Association managers are a special breed, but the genetics of the traits that shape effective ones have not been uncovered yet.
Seed associations are ‘owned by’ the companies, but operate in the space between business, government, politics and society. That makes them quite special entities. Even though it requires a specific skill set to do this job well, a formal education for this work does not exist. A company manager can do an MBA; a public manager a Master of Public Administration or whatever the title may be, but there is no Master — or even Bachelor in Association Management! Some association managers have a public sector background, or from politics, others from academia or — more rarely — from business itself. A common feature of association managers is that they apparently have the guts to step into a job that is quite unknown to them. They all have to acquire the skills that they lack on their own initiative.
One of my initiatives at the time was to have regular brainstorms with colleagues from neighbouring countries. Even though every country is different in governance culture and membership types, there is a lot to learn from such peer review. Apart from these differences, the association structure may be quite different in terms of the balance between the three basic functions (platform, representation, services) and the size of the secretariat.
A background in the political world may look ideal, however, that may not mean that you are particularly good at managing relations with the wide diversity of members, or at dealing with government institutions and their specific way of working.
A lobbyist with an academic background often needs to use a different language than he is used to and be sensitive to a wide variety of arguments, some of which (s)he may not consider rational but that cannot be dismissed as emotions are also part of reality in society. One common feature is that all need to be very strategic and able to develop and re-adjust tactics. All-in-all, an important task of a business association is translation: translating the needs of the sector in a language that ‘sticks’ with different target groups and individuals. And the translation skills also come in handy when political realities need to be explained to the members.
Board members on the other hand, commonly have a business background. Their day job is in a member company and their role in an association board may not always come easy. They should know that the running of an association is different from running a business in several ways. Profit is not the main issue in an association and setting outcome targets for policy goals may not be as straightforward as setting production or sales targets in their company. The political whims tend to carry unexpected surprises, delays being the most common. And last-minute changes of just one or two words in an otherwise acceptable draft may turn the debate upside down. Focus may be another challenge. Mathematics may not help to assess and prioritize topics. The importance to as many members as possible, times the chance of a desired outcome, multiplied with the time such outcome will be achieved should theoretically yield the most effective estimate for managing investment in staff time and other resources. However, theory is far from reality here. Serving the highly diverse and unstructured member-demands and the necessary focus in the operation of an association may be more difficult in a member organisation than a business environment.
This would logically mean that including association managers into the board, as ISF has recently decided to do, is a wise strategy. However, board members should realise that when managing the association managers, they deal with a lobbyist whose job it is to strategize and apply their tactics whenever they think useful, even towards their board.
Association managers live in the world between business and politics. Their network is their capital; their members are knowledge providers, and their goal is a future-proof sector that maintains a strong license to produce in a continually changing world. Seed sector association managers have a major advantage compared to many of their colleagues in other sectors in that they stand for a highly relevant sector that is part of the solution to a wide range of societal needs both in breeding and seed technology. A major task of association managers is to formulate that message well to open doors and build long-term relations with governments, politicians, and society at large. All that makes association managers a different breed, whose voice has to be taken seriously.
