DuPage business leaders: Embrace change as we exit recession
Although the current business climate in DuPage County is akin to a toddler — it's able to stand but not fully stable — things look hopeful as the economy works its way out of the recession, a panel of area business and government leaders concluded Wednesday.
The experts spoke to about 300 executives and business leaders at the second annual DuPage County Regional Business Outlook and Executive Briefing at the Wyndham Lisle hotel. The day's theme was “embracing change” and the panel affirmed businesses must welcome the new realities as the region and nation's economic climate improves.
Diane Swonk, chief economist and senior managing director at Mesirow Financial in Chicago, noted the sense of unity among Americans after the killing of terrorist leader Osama bin Laden must be seized upon to solve the major issues facing the economy today — particularly the country's massive deficit.
“We are not Americans politically, but we are Americans, and we are united,” Swonk said. “We need to seize on our sameness instead of our differences to solve our problems.”
Patrick Kelly, managing director of KMK & Associates, echoed those remarks, saying that the business community should take the initiative to work collaboratively with government and education to assure the area's workforce is well educated to handle new jobs being created by growth.
“Left to its own ingenuity, corporate America will figure it out,” Kelly said. “If you do it right, you will succeed. If you don't, well, that's why we have succession plans.”
Kelly noted state government in particular needs to resolve problems that are preventing Illinois businesses from growing.
“Business' message to our leaders is ‘fix it,'” he said. “Give us a reason to expand in the state.”
DuPage County Board Chairman Dan Cronin agreed that government needs to be more efficient to serve the needs of business, and advocated consolidation of smaller governments as a part of that efficiency.
“We want to be an example of how to do things right,” Cronin said. “We are trying to demonstrate that we can be on common ground through the consolidation of services, with the help of technology.”
For Navistar President and CEO Daniel Ustian — whose company will soon relocate to the former Alcatel-Lucent building in Lisle — it was the collaborative spirit of the community that kept them in DuPage County.
“It is the warmth that the community brings to its constituents,” Ustian said. “It's the way they bring businesses together, and then find ways to make them successful” through finding skilled workers for the jobs being created.
That workforce is also changing, said Anne Edmunds, regional director of Manpower. Edmunds said the new reality is that a worker's talent will be more valuable than training. Having the best talent in your workforce — not just how much a company makes — will be the catalyst for growth in the future, she said.
“Talent is the new ‘it,'” Edmunds said. “We're replacing capitalism with talentism. Companies that capitalize on that will thrive.”
David Herro, chief investment officer at Harris Associates, noted the good investments are in companies that have a solid leadership and can show value with their growth. Following that strategy can avoid “knee-jerk” decisions that led to the financial collapse in 2008, he said.
Sponsors of the event were Choose DuPage, Ice Miller LLP and Mesirow Financial.