Is It Too Late For Rotary?

Born by Commerce

   The Rotary Foundation and all Rotary projects and programs, including polio eradication, are wonderful attributes that support Rotary International and its member clubs.  But the Organization Cemetery is filled with tombs of organizations who concentrated on improving attributes that supported their Brand instead of protecting the Brand and continually delivering value to the Brand's target audience.  Attributes come and go.  Polio eradication – a service project of unfathomable proportions – is about to go.  Will Rotary International go with it?  Attributes are vital to organizations only if they support its Brand and deliver value to the Brand’s target audience. What is Rotary's Brand? Who is Rotary’s target audience? PRID John Smarge nailed it in his “Who is Rotary” speech before the 2011 International Assembly.

   Polio eradication owes much of its success to “Who is Rotary!” Rotary is "local networks of business, professional, and community LEADERS in thousands of local, autonomous clubs scattered throughout the world."  They dreamed of having polio free villages, towns, cities, and countries. Multitudes of Rotarians solidified the cooperation of millions of independent commercial and community leaders of various ethnicities, religious orders, economic systems, and political structures. Their dream, created by local Rotarians, spread by Rotary International, and supported by The Rotary Foundation spurred Rotarians to use their LEADERship skills and resources to influence local and national political, religious, and tribal leaders to commit to freeing people under their influence from polio.  For almost twenty-eight years, millions of these Rotarians have banded together and, even after ridding their own country of polio, expended personal time, resources, and influence to sustain this priceless attribute.

  Will Rotary International entomb itself in the Organization Cemetery because it is concentrating on improving attributes instead of protecting its Brand and being resourceful at finding unique ways to deliver the attributes’ values to its target audience? Is it too late for Rotary to center on its target audience i.e. “Who Rotary Is?”  Is it too late for Rotarians, especially leaders at all levels, to learn what Rotary actually is so they can quickly respond to  “What is Rotary?"

Note:   This BLOG contains many Rotatorials that discuss branding, attributes, and target audiences as they relate to all levels of Rotary.  The Most Widely Read are listed in the right sidebar.  Thank you for taking the time to read some of them, for your interest in Rotary, and for all each of you do in support of our Rotary Brand and its Ideal of Service as expressed in The Object of Rotary. 

This will be the last POST of 2012.  Wherever you are, please enjoy a Happy Holiday Season.