Help wanted.
Mayor Brandon Johnson seeks a seasoned business person to market Chicago to companies looking to move or expand. Must be willing and able to explain away the past disinterest of the big boss, as well as anti-business policies like a 3.5% tax on commercial property sales and onerous minimum wage requirements for workers earning tips, as well as frequent occurrences of brazen thefts like smashing stolen cars into retail storefronts.
It’s not a surprise that Michael Fassnacht, CEO of World Business Chicago, is leaving that post after four years. The job, which entails recruiting businesses to locate and hire in Chicago and preserving the private-sector jobs already here, is a critical one. New mayors often want their own person in that post.
This change marks more than the usual turnover at the agency, though. Also departing from their roles are Mellody Hobson, co-CEO of money manager Ariel Investments who serves as vice chair of World Business Chicago, and tech entrepreneur Mark Tebbe, who’s worked nearly a decade at the agency promoting Chicago to startups and their financiers.
In reports on the news, Hobson and Fassnacht were diplomatic. Tebbe, however, said the quiet part out loud. “I don’t see the focus on the business community that I have seen with other mayors,” he told Crain’s Chicago Business, adding that he hoped Johnson was successful.
What Tebbe said is what the vast majority of business people in Chicago are saying privately — with increasing alarm. This is a mayor who in his past career had little reason or occasion to rub elbows with business. While he’s said the right things at times in terms of wanting a relationship with business that works for both the city and the private sector, his actions have spoken far more loudly.
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Still, the opportunity to select new leaders at World Business Chicago is another chance for him to reset and demonstrate he understands how critical economic growth is to the city’s health, as well as his agenda. A stalled local economy means less in tax and fee revenue to pay for the progressive initiatives on which the mayor campaigned.
The question now is: Who on Chicago’s business scene will want the job under these conditions?
For the city’s sake, we hope there are serious candidates willing to accept the risk to their reputation, not to mention their stress level, to serve as Chicago’s chief marketer to the outside world. It was a tough job even before Johnson’s election. Fassnacht had to cope with the departures of Citadel, Caterpillar and Boeing and, of course, feverish competition from growing cities elsewhere, such as Miami, Nashville and several cities in Texas.
True, there were hundreds of lower-profile economic-development victories. But the narrative set by those big exits dominates the current discussion of Chicago’s business climate.
Cities like ours must compete in a national — and sometimes global — marketplace for employers. Despite its leadership struggles, Chicago retains numerous assets, including its logistically enviable central location, its world-class universities, O’Hare International Airport (but watch out there) and an appealing combination of natural beauty, livability and a famously influential arts scene.
Past challenges to the city’s business reputation tended to center on the acquisition of major locally based corporations by more aggressive and capable out-of-town companies. Now, we’re seeing companies decide to just pull up stakes and go despite the headaches associated with such moves.
That has to stop and start moving in the opposite direction.
This hiring decision will be among Mayor Johnson’s most important.
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