Sunday Interview with Brian Anderson: 'I'm a growth guy. I'm a problem solver.'

Greater Columbus Chamber of Commerce President and Chief Executive Officer Brian Anderson talks about accountability.

He talks about protecting the jobs that are in the Columbus region and growing the number of those jobs. He talks about the city’s image and the crime issue.

In about four months, Anderson has been learning all he can about Columbus and introducing himself and his plans to key community leaders as he adjusts to his new job in a new place.

He recently sat down with Ledger-Enquirer reporter Chuck Williams to talk about how it’s going.

Here are excerpts of the interview, with some of the questions edited for length and the order of some of the questions rearranged for clarity.

You’ve been in Columbus now a little over three months. What have you found?

As you and I talked last time, my goal is to meet with at least 100 influential stakeholders — they could be in the nonprofit side of the community, they could be in the business side. Obviously, board members of the chamber, small business people, elected officials — through that, over 90 something now. ... Columbus leadership is very excited about this community. They’re passionate about doing more to make it all that it can be. They want the chamber to play an integral role in that.

Who are some of the people you’ve talked to?

From a state elected standpoint, Sen. (Ed) Harbison, Sen. (Josh) McKoon, Rep. (Richard) Smith, Rep. (Calvin) Smyre — working on the other couple. City council, obviously the mayor, City Manager (Isaiah) Hugley, Mimi Woodson, Ms. (Judy) Thomas. Oh, Glenn Davis. There’s some more elected officials. Federal, I’ve met with Sen. (Johnny) Isakson, I’ve met with Rep. (Sanford) Bishop, Rep. (Lynn) Westmoreland, business leadership on our board, ranging from — obviously, (TSYS Chairman) Troy Woods is our chairman — all the way to meeting our small business members of the board, such as Jennifer Newman over at iHeart Radio.

Jason Cooper over at one of the engineering companies (Geotechnical & Environmental Consultants). I’ve met with David Lewis from the school board, David Lewis from B&B Beverages. I’ve met Dr. (Chris) Markwood (president of Columbus State University). I’ve met Betsy Covington (president of Community Foundation of Chattahoochee Valley). I’ve met with Marianne Richter (executive director of Columbus Museum), tried to get with almost anybody who has a role similar to mine in the community development, plus business people — that’s the range.

You came from a community that has had massive economic challenges — the worst unemployment rate in the state. How is Columbus different from Dalton?

I can actually quote to you fact, not just my feeling — through the Regional Prosperity Initiative, we saw data that showed, on the good side, we didn’t have the rug completely pulled out from under us like Dalton and many communities that it was much more devastating. We also didn’t have the pre-bust run-up. We didn’t grow from 2005 to’08 as much as, say, an Atlanta or a Gainesville. We didn’t have as far to fall.

You spent from 2008 to 2015 dealing with those issues. What did you learn from that economic crisis?

The silver lining in such a drastic or devastating situation is everybody came together and said, “We’ve got to get on the same page. We’ve got to help each other.” There was an openness to doing economic development differently. I had the good fortune, if you will, that I could go get money, resources that we needed to fund that. I had people being open-minded to try a lot of things because we don’t like being at 15 percent unemployment and having this many people out of work.

... Dalton had this — again — this openness, this willingness to change that wouldn’t have been there had it not been such a drastic downturn. Columbus, on the other hand, with the transformation from a textile economy, it really went away over time — there was this more slow but constant openness to what are we going to do next? What’s the next Columbus going to look like? Is it a manufacturing community? With what types of companies? Is it a white collar professional back office and financial services? What are we going to be? We’ve had some projects.

Are you concerned about what’s happening with the military right now, with sequestration?

Very concerned, and the reason is like everybody else: Our security level, our security threats from most anybody’s definition, regardless of whether you’re an “R” or a “D” is that the world isn’t more secure than it was four years ago, five years ago, 10 years ago. And yet, our fiscal issues at the federal level are causing the defense policy.

We’re not drawing down to 490,000, 470,000, 420,000 because we don’t have any threats and therefore we don’t need a strong military. We’re drawing down because many policymakers don’t think we should be in this many conflicts.

They think it’s somebody else’s problem, and I’m not saying it’s right or wrong, that’s one side of the coin. But it’s also heavily fiscally driven.

Sequestration is a budget mechanism. We couldn’t get the normal appropriations process to occur, so the president, masterful negotiator, said, “Democrats, Republicans, since you can’t work out the normal budget and appropriations process, we’re going to put this kicker in place that, if you fail, we still have to cut money we don’t have.”

... There’s no way to maneuver slots. Our numbers are — that if sequestration fully goes into effect — it’s between 10,000 and 14,000 more soldiers lost. We put an analogy together to make the point. Imagine waking up tomorrow and you report TSYS, Synovus and Aflac have all left Columbus — they’re gone. That’s the impact that sequestration could have.

Now, do I think we will dry up and go away? No. We lost 20,000 jobs in the northwest Georgia region in 2008, 2009. We didn’t close up shop. Yeah, we had restaurants that lost business. We had companies that were less profitable, but we were still a broad enough economy — there were 70,000 jobs just in manufacturing. We lost 20,000 of them; we still had 50,000 people employed.

