Tourism Matters

Tourism is the only industry that consistently proves exceptional 40 to 1 return on taxpayer investment dollars. That is, for every $1 spent advertising New Mexico to tourists, $40 is spent by tourists in New Mexico. Tourism is a $5.7 Billion industry and generates $739 million in tax revenues.

Kepler joins mayoral race

Former City Manager Aseneth Kepler has thrown her hat into the Mayoral race.

Kepler says “Business is not a dirty word.”

The most profitable source of new customers… your Chamber of Commerce

http://www.guaranteedprofit.com/category/blog/

Wal-Mart’s Sustainability Index: The Greenest Thing Ever to Happen to Retail?

http://www.facebook.com/ext/share.php?sid=116543420765&h=VWQs9&u=JYZWL&ref=mf

I hate to admit it, but it’s true–it’s getting harder and harder to hate Wal-Mart. Details are surfacing about the gigantic retailer’s initiative to create a massive ‘sustainability index’–one that would meticulously measure the environmental impact of every single item it stocks. Needless to say, the idea alone raises plenty of questions. But if it’s successful, the index could literally change the face of retail forever.

Apologies if that language was a tad grandiose, but it’s actually pretty accurate.

Take it from Marc Gunther’s report in Big Money:

The giant retailer ($406 billion in revenues in 2008) is developing an ambitious, comprehensive, and fiendishly complex plan to measure the sustainability of every product it sells. Wal-Mart has been working quietly on what it calls a “sustainability index” for more than a year, and it will take another year or two for labels to appear on products. But the company’s grand plan-”audacious beyond words” is how one insider describes it-has the potential to transform retailing by requiring manufacturers of consumer products to dig deep into their supply chains, measure their environmental impact, and compete on those terms for favorable treatment from the world’s most powerful retailer.

And this in turn could end up being one of the biggest motivators to make truly ‘green’ products ever. To enter the index, each product will have to undergo an intense life cycle analysis. This will require help from each of Wal-Mart’s 60,000+ suppliers, and some painstaking research. With inspectors and analysts crawling up the supply chain and peeking into every corner of production in order to deliver a comprehensive environmental assessment, we might see some major changes made by some major companies.

But who’s going to be doing the crawling and peeking, exactly? Well, researchers from some of the top universities in the US, for starters. Faculty at Harvard, Stanford, UC Berkelely, and others have reportedly been involved in the planning stages of the index. Wal-Mart’s next move is to announce a ‘sustainability consortium’ (which will debut this Thurs. the 16th) that includes the likes of U of Arizona professors, big manufactureres like Proctor and Gamble and General Mills, and potentially all the aforementioned faculty and even other competing retailers like Target and Costco.

The Last Line of Defense from Greenwashing: Wal-Mart?
Details on how the whole operation will work are still murky, but a label on each product that will help consumers ward off greenwashing will be a key component. But the effect of the index could be much further reaching than that. As Gunther points out:

Wal-Mart has an enormous influence over which products get made, and which don’t. Last year, the company said it would stop selling baby bottles containing the chemical bisphenol-A, which is approved by U.S. and European regulators. (A story that I wrote about this for Fortune magazine ran under the headline “Wal-Mart: the New FDA”). When, as part of its ambitious sustainability program, Wal-Mart said it would sell only concentrated laundry detergent, which uses less packaging and water, manufacturers fell into line.

The program could, essentially, force ungreen products off the market before a label even has a chance to discourage a consumer from buying it–if Wal-Mart continues to be inclined to support products with lower environmental impacts.

Of course, while the idea seems to be pretty inspired thus far, plenty of questions remain unanswered–how will the labeling process work? Who will comprise the consortium, and will it be balanced? Will it grant Wal-Mart too much power to determine which products are sustainable and which aren’t? We’ll be watching.

Leadership Santa Fe – Editorial

| The New Mexican
7/26/2009 – 7/27/09
Some leaders seem born to it; others might grow into it. Still others have leadership capability that needs cultivating and encouraging.
That last big bunch became the focus of the many community-organized leadership-development courses that blossomed nationwide during the past three or four decades.

Allow promising young people a chance to step back from their jobs, and expose them not only to equally promising counterparts, but also to local leaders — from private enterprise, from government and from the ever-more-important volunteer sector.

