

5) Does the merger affect the way SCIP handles local chapters?

 

No. Local chapters will continue to provide SCIP members and prospective members the chance to meet face to face on a regular basis.

 

Ken Garrison

CEO, SCIP