What do we have, about 100,000 jobs now?

Here I think it’s 110,000 in our workforce. We lose 14,000 or 10,000, it’s somewhere between 10 and 14 percent. It’s not going to shut us down. Trust me, less cars will be sold. Less people will be eating out. Our hospitals will have even less people with good insurance to cover their costs. It would be a shock wave that I don’t think we want to encounter.

The chamber’s being proactive on the military side right now. The billboards that you see — the disappearing soldiers — those are you all, right?

The Chattahoochee Valley Coalition is the official entity, but yes, the chamber has put that together to make it happen.

Is that to scare people, or to wake them up?

It’s twofold. To give our elected officials — Rep. Bishop, Rep. Westmoreland, Sen. Isakson — give them ammunition that their constituents want Benning to be healthy. It’s also to wake up, or inform the citizens that this is going on. D.C. and the federal process have become so confusing, most citizens have checked out. They’re just fed up. That’s what you’re seeing going into the Presidential election. What you’re seeing going on is people not voting as much.

We got to keep telling people that you have to be in the process. If you don’t want Fort Benning to get weaker, or you don’t want Fort Benning to lose a lot of troops that affects all of us, you at least can help us give the ammunition to our elected officials to do what we need to do.

I notice, as you ran down the list — it obviously wasn’t a complete list, but the people you’ve met with — I didn’t hear any military names on that list.

Good catch. I actually met with them probably more than anybody. I’ve been to at least five or six officials at the base. I’ve met with Maj. Gen. (Scott) Miller a number of times. I met with Col. (Mike) Burns, who is retired, but special assistant to the brand new general. I’ve met with (Garrison Commander) Col. (Andrew) Hilmes, with Col. (Patrick) Donohoe (Chief of Staff for the Maneuver Center of Excellence).

When another round of BRAC comes up, is Benning positioned to accept new troops in a way that other bases may not be?

Yes. ...There’s a study out there that the Army has about 17 percent of inefficient capacities. The Air Force has about 30 percent. The mayor says it in a way I think I agree with. There has been billions of dollars spent at Fort Benning through the last BRAC and really through the entire build up of the military from the late ’90s... it would be foolish to let those assets and that investment sit idle, when you may have a base that really doesn’t have as formal as a mission, and doesn’t have the capacity.

Obviously, the top job of the chamber of commerce is to recruit industry. That’s one of the most important things you do. You get city, you get tax dollars to help you accomplish that. How difficult is it to recruit right now?

The process isn’t difficult. It’s the competition’s just steep. The downturn, which was so pervasive nationally, even your smallest communities get real hungry and figure out they need to be doing something proactive. ... We’ve got it in place, but again, if you’re not telling your story, they might be thinking, “Well, I know about Chattanooga, I see it all over the news. I know about Greenville, S.C., it’s all over the news.” We have to be able to be out there that our shared voice is equal to those other places we’re competing against — Huntsville, Chattanooga, Greenville, S.C. There’s a number of them. We’re studying those as a part of this strategic planning process.

We’re looking at their numbers, their assets, their weaknesses, and how does that match up with ours and can we get a competitive advantage?

I understand as you’ve been doing this, one of your concerns is image — the image of Columbus. You’ve expressed concerns about the newspapers’ website and crime coverage.

I express it because, back to the competition, if I work for Deloitte or KPMG or one of these national site-selection consultants, and the guy I’m working for, the company, he or she says, “I want to be in the Southeast. I need 100 acres. And I need access to this type of workforce,” that’s a pretty broad canvas to go from. That consultant’s going to quickly say, “OK, well, based on what you told me, you need to be near interstates,” they’re going to quickly dwindle down and pick probably 20 places and say, “I recommend you start with these.”

To get on that list, they’re going to look at everything, they’re going to Google you to death. They may even send somebody up here to just ride around. They may sit at a restaurant and listen to people talk. They do a lot of that type of anecdotal research before they ever meet with the community. My concern, not just with you all, but really any media outlet, is how do we make sure, in addition to covering the news — because it’s all important — how do we also project we’re a great place to live?

We have crime. Every community in the world has crime. The question is, is it crime that’s normal, are we controlling it, are we reducing it, how do we tell that story that the negative or your less than optimal issue doesn’t overshadow the other good things you have? That’s the only concern.

Do you think we have a crime problem here?

Until there’s zero crime, yes. Every community has a crime problem. But when you look at our statistics against our competing communities, including a place like Chattanooga, I know very well our crime rate is less than Chattanooga. I’ll bet you right now, if I went and did an informal survey, I called the KPMG, Deloitte, McCallum Sweeney in Greenville, if I called all the people who can get these projects and said, “Tell me who’s got more crime, Columbus or Chattanooga?” Their perception will be Columbus.

Why?

