Over the past 30 years, Charlotte has grown up. We are home to two of the largest banks in the world, we have an NFL franchise, and we are currently nurturing our second NBA team. We continue to produce new, fast-growing entrepreneurial businesses ranging from technology firms and health care-related businesses to new restaurant concepts to fast-growing translation businesses.
Why are we, as a community, successful in these endeavors? Several reasons: we have built the infrastructure to attract business; and we have the economic drivers of several Fortune 1000 companies headquartered here, which has allowed us to attract a tremendous number of talented individuals who, in a beautiful circular fashion, have spawned entrepreneurs who start and build new business. I would suggest that the tremendous foundation of business success (and it has been talked about many times) was the vision, foresight and determination of our community and business leaders. This applies to ones both of the recent past — Hugh McColl, Ed Crutchfield, Bill Lee, John Belk and Harvey Gantt, to name a few — as well as today.
For example, Tim Newman, head of the Charlotte Regional Visitors Authority (CRVA), is intimately involved in shaping our community’s future but still finds time to help shape the future of Charlotte’s leadership via his hands-on involvement with Leadership Charlotte, among other organizations. Derick Close, CEO of Springs Creative Products Group, LLC, spends as much time at work as he does in assisting other community groups, including the Boy Scouts and countless other organizations that are too numerous to mention, while promoting and encouraging his employees to give their time back to the community, as well.
And Dee Dixon, publisher of Pride magazine, the 2006 Charlotte Businesswoman of the Year, has also been heavily involved in the Charlotte community with organizations such as What Women of Color Want (of which she is co-founder) and Women’s Inter-Cultural Exchange (WIE), a nonprofit organization designed to build social capital and trust among women of all races. The tradition of servant leadership that each of these people exemplifies proves that a strong, culturally-diverse, educated community is not only good for business, it is equally, if not more so, good for the soul — for each of theirs, as well as the soul of our community.
As John Gardner, the renowned social reformer of the 1960s, stated: “Leaders have a significant role in creating the state of mind that is the society. They can serve as symbols of the moral unity of the society. They can express the values that hold the society together.” “Most important, they can conceive and articulate goals that lift people out of their petty preoccupations, carry them above the conflicts that tear a society apart, and unite them in pursuit of objectives worthy of their best efforts.” The old Charlotte saying of “You won’t do business in Charlotte for long without being involved in our community” says a lot about the character of our business leaders, and it says a lot about Charlotte.