A year after taking over as president of Finat,
the world-wide association representing the interest of the self-adhesive
labelling industry, Kurt Walker discusses current and future strategy as well
as milestones and collaborations with other leading associations.
Finat’s
developing strategy
Finat’s initial four-year strategy was built
on four pillars: raising the profile of Finat and ensuring a healthy growth;
further strengthening Finat as the European umbrella organisation; offering
more room for international business development and networking; and, finally,
planting seeds in Asia.
And fairly quickly we achieved the 600 member
benchmark we had set ourselves and established The Label Printers Forum and the
Young Managers Club and both helped increase membership interest in
entrepreneurial and management issues.This success was followed by the
agreement of four defined strategic intentions that were later extended to
include the fifth:
1. Enhance the global association network as Finat
and its members go worldwide
2. Improve our service to members by using
new media technology
3. Increase the synergies between the Board
and committees
4. Re-assess Finat’s scope as a self-adhesive
association
5. A clear agenda to promote sustainability
and recycling.
Relationship
success
Our relationship with national and
international associations is central to our ethos and over the past ten years
there has been tremendous evolution. Many national associations, especially in
Europe have moved from a purely volunteer-driven force to a more professional structure
helping strengthen our operational ties.
Learning
from broad industry conversations
Pan-European conversations with key decision
makers about their perceptions and expectations regarding FINAT as their
European umbrella has helped us to create a better mutual understanding. As I
understand it, past discussions tended to focus on our differences but we are
now concentrating our energy on subjects where we have a common interest such as
recycling, industry statistics, best practice, and education.
