Nicki Anderson wasn’t sure what to expect when she reported for work at her new job a year ago.
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The Naperville Area Chamber of Commerce had been sailing in choppy waters for a while, and the longtime local business owner was being brought aboard to help steady what had become a wobbly ship.
The first woman placed at the helm in a permanent capacity in the organization’s 101 years, Anderson was the fourth person in little more than six years to occupy the president/CEO’s office. Her immediate predecessor, Mike Evans, spent less than a year in the position. John Schmitt, brought on board when Mike Skarr retired at the end of 2007, had served three years in the post before that, parting ways with the Chamber in May 2012.
“I just remember it being one big blur,” she said of those first few days in the office, which promptly put her front and center as the face of the chamber at both its yearly formal fundraising gala and the heavily attended State of the City luncheon, which it hosts every January.
Both came off with less stress this time around, she believes.
“Like any job, after a year you have a clearer idea of what your roles are,” she said.
Also clearer now is the horizon that stretches away from the chamber, and the temperament of the seas that lie in between. Little of that could be seen at the start of the busy year.
Anderson didn’t expect to love the job as much as she does, but she also was taken by surprise at “how absolutely passionate our members are – about not just the Chamber, but about supporting other members,” she said. “Their passion sort of rolled over to me.”
The chamber’s other leadership is kind of passionate about Anderson as well.
“She’s just been fantastic I can’t think of enough adjectives to describe the work that she’s done,” said Rosemarie Breske Garvey, president of the chamber’s board.
With a great head for business and superb collaborative skills, Breske Garvey said Anderson has launched a new day at the Chamber.
“She has boosted the morale of the staff, she has streamlined operations, and really created so much new momentum,” said Breske Garvey. “She just has this great energy that is such a positive for staff.”
Anderson readily acknowledges there is still plenty of work to be done. A reconstruction of the chamber’s own business foundation remains to be completed, she said, before the organization can be considered truly supportive of the commercial community.
“If we’re not running our organization efficiently and effectively, how can be serve our members?” she said.
That calls for an approach that underscores the organization’s value to local business, and a fresh effort to let the community know about it.
“We’ve done a terrible job of telling our own story,” said Anderson, noting that she often has to explain to community members that the chamber is a nonprofit agency. “It’s a great one, since 1913.”
It also entails an overhaul of programs for the state’s largest suburban chamber.
“We can’t just have marginal programming,” she said. “We’re a five-star chamber. We need to have five-star programs.”
Also in the works is a redesign of the organization’s signature event, the Small Business of the Year distinction, which now will be awarded in the fall instead of springtime.
“It’s going to be called Celebrating Business Excellence,” Anderson said. “It will be inclusive of all business, large and small…. It’s not about winners or losers, it’s about business.”
That’s a crowning achievement of the past 12 months for the chamber chief, as is the organization’s “unrelenting efforts to reconnect with our members,” she said.
As time goes on, it’s becoming less challenging to counter “the perception of an unstable chamber,” but that initiative goes on as well.
Perception matters to the business community, a lot. A 2012 study by Atlanta consultants The Schapiro Group concluded that nearly two-thirds of consumers believe chamber members “use good business practices, are reputable, care about their customers, and are involved in the community,” states a report on the research by the Association of Chamber of Commerce Executives.
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“People say, ‘Shop local,'” Anderson said. “I say, ‘Shop Chamber.'”
That’s what the group’s directors want to hear. Breske Garvey said the board “collectively could not be more thrilled” with what’s gone on at the chamber since the start of 2014. She said she and the rest of the board are looking only ahead, leaving the difficult past few years in the past, and they have renewed and complete confidence in the organization’s leadership.
“It’s such a nice calm, after what had been a couple of challenging years,” she said.
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