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Honorees forge new economy

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When SBJ’s Economic Impact Awards roll around each July, I ask our editors for space to write my own perspective on the economy in general and the southwest Missouri business climate, specifically. My views, like yours, are a product of what I read, conversations I engage in or overhear, and my own experience as a local business owner.

I’ve been president of SBJ Publishing for 32 years, but now more than ever, I feel like we are just starting out in a brave new world.

I used to say that what was old is now new again, but now I say everything is all new, and I’m flying by the seat of my pants, definitely out of my comfort zone.  I’m not flying alone, however, I know there’s a huge flock of you out there beside and ahead of me. I read your stories every week. You make the arduous journey worth all the effort it takes every day.

The individuals and businesses being honored for the way they positively affect the local economy are perfect examples of the rewards that await those leaders and organizations that are able and willing to break out of the mold of what has been productive in the past and courageously blaze new trails.

Take Lifetime Achievement Award honoree Robert Spence, for example. For nearly 40 years, he has led the prodigious growth and development of Evangel University.

Spence has now surpassed traditional retirement age and could easily rest on his long list of achievements, but he’s not quite ready to wrap it up. Now, Spence is leading Evangel through its merger with local Assemblies of God institutions Central Bible College and the AG Theological Seminary. That consolidation could be finished in late 2013 or 2014, the year Spence is scheduled to retire.

Spence is breaking the mold.

The 2012 Business Advocate of the Year honor goes to the Home Builders Association of Greater Springfield. HBA directors and members aren’t sitting around crying, given that the construction industry was particularly hard-hit by the recescto do. Instead, they are mustering their colleagues and garnering local, state and national political and governmental support for positive economic change.

HBA is educating its members and the community for the time when the home building industry will again be a major driver of the local economy. That time is beginning now, and HBA members and affiliates are ready, with knowledge and skills.

Finally, consider the Philanthropic Business of the Year, Morris Oil Co. Inc. Founder Jim Morris has been making money since he was a teenager, picking cotton or delivering oil. These days, he’s still making money, and at an economic time when many companies have pulled back on charitable support, he continues donating, particularly to organizations that benefit kids who need it the most. Morris is breaking the mold, and southwest Missouri will be a better place because of his courage.

In the stories of the Economic Impact Award finalists and honorees in categories divided by the number of years in business, I think you’ll also find concrete evidence of other entities pushing forward.

At SBJ Publishing, we, too, are doing things that I never dreamed of a year ago. I know that if we keep on doing only the things that worked in the past, we won’t be around to record the future of business for Springfield, Joplin and all of southwest Missouri. Watch and read as we begin Volume 33 and break our own molds.

Dianne Elizabeth Osis is the founder, president and chairwoman of SBJ Publishing Inc. She may be reached at delizabeth@sbj.net.

Click here for full coverage of the 2012 Economic Impact Awards.[[In-content Ad]]

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