By Joe Boomgaard | MiBiz
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Rick Baker brings to Grand Rapids his experience in merging chambers of commerce in Quad Cities. He plans to continue to foster collaboration among the many local business organizations while still growing the Grand Rapids Area Chamber of Commerce and remaining relevant to members. PHOTO: JEFF HUYCK

GRAND RAPIDS — Rick Baker wants the Grand Rapids Area Chamber of Commerce to remain relevant to its 2,700 members in an era when many groups are vying for their attention and dollars.

Since joining the leadership team in April and taking the helm from seven-year chamber veteran Jeanne Englehart, Baker said he has entrenched himself in learning the community and the organization from the inside. He’s already dived into a collaborative strategic planning process to help drive the vision for the chamber’s future looking three to five years out.

“We’re a strong organization, we have good things going on, and we have for a long time,” Baker said. “We have talented people, and I want to look at how we’re aligned internally and how we’re structured to capitalize on the strengths of everyone on our team. … We have a good brand recognition in the community, but we need to make sure we’re all aligned and in the same direction.”

Baker wants the chamber to continue to grow its programs so that it can better help businesses and entrepreneurs connect with the needed resources in the community. Think of the chamber as the triage unit for helping businesses with whatever they need to succeed, he said.

“We want … for the chamber to be top of mind. We won’t deliver all of the services, but we want to make sure they start here. We’re highly familiar with the resources that are out there (and) who provides the different pieces. We want to be connecting those folks to services and then identifying any gaps and determining who’s best situated to fill that gap — whether we as an organization or someone else,” Baker said.

Community magnet

The entrepreneurial spirit in Grand Rapids helped lure Baker from the Quad Cities Chamber of Commerce, based in Moline, Ill. and Davenport, Iowa, where he served as president and COO. When he visited Grand Rapids, he said the everyday ambassadors made a lasting impression. The volume of family and locally owned businesses also proved to him the people in the region remain committed to investing in the community and its future, he said.

The presence of family owned businesses and a “culture of supporting local” serves as part of Grand Rapids’ “unique selling position,” he said, pointing to the many examples of private investment in the downtown area and the business opportunities that it has created.

But the chamber is hardly alone in serving Grand Rapids-based businesses. Groups like the 600-member Local First and other local chambers of commerce all have similar messaging in advocating for the success of local companies.

So how does a large chamber stay relevant?

“Relevance is the perfect word,” Baker said. “We need to be focused on making sure we continue to be relevant to businesses so that they want to continue to invest and so that they know that when they’re investing in an organization, they should expect an ROI. We want to make sure we’re operating efficiently and collaborating as much as we can with other organizations and not duplicating — that’s a waste of time and money.

“It’s a very competitive environment. We are the largest business organization in West Michigan and the second largest chamber in the state, and we have a very broad and very deep work plan that impacts businesses and the community as a whole. It’s our job to continue to ensure what we’re working on is important to investors.”

Baker acknowledges that what stakeholders see as a return on their investment in the chamber changes rapidly, but it’s the organization’s role to stay on top of their demands. He wants the chamber members to focus on running and growing their businesses and “know that someone else has their back” in advocating for business-friendly policies at the state and local government level.

Exploring options

But since the chamber is the largest business group in the region, it must tread lightly with any collaboration so partners can avoid feeling like they’re being steamrolled, Baker said. That’s part of the reason the chamber spun off the West Michigan Policy Forum. To create a regional conversation, the forum would be better served by breaking its ties to the Grand Rapids Chamber and acting independently, he said.

Likewise, as a member of the West Michigan Chamber Coalition, the Grand Rapids Chamber must ensure that it remains on level footing with the other members but still brings the resources and “unique position” that comes from being a larger organization.

“We’re having a lot of conversations about what role should the coalition be playing,” he said, noting the leadership teams are meeting again in October. “We’re taking our conversation to a whole new level.”

Baker led the merger of three chambers and a regional economic development organization while in the Quad Cities, but he remains unsure if he’ll have a similar experience in West Michigan.

“If there’s an interest — it doesn’t always have to be as dramatic as a merger or a consolidation,” he said. “I think there’s a lot of collaboration already, but there’s always opportunity to take it further.”

For example, Baker continues outreach to the Detroit Regional Chamber of Commerce, an effort started by his predecessor. The move aims to build relationships between the two communities so that business leaders in both can learn more about their neighbors across the state.

“One of the things about me that I want to permeate into the culture is that I’m very much a results-oriented person. I like to measure the impact and measure the results as an organization,” Baker said. “The chamber culture is really shifting into that mode. Is what we’re doing having an impact? I don’t want to just go through the motions. I want us to get better and have more impact. Constant improvement and betterment of the organization — that’s what (members) can expect.”