February 6, 2008

Chamber Connection

Businesses face uncertain economic climate

By Pat Dando
President/CEO, San Jose Silicon Valley Chamber of Commerce
Special to the Times

This new year will find businesses of all sizes facing an uncertain economic climate. The first task at hand for many will be to decide where to trim expenses in order to balance with softer revenues—equally as important will be to identify those expenditures that are necessary to bolster the bottom line during this volatile stretch of economic uncertainty.

As we know historically this valley has seen the economy tank before. As a matter of fact it happens about every 10 years. We don’t have to look back many years to recall how the Silicon Valley overcame the dot.com bust and returned to a driving economy. The businesses that survived and the new ones that grew from those difficult times did so by staying engaged, continuing to innovate and managing with fewer resources. So, intellectually we know these hard times will pass. But what will we do today to make sure we survive until tomorrow?

The Chamber has recently reached out to our members through surveys, polls and focus groups to identify what we can do to best support local commerce during these tough times. As you might imagine, with more than 2,000 members, there is no one silver bullet. However, we heard from our members that the following services are among the ones that they value the most:

* Networking events are seen as valuable opportunities to promote business-to-business exchange, grow visibility and attract new customers;

* Business seminars that offer new and better ways to market, communicate, control finances, address human resources and make use of the latest technology to keep our members current;

* Advocating for business friendly practices at local, state and national levels for the support of tax credits, including those for R&D and alternative energy—this will allow our Silicon Valley companies to focus on creating the next new widget that will fuel our economy;

* Realizing the importance of fewer government regulations on businesses of all sizes—recently the Chamber was successful in prompting the San Jose City Council to delay adding additional fees on home building for several years and then only if there is measurable improvement to the local economy;

* Lobbying local government to help keep city fees and taxes reasonable, while working to further expedite the permit process; and  

* Participating in retail campaigns such as “Shop San Jose” were considered important to local retailers.

I’m confident that those of us in the businesses community will continue to do our part to survive this economic crisis. However, I encourage the policy makers on local, state and national levels to look at fewer regulations as quite possibly the most effective economic stimulus package. Governments should not try to balance their budget shortfalls by adding more fees and taxes. They should instead do everything possible to expedite the process and provide incentives for business growth.

While these are hard times for all of us, we know there is no place like Silicon Valley. The spirit, diversity and intellect of the people here will continue to reinvent and reignite the economic engines of the world and the way we do business. As we begin 2009, the seeds are now being planted for the next wave of change, be it alternative energy, green development, bioscience or other innovations. The Chamber looks forward to our continued relationship with businesses of all sizes as we build upon the innovative spirit that this valley has become known for.