As one year draws to a close and a new one starts, it’s natural to think about where you’ve been, what you’ve accomplished and what the new year holds. For 32 years, BNI® has impacted the global business community. Each year, our members strive to pass more business, expand their networks and develop both themselves and their businesses further. And each year, BNI seeks new ways to better support their efforts.
2016 was an amazing year for BNI – in November we officially surpassed 210,000 global members! During this exciting phase of growth, we have looked further at the member experience, and how we can best use important feedback from our members to enhance BNI. As we look to implement positive changes based on this feedback, reviewing the seven BNI Core Values helps to guide us as we move forward.
- Givers Gain® reminds us to focus on giving to others, rather than on how we can help ourselves;
- Building Relationships encourages building trust and credibility, and showing how much we care before showing how much we know;
- Life-Long Learning cements the need for additional value-added resources for our members, helping foster professional and personal development;
- Traditions + Innovations helps us remember the last 32 years of growth, and shows us opportunities for enhancements;
- Positive Attitude preserves our mindsets to allow for optimal decision-making;
- Accountability keeps us supportive, honest and transparent as we take feedback and move forward; and
- Recognition allows us to spotlight those who have done impactful things around the globe, and continue to tell the BNI story.
Over the course of 2017, BNI will propel forward as we invest further in our members.
We have our sights set on innovative technology, education and people to deliver on our promise to help our members build business and bring us into a new era for the organization. From launching our new global website, to making improvements to our training and development programs and the release of a mobile application for our member platform BNI Connect®, we are striving to bring the best in premium technology to our members.
Our commitment to telling the BNI story has brought the importance of our members’ individual stories to the forefront. Through our re-vamped BNI.com website and SuccessNet newsletter, we look forward to sharing the stories of how lives are changed regularly through the relationships built each week. With updates to training and member resources, we are thrilled to continue helping our members develop professionally in ways they had only dreamed possible. Developments to our technology drive our ability to track what our members truly need to help them grow their businesses.
As the organization continues this upward trajectory, I am extraordinarily optimistic for the road ahead. It is a privilege to work with the BNI community, and I am elated by where we are headed.
