Wine Institute Five-Year Strategic Plan

I want to update you on Wine Institute’s five-year Strategic Plan which was adopted by the board at our December meeting. A great deal of work went into the new plan, and I am excited to share the outcomes with you. Here is a member-only link to download the plan, which provides greater detail on the process and outcomes.

A Comprehensive Process

The officers launched a comprehensive process to develop a new strategic plan at the beginning of 2024. It was designed to look at all aspects of Wine Institute’s work and ensure that our organizational priorities remain focused on the areas where we can and should have the greatest impact for our members. The process included significant outreach to evaluate the reputation and impact of Wine Institute in the eyes of members, key external stakeholders and the broader wine sector. To conduct this work, the officers retained Reputation Inc., an international reputation consultancy, to guide us and provide independent observations.

Over the course of the last year, they held numerous one-on-one interviews with members and external stakeholders, conducted an online survey of additional members and had multiple sessions with the officers, a strategic planning committee made up of sixteen wineries and the Wine Institute executive team. Highlights of this comprehensive process are included in the linked materials.

Building on a Strong Foundation

This extensive research provided invaluable insights into the areas where Wine Institute has a real impact on behalf of our members, and I am pleased to share that the strength of our reputation is reflected in the feedback that we received. The value of Wine Institute’s work was widely recognized at the state, federal and international levels by our members and external stakeholders.

It is important to highlight that there was broad consensus that Wine Institute’s vision and mission — to be the preeminent voice advocating for wine and leading on public policy — should remain as our overarching priority. The feedback we received also helped guide the assessment of our current and proposed initiatives to ensure that our work remains relevant and focused on supporting our members’ license to operate and succeed in this very challenging environment.

Protecting, Growing and Uniting the Wine Sector

The strategy and initiatives laid out in the new plan are designed to address an evolving, expanding set of challenges in the public policy arena and marketplace. As you will see, many of our initiatives continue to focus on long-standing priorities such as excise taxes, market access and DTC and environmental and regulatory challenges. Our longstanding work on sustainability and expanding international markets also remains a priority.

However, the plan also envisions new work designed to unite and grow the wine sector by highlighting the unique and positive aspects of wine to both consumers and policymakers. This work will enable Wine Institute and our members to proactively demonstrate the wine sector’s positive impact and leadership to a diverse range of audiences.

To achieve all of this, the plan lays out initiatives designed to strengthen Wine Institute as an organization. These focus on expanding our communications and engagement with members, ensuring we have the right skills and expertise, continuously evaluating our goals and objectives and measuring our effectiveness.

Another important outcome from our work has been the acknowledgement and understanding that multiple factors — previous dues reductions, inflation and market weakness — have aligned to negatively impact our financial resources. At the same time, the number of challenges we face has expanded on multiple state, federal and international fronts. It is clear that, if we are going to address these challenges head on, then we must take a hard look at our spending and dues structure and make any changes necessary to ensure we have adequate resources in the years to come. The officers and I are committed to addressing this issue and will be doing so in the coming months.

I want to thank all of those involved in this effort — the officers, the strategic planning committee, numerous board members and the department heads — for their invaluable contributions and commitment to Wine Institute. I hope you will take a few minutes to review the product of that work.

I am confident that our collaborative work on this plan has created a clear roadmap for Wine Institute to expand our positive impact for members in the coming years. I look forward to working with all of you to ensure our continued success as a sector. Please don’t hesitate to reach out with any questions.

Robert P. Koch
President and CEO