Yes, I know, the Springfield Area Chamber of Commerce is the top chamber in the country. Chamber members and business advocates across our city have been rightfully hooting and hollering since the American Chamber of Commerce Executives in early August selected Springfield as the Chamber of the Year in its size category.
I join the cheers.
Before coming off the high, though, I say the business community looks at the next rung on the ladder. Let’s capture this momentum in a bottle, shake it up and send it on to further reinforce our city as a place for business.
The ideas are certainly plenty, but one I encountered last week is simply starting a chapter of the Association for Corporate Growth. The Chicago-based group currently only has one Missouri chapter, in St. Louis, though Kansas City has a chapter based in Shawnee Mission, Kan. ACG, which has international chapters in China, Brazil, Canada, Czech Republic, France and Germany, is designed to foster business deals in middle markets.
ACG organizers say the 14,000-member group targets deal makers such as private equity professionals, investment bankers, attorneys, auditors and accountants, lenders and corporate development officers, according
ACG.org.
In a meeting with Kansas City private equity manager Tim Leland of TGP Investments LLC, it was substantiated to me that the chamber award and celebrations have merit.
Leland, who was in town attending the Springfield Business Development Corp.’s Economic Outlook Conference, offers a wider perspective as he calls on economic and business leaders in cities throughout the Midwest. In leading the private equity firm’s business development efforts, Leland must get to know chamber officials and members across such states as Missouri, Iowa, Nebraska, Kansas and Arkansas. He said Springfield’s chamber team really does stand out from the rest.
Leland serves on the ACG board for Nebraska’s chapter in Omaha, and he introduced me to the ACG concept. It seems the time is right and the city is ripe for such an addition.
Sure, we already have some traction on a new networking group – the Vistage peer advisory group for CEOs. Vistage, which rolled out here this summer as an offshoot of the St. Louis chapter, would complement the ACG well. Through Vistage, noncompetitive CEOs can come together to share best practices and worst decisions, while ACG can foster exchanges of working knowledge among a cross-section of managers that may lead to business deals – even outside of our geographic market. ACG membership facilitates chapter meetings, regional conferences, social outings, webinars, monthly e-newsletters and the InterGrowth annual conference.
The group appears to be an avenue for capital infusions, which often means jobs and new equipment. If such an association can help us do our part in southwest Missouri to spur job creation, by all means.
If Omaha, Neb., and Newtown, Conn., support an ACG chapter, what’s stopping Springfield, the third-largest economy in Missouri?
We already get a lot of business done around here. I get that. I’m amazed sometimes by all of the activity.
This is just another option to add in the economic and professional development toolbox.
There’s another mountain out there to climb. I’m just brainstorming for ideas, and I welcome yours.
Springfield Business Journal Editor Eric Olson can be reached at eolson@sbj.net.