Because we haven’t told them a different story. They’re not going to dig down and say, based on the FBI’s statistics, there’s 10 murders per 10,000, they’re going to look at news headlines. They’re going to look at TV. Recently on the BlueCross BlueShield announcement, that’s a big news for us. These are good jobs, steady jobs. Beautiful facility. This company spent tens of millions of dollars to build that building. When I watched the news that night, I watched all three local channels, I kept toggling between all three to see their stacking of stories. Guess where the highest-placed Blue Cross story placed?

Don’t know.

Fifth. On another one it was eighth. On another one it was seventh. That particular day, if I’m a guy worried about a job and pay for my family, I much more care about that than the fact that I can’t prevent that there was an altercation in some neighborhood and somebody did something stupid and extremely dangerous and pulled a gun.

I believe that was a page one story in our paper.

It could have been. I think you’re right. I saw the picture of it, and that’s good. All I’m saying is — all of us, including me — what if my website, what if I only put on it the unemployment rate is higher than the state average, unemployment rate is higher than the national average. Oh, guess what? Our dropout rate is higher than everybody else. What if my front page said all of that instead of “Come to Columbus, you will love the quality of life.” I’m going to bury the other stuff.

You’re going to be sending out resumes really quick.

Exactly. Your industry, the media industry is different, I know that. Again, if I was the one picking, I had a guy one time tell me, you’re the only job in American you’re supposed to smile nine times out of 10. That’s exactly right. But the same thing is, if I want citizens to feel good about things, and I want future citizens to feel good, I got to tell them a better story. We’re never going to have zero crime. The question is, are we below the people we are competing against, and is it declining? Are we doing something about reducing it?

Everything I’ve heard, you’re about comparing things.

I’m probably an atypical chamber guy and that by coming from the business community, I benchmark everything. ... For instance, you mentioned our No. 1 job is the economy, the economic health of the community. If I say we’re exactly the same as far as size — maybe even a location even as southeast as Greenville — then I want to know how many announcements has Greenville had in the last six months. If they’ve had five, and we’ve had one, I’m going to say we’re not reaching our potential. If I see they’ve created 1,000 jobs... — they’ve had companies come in and create 1,000 jobs either through a recruitment or an expansion — and we’ve created 100, then I don’t think we’ve lived up to the standard we should.

When you came into this chamber over three months ago, what was the financial condition of the Greater Columbus Chamber of Commerce?

Solid, but not where it used to be. Solid in that our membership base is good, but not growing. (We have) a stable staff, a talented staff; we’re not overstaffed. We’re not where we need to be in the sense of things like reserves or the financial stability, meaning reserves, that if something came along as a great opportunity, I could easily go get the resources to do it. ... Their standards would say something like you need four-six months operating in the bank at any given time.

Do you have that?

We don’t have that today. We’ve got two. We need that. Again, what if the next best workforce development initiative came along, I need the ability to go fund that if that’s what’s good for us. We’ll be working on our internal organic well-being while we also work on the external efforts we work with in the community.

The old depot that we’re sitting in is a beautiful building. Can you afford it?

We could if we could utilize it. What I mean by that is, I think the chamber at one time did a lot more programs, a lot more grant-driven work, back 8, 10, 12 years ago. If there were 30 people, then you could make a case. This is a huge building.

With our current staff of 17, it’s too much building, too big that we don’t need. We can either bring in a tenant or do something else. ... My caveat from day one, this is an iconic treasure to this community. Putting a for-sale sign out front and us just going somewhere cheaper is not good for anybody. We’re going to maintain this building, we’re going to show off this building, we’re going to use it to its best potential until there’s another option. I think there are options out there. ... We’ll find what’s a good win for everybody.

Glad you took the job?

Absolutely. ... I don’t want to be somewhere that’s just complacent... I’m a growth guy. I’m a problem solver. I want to take things, I’m a competitive guy. I want to beat Gainesville and Savannah and Augusta every day of the week. I came here because, when I look at the pros and cons, there’s a whole lot longer list to the pro side to the con list. Those on the con list are fixable, they’re improvable. Our team is bullish about continuing to work with the city, working with the (Columbus Convention and Visitors Bureau), working with the United Way. We can make Columbus, which is already a very good place, even better.

Bio

Name: Brian Anderson

Age: 51

Job: President and chief executive officer, Greater Columbus Chamber of Commerce

Previous work experience: President, Greater Dalton (Ga.) Chamber of Commerce; worked for Anheuser-Busch distributor, Dalton Beverage Company; chairman of the Board of Commissioners, Whitfield County, 2005-2008; Coca-Cola sales and marketing in North Wilkesboro, N.C., Florence, S.C., Chattanooga, Tenn., and Augusta, Ga.

Hometown: Florence, S.C.

Current home: Columbus. Moved here from Dalton, Ga., earlier this year.

Education: South Florence High School, 1983; Frances Marion University, bachelor of economics, 1987.

Family: Wife, Heather, preschool teacher and former preschool director; son, Douglas, flooring salesman in Wisconsin; daughter, Sarah Whitney, student at Georgia Southern University.

This story was originally published October 10, 2015 at 9:19 PM with the headline "Sunday Interview with Brian Anderson: 'I'm a growth guy. I'm a problem solver.'."