IPC President John Mitchell on the Past, Present, and Future, Part 1

Estimated reading time: 18 minutes

Matties: Why aren’t they members?

Mitchell: We actually talked about that in one of the Hall of Fame meetings and in a recent Board meeting. One idea at the Hall of Fame meeting was to just try to use other people’s networks to show the advantages. Some people just aren’t interested. I'm not going to push anything on anybody. I'm not into the hard sales for IPC membership; we just try show the value. We’re trying to have events, and if they don’t come to the events…well, that's their choice.

If we try to provide a program and they don’t use the program, that's their choice. If nobody comes to those programs, eventually we have to use our resources somewhere else where people can come. That's the challenge of that.

The next goal that we are measured on is IPC’s retention rate or renewal rates, in terms of membership retention. That's a satisfaction measure that we use. Not only do we see is it growing—and it is growing—but what’s the membership retention rate? The Board is challenging us to grow that retention rate every year.

Matties: Do they give you a target percentage per year?

Mitchell: We have a target for all of these things.

Matties: What's the target for growth? I think 100% retention would be always the target.

Mitchell: It's always the target, but right now we're targeting 88% retention rate for the globe.

Matties: You have to be realistic.

Mitchell: The challenge is as the developing regions grow, they don’t know or appreciate all of the advantages of IPC membership. We have a higher retention rate than that in the U.S., but in Asia there are not as many programs or an established history there. They don’t have this show going on there, so their retention rate is lower. We're having to balance that, and as the percentage of members grows in developing areas, that pushes down on the overall rate. It's a challenge.

Matties: I'm sure it is.

Goldman: Sometimes companies will join so they can exhibit because there's a great advantage in exhibiting. They’ll join and then maybe they don’t exhibit next year so they think, “Why get a membership?” Then, they also join so they can buy all the standards. They get all the standards for five years and then think they don’t need the membership anymore. Some companies do that, but they're not recognizing the true value then, because it's not like the membership cost is exorbitant.

Mitchell: Those are some of the rationale, exactly.

Goldman: What is your cost of membership?

Mitchell: $1,200 per site is our standard membership cost. If a company has additional locations, it's discounted from there. If they're under a $5 million organization, we actually give them a discount at around $650 or $700.

You talked about how can we get more? It's not a price barrier.

Matties: It's a value perception.

Mitchell: It's a value perception. Some of the other 150 board shops are still mad that China exists. I joke that if I wanted to win all of the hearts and minds of the entire PCB industry in the U.S., I can picture it in the Wall Street Journal: “IPC closes China.” That one headline would win them back. They'd be happy and they'd all join again, but it's not going to happen. The world’s changed a little bit.

Matties: And your fifth key measure?

In Part 2, John explains IPC’s fifth key measure, and then he challenges IPC member companies to do something very interesting. Will there be any takers?

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