Let ‘em hear, from those who’ve been on the front lines, success stories as well as accounts of disasters — and the lessons learned from both.

Tell them, with pithy examples, how to serve on corporate and volunteer boards of directors — and what amounts to disservice on such boards.

Maybe even let ‘em shadow a top executive of their choosing for a day; give ‘em an idea of the many demands facing someone on whom so many people count — for guidance, for inspiration and, very likely, for jobs and paychecks.

Soon enough these emerging leaders lose that adjective; they’re thrust — or otherwise elevated — into leadership, titular, actual or both. The aim of such organizations as Leadership New Mexico and Leadership Santa Fe is to make them that much better prepared.

More than 300 achievers and potential achievers have been through Leadership Santa Fe’s six-weekend offerings in a 30-year tenure interrupted by, well, less-than-successful leadership — but resumed in recent years.

The graduates include City Councilor Carmichael Domínguez and County Commissioner Kathy Holian, as well as many others for whom the course has meant a combination of clear focus and broad view.

Who are the future graduates of Leadership Santa Fe?

Maybe you — who knows?

Interested? Visit the Web site at www.
leadershipsantafe.org and apply before Aug. 14.

The group has just taken a couple of seven-league strides: It’s now a program of the Santa Fe Chamber of Commerce. The chamber’s counterparts launched leadership courses in many American cities, so our community’s business group can draw on plenty of experience. At the same time, the Santa Fe Community Foundation has agreed to provide leadership training for those interested in serving on boards of our area’s many nonprofit organizations.

As we hinted above, board membership is more than hob-nobbing with prominent fellow citizens and getting your name on a plaque somewhere.

It’s an art form demanding the discipline of showing up at meetings on time — prepared to contribute to what’s on the agenda, or at least to listen without butting in if you’re not prepared.

Rules of order can be assimilated if you’re not up to reading Robert’s, and getting into the rhythm of a well-run meeting can be fun.

The community foundation, run by our former colleague Billie Blair, for the nouce, should prove to be a great contributor to the many charitable and service organizations constantly on the lookout for, well, leadership.

Connections are a major fringe benefit of belonging to Leadership Santa Fe: Knowing first-hand who’s part of what organization can make your job better, maybe easier, certainly more enjoyable. Santa Fe, for all its growth, remains a small town in many ways.

Knowing folks is good for business; close contacts coming from joint volunteer service, tanto mejor.

We’re encouraged by the new partnerships lending strength to Leadership Santa Fe. We wish its members, their advisers and all who contribute to the program a successful one as this September’s edition approaches.

Santa Fe Buy Into It! – Response to SF Reporter

Regarding “Local-Washing” in the Santa Fe Reporter.

The idea that the Santa Fe Chamber has co-opted the term “shop local” is beyond absurd. Part of the mission of the Chamber is to “grow the local economy.”

The organizers of the Santa Fe – Buy Into It! campaign did not “decree that any business located in Santa Fe was “local” but rather that all business activity in Santa Fe benefits the local economy through job- and tax-revenue creation.

EVERY single local business creates tax revenue, allowing local government to exist. Every business pays rent, payroll, taxes and utilities locally. Where a business is headquartered is irrelevant to their contribution to the local tax base.

Whether a business is a local “mom & pop shop” or part of a larger, national company has no bearing on the overall economic impact that the business has on our community.

A business named The Santa Fe Shop can be owned out of state. The Santa Fe Reporter is headquartered in Portland, Oregon. Similarly, a nationally known brand can be franchised by local Santa Feans. Many local people own shares and derive income from national companies. These kinds of divisions serve little or no purpose.

Santa Feans depend on national companies for tax generation, needed products and most importantly, jobs. Jobs create incomes which are then spent locally regardless of the ownership of the company. This spending generates further jobs and incomes. Thus the economic multiplier.

It is true that some of a national chains profits go out of town, but often this is as little as 5% of revenues. Payroll, rent and utilities frequently equal 90% of revenue which stays in the community.

Shopping in Santa Fe helps support public safety, education, roads and sewers.
Suggesting that a national business “strip mines the local economy” serves only to divide the business community and place ideology over economic reality.

To deride Santa Fe businesses that may have out of state ownership or be a part of a larger, national company, perpetuates Santa Fe’s perceived anti-business sentiment.

