The Real Challenge for the Tucson Metropolitan Chamber of Commerce
Vic Napier
October 2010
Jack Camper finally decided to step down as CEO of the TMCC. That is a good thing. The local business community is in terrible shape. It seems like there is a different business organization for every variation in outlook or opinion. Nobody is talking to anyone else, and business organizations in Tucson have erected walls to isolate themselves form one another.
However, it is a mistake to think that the departure of Jack Camper will dramatically change anything. We tend to assign a lot more power to the leaders of organizations than they deserve. The real power of organizations runs throughout their membership; it is the shared values of the rank and file that determine the direction and general behavior of an organization. A leadership title does not confer the ability to lead people someplace they do not want to go.
What I’m talking about is organizational culture. That is the core problem with the TMCC. Jack Camper has been blamed for many of the problems of the TMCC, but he is only the most visible culprit. The real problem is the values and mind set of the membership. That is what allowed Jack Camper to have such a lengthy tenure. Without the support of the membership – or at least its acquiescence – Jack Camper would have been powerless. A new face will be just that – a new face. What really needs to be corrected is the culture of the TMCC.
It is the culture of the TMCC that alienated so many independent small businesses in Tucson. The result is that all kinds of special interest business organizations have been established. There are alternative business organizations for different races, genders, areas and political persuasions. Clearly the reason for this large group of business organizations has to do with the perception – valid or not – that the TMCC is not serving the needs of the local business community. Instead of welcoming all points of view the TMCC seems to have become an institution unto itself. Like a government bureaucracy it has become insular, looking only inward to its own needs and ignoring what has been happening to the local business community.
The internal politics of the TMCC membership is most assuredly running at full speed, and there is likely a contingent who wants to preserve the status quo. That would be a huge mistake. With the departure of Camper an opportunity to chart a new course is presenting itself. TMCC has a chance to reinvent itself into an organization that welcomes all business owners in Tucson.
The question for the TMCC search committee is not just to find someone to take the job, but also to articulate a mandate for the new CEO and the organization. What exactly does the TMCC expect itself to become at the dawn of the 21st century? What role does it expect to play in the Tucson business community during the biggest economic catastrophe in generations? Hopefully it will aspire to something far different from what it became over the last thirty.
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