I spoke with her in New York before the Annual BetterManagement LIVE Latin America Business Conference in Mexico City in April.

Meyer: How does BetterManagement keeps its content relevant to users?

Slepian: We really keep our ears to the ground. We listen closely to our business partners and we stay current with their hot-button issues. We also maintain close ties with academic organizations around the world. We meet ask them, "What do you need to teach to stay relevant?" We also ask, "Do you have professors who know how to share that information efficiently?" This sort of relationship works well for us, and it works well for our academic partners. They gain access to a highly efficient channel for communicating with their audience. We gain access to some of the best and brightest minds in the world. That's a win-win scenario across the board.

Meyer: Hot-button issues vary from country to country, from region to region. How do you keep your content "local?"

Slepian: We work on a regional basis to align our content with regional
needs. For example, we work with several academic institutions in the Asia-Pacific region to make sure we understand how global issues are perceived in Asia. We have similar relationships in Europe, the Middle East and Latin America. In some markets we get very granular.

Meyer: BetterManagement has a strong following in the public sector. Why is that so?

Slepian: We draw 13 to 14 percent of our worldwide audience from the public sector. The reason is simple: They're looking for ways to become more efficient, to accomplish more with less money. Many of the initiatives currently employed by organizations in the public sector began in the private sector. The public sector is adopting them because they have to. So it makes sense for managers in the public sector to rely on BetterManagement when they need to learn about complex subjects such as activity-based costing, supplier relationship management, IT management, business intelligence or organizational transparency. We put a tremendous library of usable information at their fingertips.