The Santa Fe Chamber of Commerce is proud to represent all local business and to partner with the City of Santa Fe and the media partners who have generously stepped up to support the Buy Into it campaign.

Santa Fe – Buy Into It!

Chamber Has 750 Facebook Friends!

The Santa Fe Chamber is successfully using social networking to communicate its programs and mission to members and the community.
Through its Facebook presence the chamber can easily communicate with over 750 friends who can be connected with events, marketing opportunities and ways to connect.
Join and become a friend and supporter of the Santa Fe Chamber of Commerce.

Seventy Percent of Small Businesses Anticipate Growth in 2009

Seventy percent of small businesses anticipate moderate to significant growth in 2009, according to the Small Business Attitudes & Outlook Survey conducted by Constant Contact, a leading provider of email marketing and online surveys. Constant Contact conducted the survey of more than 3,000 respondents, in collaboration with the American Chamber of Commerce Executives (ACCE), SCORE and the Association of Small Business Development Centers (ASBDC), organizations dedicated to the success of small businesses. The survey was conducted from April 30, 2009 through June 12, 2009 and was focused on small business and their expectations for the future and the economy. Complete survey results are available online.

“The results of the survey reveal the optimism and perseverance that so often marks this spirited group of business owners, as well as their adaptability to meet current economic conditions,” said Gail Goodman, CEO and chairman, Constant Contact. “These companies show us all what it takes to succeed in any economic climate. We are grateful to our partners in the survey, which has given us an encouraging glimpse into the minds and attitudes of today’s small businesses.”

Promote Your Business with the Chamber

A national study by The Schapiro Group, an Atlanta based market research firm, reveals a number of important findings about how consumers and business owners perceive the local chamber of commerce and the businesses that are their members. For example:

• When consumers know that a business is a member of the local chamber, they are 44% more likely to think favorably about it.
• Consumers who are told that a business is a chamber member are 51% more likely to be highly aware of it and 57% more likely to think positively of its local reputation.
• Consumers are 63% more likely to buy goods and services in the future from a company that they believe is a member of the local chamber of commerce.  The study also has good news for businesses that sell to other businesses.
• When business decision-makers believe that a business is a chamber member, they are 37% more likely to think favorably of the business, 51% more likely to be highly aware of it, 58% more likely to think positively of its local reputation, and 59% more likely to buy goods and services from it.

Supporting the previous findings, the study also reveals a positive perception for the local chamber itself:
• Regarding the chamber’s impact on the local economy, 82% of respondents believe that the local chamber of commerce helps create jobs and promotes local economic development.

The results of the Schapiro study are clear: Positive perception increases among consumers and business owners when a business is identified as a member of the local chamber of commerce.  Simon Brackley, President and CEO of the Santa Fe Chamber, said that the research is the first of its kind, and confirms what many have thought about Chamber membership for years. Brackley stated, “Membership increases the visibility and credibility of a business. I think this is just as true for businesses that depend on the local economy as it is for internationally focused businesses. Many countries place an even greater importance on their Chambers of Commerce than America does. Letting business know in foreign countries that you are a Chamber member could be very important to potential business. If I was a member of our Chamber, I would be putting it on my letterhead, on my website, and in my ads. The research is clear that joining a Chamber is good business.”

This study was sponsored by IBM, Administaff, Jim Blasingame and AskJim.biz in cooperation with American Chamber of Commerce Executives. The study was conducted by The Schapiro Group and coordinated by Market Street Services. For the full study, please click here.

Focus on Business Fundamentals

In a challenging economy every business, organization and government agency has to focus on fundamentals in order to survive. This in not the time to start unproven programs or take unneccessary risks. An organization should look at their essential mission statement and question everything that does not contribute directly to the mission.

For example the mission of a pizza restaurant is to provide quality pizza at a fair price. Peripherals such as delivery, salads, desserts, to-go orders, lasagne and staff uniforms may not directly benefit the bottom line. Usually some do and some don’t and business managers have to examine what is working.

For a nonprofit organization every program, staff role and expense needs to directly support tew mission of the organization. Similarly government agencies should examine whether programs are effectively providing services to the taxpayer. Sometimes programs should be run by the private sector under a contractural arrangement.

We all owe it to our boards of directors, constituents and investors to thoroughly examine our operations and ensure efficiency at all levels.