Opinion from Zeitgeist President Bill Geist, taken from the Autmn/1997 edition of the Zeitgeist Client Newsletter
     

You don't hear the term "hostile takeover" as much today as you did in the 80s. We've learned to partner, to merger...to cooperatively combine forces, rather than blaze in and take what we want from a competitor. Or, at least, we're more subtle about it.
 
That the intent behind such "mergers" is still hostile, however, is a concern that I am hearing with alarming frequency from my friends and clients in the CVB industry. The forces of evil they point to are Chambers of Commerce.
 
Rochester, New York, is the most recent example of the re-birth of hostile takeovers. Citing the desire to maximize resources, minimize duplication of administrative services and provide better service to the business community and the customer, the Rochester Chamber lined up the neccessary votes on the County Board floor and attempted a coup while the Bureau was searching for a replacement for its president, who had left and taken the top spot at another CVB. It was ugly. It was unneccessary. It was counter-productive.
 
Why do Chambers covet Bureaus? Relatively stable (and often significant) revenue streams from room tax is one attractive componant. The other is visibility. Today's Chambers are a far different creature than the Chambers of the '50s and '60s when they were generally the only economic development player in a community. Today, CVBs handle the solicitation and acquisition of conventions, groups and leisure travelers and Economic Development Councils pursue corporate development and location. So what do Chambers do?
 
The answer isn't all that ellusive if one returns to the very reason that CVBs and EDCs grew from their parent Chambers in the first place. It's all about service. Before CVBs and EDCs, most Chambers addressed the tourism and development arenas by providing service (information and brochures) to those that requested assistance. When the competition began to heat up, CVBs and EDCs were born from the need to have pro-active sales machines duking it out head-to-head with other communities.
 
Now that tourism and development are covered by CVBs and EDCs, what's a Chamber to do? Return to its core competency...Service. Today's customer? Their very own members. It may not be as "glamorous" as CVB and EDC sales and marketing efforts appear to be, but it's just as (if not more) crucial to a community's success. For if the CVB and EDC are inviting prospects to dinner, somebody better be fixing up the house, preparing the table and cooking the feast...or the guests will wind up disappointed and all too anxious to tell their friends.
 
Our local business people are crying out for help. And, for the most part, CVBs and EDCs are too consumed with their external sales roles to do a great job of providing more than leads and wins to businesses. Chambers can and should be about providing education and networking opportunies, providing group buying discounts and actively representing business interests legislatively with a strong advocacy presence.
 
There's a reason that there are different tools for different jobs.The professional builder uses up to 8 different types of hammers to build a quality house. A hostile takeover of a CVB by a Chamber leaves the community to build its economic development house with nothing but a large, clumsy mallett. The result...a butt-ugly product.
 
There are lots of areas that need attention in our communities that a Chamber of Commerce is best qualified to address, just as CVBs are best qualified to make a difference in their specialized niche. Let's all be about what's best for the community...and not our egos or our budgets. And let's keep the hostile takeover an '80s thing.