2019 is the Year of the Mobility Industry Insider
It begins in February in Miami.
During my ten years at Graebel, it’s been very exciting to see our clients’ Mobility programs evolve. They’re growing not just in terms of volume, geographic scope and transferee service levels, but the programs – and the Mobility professionals leading them – are becoming critical to their organizations’ growth.
Mobility professionals are emerging as subject matter experts (SMEs) across their organizations on all matters that even remotely touch Mobility. For example, while business unit leaders tend to select talent based on skill sets and experience, Mobility can add perspective related to the cost of putting that person in place and whether they could support the strategic growth of the organization in other capacities and locations down the road.
Similarly, Mobility is becoming more engaged in decisions related to corporate expansion. What’s the talent pool in various locations under consideration? How many employees would likely accept a reassignment to any of the possible locations? What are the local labor laws the company will need to comply with?
In nearly all cases, the Mobility professionals engaged at this level have made the conscious decision to be more strategic, to cut across silos and provide unique insight and value. I’ve seen their fundamental strategies play out in two dimensions.
- They venture across the organization to get to know the people, challenges and priorities within key departments.
- They anticipate how events and conditions today will evolve into trends that could affect those people, challenges and priorities.
What are some of the key traits that have helped Mobility professionals move in this direction? Forward-thinking. Learning. Risk taking. Flexibility. And most important, an instinct and passion to contribute.
If this sounds like you, or if you’d like it sound like you, we’d like to help!
Many of the sessions at the 2019 insideMOBILITY® Summit in Miami, February 19-21 will focus on expanding stakeholder engagement and demonstrating the value of Mobility. You’ll have the opportunity to engage with and learn from other Mobility insiders who will share their experiences and describe their successes. Working together, attendees will zero in on some best practices you’ll be able to incorporate into your Mobility program.
At the 2018 Summit, for example, some attendees were further along than others in implementing Core-Flex programs. To their credit, these early adopters were eager to talk about what worked and what didn’t – both in terms of the program itself and how they rolled it out. Later on, over coffee between sessions I was part of a conversation with three attendees discussing challenges and solutions in establishing an operational presence in a specific country in the Far East.
I don’t know if you see this kind of openness within other professions – CPAs or attorneys for example. But Mobility seems to enjoy a special level of camaraderie, and the insideMOBILITY Americas Summit is where I really see that in full force. Everyone is eager to help their peers succeed.
2019 is the year I’d like to see all Mobility professionals become firmly entrenched within their organizations, serving as SMEs and internal strategic partners. I hope you’ll join me at the Summit next month to take some huge steps forward!