Community teamwork pays big dividends
By MICHAEL HOWIE
News-Gazette Staff Writer

   Ed Scharlau has spoken publicly about the local economy more than anyone else in town for at least 20 years. He is fond of metaphor, and these days he likes smokestacks.
   He is talking about industry when he mentions smokestacks. But he is also talking about government. And employees.
   To Scharlau, the fewer smokestacks, the better.
   "My theme in life is to try to get people to work together. Team efforts are always better than individual efforts, and normally more effective.
   "When we each operate in our own little smokestack and we're only concerned with our own little smokestack, that's OK in the short term, but it's self-defeating in the long run," said Scharlau.
   "Businesses fail because they've got too many smokestacks. What if we had the loan department only caring about their area? The more you can work together as one team, the more successful you're going to be.
   "And the more we can develop a regional thought process rather than just our own little smokestack process, the better off we'll be in the future."
   All the parties in business development need to be on the same page, he said.
   "Government needs to understand that businesses are their customers," he said, "and they need to work with businesses just like a business would work with its customers. Because there's competition for business, and chances are you're going to take your business where you're best appreciated.
   "Likewise, businesses need to understand that they need to play an important role in supporting their communities and their governments.
   "The closer the two can work together as one, the more we will see happen in a positive light."
   That "positive light" means one thing, from which everything else grows, he said: "A good outcome is continued investment by the business community in this region.
   "Clint Atkins could invest his money anywhere in the world, but he's chosen to invest it in Champaign-Urbana. One of the reasons, I would guess, is he's been able to work with the communities of Champaign and Urbana, and the county I assume, to turn his vision into reality.
   "You only have so much time to allocate to projects, and if you continually run into roadblocks, you're going to go somewhere else.
   "We need to have businesses think the same way.
   "There are probably just as many times when businesses don't help make the cities successful as when governments don't help businesses be successful."
   Ordinary folks have a major stake in all of this, he maintains.
   "If the cities don't work with businesses to make things happen, jobs are either going to be eliminated or not created."
   But just as businesses and governments have a responsibility, he said, workers do, too.
   "The people on the firing line, no matter what business you're in, can make or break you.
   "If I go into a restaurant and I'm waited on by a person who's caring, I leave them a tip. And I'm there because my business is located here. If Busey Bank pulled up stakes, we wouldn't be here to spend the money.
   "If you can get others to participate in the ownership, you'll have more results. If people feel Carle or Kraft or Busey is important to them, it's more than just a business.
   "(Potential) businesses come in – how are they treated at the
   motel? When they ask somebody for directions? How they are treated by the average person sends a real strong message. The better we are at conveying that message, the better we are at making the whole community work.
   "If a person cutting weeds at an entryway to the city doesn't clean up, it doesn't look as nice. He has a real big impact.
   "We all probably either work for a business or a governmental agency. Our jobs are going to depend on how well our employer does. The quality of our jobs, the quality of life in our community is going to depend on the success of businesses in our communities."
   And "community" has a broad meaning, when Scharlau uses it.
   "When I happen to be driving away from Champaign-Urbana in the morning – if I'm going to Chicago, say, or going south – the cars coming into Champaign-Urbana far outnumber the cars going out.
   "You might live in Villa Grove, and work in Champaign-Urbana. But the Villa Grove government has got to be concerned about the health of the jobs in Champaign-Urbana. Likewise, Champaign-Urbana needs to be concerned about other communities. A number of people who live in Champaign-Urbana work in Mahomet, Rantoul, Tuscola, Danville and other towns around here."
   He grabs a brochure from the University of Illinois touting its role in economic development.
   "Who would've thought, 10 years ago, that the U of I would have thought of economic development as one of their goals?
   "I've seen a lot of improvement over the years in how we're starting to think about a bigger smokestack. I've seen the university taking a greater interest in the community. When you say what's going to drive the future of Champaign-Urbana for the next 10 years, a major portion of it's going to be technology, driven by the U of I and Parkland College.
   "Ten years ago, I think the top administrators at the university would have said, 'Our mission is to educate students.' Now, here's a publication talking about the importance of economic development to the state of Illinois. That's an example of when the university is thinking outside its smokestack of education."
   Scharlau foresees a time when government gets bigger in area but smaller in size.
   "If it was all going to be redesigned, it would be redesigned as one area. There are just way too many governmental bodies everywhere that are going to have to be consolidated in some manner. We have all the smokestacks; theoretically, we'd be better off with fewer smokestacks.
   "I would think in the next hundred years we will see counties merge and we will see cities merge. There are 102 counties in Illinois; that means 102 county boards, 102 sheriffs. We're going to have to see a merging together of so many governmental bodies."

   Ed Scharlau is chairman of the board of Busey Bank. He came to Champaign-Urbana from his native Danville to attend the University of Illinois and, like so many others, never left. His first job at Busey Bank was as a teller.

   The News-Gazette welcomes comments from readers on the issues raised in this article. Please send your comments to: Editor, The News-Gazette, 15 Main St., P.O. Box 677, Champaign, IL 61824-0677. Send comments by e-mail to news@news-gazette.com.