CGM blog: Fresh ideas to develop your business

07 Sep CGM blog: Fresh ideas to develop your business

The CGM Business Media Club is two years old this month. CGM managing partner Chris Green explains why the club is being revitalised for its second anniversary…

So why are we tweaking the Business Media Club and what do the changes mean to you?

We based the club around three main elements: media training, personal development and quality networking – and were delighted by the take up from folks who attended the initial meeting. Almost everyone who came along joined.

But times change and things develop. We can now rightly say those three key ingredients are:

– Media, marketing and communications training (actually they always were);

– Personal and professional development (for people and businesses whose employees attend the club);

– Quality networking in a sharing setting.

Those last four words matter most. We share experiences at the club. All egos are left at the door. True, we espouse some fundamental principles but people are given time and space to exchange views and listen to others. We don’t order attendees to do business among each other – that happens as people naturally find out more about each other.

So why change? Quite simply, we want to offer an enhanced experience and better value so can we inspire people to make positive change happen.

That’s why the club now provides a structured programme of learning and development.

We’re hosting ten meetings per year covering major media, marketing and communications topics and themes with the new cyclical structure allowing members to join at any point.

The focus is on three big areas – Communication, PR and Marketing and Image and Reputation – with three consecutive meetings in each of these areas.

We’re kicking off with communication because that is arguably the most important facet of business today. PR and marketing are crucial for building and maintaining the credibility of businesses while a good public image isn’t vanity, it’s vital. A good reputation needs to be developed but a poor reputation is, equally, hard to shake off.

The tenth meeting theme is media crisis management. We’re all just one major public storm away from disaster – and unless businesses have a strategy to deal with negative publicity (and this doesn’t have to be in the conventional press, instantaneous social media can do more harm) then we run a huge risk of seeing our businesses sail into the sunset.

Each theme starts with an overview meeting to identify key topics and plan ways for delegates to address these elements within their business.

This is followed by a specific strategy meeting focusing on a precise topic within the theme and a subsequent skills meeting to really drill down into how to develop the ability and aptitude to make that work in your business.

Rather than being too prescriptive and to maintain a popular element of the club – the choice of meeting topics – we’re replacing the previous random vote with two strategy topics and three skills options in each of three main themes.

Now, if you really want to gain value and set yourself some targets, we’re offering Personal Development Plans. These establish some initial aims and will help you work towards the targets you’ve set for strategies and skills learned at the club. We’ll also give you the occasional nudge!

To take this a step further, we can help you embed the skills and strategies with a coaching and mentor support scheme – PDP+. This is an additional paid for service which builds upon the facets learned and developed at the club to make sure they are put to use within your business.

Finally, our one-day biannual sessions will develop detailed skills in Business Writing Communication and Media Marketing.

We believe these changes provide a fresh focus for the club and better value for the investment that truly matters most – your time and effort. We want you to go away from our meetings inspired with fresh ideas to develop your business, to make a difference and to make positive change happen.

More information about the CGM Business Media Club is available here.