What is the most important benefit of membership with Executive Networks?
Membership provides for one-stop shopping – access to true peers and the chance to create new connections — to pop an email out to the network and get back insights from a variety of folks – that’s very important to me as a member.

Executive Networks brings together peers from numerous companies and across different countries to leverage everyone’s expertise, best practices, solutions, past and current challenges, etc — to have access to all of that as a member is huge.

The value of connecting with peers who are in the trenches like you – and the fact that you can have multiple one-on-one conversations with them – that’s huge.

What member service do you value most?
The face-to-face meetings are very important because they make real the virtual and distance connections with other members. Meetings are driven by real member needs and concerns – and I always leave with solutions or new ideas.

I’m a very active user of the Online Peer Networking system – it’s a major benefit of membership. There are always one or two responses to what I put out as an issue or a question that absolutely hit the nail on the head. Excellent!

The moderated monthly phone calls are great too – monthly member connections around a particular topic – really good conversations around particular topic areas that have been popular discussions on the OPN network.

The most important insight I’d have across all my activity as a member is this: I just don’t have those kinds of conversations in my company and among peers – mostly because of the network’s unique breadth of professionals and range of issues among members.

What specific results have you seen from network membership – with tangible impact for you?
About 2 years ago I went out to OPN to get a sense of what other members were doing for middle managers – not high potentials – but the middle of the leadership pipeline. I got back lots of critical insights that led me to see that nobody had created the silver bullet solution and that many were seeing similar untapped potential with middle managers. I was able to get solid data from members that helped me provide context and vital data points for our internal planning and for pitching management on a variety of initiatives. The outreach to members was key to that effort and gave me an important and reliable short cut to insights on this issue.

Is network membership more valuable in today’s difficult economy because of the need for efficiencies etc.?
Yes, membership with Executive Networks is a cost-effective means for getting very quick and valid information, expertise, proven solutions, and credible feedback. And it saves me time in avoiding open-ended research and time-consuming inquiry.

These are turbulent times and access to peer expertise is a must-have in order to provide insights internally and to bring forward solutions that will provide value to my company right away.

This is one of the budget items I really seek to safeguard because of how the
company benefits and also because of how my role benefits directly from membership. It’s key to my effectiveness and to the value my role brings to the company.

What should prospective members think about when considering joining Executive Networks?
They need to ask themselves what their company needs to achieve in terms of HR development strategy – and what they have access to personally to help it succeed. Membership in Executive Networks provides you with access to peer expertise and knowledge – which are critical to helping provide strategic direction and to making well-informed decisions.

Also, prospective members need to ask themselves how willing they are to participate and give back to the network. We all make the networking experience richer when we contribute – prospective members need to be willing to actively participate and contribute to the network.