President’s Foreword - Leadership Matters - September 2022
By J. Tate Godfrey, CEcD, President & CEO
We see the impacts that leaders have on teams and organizations everywhere across all industries. You can see this from company culture all the way down to the bottom line.
Our economic development members will attest to the importance of quality leadership, which can even supersede more tangible community resources. For example, we often see communities with natural assets that have not grown or even kept up with expectations of its citizens. Other places seem to defy their perceived limitations (not on an interstate, remote location, lack of a university community, etc.) and prosper beyond people’s dreams. The difference in these two scenarios most often comes down to the quality of leadership in any community. Good leaders build quality communities.
The same can be said for professional associations like IAMC. Our organization has been blessed with a legacy of quality leadership over our 20-year history. Solidified in our By-Laws, IAMC is largely governed by our corporate real estate executive members. Ten out of the total 15 Board members must be corporate members and only corporates can serve on the four-member Executive Committee.
This structure ensures that IAMC is always focused on the needs of our corporate members. Having two service provider board members and two economic development board members helps balance the decision-making process. Strong, effective leadership that protects and builds on the value proposition for all of our members has been a hallmark of IAMC’s governance.
IAMC, when all is said and done, has a relatively small membership base given our global reach. We have about 240 individual corporate members (which is the highest number in our history) and about 400 service provider and economic development organizations. Other real estate-focused associations can range from hundreds to thousands of members and operate on budgets that dwarf IAMC’s coffers.
However, by staying focused on our core mission and core beliefs, IAMC continues to thrive. A driving factor in our success has been thoughtful, consistent leadership on our Board and in our committee structure. Good decision making over the years has been demonstrated by the following:
- Protecting our focus on industrial real estate
- Preserving our membership and attendance limitations thus protecting our membership balance
- Maintaining a low sales environment
- Creating and maintaining a reserve fund for rainy days like global pandemics
- Adhering to our principal that if you build a relationship the business opportunities will follow
IAMC will celebrate its 20th anniversary as an organization in Detroit. As part of that celebration, we plan to recognize our past chairs and leaders in the association. We all benefit from the time that they put into building and broadening IAMC as a global entity. We may be small, but we are highly impactful. This is a brand differentiator, and we are glad that our leaders have protected our basic tenets along the way.
I would like to personally thank the 2021-2022 Executive Committee. They have continued the history of IAMC’s quality leadership and have steered the organization through the limitations of the COVID era and lead us to a successful return to normal:
- Scott Cameron, Chair, Sonoco Products
- Karen Shchuka, Vice-Chair, Penske Transportation Solutions
- Betsy Power, Secretary-Treasurer, PepsiCo
- Jennifer Roth, Immediate Past Chair, Bimbo Bakeries USA, Inc.
And finally, any discussion of quality leadership would be remiss without mentioning IAMC’s prestigious Forum Host Communities, past, present and future. Speaking of which, we have some exciting news about 2024 and IAMC forums. We are looking forward to going to Greenville, South Carolina, and will announce the second forum location soon. Of course, we are equally excited to finally arrive in Biloxi, Mississippi, in Spring of 2023 and Boise, Idaho, in Fall of 2023.
As always, thank you for your belief and participation in IAMC! I look forward to seeing you soon.
Tate.