iSpeak Blog

Chairman’s Chatter – Starting Strong in 2017

Michael A. Arnold, RPh
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Chairman's Chatter - Mike Arnold, ISPE International Board of Directors Chair

Happy New Year everyone—we are off to another great start! As you may recall, at the International Board of Directors meeting, we established a “Business Development Committee”. The committee’s co-leads are Tom Hartman and Antonio Moreira, both Board Directors. The team’s objective is to identify and propose new revenue generating business opportunities for ISPE. They have a strong committee represented by staff and ISPE members., and they kicked off the New Year with an all-day meeting in our Bethesda and Tampa offices (through WebEx connection) on 5 January. The committee had a high energy discussion focused on identifying the strategic concepts and the principles that will guide the development of new business opportunities, established an evaluation tool to assist with the vetting process, and developed a list of opportunities to be considered in the first cycle of the process. Using the evaluation tool, committee members will be assessing the return on investment (ROI) for each of the ideas generated with the goal of presenting the top three to five new business opportunities to the Board of Directors at its April 2017 meeting.

Our ISPE Strategic Plan is into its second full year of execution. This plan has been the platform on which we develop our yearly business objectives, and the 2017 Business Plan was approved by the International Board of Directors at the end of last year. Thank you to everyone involved in its development. I’m confident we will accomplish the objectives of this plan and when we do, I am equally confident they will reflect positively on our 2017 business outcomes. Tim Howard, our International Board Vice-Chair, will soon be convening a team of strategic thinkers to initiate discussions for further development of the strategic plan. Watch for more information in subsequent issues of “Chairman’s Chatter” on iSpeak.

Just prior to 2016 year-end, the International Board of Directors also decided to schedule a Board meeting on February 9th at our Tampa, Florida, office. We feel this will be a great opportunity for all Board members to see “the engine of ISPE” in motion and engage with staff at that location. At this meeting, we will provide an opportunity for Tampa staff to present to the Board an update on their respective areas of responsibilities. We are looking forward to this informative session. In conclusion, on behalf of the Board of Directors, I want to thank all our members and ISPE staff for the hard work that made 2016 another successful year, and I look forward to more of the same in 2017

. Mike Arnold - ISPE International Board of Directors Chair - Signature