In 1994, Jeff Bezos launched Amazon as an online bookstore out of his garage in Bellevue, Washington. His initial business thesis was to offer a wide selection of books without the encumbrance of a physical store. By 2001, the dot-com bust was making its way through the marketplace and Amazon felt the pressure. The Amazon leadership team elected to work with Jim Collins, the author of Good to Great, to reframe their strategy in an easy, digestible format in hopes of winning over investors. In the context of this reassessment, Jeff Bezos sketched on a napkin (figure 1) what has become known as Amazon’s “flywheel strategy,” and the business world was forever changed.
The Model
The Amazon strategy starts with customer experience, at the 3 o’clock-position. With a positive experience, customers would create traffic, which in turn would attract more sellers, which would result in more selection. With more selection, the customer experience would be enhanced and thus a virtuous cycle would be created. To make the wheel run well, Amazon needed to have a low-cost structure so they could deliver lower prices to customers which, again, improved the customer experience. This is their flywheel. Lastly, if Amazon made the proper investments, they could improve their efficiency, deliver items faster and more reliably. This again would improve the customer experience and represents their second flywheel. Who today does not marvel at how efficiently Amazon can deliver an online order – within hours or a day? It is almost unfathomable.
The Amazon model has a multilayered focus on the customer experience, and the result has been explosive company growth. One cannot but admire the simple elegance of this model, and it made me wonder if the AAPG couldn’t produce an equivalent flywheel.
AAPG Flywheel Hub
It seems obvious that the member experience should be where the AAPG starts (figure 2). It’s not original, but if the AAPG can deliver a positive member experience, it too should result in positive outcomes for the AAPG. With a positive membership experience, members are more likely to renew, participate, and recommend AAPG to colleagues, and invite others into the community.
Members in turn then have expectations. The main purpose of a professional association is, typically, to advance a specific career field, elevate the profession, and provide both networking and growth for its members. I would summarize the entirety of this purpose to be “professional enrichment.” If we enrich our members, what should follow is an engaged, vibrant professional community. With that in place, we would reinforce the member experience, and the virtuous cycle would begin again. Ultimately, we want to create a sense of belonging and camaraderie for professionals with similar interests, while delivering member value.
The cycle is straightforward: a positive member experience supports retention and growth; a larger, more connected membership creates greater opportunities for professional enrichment; and that enrichment builds engagement, belonging, and community. Those outcomes, in turn, strengthen the member experience and keep the flywheel moving.
The AAPG Flywheel
So, what will make this wheel go around? The 2025-26 Executive Committee answered this question when they authored the three-year strategy. The 2026-27 Executive Committee is currently updating this work, but the vision for how AAPG currently defines success is stated as follows:
“We deliver relevant and useful quality content and data for professional enrichment, learning, and research, while advocating and advancing the economic application of the science of geology, especially petroleum, subsurface, energy, and environmental geology. Additionally, we connect our global members with other members, companies, and academia to foster professional success.”
To realize this vision of professional enrichment, AAPG must deliver on several key member value-proposition drivers.
1) Relevant and timely industry and geoscience insights:
AAPG accomplishes this through the delivery of our Bulletin, Explorer, newsletters, and special publications.
2) Networking & Connecting:
AAPG endeavors to connect our global members with other members, companies, and academia to foster professional success. This comes through various activities.
a. Meaningful experiences for professional development and growth:
This is accomplished through the delivery of events like IMAGE, workshops, webinars, and other educational experiences.
b. Divisions:
Technical interest groups allow AAPG to foster discussion on focused topics like professional affairs, energy and minerals, environmental geoscience, and petroleum structure and geomechanics.
c. Programs:
Special interest groups and activities like student chapters, young professional groups, Women’s Network, Imperial Barrel Award competition, and the Distinguished Lecturer series enable AAPG to connect with its members in smaller settings.
These five elements combine to form our flywheel. If we do these five elements well, it will create member value and cause our inner business hub to rotate.
Accelerators
Depicted on the AAPG flywheel diagram (figure 2) are three accelerators. First and foremost is volunteerism. It is near the center of the diagram and is an offshoot of engagement. Our most engaged members volunteer and throttle our flywheel. Volunteerism is both an outcome of an engaged membership and an accelerator of the flywheel: members who receive value are more likely to become involved, and their contributions then create greater value for the entire AAPG community. They ensure our events are robust and meaningful. They also power our programs and divisions. Furthermore, volunteers form the core of our House of Delegates, Executive Committee, Advisory Committee, and Corporate Advisory Board. These oversight groups all help guide the direction of AAPG. Lastly, I should add that some members view the opportunity to volunteer with the AAPG as a vehicle through which they can develop their own leadership skills in the advancement of their professional careers.
The other accelerators are our employer- and service-company partners. These organizations offer our members professional employment. They have a vested interest in seeing AAPG professionally enrich and advance their employees. Additionally, both sponsor and push the flywheel along. Both encourage their staff to publish while advertising, and they also sponsor programs or exhibit at events. This support is invaluable in making the flywheel turn successfully, smoothly and financially. Donations from charitable organizations, like the AAPG Foundation, also help accelerate the flywheel’s movement.
Staff
I should make one final addition to this analogy: the AAPG’s staff. Behind the scenes and, just like Amazon’s staff, they help make the flywheel function. They collaborate with our members to ensure our professional enrichment activities fulfill our members’ needs and help deliver a quality member experience. I hope the next time you engage with them; you take the opportunity to thank them for their support.
Conclusion
And finally, as a member – does the flywheel model resonate with you? Does it help you envision the benefits the AAPG delivers or see how AAPG delivers a quality member experience? Is something missing? Or is there more there than you thought?