During the second week in January we had a quarterly board meeting as well as two days of strategic planning with our board of directors and our vice president group. Our strategic planning session is always very intense with a series of presentations delivered by our vice presidents on topics such as employee recruiting and retention, market developments, market share comparisons, and trends. We talk about product roadmaps and delivery schedules for new products and enhancements. In addition, we spend a lot of time analyzing and discussing technology trends as well as the overall Strengths Weaknesses Opportunities and Threats to our organization. When we come out of these sessions we are literally exhausted but always invigorated by the progress we're making and the opportunities we have in the future. But this year, this year the tone of our discussions was very different. It's clear that our board of directors recognize that we are formulating future strategies for it and I see from a position of strength unlike at any time in the history of our organization. I think it's fair to say that for the first 50 years of NISC, we have operated from a very defensive position. We were undercapitalized from the start, cash was always scarce, and it was very difficult to build the equity and the financial strength that was required to make bold moves in the industry, moves that would differentiate us from the competition. It seemed as if we were always playing catch up with our competitors in the marketplace. NISC was just a bit late, and our members were always pushing us faster and harder than we were capable of delivering the technology that was so critical to their success and efficiency. But over the last 50 years our cooperative business model and a true partnership that we have with our members has made all the difference and allowed us to slowly, incrementally grow financially stronger and deeper in our technology expertise and prowess at a time when so many of our competitors were going out of business or have been bought and sold multiple times. We built the strength and the subject matter expertise of this organization. The hard way, we earned it. No stock sale, no venture capital, no angel investor, just a determination and a tenacity to be good stewards, to be frugal and to ask the question over and over again as we made critical decisions, "If this were my company what would I do." And so dollar by dollar member by member employee by employee together we built NYSE into an organization that is strong financially and deep in technology and the industry talent required to meet the increasing expectations and requirements of our member-owners. The theme that came from our strategic planning session this year was clear. NISC was making perhaps one of the most significant, pivotal moves in our history. We were moving from defense to offense, leveraging the depth of our financial and talent strength, Our board gave us specific instructions to move ahead confidently, aggressively and yes to move from defense to offense. Rather than always being obsessed with our competitors, some of them small niche players others some of the largest and most formidable technology companies in the world like SAP and Oracle. It's true what Andy Grove the former CEO of Intel said "Only the Paranoid Survive. But this, this is a new day, and we are determined to up our game and to aggressively invest in emerging technologies working side by side with our members to define the direction of technology for these industries rather than being an employer that did a good job of hiring and training our employees only to lose them to more aggressive organizations, Our directive from our board is to aggressively invest in the development of our employees, making NISC a clear long term career choice and preparing our employees to lead this organization into the future. Over the next several weeks we will be posting a number of BlogCasts to the communities that will include candid interviews with each of the vice presidents talking about how this offensive strategy will impact their respective divisions. Although we have significant challenges before us, I must tell you that in my entire career I don't know that I have ever felt so inspired and confident about the future of our organization. We have been grinding it out, and I do mean grinding it out on defense for 50 years, and this this is our time to shine. The unfailing support from our board, the partnership with our members, and the dedication of our employees have brought us to this place. And everybody knows that our offense is much more fun and exciting than defense. Thanks for listening. I appreciate you, Vern
