Here’s a glimpse of what you’ll learn:

• Why the Technology Association of Oregon (TAO) is emerging from the pandemic more resilient than before
• How TAO is using technology to double its capabilities without having to hire more people
• The specific strategic initiatives that TAO is focusing on right now
• How to adjust a strategic plan when considering recovery from COVID-19
• How the TAO is using technology to help early-stage startups (and some of the biggest employers in Oregon) be more competitive
• Navigating remote work: the good and the bad
• How shifting city landscapes are changing the way businesses are operating and competing
• Skip Newberry explains some insights he’s gained from working in both the public and private sector
• What are some ways to measure personal success and wellness?
• Skip shares his current reading list and how you can get in touch with him

In this episode…

COVID-19 has completely changed the way some companies are doing business. The shifting landscape begs a few questions: are there things you should be doing to stay competitive during the pandemic? How can you turn certain limitations into advantages through technology? What can you do to plan for an uncertain future?

Tune in to this week’s episode of the Measure Success Podcast, featuring host Carl J. Cox and Skip Newberry, the President and CEO of the Technology Association of Oregon. Together, they discuss the pandemic’s impact on technology trends, remote work, and what the future might hold. Skip also offers some suggestions on where to focus your strategic initiatives and how he measures professional and personal success.

Resources Mentioned in this episode

• Skip Newberry on LinkedIn
• Skip Newberry on Twitter
• Technology Association of Oregon (TAO)
• Technology Councils of North America (TECNA)
• Dan Meub on LinkedIn
• Zoom
• Joseph Gall on LinkedIn
• New York City Economic Development Corporation (NYCEDC)
• Prosper Portland
• BE 2.0 (Beyond Entrepreneurship 2.0): Turning Your Business into an Enduring Great Company by Jim Collins and William Lazier
• Good to Great: Why Some Companies Make the Leap and Others Don’t by Jim Collins
• Lonesome Dove: A Novel by Larry McMurtry
• 40 Strategy
• Contact 40 Strategy
• Carl J. Cox on LinkedIn

Sponsor for this episode…

This episode is sponsored by 40 Strategy.

40 Strategy provides strategic planning and consulting to help organizations realize and achieve their dreams by creating and measuring KPIs for success.

Unfortunately, most organizations only spend 2% of their time—or about 40 hours per year—on building an effective strategy.

Increasing the success of those 40 hours is what 40 Strategy does because your success is their passion—and that’s why organizations look to them for guidance.

Not only does 40 Strategy help you craft and implement an effective strategy, but they’ll also work to facilitate teams with proven practices and help with your scenario planning.

Harvard research shows that you can triple your success when you use the right Key Performance Indicators. Who doesn’t want that?

If you have questions, you can reach out through their website or email them at catch@40strategy.com.

Episode Transcript

Intro 0:03

Welcome to the Measure Success Podcast where we feature top leaders on how they measure success in their business and life. Now, let’s learn from their experiences.

Carl J. Cox 0:18

Carl J. Cox here I am the host of the Measure Success Podcast, where I talk with top leaders about effective strategies that inspire success. This episode is brought to you by 40 Strategy at 40 Strategy. We provide strategic planning, consulting to help organizations realize and achieve their dreams Skip. Basically we help companies create strategic plans and measure the right KPIs for success. Unfortunately, most organizations only spent about 2% of their time, which is about equivalent to about 40 collective hours per year, and building a strategy and Skip I think you think that’s pretty crazy, right? I do. And so at 40 Strategy, your success is our passion. That’s why organizations call us to help. Not only do we come up with strategy, but we help your teams with proven practices to get things done. Harvard research shows when you have the right KPIs, you can actually triple your success and who wouldn’t want that Skip? So with that, you can reach us at catch@40strategy.com catch like catch a ball catch@40strategy.com. You can also visit us at 40strategy.com.

Before we talk about Skip here, we’re do a little shout out to Dan Meub. Dan Meub is a he’s a executive coach and leadership and has a tremendous amount of leadership and abilities. He is the has helped out Technology Association of Oregon and Skip in particular come up with their strategic plan. And he also was a mentor of mine. And so I just wanted to say, Dan, we look forward to you listening to this and just want to say you do a great job and been thank you for all you do. So Skip Newberry, you are the President and CEO, the Technology Association of Oregon. You’ve been there for nearly a decade now. You’ve been the Chairman of the Board for the Board of Directors for the Technology Councils of North America. You’ve been actually on a Mayor staff for economic development here in Portland, you also the founder for SiBOOM and LawyerPrep. We both have roots going back to the East Coast. She graduated from Colby College and you have your law degree from UCONN the University of Connecticut. And Skip Welcome. I’m really excited to have you here today. Thank you. I’m glad to be here. So Skip, tell me a little bit more for the those who are listening, what is the Technology Association of Oregon.

Skip Newberry 2:36

So we’re a regional tech trade association. Excuse me, regional tech trade association. We operate in Oregon and Southwest Washington. And we work in about 500. Tech and tech enabled companies. Our vision is to create a world class and inclusive innovation based economy here in the Pacific Northwest that’s powered by tech. So day to day, our work is designed to help strengthen tech companies. We do a lot around professional development policy and regulatory work, as well as things like storytelling and economic research and visibility for the companies. And then we design and develop new projects and programs where those need to be created to serve the companies that we work with.

Carl J. Cox 3:19

Well, and so you told me something pretty crazy. As you got here, you telling me that here in COVID World 2020 Where has obviously we’ve known has had a negative and positive impact, primarily more negative for a lot of organizations. Tell me correctly what what happened over the past year with the membership and give me a little bit more detail there.

Skip Newberry 3:43

Yeah, so in in March of last year, when the pandemic hit, we ended up pivoting pretty hard to all online event delivery and online member engagement. And we were lucky and that we had been piloting some new tools and platforms prior to that. So we were able to really turn on a dime pretty quickly. We did a number of members on the team get recertified and certified in new areas in terms of online delivery and community management. And between March and end of the year 2020 we ended up setting a new record. In the 10 years I’ve been there. We had extraordinary membership growth, about 180 new member companies between February and December of last year and our net revenue also we set records which is great. So a couple things happened there one was we ended up having a decline in certain types of event sponsorship revenue but our cost of delivery to do online events was like zero and so our margins went through the roof and and then you throw in on top of that a lot of growth through membership and we did really well.

Carl J. Cox 4:54

Wow, that congratulations I I don’t know if you remember Skip but when the soul hit I was scheduled to have an in person presentation, and I think I was the very first person to actually do an online TAO event for that was not scheduled. And so it’s it’s funny how here we are nearly a year later, we’ll still here. So let’s talk about that a little bit going forward. Yeah. What’s going on now? And how are you trying to navigate the challenges COVID is still real and present? What are you trying to do not only from an organization standpoint internally, but externally, how you still trying to support and deal with the challenges that exist?

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