Tree Care Industry Association (TCIA) – formerly National Arborist Association (NAA)

Problems Solved: Misalignment with Member Needs, Need to Overcome Ineffective Strategic Planning, Anxiety Over Change, Inability to Change Rapidly.		Strategic Focus: Leading/Navigating Change, Executing/Crafting Strategy, The Human Side of Change, Developing Staff and Organizational Capacity, Transforming Organizational Culture, Enhancnig Revenues.
Project Team:  Donald M. Norris, Rhea Blanken, Monica Dignam

NAA is the trade association representing the businesses that constitute the tree care industry.  Strategic Initiatives fielded a multi-disciplinary team that focused on marketing and communications to realign NAA's strategic position to the needs of its members, customers, and stakeholders in the tree care industry.  We applied our Value Web methodology to map NAA’s value propositions and key messages for its various stakeholders. This approach enabled a strategic breakthrough in positioning TCIA to focus on creating a culture of safety in every tree company.

The initial phase of the project extended over a year, and began with market research and analysis that informed a co-creation process of strategic marketing and development of expeditions for NAA. In preparing for the implementation of these expeditions, the team of Donald Norris and Rhea Blanken coached and developed the capacity of the CEO, Board, and entire NAA staff.

As a result, NAA has reoriented it strategic intent, changed its name (to the Tree Care Industry Association) and communication and marketing strategies, reshaped its board, and realigned resources to new and redesigned products, services and experiences.  TCIA has launched a new credential, the Certified TreeCare Safety Professional, which is the industry’s first safety certification program and confronts head on the industry’s greatest challenge and value proposition for companies and individuals – safety.