SME CONNECT

SME CONNECT is a CONNECT initiative to serve the unique needs of small and mid-size enterprises.  SME CONNECT’s core mission is to assist small and mid-sized enterprises facilitate growth, innovation and cost savings.  This will be accomplished through a diverse mix of peer-to-peer executive development roundtables, benchmarking, and cost savings programs, coupled with existing CONNECT programs.

SME CONNECT Roundtables—Where you belong!

SME CONNECT Roundtables are peer-to-peer executive development forums.  Roundtables blend events, peer-to-peer interaction, benchmarking and other activities that promote information sharing and problem solving.  Roundtables give members the opportunity to benchmark themselves and activities against a broad diversity of innovation companies.   Roundtables are organized by functional job responsibilities in order to leverage shared experiences and solutions.

There are currently seven Roundtables: CEO, Finance, Human Resources, Marketing & Sales, Operations/Manufacturing, Product Development and Global Logistics.

CEO Roundtable
The CEO Roundtable provides a unique forum for CEOs and Presidents of SME CONNECT member companies to discuss strategic, operational, and financial issues with their peers. The Roundtables are characterized by an open and honest exchange of ideas and feedback that leaders often do not receive from within their companies. Participation is by invitation and meetings are held monthly.

To join either CEO Roundtable, please contact kcarroll@connect.org

Finance Roundtable
The SME CONNECT’s Finance Roundtable provides a forum for discussion of key topics concerning senior finance executives. Its mission is to enhance the skills and understanding of finance executives and facilitate discussion around common issues and challenges. Meetings are held quarterly.

To be added to the roster, please contact dflees@connect.org

Moss Adams LLP and SME CONNECT Finance Roundtable CFO Benchmarking Report
Moss Adams and SME CONNECT recently hosted a two-hour roundtable discussion featuring a mix of regional area technology company CFOs and other finance executives. The goal was to gather a cross-section of companies in a forum to share the current state of their businesses and identify insights and trends. Participants had the opportunity to benchmark their operations and business challenges against other world-class companies.

Carisa Wisniewski, Moss Adams San Diego office managing partner, hosted the discussion which was focused on three key areas—human resources and operations, sales and marketing, and funding.

During the event, participants anonymously answered questions to key benchmarking questions via electronic polling. For questions with surprising or skewed results, there was a lively discussion about the circumstances behind the answers or the nature of the question that led to the scores.

The report isn’t intended to be a statistical survey. However, it reveals a wealth of interesting information, and participants have already brought forth the insights they gleaned from the roundtable discussion back to use within their companies. We hope that readers will find this information equally as useful.

To receive a copy, click here.

HR Roundtable
Through education and the exchange of information, SME CONNECT’s HR Roundtable provides support for HR professionals as strategic partners in their company’s quest for competitive excellence. *Meetings are held bi-montly on the first Thursday of every month (with the exception of the programs with asterisks), from 7:30-9:00am, in a confidential setting to benchmark and share best practices.* Chair: Gail Bush, PowerGenix, Director, and Administration & Human Resources

To be added to the roster, please contact dflees@connect.org

Marketing & Sales Roundtable
The SME CONNECT’s Marketing & Sales Roundtable is a community of marketing and sales professionals who meet to exchange ideas, share best practices, learn new techniques and tactics, and network. CONNECT members are provided the opportunity to attend panel, single speaker, joint speaker, or case study events that are interactive and informative around various strategic and tactical sales and marketing initiatives. There are a minimum of six meetings a year, focusing on various marketing and sales topics. The meetings are typically led by a subject-matter or industry expert, published author, consultant or company practitioner with proven track record and extensive experience. *Meetings are held the third Thursday bi-monthly from 5:30pm to 7:00pm. (Unless noted otherwise.)*

To be added to the roster, please contact dflees@connect.org

Operations Roundtable
The SME CONNECT Operations Roundtable provides senior operations executives a forum for discussion of common strategic, operational, financial and technical issues. The Operations Roundtable mission is to share experiences and knowledge to enable members to develop informed positions affecting policy, methods and cost optimization. *Meetings are held the second Wednesday of every month from 7:30am to 9:30am. (Unless noted otherwise.)*

Past Ops Roundtable Wrap-Ups

To be added to the roster, please contact dflees@connect.org

Product Development Roundtable
The product innovation environment has become increasingly difficult with corporate strategies requiring not just growth but profitable growth. Successfully bringing new products to market, on time and on budget remains a challenging proposition for many companies. Companies continue to ask the question, what can we do to improve our product development success rate and improve our return on investment in innovation? The Product Development Roundtable brings together subject matter experts and product development executives to discuss what can be done to improve the success rate of product development efforts to maintain their competitive edge. Each roundtable features experienced product development speakers and panelists who present and discuss their ideas and successes in a lively interactive session with roundtable participants. *This series will be held bi-monthly on the fourth Thursday of the month* (Unless otherwise noted.) Our host for this series is UCSD Extension

To be added to the roster, please contact dflees@connect.org

Global Logistics
SME CONNECT’s San Diego’s Global Logistics Roundtable encompasses topics such as Import/Export controls, compliance, customs and related issues. Its mission is to create a regional peer-to-peer roundtable and to be a resource for tech executives responsible for the international transport of their products.    *Meetings are held quarterly.*

To be added to the roster, please contact dflees@connect.org

Additonal benchmarking products for members
The Salary Survey series offers members critical benchmarking information, designed to extend beyond compensation these surveys dive deep into job families.   The first in the series Sales Compensation Survey was finished in July 2012.

2012 Sales Compensation Survey
*complimentary to SME CONNECT- CONNECT Members
This Survey provides comprehensive pay and plan design information for U.S. based sales organizations within the innovation economy.  It also offers compensation data and detailed incentive plan characteristics by market segment.  The level of detail is key in making informed decisions regarding how to position your programs relative to both competitors for busienss and those competing for your sales talent.

Program Contact: